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 OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 279 strange and sudden sally of active diligence ; but the dangerous project of showing the emperor to the camp of Pavia, which wasCTicinnm] composed of the Roman troops, the enemies of Stilicho, and his Barbarian auxiliaries, remained fixed and unalterable. The minister was pressed, by the advice of his confidant Justinian, a Roman advocate of a lively and penetrating genius, to oppose a journey so prejudicial to his reputation and safety. His strenuous, but ineffectual, efforts confirmed the triumph of Olympius ; and the prudent lawyer withdrew himself from the impending ruin of his patron. In the passage of the emperor through Bologna, a mutiny of Disgrace and the guards was excited and appeased by the secret policy ofstmcho. Stilicho ; who announced his instructions to decimate the guilty, Aug. 23 and ascribed to his own intercession the mei'it of their pardon. After this tumult, Honorius embraced, for the last time, the minister whom he now considered as a tyrant, and proceeded on his way to the camp of Pavia, where he was received by the loyal acclamations of the troops who were assembled for the service of the Gallic war. On the morning of the fourth day, he pronounced, as he had been taught, a military oration in the presence of the soldiers, whom the charitable visits, and artful discourses, of Olympius had prepared to execute a dark and bloody conspiracy. At the first signal, they massacred the friends of Stilicho, the most illustrious officers of the empire ; two Praetorian praefects, of Gaul, and of Italy ; two masters- general, of the cavalry and infantry ; the master of the offices ; the quaestor, the treasurer, and the count of the domestics. Many lives were lost ; many houses were plundered ; the furious sedition continued to rage till the close of the evening ; and the trembling emperor, who was seen in the streets of Pavia with- out his robes or diadem, yielded to the persuasions of his favourite, condemned the memory of the slain, and solemnly approved the innocence and fidelity of their assassins. The in- telligence of the massacre of Pavia filled the mind of Stilicho with just and gloomy apprehensions ; and he instantly sum- moned, in the camp of Bologna, a council of the confederate leaders who were attached to his sei-vice, and would be involved in his ruin. The impetuous voice of the assembly called aloud for arms, and for revenge ; to march, without a moment's delay, under the banners of a hero whom they had so often followed to victoiy ; to suiT^rise, to oppi*ess, to extirpate the guilty Olympius, and his degenerate Romans ; and perhaps to fix the diadem on the head of their injured general. Instead of