Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/252

 232 THE DECLINE AND FALL superseded by the use of poison ; and, if the trembUng guests, who were invited to the table of Gildo, presumed to express their fears, the insolent suspicion served only to excite his fury, and he loudly summoned the ministers of death. Gildo alter- nately indulged the passions of avarice and lust ; ^^ and, if his daifs were terrible to the rich, his nights were not less dreadful to husbands and parents. The fairest of their wives and daughters were prostituted to the embraces of the tyrant ; and afterwards abandoned to a ferocious troop of Barbarians and assassins, the black, or swarthy, natives of the desert, whom Gildo considered as the only guardians of his throne. In the civil war between Theodosius and Eugenius, the count, or rather the sovereign, of Africa maintained a haughty and suspicious neutrality ; refused to assist either of the contending parties with troops or vessels, expected the declaration of fortune, and reserved for the con- queror the vain professions of his allegiance. Such professions would not have satisfied the master of the Roman world ; but the death of Theodosius, and the weakness and discord of his sons, confirmed the power of the Moor ; who condescended, as a proof of his moderation, to abstain from the use of the diadem and to supply Rome with the customary tribute, or rather subsidy, of corn. In every division of the empire, the five provinces of Africa were invariably assigned to the West ; and Gildo had consented to govern that extensive country in the name of Honorius ; but his knowledge of the character and designs of Stilicho soon engaged him to address his homage to a more distant and feeble sovereign. The ministers of Arcadius embraced the cause of a perfidious rebel ; and the delusive hope of adding the numerous cities of Africa to the empire of the East tempted them to assert a claim which they were incapable of supporting either by reason or by arms."**' He is con- When Stiliclio had given a firm and decisive answer to the the Roman pretcnsions of the Byzantine court, he solemnly accused the Senate. A.D. 397 39 Instat terribilis vivis, morientibus hreres, Virginibus raptor, thalamis obscaenus adulter. Nulla quies : oritur przedi cessante libido, Divitibusque dies et nox metuenda maritis. . . . Mauris clarissima quaeque Fastidita datur. . . . [De B. G. 165 s^^. and 189.] Baronius condemns, still more severely, the licentiousness of Gildo ; as his wife, his daughter, and his sister were examples of perfect chastity. The adulteries of the African soldiers are checked by one of the Imperial laws. 220-324) has touched, with political delicacy, the intrigues of the Byzantine court which aie likewise mentioned by Zosimus (1. v. p. 302 [c. 11]).
 * > Inque tuam sortem numerosas transtulit urbes. Claudian (dc Bell. Gildonico,