from the assassin of Gratian.* Satisfied with the glory which he had acquired, by revenging the death of his benefactor and delivering the west from the yoke of tyranny, the emperor returned from Milan to Constantinople; and, in the peaceful possession of the east, insensibly relapsed into his former habits of luxury and indolence. Theodosius discharged his obligation to the brother, he indulged his conjugal tenderness to the sister, of Valentinian; and posterity, which admires the pure and singular glory of his elevation, must applaud his unrivalled generosity in the use of victory.

The empress Justina did not long survive her return to Italy; and, though she beheld the triumph of Theodosius, she was not allowed to influence the government of her son. The pernicious attachment to the Arian sect, which Valentinian had imbibed from her example and instructions, was soon erased by the lessons of a more orthodox education. His growing zeal for the faith of Nice, and his filial reverence for the character and authority of Ambrose, disposed the Catholics to entertain the most favourable opinion of the virtues of the young emperor of the west. They applauded his chastity and temperance, his contempt of pleasure, his application to business, and his tender affection for his two sisters; which could not, however, seduce his impartial equity to pronounce an unjust sentence against the meanest of his subjects. But this amiable youth, before he had accomplished the twentieth year of his age, was oppressed by domestic treason; and the empire was again involved in the horrors of a civil war. Arbogastes,§ transient paroxysms of maddened ferocity. Such was the state of the Roman world fifteen centuries ago, and such is, even now, the dark picture that presents itself to our view, wherever like hierarchies trample on subdued mind.-ED. * Τοῦτο περὶ ποὺς εὐρεγέτας каlйкоν Edоžεv elva, is the niggard praise of Zosimus himself (lib. 4, p. 267). Augustin says, with some happiness of expression: Valentinianum . misericordissimâ veneratione restituit.

+ Sozomen, lib. 7, c. 14. His chronology is very irregular.

See Ambrose (tom. ii, de Obit. Valentinian. c. 15, &c. p. 1178, c. 36, &c. p. 1184). When the young emperor gave an entertainment, he fasted himself; he refused to see a handsome actress, &c. Since he ordered his wild beasts to be killed, it is ungenerous in Philostorgius (lib. 11, c. 1) to reproach him with the love of that amusement.

Zosimus (lib. 4, p. 275) praises the enemy of Theodosius. But he is detested by Socrates (lib. 5, c. 25) and Orosius (lib. 7, c. 35).

a gallant soldier of the nation of the Franks, held the second rank in the service of Gratian. On the death of his master, he joined the standard of Theodosius; contributed by his valour and military conduct, to the destruction of the tyrant; and was appointed, after the victory, mastergeneral of the armies of Gaul. His real merit, and арраrent fidelity, had gained the confidence both of the prince and people; his boundless liberality corrupted the allegiance of the troops; and, whilst he was universally esteemed as the pillar of the state, the bold and crafty barbarian was secretly determined, either to rule, or to ruin, the empire of the west. The important commands of the army were distributed among the Franks; the creatures of Arbogastes were promoted to all the honours and offices of the civil government; the progress of the conspiracy removed every faithful servant from the presence of Valentinian; and the emperor, without power, and without intelligence, insensibly sank into the precarious and dependent condition of a captive.* The indignation which he expressed, though it might arise only from the rash and impatient temper of youth, may be candidly ascribed to the generous spirit of a prince who felt that he was not unworthy to reign. He secretly invited the archbishop of Milan to undertake the office of a mediator; as the pledge of his sincerity and the guardian of his safety. He contrived to apprize the emperor of the east of his helpless situation; and he declared, that unless Theodosius could speedily march to his assistance, he must attempt to escape from the palace, or rather prison, of Vienna, in Gaul, where he had imprudently fixed his residence in the midst of the hostile faction. But the hopes of relief were distant and doubtful; and as every day furnished some new provocation, the emperor, without strength or counsel, too hastily resolved to risk an immediate contest with his powerful general. He received Arbogastes on the throne; and, as the count approached with some appearance of respect, delivered to him a paper, which dismissed him from all his employments. "My authority," replied Arbogastes, with insulting coolness, "does not depend on the smile or the frown of a

Gregory of Tours (lib. 2, c. 9, p. 165, in the second volume of the Historians of France) has preserved a curious fragment of Sulpicius Alexander, an historian far more valuable than himself.

monarch;" and he contemptuously threw the paper on the ground. The indignant monarch snatched at the sword of one of the guards, which he struggled to draw from its scabbard; and it was not without some degree of violence that he was prevented from using the deadly weapon against his enemy, or against himself. A few days after this extraordinary quarrel, in which he had exposed his resentment and his weakness, the unfortunate Valentinian was found strangled in his apartment: and some pains were employed to disguise the manifest guilt of Arbogastes, and to persuade the world that the death of the young emperor had been the voluntary effect of his own despair.* His body was conducted with decent pomp to the sepulchre of Milan; and the archbishop pronounced a funeral oration to commemorate his virtue and his misfortunes.† On this occasion, the humanity of Ambrose tempted him to make a singular breach in his theological system; and to comfort the weeping sisters of Valentinian, by the firm assurance that their pious brother, though he had not received the sacrament of baptism, was introduced, without difficulty, into the mansions of eternal bliss.

The prudence of Arbogastes had prepared the success of his ambitious designs; and the provincials, in whose breasts every sentiment of patriotism or loyalty was extinguished, expected, with tame resignation, the unknown master, whom the choice of a Frank might place on the imperial throne. But some remains of pride and prejudice still opposed the elevation of Arbogastes himself; and the judicious barbarian thought it more advisable to reign under the name of some dependent Roman. He bestowed the purple on the rhetorician Eugenius,§ whom he had already raised from the * Godefroy (Dissertat. ad Philostorg. p. 429-434) has diligently collected all the circumstances of the death of Valentinian II. The variations, and the ignorance, of contemporary writers, prove that it was secret. + De Obitû Valentinian. tom. ii, p. 1173-1196. He is forced to speak a discreet and obscure language; yet he is much bolder than any layman, or perhaps any other ecclesiastic, would have dared to be. See c. 51, p. 1188; c. 75, p. 1193. Dom Chardon (Hist. des Sacremens, tom. i, p. 86), who owns that St. Ambrose most strenuously maintains the indispensable necessity of baptism, labours to reconcile the contradiction.

§ Quem sibi Germanus famulum delegerat exul,

is the contemptuous expression of Claudian (4 Cons. Hon. 74). Eugenius professed Christianity; but his secret attachment to Paganism

place of his domestic secretary, to the rank of master of the offices. In the course both of his private and public service, the count had always approved the attachment and abilities of Eugenius; his learning and eloquence, supported by the gravity of his manners, recommended him to the esteem of the people; and the reluctance with which he seemed to ascend the throne, may inspire a favourable prejudice of his virtue and moderation. The ambassadors of the new emperor were immediately dispatched to the court of Theodosius, to communicate, with affected grief, the unfortunate accident of the death of Valentinian; and without mentioning the name of Arbogastes, to request that the monarch of the east would embrace, as his lawful colleague, the respectable citizen, who had obtained the unanimous suffrage of the

armies and provinces of the west.* Theodosius was justly provoked, that the perfidy of a barbarian should have destroyed, in a moment, the labours and the fruit of his former victory; and he was excited by the tears of his beloved wife,† to avenge the fate of her unhappy brother, and once more to assert by arms the violated majesty of the throne. But as the second conquest of the west was a task of difficulty and danger, he dismissed, with splendid presents and an ambiguous answer, the ambassadors of Eugenius; and almost two years were consumed in the preparations of the civil war. Before he formed any decisive resolution, the pious emperor was anxious to discover the will of heaven; and as the progress of Christianity had silenced the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, he consulted an Egyptian monk, who possessed, in the opinion of the age, the gift of miracles and the knowledge of futurity. Eutro(Sozomen, lib. 7, c. 22. Philostorg. lib. 11, c. 2) is probable in a grammarian, and would secure the friendship of Zosimus (lib. 4, p. 277). [Niebuhr (Lect. vol. iii, p. 321) makes Eugenius "a courtier of rank, who was tribunus notariorum, that is to say, very much what we should call a cabinet councillor." Theodoret (Hist. Ecc. 1. 5, c. 24) says, that a statue of Hercules was borne at the head of his army, as the deity on whose protection he relied. But Eckhel shows that none of the coins, issued during his short reign, have this or any other sign of Paganism. (Num. Vet. vol. viii, p. 167.)-ED.] * Zosimus (lib. 4, p. 278) mentions this embassy; but he is diverted by another story from relating the event. + Συνετάραξεν ἡ τούτου γαμετὴ Γαλλα τὰ βασίλεια τὸν ἀδελφὸν ὀλοφυρόμενη. (Zosim. lib. 4, p. 277.) He afterwards says (p. 80) that Galla died in childbed; and intimates, that the affliction of her husband was extreme, but short.

pius, one of the favourite eunuchs of the palace of Constantinople, embarked for Alexandria, from whence he sailed up the Nile as far as the city of Lycopolis, or of Wolves, in the remote province of Thebais.* In the neighbourhood of that city and on the summit of a lofty mountain, the holy John had constructed, with his own hands, an humble cell, in which he had dwelt above fifty years, without opening his door, without seeing the face of a woman, and without tasting any food that had been prepared by fire, or any human art. Five days of the week he spent in prayer and meditation; but on Saturdays and Sundays he regularly opened a small window, and gave audience to the crowd of suppliants, who successively flowed from every part of the Christian world. The eunuch of Theodosius approached the window with respectful steps, proposed his questions concerning the event of the civil war, and soon returned with a favourable oracle, which animated the courage of the emperor by the assurance of a bloody, but infallible, victory. The accomplishment of the prediction was forwarded by all the means that human prudence could supply. The industry of the two master-generals, Stilicho and Timasius, was directed to recruit the numbers, and to revive the discipline, of the Roman legions. The formidable troops of barbarians marched under the ensigns of their national chieftains. The Iberian, the Arab, and the Goth, who gazed on each other with mutual astonishment, were enlisted in the service of the same prince; and the renowned Alaric acquired, in the school of Theodosius, the knowledge of the art of war, which he afterwards so fatally exerted for the destruction of Rome.§

The emperor of the west, or, to speak more properly, his

66

* Lycopolis is the modern Siut, or Osiot, a town of Said, about the size of St. Denys, which drives a profitable trade with the kingdom of Sennaar, and has a very convenient fountain, cujus potû signa virginitatis eripiuntur." See D'Anville, Description de l'Egypte, p. 181. Abulfeda, Descript. Ægypt. p. 14, and the curious Annotations (p. 25, 92), of his editor Michaelis. The life of John of Lycopolis

is described by his two friends, Rufinus (lib. 2, c. 1, p. 449) and Palladius (Hist. Lausiac. c. 43, p. 738), in Rosweyde's great collection of the Vita Patrum. Tillemont (Mém. Ecclés. tom. 10, p. 718, 720) has settled the chronology. Sozomen, lib. 7, c. 22. Claudian (in Eutrop. lib. 1, 312) mentions the eunuch's journey; but he most contemptuously derides the Egyptian dreams, and the oracles of the § Zosimus, lib. 4, p. 280. Socrates, lib. 7, 10. Alaric

Nile.