Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/200

 180 THE DECLINE AND FALL the firm assurance that their pious brother, though he had not received the sacrament of baptism, was introduced, without difficulty, into the mansions of eternal bliss. ^^^ Usurpation The prudcnce of Arbogastes had prepared the success of his a.d"1I2-394 ambitious designs ; and the provincials, in whose breasts every sentiment of patriotism or loyalty was extinguished, expected, with tame resignation, the unknown master, whom the choice of a Frank might place on the Imperial throne. But some remains of pride and prejudice still opposed the elevation of Arbogastes himself; and the judicious Barbarian thought it more advisable to reign under the name of some dependent Roman. He bestowed the purple on the rhetorician Eugenius ;^'^ whom he had already raised from the place of his domestic secretary to the rank of master of the offices. i^-* In the course both of his private and public service, the count had always approved the attachment and abilities of Eugenius ; his learning and elo- quence, supported by the gravity of his manners, recommended him to the esteem of the people ; and the reluctance with which he seemed to ascend the throne may inspire a favourable prejudice of his virtue and moderation. The ambassadors of the new emperor were immediately despatched to the court of Theodosius, to communicate, with affected grief, the unfortunate accident of the death of Valentinian ; and, without mentioning the name of Arbogastes, to request that the monarch of the East would embrace, as his lawful colleague, the respectable citizen who had obtained the unanimous suffrage of the ai'mies and provinces of the West.^^^ Theodosius was justly provoked that the perfidy of a Barbarian should have destroyed, in a moment, the labours and the fruit of his former victory ; and he was excited by the tears of his beloved wife ^^^ to revenge the fate of her unhappy brother and once more to assert by 111 See c. 51, p. 1188 ; c. 75, p. 1193. Dom. Chardon (Hist, des Sacieniens, torn. i. p. 86), who owns that St. Ambrose most strenuously maintains the indis- pensable necessity of baptism, labours to reconcile the contradiction. 112 Quern {_leg. hunc]sibi Germanus famulum delegerat exul, is the contemptuous expression of Claudian (iv. Cons. Hon. 74). Eugenius professed Christianity ; but his secret attachment to Paganism (Sozomen, 1. vii. c. 22. Philostorg. 1. xi. c. 2) is probable in a grammarian, and would secure the friendship of Zosimus (1. iv. p. 276, 277 [c. 54]). [Gibbon has not sufficiently in^sted on the paganism as part of the political programme of Eugenius (cp. chap, xxviii. n. 60).] ii-»[This inference from Philostorgius (xi. 2, /otd-yio-Tpo?) is not certain.] "^ Zosimus (1. iv. p. 278 [c. 55]) mentions this embassy ; but he is diverted by another story from relating the event. [But see c. 57 ad init.] 11'' Sureropafef i] rovrov yafieTrj VdWa to. jSatriXeia tov aSeov 6o(}iVpotxivrf. Zosim. 1. iv. p. 277 [il>.]. He afterwards says (p. 280 [c. 57]) that Galla died in childbed; and intimates that the affliction of her husband was extreme, but short.