Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/358

 310 THE DECLINE AND FALL C H A P. negociations, had seduced the troops, and undermined Will O ' I ' '_ the tin-one, of Vetranio. The chiefs, who had secretly embraced the party of Constantius, prepared in his favour a public spectacle, calculated to discover and inflame the passions of the multitude ' The united armies were commanded to assemble in a large plain near the city. In the centre, according to the rules of ancient discipline, a military tribunal, or rather scaffold, was erected, from whence the emperors were accus- tomed, on solemn and important occasions, to harangue the troops. The well-ordered ranks of Romans and barbarians, with drawn swords, or with erected spears, the squadrons of cavalry, and the cohorts of infantry, distinguished by the variety of their arms and ensigns, formed an immense circle round the tribunal ; and the attentive silence which they preserved was sometimes interrupted by loud bursts of clamour or of applause. In the presence of this formidable assembly, the two emperors were called upon to explain the situation of public affairs : the precedency of rank was yielded to the royal birth of Constantius ; and though he was in- differently skilled in the arts of rhetoric, he acquitted himself, under these difficult circumstances, with firm- ness, dexterity, and eloquence. The first part of his oration seemed to be pointed only against the tyrant of Gaul; but while he tragically lamented the cruel murder of Constans, he insinuated, that none, except a brother, could claim a right to the succession of his brother. He displayed, with some complacency, the glories of his imperial race ; and recalled to the memory of the troops, the valour, the triumphs, the liberality of the great Constantine, to whose sons they had engaged their allegiance by an oath of fidelity, which the ingra- titude of his most favoured servants had tempted them to violate. The officers, who surrounded the tribunal, and were instructed to act their parts in this extraor- '' See the two first orations of Julian, particularly p. 31 ; and Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 122. The distinct narrative of the historian serves to illustrate the diti'use but vague descriptions of the orator.