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 364 THE DECLINE AND FALL ent to the command of a cohort ; and he deserved to feel the ingratitude of Bargus, who was secretly instigated by the favour- ite to accuse his patron of a treasonable conspiracy. The general was arraigned before the tribunal of Arcadius himself; and the principal eunuch stood by the side of the throne, to suggest the questions and answers of his sovereign. But, as this form of trial might be deemed partial and arbitrary, the farther inquiry into the crimes of Timasius was delegated to Satuminus and Procopius : the former of consular rank, the latter still respected as the father-in-law of the emperor Valens. The appearances of a fair and legal proceeding were maintained by the blunt honesty of Procopius ; and he yielded with reluctance to the obsequious dexterity of his colleague, who pronounced a sentence of condemnation against the unfortunate Timasius. His immense riches were confiscated, in the name of the em- peror, and for the benefit of the favourite ; and he was doomed to perpetual exile at Oasis, a solitary spot in the midst of the sandy deserts of Libya.i^ Secluded' from all human converse, the master-general of the Roman amiies was lost for ever to the world; but the circumstances of his fate have been related in a various and contradictory manner. It is insinuated that Eutro- pius dispatched a private order for his secret execution.i^ It was reported that, in attempting to escape from Oasis, he perished in the desert, of thirst and hunger ; and that his dead body was found on the sands of Libya.ie It has been asserted Avith 'more confidence that his son Syagrius, after successfully eluding the pursuit of the agents and emissaries of the court, collected a band of African robbers ; that he rescued Timasius from the place of his exile ; and that both the father and son disappeared from the knowledge of mankind.i^ But the ungrateful Bargus, nistead of being suffered to possess the reward of guilt, Vas soon afterwards circumvented and destroyed by the more power- " The great Oasis was one of the spots in the sands of Libya watered wth springs, and capable of producing wheat, barley, and palm-trees. It was about three days journey from north to south, about half a day in breadth and at the a.stance of about five days' march to the west of Abvdus on the Nile. See d Anville, Desenpiion de lEgjpte. p. i86, 187. 188. the barren desert which encompasses Oasis (Zosimus, 1. v. p. 300) has su-cre^ted the idea of comparative lertility, and even the epithet of the happy island (Herodot. iii 26) " The Una of Claudian, in Eutrop. 1. i. 180 : Marmaricus Claris violatur casdibus Hnmraon, evidently alludes to his persuasion of the death of Timasius. 1^ Sozomen, L viii. c. 7. He speaks from report i-s n.-o? iin,66mv. Zosimus, L V. p. 300 [9 adfin.1. Yet he seems to suspect that this rumour was spread by the friends of Eutropius.