conducted with an appearance of equity and moderation, which flattered Tatian with the hope of a favourable event; his confidence was fortified by the solemn assurances, and perfidious oaths, of the president, who presumed to interpose the sacred name of Theodosius himself; and the unhappy father was at last persuaded to recall, by a private letter, the fugitive Proculus. He was instantly seized, examined, condemned, and beheaded, in one of the suburbs of Constantinople, with a precipitation which disappointed the clemency of the emperor. Without respecting the misfortunes of a consular senator, the cruel judges of Tatian compelled him to behold the execution of his son: the fatal cord was fastened round his own neck: but in the moment when he expected, and perhaps desired, the relief of a speedy death, he was permitted to consume the miserable remnant of his old age in poverty and exile. The punishment of the two prefects might, perhaps, be excused by the exceptionable parts of their own conduct; the enmity of Rufinus might be palliated by the jealous and unsociable nature of ambition. But he indulged a spirit of revenge, equally repugnant to prudence and to justice, when he degraded their native country of Lycia, from the rank of Roman provinces; stigmatized a guiltless people with a mark of ignominy; and declared that the countrymen of Tatian and Proculus should ever remain incapable of holding any employment of honour or advantage, under the imperial government. The In Rufin. 1. 248. The facts of Zosimus explain the allusions of Claudian; but his classic interpreters were ignorant of the fourth century. The fatal cord, I found, with the help of Tillemont, in a sermon of St. Asterius of Amasea. This odious law is recited, and repealed, by Arcadius, (A.D. 396) in the Theodosian Code, lib. 9. tit. 38. leg. 9. The sense, as it is explained by Claudian (in Rufin. 1. 234.) and Godefroy, (tom. 3. p. 279.) is perfectly clear. Exscindere cives Funditus; et nomen gentis delere laborat. The scruples of Pagi and Tillemont can arise only from their zeal for the glory of Theodosius. new prefect of the east (for Rufinus instantly succeeded to the vacant honours of his adversary) was not diverted, however, by the most criminal pursuits, from the performance of the religious duties, which in that age were considered as the most essential to salvation. In the suburb of Chalcedon, surnamed the Oak, he had built a magnificent villa; to which he devoutly added a stately church, consecrated to the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and continually sanctified by the prayers, and penance of a regular society of monks. A numerous, and almost general, synod of the bishops of the eastern empire, was summoned to celebrate, at the same time, the dedication of the church, and the baptism of the founder. This double ceremony was performed with extraordinary pomp; and when Rufinus was purified, in the holy font, from all the sins that he had hitherto committed, a venerable hermit of Egypt rashly proposed himself as the sponsor of a proud and ambi tious statesman.i He op east, A. D. The character of Theodosius imposed on his presses the minister the task of hypocrisy, which disguised, 395. and sometimes restrained, the abuse of power; and Rufinus was apprehensive of disturbing the indolent slumber of a prince, still capable of exerting the abilities, and the virtue, which had raised him to the throne.* But the absence, and, soon afterward, the death, of the emperor, confirmed the absolute authority of Rufinus over the person and dominions of Arcadius; a feeble youth, whom the imperious prefect considered as his pupil, rather than his sovereign. Regardless of the i Ammonius... Rufinum propriis manibus suscepit sacro fonte mundatum. See Rosweyde's Vita Patrum, p. 947. Sozomen (lib. 8. c. 17.) mentions the church and monastery; and Tillemont (Mem. Ecclès. tom. 9. p. 593.) records this synod, in which St. Gregory of Nyssa performed a conspicuous part. k Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, lib. 12. c. 12.) praises one of the laws of Theodosius, addressed to the perfect Rufinus, (lib. 9. tit. 4. leg. unic.) to discourage the prosecution of treasonable or sacrilegious words. A tyrannical statute always proves the existence of tyranny; but a laudable edict may only contain the specious professions, or ineffectual wishes of the prince or his ministers. This, I am afraid, is a just, though mortifying, canon of criticism. public opinion, he indulged his passions without remorse, and without resistance; and his malignant and rapacious spirit rejected every passion that might have contributed to his own glory, or the happiness of the people. His avarice,' which seems to have prevailed in his corrupt mind, over every other sentiment, attracted the wealth of the east, by the various arts of partial, and general, extortion; oppressive taxes, scandalous bribery, immoderate fines, unjust confiscations, forced or fictitious testaments, by which the tyrant despoiled of their lawful inheritance the children of strangers, or enemies; and the public sale of justice, as well as of favour, which he instituted in the palace of Constantinople. The ambitious candidate eagerly solicited, at the expense of the fairest part of his patrimony, the honours and emoluments of some provincial government: the lives and fortunes of the unhappy people were abandoned to the most liberal purchaser; and the public discontent was sometimes appeased by the sacrifice of an unpopular criminal, whose punishment was profitable only to the prefect of the east, his accomplice and his judge. If avarice were not the blindest of the human passions, the motives of Rufinus might excite our curiosity; and we might be tempted to inquire, with what view he violated every principle of humanity and justice, to accumulate those immense treasures, which he could not spend without folly, nor possess without danger. Perhaps he vainly imagined, that he laboured for the interest of an only daughter, on whom he intended to bestow his royal pupil, and the august rank of empress of the east. Perhaps he deceived himself by the opinion, that his avarice was the instrument 1 -fluctibus auri Expleri ille calor nequit Congestæ cumulantur opes;. orbisque rapinas This character (Claudian in Rufin. 1. 184-220.) is confirmed by Jerome, a disinterested witness, (dedecus insatiabilis avaritiæ, tom. 1. ad Heliodor. p. 26.) by Zosimus, (lib. 5. p. 286.) and by Suidas, who copied the history of Eunapius. of his ambition. He aspired to place his fortune on a secure and independent basis, which should no longer depend on the caprice of the young emperor; yet he neglected to conciliate the hearts of the soldiers and people, by the liberal distribution of those riches, which he had acquired with so much toil, and with so much guilt. The extreme parsimony of Rufinus left him only the reproach, and envy, of ill-gotten wealth; his dependants served him without attachment; the universal hatred of mankind was repressed only by the influence of servile fear. The fate of Lucian proclaimed to the east, that the prefect, whose industry was much abated in the dispatch of ordinary business, was indefatigable in the pursuit of revenge. Lucian, the son of the perfect Florentius, the oppressor of Gaul, and enemy of Julian, had employed a considerable part of his inheritance, the fruit of rapine and corruption, to purchase the friendship of Rufinus, and the high office of count of the east. But the new magistrate imprudently departed from the maxims of the court, and of the times; disgraced his benefactor, by the contrast of a virtuous and temperate administration; and presumed to refuse an act of injustice, which might have tended to the profit of the emperor's uncle. Arcadius was easily persuaded to resent the supposed insult; and the prefect of the east resolved to execute in person the cruel vengeance which he meditated against this ungrateful delegate of his power. He performed with incessant speed the journey of seven or eight hundred miles, from Constantinople to Antioch, entered the capital of Syria at the dead of night, and spread universal consternation among a people, ignorant of his design, but not ignorant of his character. The count of the fifteen provinces of the east was dragged, like the vilest malefactor, before the arbitrary tribunal of Rufinus. Notwithstanding the clearest evidence of his integrity, which was not impeached even by the voice of an accuser, Lu cian was condemned, almost without a trial, to suffer a cruel and ignominious punishment. The ministers of the tyrant, by the order, and in the presence, of their master, beat him on the neck with leather thongs, armed at the extremities, with lead; and when he fainted under the violence of the pain, he was removed in a close litter, to conceal his dying agonies from the eyes of the indignant city. No sooner had Rufinus perpetrated this inhuman act the sole object of his expedition, than he returned, amidst the deep and silent curses of a trembling people, from Antioch to Constantinople; and his diligence was accelerated, by the hope of accomplishing, without delay, the nuptials of his daughter with the emperor of the east." He is dis But Rufinus soon experienced, that a pruappointed dent minister should constantly secure his royal by the marriage of captive by the strong, though invisible, chain Arcadius, A. D. 395, of habit; and that the merit, and much more April 27. easily the favour, of the absent, are obliterated in a short time from the mind of a weak and capricious sovereign. While the prefect satiated his revenge at Antioch, a secret conspiracy of the favourite eunuchs, directed by the great chamberlain Eutropius, undermined his power in the palace of Constantinople. They discovered that Arcadius was not inclined to love the daughter of Rufinus, who had been chosen, without his consent, for his bride; and they contrived to substitute in her place the fair Eudoxia, the daughter of Bauto," a general of the Franks in the service of Rome; and who was educated, since the death of her father, in the family of the sons of Promotus. The young emperor, whose chastity had been strictly guarded Impiger ire viås. This allusion of Claudian (in Rufin. 1. 241.) is again explained by the circumstantial narrative of Zosimus. (lib. 5. p. 288, 289.) a Zosimus (lib. 4. p. 243.) praises the valour, prudence, and integrity of Bauto, the Frank. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. 5. p. 771. |