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 chap, xxxvi] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 3 accompanied with liberal arts and decent manners, which adorn or imitate the inestimable gifts of genius and virtue. The luxury of his palace and table was hospitable and elegant. Whenever Maximus appeared in public, he was surrounded by a train of grateful and obsequious clients ; 3 and it is possible that among these clients he might deserve and possess some real friends. His merit was rewarded by the favour of the prince and senate ; he thrice exercised the office of Praetorian praefect of Italy ; i he was twice invested with the consulship, and he obtained the rank of patrician. These civil honours were not incompatible with the enjoyment of leisure and tranquillity ; his hours, according to the demands of pleasure or reason, were accurately distributed by a water-clock ; and this avarice of time may be allowed to prove the sense which Maximus entertained of his own happiness. The injury which he received from the emperor Valentinian appears to excuse the most bloody revenge. Yet a philosopher might have reflected that, if the resistance of his wife had been sincere, her chastity was still inviolate, and that it could never be restored if she had consented to the will of the adulterer. A patriot would have hesitated before he plunged himself and his country into those inevitable calamities which must follow the extinction of the royal house of Theodosius. The imprudent Maximus disregarded these salutary considerations : he gratified his resentment and ambi- tion ; he saw the bleeding corpse of Valentinian at his feet ; and he heard himself saluted emperor by the unanimous voice of the senate and people. But the day of his inauguration was the last day of his happiness. He was imprisoned (such is the lively expression of Sidonius) in the palace ; and, after passing a sleepless night, he sighed that he had attained the summit of his wishes, and aspired only to descend from the dangerous elevation. Oppressed by the weight of the diadem, he com- municated his anxious thoughts to his friend and quaestor Fulgentius ; and, when he looked back with unavailing regret on the secure pleasures of his former life, the emperor exclaimed, Clientum prsevia, pedisequa, eircurnfusa populositas, is the train which Sidonius himself (1. i. epist. 9 [§ 3]) assigns to another senator of consular rank. [This is not correct. Maximus was twice Praetorian Prefect of Italy and twice Prefect of the City. Thus he had held four prefectures (post quattuor prtefecturas, C. I. L. vi. 1198, cp. 1197 ; another inscription gives the details of his early career, ib. 1749). See the note of Cuq in Borghesi, Oeuvres, x. 613.]