Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/380

 860 THE DECLINE AND FALL Administra- The first cvcnts of the reign of Arcadius and Honorius are so character of intimately connected that the rebellion of the Goths and the A.D°^^ fall of Rufinus have already claimed a place in the history of the West. It has already been observed that Eutropius/ one of the principal eunuchs of the palace of Constantinople, succeeded the haughty minister whose ruin he had accomplished, and whose vices he soon imitated. Every order of the state bowed to the new favourite ; and their tame and obsequious submission en- couraged him to insult the laws, and, what is still more difficult and dangerous, the manners, of his country. Under the weakest of the predecessors of Arcadius, the reign of the eunuchs had been seci-et and almost invisible. They insinuated themselves into the confidence of the prince ; but their ostensible functions were confined to the menial service of the wardrobe and Im- perial bed-chamber. They might direct, in a whisper, the public counsels, and blast, by their malicious suggestions, tlie fame and fortunes of the most illustrious citizens ; but they never presumed to stand forward in the front of empire,* or to profane the public honours of the state. Eutropius was the first of his artificial sex, who dared to assume the character of a Roman magistrate and general.^ Sometimes in the presence of the blush- ing senate he ascended the tribunal, to pronounce judgment or to repeat elaborate harangues ; and sometimes appeared on horseb;^k, at the head of his troops, in the dress and armour of a hero. The disregard of custom and decency always betrays a weak and ill-regulated mind ; nor does Eutropius seem to have 8 Barthius, who adored his author with the blind superstition of a commentator, gives the preference to the two books which Claudian composed against Eutropius, above all his other productions (Baillet, Jugemens des Savans, torn. iv. p. 227). They are indeed a very elegant and spirited satire ; and would be more valuable in an historical light, if the invective were less vague and more temperate. their proper functions, Claudian adds, A fronte recedant Imperii. In Eutrop. 1. 422. Yet it does not appear that the eunuch had assumed any of the efficient offices of the empire, and he is styled only Praspositus sacri cubiculi, in the edict of his banishment. See Cod. Theod. 1. ix. tit. xl. leg. 17. 5 Jamque oblita sui, nee sobria divitiis mens In miseras leges hominumque negotia ludit : Judicat eunuchus Arma etiani violare parat Claudian (i. 229-270), with that mixture of indignation and humour which always pleases in a satiric poet, describes the insolent folly of the eunuch, the disgrace of the empire, and the joy of the Goths. Gaudet, cum viderit hostis, Et sentit jam deesse viros
 * After lamenting the progress of the eunuchs in the Roman palace and defining