Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/40

 20 THE DECLINE AND FALL praised his inflexible love of justice ; and, in the pursuit of justice, the emperor was easily tempted to consider clemency as a weakness and passion as a virtue. As long as he wrestled with his equals, in the bold competition of an active and ambi- tious life, Valentinian was seldom injured, and never insulted, with impunity : if his prudence was arraigned, his spirit was applauded ; and the proudest and most powerful generals were apprehensive of provoking the resentment of a fearless soldier. After he became master of the world, he unfortunately forgot that, where no resistance can be made, no courage can be ex- erted ; and, instead of consulting the dictates of reason and magnanimity, he indulged the furious emotions of his temper at a time when they were disgraceful to himself and fatal to the defenceless objects of his displeasure. In the government of his household, or of his empire, slight, or even imaginary, offences, a hasty word, a casual omission, an involuntary delay, were chastised by a sentence of immediate death. The ex- pressions which issued the most readily from the mouth of the emperor of the West were, " Strike off his head " ; " Burn him alive " ; " Let him be beaten with clubs till he expires " ; ^^ and his most favoured ministers soon understood that, by a rash attempt to dispute, or suspend, the execution of his sanguinary commands, they might involve themselves in the guilt and punishment of disobedience. The repeated gratification of this savage justice hardened the mind of Valentinian against pity and remorse ; and the sallies of passion were confirmed by the habits of cruelty. "^"^ He could behold with calm satisfaction the convulsive agonies of torture and death : he reserved his friendship for those faithful servants whose temper was the most congenial to his own. The merit of Maximin, who had slaughtered the noblest families of Rome, was rewarded with the royal approbation and the preefecture of Gaul. Two fierce and enormous bears, distinguished by the appellations of In- nocence and Mica Aitrca, could alone deserve to share the favour '9 He sometimes expressed a sentence of death with a tone of pleasantry: " Abi. Comes, et muta ei caput, qui sibi mutari provinciam cupit ". A lx)y, who had slipped too hastily a Spartan hound ; an armourer, who had made a p)olished cuirass that wanted some grains of the legitimate weight, &c. , were the victims of his fury. ''^ The innocents of Milan were an agent and three apparitors, whom Valentinian condemned for signifying a legal summons. Ammian-.s (xxvii. 7) strangely supposes that all who had been unjustly executed were worshipped as martyrs by the Christians. His impartial silence does not allow us to believe that the gfreat chamberlain Rhodanus was burnt alive for an act of oppression (Chron. PaschaL p. 302 [i. 558, ed. Bonn]).