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 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 173 pardon ; his passion was again inflamed by the flattering sug- gestions of his minister Rufinus ; and, after Theodosius had despatched the messengers of death, he attempted, when it was too late, to prevent the execution of his orders. The punish- ment of a Roman city was bHndly committed to the undistin- guishing sword of the Barbarians ; and the hostile preparations were concerted with the dark and perfidious artifice of an illegal conspiracy. The people of Thessalonica were treacherously invited, in the name of their sovereign, to the games of the Circus ; and such was their insatiate avidity for those amuse- ments that every consideration of fear, or suspicion, was disregarded by the numerous spectators. As soon as the assembly was complete, the soldiers, who had secretly been [AprU] posted round the Circus, received the signal, not of the races, but of a general massacre. The promiscuous carnage continued three hours, without discrimination of strangers or natives, of age or sex, of innocence or guilt ; the most moderate accounts state the number of the slain at seven thousand ; ^^ and it is affirmed by some writers, that more than fifteen thousand victims were sacrificed to the manes of Botheric. A foreign merchant, who had probably no concern in his murder, offered his own life and all his wealth, to supply the place of one of his two sons ; but, while the father hesitated with equal tenderness, while he was doubtful to choose and unwilling to condemn, the soldiers determined his suspense by plunging their daggers at the same moment into the breasts of the defenceless youths. The apology of the assassins that they were obliged to produce the prescribed number of heads serves only to increase, by an appearance of order and design, the horrors of the massacre which was exe- cuted by the commands of Theodosius. The guilt of the emperor is aggravated by his long and frequent residence at Thessalonica. The situation of the unfortunate city, the aspect of the streets and buildings, the dress and faces of the inhabi- tants, were familiar and even present to his imagination ; and Theodosius possessed a quick and lively sense of the existence of the people whom he destroyed. ^^ 92[Theodoret, v. 17 ; on the authority of Philostorgius ?] 83 The original evidence of Ambrose (torn. ii. epist. 11. p. 998), Augustin (de Civitat. Dei, v. 26), and Paulinus (in Vit. Ambros. c. 24) is delivered in vague expressions of horror and pity. It is illustrated by the subsequent and unequal testimonies of Sozomen (1. vii. c. 25), Theodoret (1. v. c. 17), Theophanes (Chronograph, p. 62), Cedrenus (p. 317 [p. 556, ed. Bonn]), and Zonaras (tom. ii. 1. xiii. p. 34 [c. 18]). Zosimus alone, the partial enemy of Theodosius, most un- accountably passes over in silence the worst of his actions. [Further, Rufinus, ii. 18 ; Moses Choren. iii. 37 ; and Malalas, p. 347.]