Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/402

 testament 382 THE DECLINE AND FALL to foretell that she should behold the long and auspicious reign of her glorious son. The catholics applauded the justice of heaven, which avenged the persecution of St. Chrysostom ; and perhaps the emperor was the only pereon who sincerely bewailed the loss of the haughty and rapacious Eudoxia. Such a domestic misfortune afflicted hivi more deeply than the public calamities of the East ; *^^ the licentious excursions, fi-om Pontus to Pales- tine, of the Isaurian robbers, whose impunity accused the weak- ness of the government ; and the earthquakes, the conflagrations, the famine, and the flights of locusts,^^ which the popular dis- content was equally disposed to attribute to the incapacity of the monarch. At length, in the thirty-first year of his age, after a reign (if we may abuse that word) of thii'teen years, three months, and fifteen days, Arcadius expired in the palace of Constantinople. It is impossible to delineate his character ; since, in a period very copiously furnished with historical materials, it has not been possible to remark one action that properly belongs to the son of the great Theodosius. His stippoBed The historian Procopius ^^ has indeed illuminated the mind of the dying emperor with a ray of human prudence or celestial wisdom. Arcadius considered, with anxious foresight, the helpless condi- tion of his son Theodosius, who was no more than seven years of age, the dangerous factions of a minority, and the aspiring spirit of Jezdegerd, the Persian monarch. Instead of tempting the allegiance of an ambitious subject by the participation of supreme power, he boldly appealed to the magnanimity of a king ; and placed, by a solemn testament, the sceptre of the East in the hands of Jezdegerd himself. The royal guardian accepted and dischai'ged this honourable trust with unexampled fidelity ; and the infancy of Theodosius was protected by the arms and councils of Persia. Such is the singular narrative of Procopius ; and his veracity is not disputed by Agathias,^^ while he presumes to dissent from his judgment and to arraign the wisdom of a Christian emperor, who so rashly, though so fortu- •ii Philostorg. 1. xi. c. 8, and Godefroy, Dissertat. p. 457. 62 Jerom (torn. vi. p. 73, 76) describes, in lively colours, the regular and destruc- tive march of the locusts, which spread a dark cloud, between heaven and earth, over the land of Palestine. Seasonable winds scattered them, partly into the Dead Sea, and partly into the Mediterranean. 63 Procopius, de Bell. Persic. L i. a 2, p. 8, edit. Louvre. •"^1 Agathias, 1. iv. p. 136, i37[c. 26]. Althoughheconfesses the prevalence of the tradition, he asserts that Procopius was the first who had couimitted it to writing. Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. vi. p. 597) argues very sensibly on the merits of this fable. His criticism was not warped by any ecclesiastical authority : both Procopius and Agathias are half Pagans. [The whole tone of Agathias in regard to the story is sceptical.]