Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/242

 222 THE DECLINE AND FALL of night, and spread universal consternation among a people ignorant of his design but not ignorant of his character. The count of the fifteen provinces of the East was dragged, like the vilest malefactor, before the arbitrary tribunal of Rufinus. Not- withstanding the clearest evidence of his integrity, which was not impeached even by the voice of an accuser, Lucian was con- demned, almost without a trial, to suffer a cruel and ignominious punishment. The ministers of the tyrant, by the order, and in the presence, of tlieir master, beat him on the neck with leather thongs, armed at the extremities with lead ; and, when he fainted under the violence of the pain, he was removed in a close litter, to conceal his dying agonies from the eyes of the indignant city. No sooner had Rufinus perpetrated this inhuman act, the sole object of his expedition, than he returned, amidst the deep and silent curses of a trembling people, from Antioch to Constanti- nople ; and his diligence was accelerated by the hope of accom- plisliing, without delay, the nuptials of his daughter with the emperor of the East.^'^ Heiadisjp. But Rufinus soon experienced that a prudent minister should pointed by. r r^ ii. the mM-riage constantly sccure his royal captive by the strong, thougJi in- A rii^' visible, chain of habit ; and that the merit, and much more easily the favour, of the absent are obliterated in a short time from the mind of a weak and capricious sovereign. While the praefect satiated his revenge at Antioch, a secret conspiracy of the favourite eunuchs, directed by the great chamberlain Eu- tropius, undermined his power in the palace of Constantinople. They discovered that Arcadius was not inclined to love the daughter of Rufinus, who had been chosen, without his consent, for his bride ; and they contrived to substitute in her place the fair Eudoxia, the daughter of Bauto,^^ a general of the Franks in the service of Rome ; and who was educated, since the death of her father, in the family of the sons of Promotus. The young emperor, whose chastity had been strictly guarded by the pious care of his tutor Arsenius,^* eagerly listened 12 . . . Cetera segnis ; Ad facinus velox ; penitus regione remotas Impiger ire vias. This allusion of Claudian (in Rufin. i. [239-]24i) is again ex,>lained by the circum- stantial narrative of Zosimus (1. v. p. 288, 289 [c. 2]). 1^ Zosimus (1. iv. p. 243 [c. 33]) praises the valour, prudence and integrity of Bauto the Frank. See Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, torn. v. p. 771. ^■•Arsenius escaped from the palace of Constantinople, and passed fifty-five years in rigid penance in the monasteries of Eg)-pt. See Tillemont, Mi5m. Ecclds. torn. xiv. p. 676-702; and Fleury, Hist. Eccl6s. torn. v. p. i, &c., but the latter, for want of authentic materials, has given too much credit to the legend of Metaphrastes.