XVIII. CHAP. able to bring another army into the field; the fidelity of his guards was corrupted; and when he appeared in public to animate them by his exhortations, he was saluted with an unanimous shout of" Long live the emperor Constantius!" The tyrant, who perceived that they were preparing to deserve pardon and rewards by the sacrifice of the most obnoxious criminal, prevented their design by falling on his sword; a death more easy and more honourable than he could hope to obtain from the hands of an enemy, whose revenge would have been coloured with the specious pretence of justice and fraternal piety. The example of suicide was imitated by Decentius, who strangled himself on the news of his brother's death. The author of the conspiracy, Marcellinus, had long since disappeared in the battle of Mursa,' and the public tranquillity was confirmed by the execution of the surviving leaders of a guilty and unsuccessful faction. A severe inquisition was extended over all who, either from choice or from compulsion, had been involved in the cause of rebellion. Paul, surnamed Catena, from his su Julian, Crat. i, p. 40. Zosimus, 1. ii, p. 134. Socrates, 1. ii, c. 32. Sozomen, 1. iv, c. 7. The younger Victor describes his death with some horrid circumstances; Transfosso latere, ut erat vasti corporis, vulnere naribusque et ore cruorem effundens, exspiravit. If we can give credit to Zonaras, the tyrant, before he expired, had the pleasure of murdering with his own hands his mother and his bro ther Desiderius. Julian (Orat. i, p. 58, 59) seems at a loss to determine, whe ther he inflicted on himself the punishment of his crimes, whether he was drowned in the Drave, or whether he was carried by the a venging dæmons from the field of battle to his destined place of eternal tortures. XVIII. perior skill in the judicial exercise of tyranny, was CHAP. sent to explore the latent remains of the conspiracy in the remote province of Britain. The honest indignation expressed by Martin, vice præfect of the island, was interpreted as an evidence of his own guilt; and the governor was urged to the necessity of turning against his breast the sword with which he had been provoked to wound the imperial minister. The most innocent subjects of the West were exposed to exile and confiscation, to death and torture; and as the timid are always cruel, the mind of Constantius was inaccessible to mercy.* * Ammian. xiv, 5; xxi, 16. XIX. the eu nuchs. CHAP. XIX. Constantius sole emperor.-Elevation and death of Gallus. Danger and elevation of Julian.-Sarand Persian wars.-Victories of Julian in ian CHAP. THE divided provinces of the empire were again united by the victory of Constantius; Power of but as that feeble prince was destitute of personal merit, either in peace or war; as he feared his generals, and distrusted his ministers; the triumph of his arms served only to establish the reign of the eunuchs over the Roman world. Those unhappy beings, the ancient production of oriental jealousy and despotism," were introduced into Greece and Rome by the contagion of Asiatic luxury. Their progress was rapid; and the eunuchs, who, in the time of Augustus, had been abhorred, as the monstrous retinue of an Egyptian queen, were gradually admitted into the fa The use of eunuchs They are mentioned See Goguet, Origines des 2 Ammianus (1. xiv, c. 6) imputes the first practice of castration to the cruel ingenuity of Semiramis, who is supposed to have reigned above nineteen hundred years before Christ. is of high antiquity, both in Asia and Egypt. in the law of Moses, Deuteron. xxiii, 1. Loix, &c. Part i, 1. i, c. 3. Eunuchum dixti velle te; Quia solæ utuntur his reginæ b TERENT. Eunuch, act, i, scene 2. This play is translated from Menander, and the original must have appeared soon after the eastern conquests of Alexander. Miles.. spadonibus Servire rugosis potest. Orat. Carm. v. 9, and Dacier ad loc. By milies of matrons, of senators, and of the em- CHAP. d perors themselves. Restrained by the severe edicts of Domitian and Nerva, cherished by the pride of Diocletian, reduced to an humble station by the prudence of Constantine, they multiplied in the palaces of his degenerate sons, and insensibly acquired the knowledge, and at length the direction, of the secret councils of Constantius. The aversion and contempt which mankind has so uniformily entertained for that imperfect species, appears to have degraded their character, and to have rendered them almost as incapable as they were supposed to be, of conceiving any generous sentiment, or of performing any worthy action." But the eunuchs were By the word spado, the Romans very forcibly expressed their abhor rence of this mutilated condition. The Greek appellation of eunuchs, which insensibly prevailed, had a milder sound, and a more ambiguous sense. d We need only mention Posides, a freedman, and eunuch of Claudius, in whose favour the emperor prostituted some of the most honourable rewards of military valour. See Sueton. in Claudio, c. 28. Posides employed a part of his wealth in building. Ut Spado vincébat Capitolia nostra JUVENAL. Sat. xiv. • Castrari mares vetuit. Sueton. in Domitian. c. 7. See Dion. Cassius, 1. lxvii, p. 1107, 1. lxviii, p. 1119. There is a passage in the Augustan History, p. 137, in which Lampridius, whilst he praises Alexander Severus and Constantine, for restraining the tyranny of the eunuchs, deplores the mischiefs which they occasioned in other reigns. Huc accedit quod eunuchos nec in consiliis nec in ministeriis habuit; qui soli principes perdunt, dum eos more gentium aut regum Persarum volunt vivere; qui a populo etiam amicissimum semovent ; qui internuntii sunt, aliud quàm res pondetur referentes; claudentes principem suum, et agentes ante omnia ne quid sciat. Xenophon (Cyropædia, 1. viii, p. 540) has stated the specious reasons which engaged Cyrus to entrust his person to the guard of eunuchs XIX. XIX. CHAP. skilled in the arts of flattery and intrigue; and they alternatively governed the mind of Constantius by his fears, his indolence, and his vanity." Whilst he viewed in a deceitful mirror the fair appearance of public prosperity, he supinely permitted them to intercept the complaints of the injured provinces, to accumulate immense treasures by the sale of justice and of honours; to disgrace the most important dignities, by the promotion of those who had purchased at their hands the powers of oppression,' and to gratify their resentment against the few independent spirits, who arrogantly refused to solicit the protection of slaves. Of these slaves the most distinguished was the chamberlain Eusebius, who ruled the monarch and the palace with such absolute sway, that Constantius, according to the sarcasm of an impartial historian, possessed some credit with this haughty eunuchs. He had observed in animals, that although the practice of castration might tame their ungovernable fierceness, it did not diminish their strength or spirit ; and he persuaded himself, that those who were separated from the rest of human kind, would be more firmly attached to the person of their Benefactor. But a long experience has contradicted the judgment of Cyrus. Some particular instances may occur of eunuchs distinguished by their fidelity, their valour, and their abilities; but if we examine the general history of Persia, India, and China, we shall find that the power of the eunuchs has uniformly marked the decline and fall of every dynasty. h See Ammianus Marcellinus, 1. xxi, c. 16; 1. xxii, c. 4. The whole tenor of his impartial history serves to justify the invectives of Mamertinus, of Libanius, and of Julian himself, who have insulted the vices of the court of Constantius. Aurelius Victor censures the negligence of his sovereign in choosing the governors of the provinces, and the generals of the army, and concludes his history with a very bold observation, as it is much more dangerous under a feeble reign to attack the ministers than the master himself. "Uti verum absolvam brevi, ut imperatore ipso clarius ita "apparitorum plerisque magis atrox nihil." |