Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/404

 384 THE DECLINE AND FALL declared to the Roman ambassadors that the course of that planet should alone terminate the conquests of the Huns. But the desertion of his confederates, who were privately convinced of the justice and liberality of the Imperial ministers, obliged Uldin to repass the Danube ; the tribe of the Scyrri, which composed his rear-guard, was almost extirpated ; and many thousand captives were dispersed to cultivate, with servile labour, the fields of Asia.^^ In the midst of the public triumph, Con- stantinople was protected by a strong enclosure of new and more extensive walls ; the same vigilant care was applied to restore the fortifications of the Illyrian cities ; and a plan was judiciously conceived, which, in the space of seven years, would have secured the command of the Danube, by establishing on that river a peiT^etual fleet of two hundred and fifty armed vessels.*^'' Character and But the Romans had so long been accustomed to the authority ti^iPvd^ of a monarch, that the first, even among the females, of the iitm ' Imperial family who displayed any courage or capacity was per- mitted to ascend the vacant throne of Theodosius. His sister Pulcheria,^^ who was only two years older than himself, received at the age of sixteen the title of Augiisia ; and, though her favour might be sometimes clouded by caprice or intrigue, she continued to govern the Eastern empire near forty years ; during the long minority of her brother, and, after his death, in her own name, and in the name of Marcian, her nominal husband. From a motive, either of prudence or religion, she embraced a life of celibacy ; and, notwithstanding some aspei-sions on the chastity of Pulcheria,^^ this resolution, which she communicated to her sisters Arcadia and Marina, was celebrated by the Chris- tian world, as the sublime efl^brt of heroic piety. In the presence of the clergy and people, the tln-ee daughters of Arcadius ™ dedicated their virginity to God ; and the obligation of their solemn vow was inscribed on a tablet of gold and gems ; which Bithynia, and cherished the vain hope that those captives were the last of the nation. ^"^ Cod. Theod. L vii. tit xvii. L xv. tit L leg. 49. fis Sozomen has filled three chapters with a magnificent panegyric of Pulcheria {L ix. c. I, 2, 3) ; and Tillemont (Me'moires Eccles. tom. xv. p. 171-184) has dedi- cated a separate article to the honour of St Pulcheria, virgin and empress. '•i'Suidas (Excerpta, p. 68 in Script. Byzant.) pretends, on the credit of the Nestorians, that Pulcheria was exasperated against their founder, because he censured her connexion with the beautiful Paulinus and her incest with her brother Theodosius. ■"O See Ducange, FamiL Byzantin. p. 7a Flaccilla, the eldest daughter, either died before Arcadius, or, if she lived to the year 431 (MarceUin. Chron.), some defect of mind or body must have excluded her from the honours of her rank.
 * ^ Sozomen, L ix. c 5. He saw some Scyrri at work near Mount Olympus, in