Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/367

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 319 more easy and more honourable than he could hope to C Fl A P. 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, MarcelHnus, 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 rebel- lion. Paul, surnamed Catena, from his superior skill in the judicial exercise of tyranny, was sent to explore the latent remains of the conspiracy in the remote pro- vince of Britain. The honest indignation expressed by Martin, vice-prefect 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 ^ Zonaras, the tyrant, before he expired, had the pleasure of murdering vvilli his own hands his mother and his brother Desiderius. P Julian, (Oral. i. p. 58, 59.) seems at a loss to determine, whether he inflicted on himself the punishment of his crimes, whether he was drowned in the Drave, or whether he was carried by the avenging demons from the field of battle to his destined place of eternal tortures. h Ammian. xiv. 5. xxi. 16.