Theodosius.—Part I.
Final Division Of The Roman Empire Between The Sons Of
Theodosius.—Reign Of Arcadius And Honorius—Administration Of
Rufinus And Stilicho.—Revolt And Defeat Of Gildo In Africa.
The genius of Rome expired with Theodosius; the last of the
successors of Augustus and Constantine, who appeared in the field
at the head of their armies, and whose authority was universally
acknowledged throughout the whole extent of the empire. The
memory of his virtues still continued, however, to protect the
feeble and inexperienced youth of his two sons. After the death
of their father, Arcadius and Honorius were saluted, by the
unanimous consent of mankind, as the lawful emperors of the East,
and of the West; and the oath of fidelity was eagerly taken by
every order of the state; the senates of old and new Rome, the
clergy, the magistrates, the soldiers, and the people. Arcadius,
who was then about eighteen years of age, was born in Spain, in
the humble habitation of a private family. But he received a
princely education in the palace of Constantinople; and his
inglorious life was spent in that peaceful and splendid seat of
royalty, from whence he appeared to reign over the provinces of
Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, from the Lower Danube to
the confines of Persia and Æthiopia. His younger brother
Honorius, assumed, in the eleventh year of his age, the nominal
government of Italy, Africa, Gaul, Spain, and Britain; and the
troops, which guarded the frontiers of his kingdom, were opposed,
on one side, to the Caledonians, and on the other, to the Moors.
The great and martial præfecture of Illyricum was divided
between the two princes: the defence and possession of the
provinces of Noricum, Pannonia, and Dalmatia still belonged to
the Western empire; but the two large dioceses of Dacia and
Macedonia, which Gratian had intrusted to the valor of
Theodosius, were forever united to the empire of the East. The
boundary in Europe was not very different from the line which now
separates the Germans and the Turks; and the respective
advantages of territory, riches, populousness, and military
strength, were fairly balanced and compensated, in this final and
permanent division of the Roman empire. The hereditary sceptre of
the sons of Theodosius appeared to be the gift of nature, and of
their father; the generals and ministers had been accustomed to
adore the majesty of the royal infants; and the army and people
were not admonished of their rights, and of their power, by the
dangerous example of a recent election. The gradual discovery of
the weakness of Arcadius and Honorius, and the repeated
calamities of their reign, were not sufficient to obliterate the
deep and early impressions of loyalty. The subjects of Rome, who
still reverenced the persons, or rather the names, of their
sovereigns, beheld, with equal abhorrence, the rebels who
opposed, and the ministers who abused, the authority of the
throne.
Theodosius had tarnished the glory of his reign by the elevation
of Rufinus; an odious favorite, who, in an age of civil and
religious faction, has deserved, from every party, the imputation
of every crime. The strong impulse of ambition and avarice 1 had
urged Rufinus to abandon his native country, an obscure corner of
Gaul, 2 to advance his fortune in the capital of the East: the
talent of bold and ready elocution, 3 qualified him to succeed in
the lucrative profession of the law; and his success in that
profession was a regular step to the most honorable and important
employments of the state. He was raised, by just degrees, to the
station of master of the offices. In the exercise of his various
functions, so essentially connected with the whole system of
civil government, he acquired the confidence of a monarch, who
soon discovered his diligence and capacity in business, and who
long remained ignorant of the pride, the malice, and the
covetousness of his disposition. These vices were concealed
beneath the mask of profound dissimulation; 4 his passions were
subservient only to the passions of his master; yet in the horrid
massacre of Thessalonica, the cruel Rufinus inflamed the fury,
without imitating the repentance, of Theodosius. The minister,
who viewed with proud indifference the rest of mankind, never
forgave the appearance of an injury; and his personal enemies had
forfeited, in his opinion, the merit of all public services.
Promotus, the master-general of the infantry, had saved the
empire from the invasion of the Ostrogoths; but he indignantly
supported the preeminence of a rival, whose character and
profession he despised; and in the midst of a public council, the
impatient soldier was provoked to chastise with a blow the
indecent pride of the favorite. This act of violence was
represented to the emperor as an insult, which it was incumbent
on his dignity to resent. The disgrace and exile of Promotus were
signified by a peremptory order, to repair, without delay, to a
military station on the banks of the Danube; and the death of
that general (though he was slain in a skirmish with the
Barbarians) was imputed to the perfidious arts of Rufinus. 5 The
sacrifice of a hero gratified his revenge; the honors of the
consulship elated his vanity; but his power was still imperfect
and precarious, as long as the important posts of præfect of the
East, and of præfect of Constantinople, were filled by Tatian, 6
and his son Proculus; whose united authority balanced, for some
time, the ambition and favor of the master of the offices. The
two præfects were accused of rapine and corruption in the
administration of the laws and finances. For the trial of these
illustrious offenders, the emperor constituted a special
commission: several judges were named to share the guilt and
reproach of injustice; but the right of pronouncing sentence was
reserved to the president alone, and that president was Rufinus
himself. The father, stripped of the præfecture of the East, was
thrown into a dungeon; but the son, conscious that few ministers
can be found innocent, where an enemy is their judge, had
secretly escaped; and Rufinus must have been satisfied with the
least obnoxious victim, if despotism had not condescended to
employ the basest and most ungenerous artifice. The prosecution
was conducted with an appearance of equity and moderation, which
flattered Tatian with the hope of a favorable event: his
confidence was fortified by the solemn assurances, and perfidious
oaths, of the president, who presumed to interpose the sacred
name of Theodosius himself; and the unhappy father was at last
persuaded to recall, by a private letter, the fugitive Proculus.
He was instantly seized, examined, condemned, and beheaded, in
one of the suburbs of Constantinople, with a precipitation which
disappointed the clemency of the emperor. Without respecting the
misfortunes of a consular senator, the cruel judges of Tatian
compelled him to behold the execution of his son: the fatal cord
was fastened round his own neck; but in the moment when he
expected. and perhaps desired, the relief of a speedy death, he
was permitted to consume the miserable remnant of his old age in
poverty and exile. 7 The punishment of the two præfects might,
perhaps, be excused by the exceptionable parts of their own
conduct; the enmity of Rufinus might be palliated by the jealous
and unsociable nature of ambition. But he indulged a spirit of
revenge equally repugnant to prudence and to justice, when he
degraded their native country of Lycia from the rank of Roman
provinces; stigmatized a guiltless people with a mark of
ignominy; and declared, that the countrymen of Tatian and
Proculus should forever remain incapable of holding any
employment of honor or advantage under the Imperial government. 8
The new præfect of the East (for Rufinus instantly succeeded to
the vacant honors of his adversary) was not diverted, however, by
the most criminal pursuits, from the performance of the religious
duties, which in that age were considered as the most essential
to salvation. In the suburb of Chalcedon, surnamed the Oak, he
had built a magnificent villa; to which he devoutly added a
stately church, consecrated to the apostles St. Peter and St.
Paul, and continually sanctified by the prayers and penance of a
regular society of monks. A numerous, and almost general, synod
of the bishops of the Eastern empire, was summoned to celebrate,
at the same time, the dedication of the church, and the baptism
of the founder. This double ceremony was performed with
extraordinary pomp; and when Rufinus was purified, in the holy
font, from all the sins that he had hitherto committed, a
venerable hermit of Egypt rashly proposed himself as the sponsor
of a proud and ambitious statesman. 9
1 (return) [ Alecto, envious of the public felicity, convenes an
infernal synod Megaera recommends her pupil Rufinus, and excites
him to deeds of mischief, &c. But there is as much difference
between Claudian’s fury and that of Virgil, as between the
characters of Turnus and Rufinus.]
2 (return) [ It is evident, (Tillemont, Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p.
770,) though De Marca is ashamed of his countryman, that Rufinus
was born at Elusa, the metropolis of Novempopulania, now a small
village of Gassony, (D’Anville, Notice de l’Ancienne Gaule, p.
289.)]
3 (return) [ Philostorgius, l. xi c. 3, with Godefroy’s Dissert.
p. 440.]
4 (return) [ A passage of Suidas is expressive of his profound
dissimulation.]
5 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 272, 273.]
6 (return) [ Zosimus, who describes the fall of Tatian and his
son, (l. iv. p. 273, 274,) asserts their innocence; and even his
testimony may outweigh the charges of their enemies, (Cod. Theod.
tom. iv. p. 489,) who accuse them of oppressing the Curiae. The
connection of Tatian with the Arians, while he was præfect of
Egypt, (A.D. 373,) inclines Tillemont to believe that he was
guilty of every crime, (Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 360. Mem.
Eccles. tom vi. p. 589.)]
7 (return) [—Juvenum rorantia colla Ante patrum vultus stricta
cecidere securi.
Ibat grandaevus nato moriente superstes Post trabeas exsul. —-In
Rufin. i. 248.
The facts of Zosimus explain the allusions of Claudian; but his
classic interpreters were ignorant of the fourth century. The
fatal cord, I found, with the help of Tillemont, in a sermon of
St. Asterius of Amasea.]
8 (return) [ This odious law is recited and repealed by Arcadius,
(A.D. 296,) on the Theodosian Code, l. ix. tit. xxxviii. leg. 9.
The sense as it is explained by Claudian, (in Rufin. i. 234,) and
Godefroy, (tom. iii. p. 279,) is perfectly clear.
—-Exscindere cives Funditus; et nomen gentis delere laborat.
The scruples of Pagi and Tillemont can arise only from their zeal
for the glory of Theodosius.]
9 (return) [ Ammonius.... Rufinum propriis manibus suscepit sacro
fonte mundatum. See Rosweyde’s Vitae Patrum, p. 947. Sozomen (l.
viii. c. 17) mentions the church and monastery; and Tillemont
(Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 593) records this synod, in which St.
Gregory of Nyssa performed a conspicuous part.]
The character of Theodosius imposed on his minister the task of
hypocrisy, which disguised, and sometimes restrained, the abuse
of power; and Rufinus was apprehensive of disturbing the indolent
slumber of a prince still capable of exerting the abilities and
the virtue, which had raised him to the throne. 10 But the
absence, and, soon afterwards, the death, of the emperor,
confirmed the absolute authority of Rufinus over the person and
dominions of Arcadius; a feeble youth, whom the imperious
præfect considered as his pupil, rather than his sovereign.
Regardless of the public opinion, he indulged his passions
without remorse, and without resistance; and his malignant and
rapacious spirit rejected every passion that might have
contributed to his own glory, or the happiness of the people. His
avarice, 11 which seems to have prevailed, in his corrupt mind,
over every other sentiment, attracted the wealth of the East, by
the various arts of partial and general extortion; oppressive
taxes, scandalous bribery, immoderate fines, unjust
confiscations, forced or fictitious testaments, by which the
tyrant despoiled of their lawful inheritance the children of
strangers, or enemies; and the public sale of justice, as well as
of favor, which he instituted in the palace of Constantinople.
The ambitious candidate eagerly solicited, at the expense of the
fairest part of his patrimony, the honors and emoluments of some
provincial government; the lives and fortunes of the unhappy
people were abandoned to the most liberal purchaser; and the
public discontent was sometimes appeased by the sacrifice of an
unpopular criminal, whose punishment was profitable only to the
præfect of the East, his accomplice and his judge. If avarice
were not the blindest of the human passions, the motives of
Rufinus might excite our curiosity; and we might be tempted to
inquire with what view he violated every principle of humanity
and justice, to accumulate those immense treasures, which he
could not spend without folly, nor possess without danger.
Perhaps he vainly imagined, that he labored for the interest of
an only daughter, on whom he intended to bestow his royal pupil,
and the august rank of Empress of the East. Perhaps he deceived
himself by the opinion, that his avarice was the instrument of
his ambition. He aspired to place his fortune on a secure and
independent basis, which should no longer depend on the caprice
of the young emperor; yet he neglected to conciliate the hearts
of the soldiers and people, by the liberal distribution of those
riches, which he had acquired with so much toil, and with so much
guilt. The extreme parsimony of Rufinus left him only the
reproach and envy of ill-gotten wealth; his dependants served him
without attachment; the universal hatred of mankind was repressed
only by the influence of servile fear. The fate of Lucian
proclaimed to the East, that the præfect, whose industry was
much abated in the despatch of ordinary business, was active and
indefatigable in the pursuit of revenge. Lucian, the son of the
præfect Florentius, the oppressor of Gaul, and the enemy of
Julian, had employed a considerable part of his inheritance, the
fruit of rapine and corruption, to purchase the friendship of
Rufinus, and the high office of Count of the East. But the new
magistrate imprudently departed from the maxims of the court, and
of the times; disgraced his benefactor by the contrast of a
virtuous and temperate administration; and presumed to refuse an
act of injustice, which might have tended to the profit of the
emperor’s uncle. Arcadius was easily persuaded to resent the
supposed insult; and the præfect of the East resolved to execute
in person the cruel vengeance, which he meditated against this
ungrateful delegate of his power. He performed with incessant
speed the journey of seven or eight hundred miles, from
Constantinople to Antioch, entered the capital of Syria at the
dead of night, and spread universal consternation among a people
ignorant of his design, but not ignorant of his character. The
Count of the fifteen provinces of the East was dragged, like the
vilest malefactor, before the arbitrary tribunal of Rufinus.
Notwithstanding the clearest evidence of his integrity, which was
not impeached even by the voice of an accuser, Lucian was
condemned, almost with out a trial, to suffer a cruel and
ignominious punishment. The ministers of the tyrant, by the
orders, and in the presence, of their master, beat him on the
neck with leather thongs armed at the extremities with lead; and
when he fainted under the violence of the pain, he was removed in
a close litter, to conceal his dying agonies from the eyes of the
indignant city. No sooner had Rufinus perpetrated this inhuman
act, the sole object of his expedition, than he returned, amidst
the deep and silent curses of a trembling people, from Antioch to
Constantinople; and his diligence was accelerated by the hope of
accomplishing, without delay, the nuptials of his daughter with
the emperor of the East. 12
10 (return) [ Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, l. xii. c. 12)
praises one of the laws of Theodosius addressed to the præfect
Rufinus, (l. ix. tit. iv. leg. unic.,) to discourage the
prosecution of treasonable, or sacrilegious, words. A tyrannical
statute always proves the existence of tyranny; but a laudable
edict may only contain the specious professions, or ineffectual
wishes, of the prince, or his ministers. This, I am afraid, is a
just, though mortifying, canon of criticism.]
11 (return) [
—fluctibus auri Expleri sitis ista nequit— ***** Congestae
cumulantur opes; orbisque ruinas Accipit una domus.
This character (Claudian, in. Rufin. i. 184-220) is confirmed by
Jerom, a disinterested witness, (dedecus insatiabilis avaritiae,
tom. i. ad Heliodor. p. 26,) by Zosimus, (l. v. p. 286,) and by
Suidas, who copied the history of Eunapius.]
12 (return) [
—Caetera segnis; Ad facinus velox; penitus regione remotas Impiger
ire vias.
This allusion of Claudian (in Rufin. i. 241) is again explained
by the circumstantial narrative of Zosimus, (l. v. p. 288, 289.)]
But Rufinus soon experienced, that a prudent minister should
constantly secure his royal captive by the strong, though
invisible chain of habit; and that the merit, and much more
easily the favor, of the absent, are obliterated in a short time
from the mind of a weak and capricious sovereign. While the
præfect satiated his revenge at Antioch, a secret conspiracy of
the favorite eunuchs, directed by the great chamberlain
Eutropius, undermined his power in the palace of Constantinople.
They discovered that Arcadius was not inclined to love the
daughter of Rufinus, who had been chosen, without his consent,
for his bride; and they contrived to substitute in her place the
fair Eudoxia, the daughter of Bauto, 13 a general of the Franks
in the service of Rome; and who was educated, since the death of
her father, in the family of the sons of Promotus. The young
emperor, whose chastity had been strictly guarded by the pious
care of his tutor Arsenius, 14 eagerly listened to the artful and
flattering descriptions of the charms of Eudoxia: he gazed with
impatient ardor on her picture, and he understood the necessity
of concealing his amorous designs from the knowledge of a
minister who was so deeply interested to oppose the consummation
of his happiness. Soon after the return of Rufinus, the
approaching ceremony of the royal nuptials was announced to the
people of Constantinople, who prepared to celebrate, with false
and hollow acclamations, the fortune of his daughter. A splendid
train of eunuchs and officers issued, in hymeneal pomp, from the
gates of the palace; bearing aloft the diadem, the robes, and the
inestimable ornaments, of the future empress. The solemn
procession passed through the streets of the city, which were
adorned with garlands, and filled with spectators; but when it
reached the house of the sons of Promotus, the principal eunuch
respectfully entered the mansion, invested the fair Eudoxia with
the Imperial robes, and conducted her in triumph to the palace
and bed of Arcadius. 15 The secrecy and success with which this
conspiracy against Rufinus had been conducted, imprinted a mark
of indelible ridicule on the character of a minister, who had
suffered himself to be deceived, in a post where the arts of
deceit and dissimulation constitute the most distinguished merit.
He considered, with a mixture of indignation and fear, the
victory of an aspiring eunuch, who had secretly captivated the
favor of his sovereign; and the disgrace of his daughter, whose
interest was inseparably connected with his own, wounded the
tenderness, or, at least, the pride of Rufinus. At the moment
when he flattered himself that he should become the father of a
line of kings, a foreign maid, who had been educated in the house
of his implacable enemies, was introduced into the Imperial bed;
and Eudoxia soon displayed a superiority of sense and spirit, to
improve the ascendant which her beauty must acquire over the mind
of a fond and youthful husband. The emperor would soon be
instructed to hate, to fear, and to destroy the powerful subject,
whom he had injured; and the consciousness of guilt deprived
Rufinus of every hope, either of safety or comfort, in the
retirement of a private life. But he still possessed the most
effectual means of defending his dignity, and perhaps of
oppressing his enemies. The præfect still exercised an
uncontrolled authority over the civil and military government of
the East; and his treasures, if he could resolve to use them,
might be employed to procure proper instruments for the execution
of the blackest designs, that pride, ambition, and revenge could
suggest to a desperate statesman. The character of Rufinus seemed
to justify the accusations that he conspired against the person
of his sovereign, to seat himself on the vacant throne; and that
he had secretly invited the Huns and the Goths to invade the
provinces of the empire, and to increase the public confusion.
The subtle præfect, whose life had been spent in the intrigues
of the palace, opposed, with equal arms, the artful measures of
the eunuch Eutropius; but the timid soul of Rufinus was
astonished by the hostile approach of a more formidable rival, of
the great Stilicho, the general, or rather the master, of the
empire of the West. 16
13 (return) [ Zosimus (l. iv. p. 243) praises the valor,
prudence, and integrity of Bauto the Frank. See Tillemont, Hist.
des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 771.]
14 (return) [ Arsenius escaped from the palace of Constantinople,
and passed fifty-five years in rigid penance in the monasteries
of Egypt. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 676-702; and
Fleury, Hist Eccles. tom. v. p. 1, &c.; but the latter, for want
of authentic materials, has given too much credit to the legend
of Metaphrastes.]
15 (return) [ This story (Zosimus, l. v. p. 290) proves that the
hymeneal rites of antiquity were still practised, without
idolatry, by the Christians of the East; and the bride was
forcibly conducted from the house of her parents to that of her
husband. Our form of marriage requires, with less delicacy, the
express and public consent of a virgin.]
16 (return) [ Zosimus, (l. v. p. 290,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 37,)
and the Chronicle of Marcellinus. Claudian (in Rufin. ii. 7-100)
paints, in lively colors, the distress and guilt of the
præfect.]
The celestial gift, which Achilles obtained, and Alexander
envied, of a poet worthy to celebrate the actions of heroes has
been enjoyed by Stilicho, in a much higher degree than might have
been expected from the declining state of genius, and of art. The
muse of Claudian, 17 devoted to his service, was always prepared
to stigmatize his adversaries, Rufinus, or Eutropius, with
eternal infamy; or to paint, in the most splendid colors, the
victories and virtues of a powerful benefactor. In the review of
a period indifferently supplied with authentic materials, we
cannot refuse to illustrate the annals of Honorius, from the
invectives, or the panegyrics, of a contemporary writer; but as
Claudian appears to have indulged the most ample privilege of a
poet and a courtier, some criticism will be requisite to
translate the language of fiction or exaggeration, into the truth
and simplicity of historic prose. His silence concerning the
family of Stilicho may be admitted as a proof, that his patron
was neither able, nor desirous, to boast of a long series of
illustrious progenitors; and the slight mention of his father, an
officer of Barbarian cavalry in the service of Valens, seems to
countenance the assertion, that the general, who so long
commanded the armies of Rome, was descended from the savage and
perfidious race of the Vandals. 18 If Stilicho had not possessed
the external advantages of strength and stature, the most
flattering bard, in the presence of so many thousand spectators,
would have hesitated to affirm, that he surpassed the measure of
the demi-gods of antiquity; and that whenever he moved, with
lofty steps, through the streets of the capital, the astonished
crowd made room for the stranger, who displayed, in a private
condition, the awful majesty of a hero. From his earliest youth
he embraced the profession of arms; his prudence and valor were
soon distinguished in the field; the horsemen and archers of the
East admired his superior dexterity; and in each degree of his
military promotions, the public judgment always prevented and
approved the choice of the sovereign. He was named, by
Theodosius, to ratify a solemn treaty with the monarch of Persia;
he supported, during that important embassy, the dignity of the
Roman name; and after he returned to Constantinople, his merit
was rewarded by an intimate and honorable alliance with the
Imperial family. Theodosius had been prompted, by a pious motive
of fraternal affection, to adopt, for his own, the daughter of
his brother Honorius; the beauty and accomplishments of Serena 19
were universally admired by the obsequious court; and Stilicho
obtained the preference over a crowd of rivals, who ambitiously
disputed the hand of the princess, and the favor of her adopted
father. 20 The assurance that the husband of Serena would be
faithful to the throne, which he was permitted to approach,
engaged the emperor to exalt the fortunes, and to employ the
abilities, of the sagacious and intrepid Stilicho. He rose,
through the successive steps of master of the horse, and count of
the domestics, to the supreme rank of master-general of all the
cavalry and infantry of the Roman, or at least of the Western,
empire; 21 and his enemies confessed, that he invariably
disdained to barter for gold the rewards of merit, or to defraud
the soldiers of the pay and gratifications which they deserved or
claimed, from the liberality of the state. 22 The valor and
conduct which he afterwards displayed, in the defence of Italy,
against the arms of Alaric and Radagaisus, may justify the fame
of his early achievements and in an age less attentive to the
laws of honor, or of pride, the Roman generals might yield the
preeminence of rank, to the ascendant of superior genius. 23 He
lamented, and revenged, the murder of Promotus, his rival and his
friend; and the massacre of many thousands of the flying
Bastarnae is represented by the poet as a bloody sacrifice, which
the Roman Achilles offered to the manes of another Patroclus. The
virtues and victories of Stilicho deserved the hatred of Rufinus:
and the arts of calumny might have been successful if the tender
and vigilant Serena had not protected her husband against his
domestic foes, whilst he vanquished in the field the enemies of
the empire. 24 Theodosius continued to support an unworthy
minister, to whose diligence he delegated the government of the
palace, and of the East; but when he marched against the tyrant
Eugenius, he associated his faithful general to the labors and
glories of the civil war; and in the last moments of his life,
the dying monarch recommended to Stilicho the care of his sons,
and of the republic. 25 The ambition and the abilities of
Stilicho were not unequal to the important trust; and he claimed
the guardianship of the two empires, during the minority of
Arcadius and Honorius. 26 The first measure of his
administration, or rather of his reign, displayed to the nations
the vigor and activity of a spirit worthy to command. He passed
the Alps in the depth of winter; descended the stream of the
Rhine, from the fortress of Basil to the marshes of Batavia;
reviewed the state of the garrisons; repressed the enterprises of
the Germans; and, after establishing along the banks a firm and
honorable peace, returned, with incredible speed, to the palace
of Milan. 27 The person and court of Honorius were subject to the
master-general of the West; and the armies and provinces of
Europe obeyed, without hesitation, a regular authority, which was
exercised in the name of their young sovereign. Two rivals only
remained to dispute the claims, and to provoke the vengeance, of
Stilicho. Within the limits of Africa, Gildo, the Moor,
maintained a proud and dangerous independence; and the minister
of Constantinople asserted his equal reign over the emperor, and
the empire, of the East.
17 (return) [ Stilicho, directly or indirectly, is the perpetual
theme of Claudian. The youth and private life of the hero are
vaguely expressed in the poem on his first consulship, 35-140.]
18 (return) [ Vandalorum, imbellis, avarae, perfidae, et dolosae,
gentis, genere editus. Orosius, l. vii. c. 38. Jerom (tom. i. ad
Gerontiam, p. 93) call him a Semi-Barbarian.]
19 (return) [ Claudian, in an imperfect poem, has drawn a fair,
perhaps a flattering, portrait of Serena. That favorite niece of
Theodosius was born, as well as here sister Thermantia, in Spain;
from whence, in their earliest youth, they were honorably
conducted to the palace of Constantinople.]
20 (return) [ Some doubt may be entertained, whether this
adoption was legal or only metaphorical, (see Ducange, Fam.
Byzant. p. 75.) An old inscription gives Stilicho the singular
title of Pro-gener Divi Theodosius]
21 (return) [ Claudian (Laus Serenae, 190, 193) expresses, in
poetic language “the dilectus equorum,” and the “gemino mox idem
culmine duxit agmina.” The inscription adds, “count of the
domestics,” an important command, which Stilicho, in the height
of his grandeur, might prudently retain.]
22 (return) [ The beautiful lines of Claudian (in i. Cons.
Stilich. ii. 113) displays his genius; but the integrity of
Stilicho (in the military administration) is much more firmly
established by the unwilling evidence of Zosimus, (l. v. p.
345.)]
23 (return) [—Si bellica moles Ingrueret, quamvis annis et jure
minori,
Cedere grandaevos equitum peditumque magistros
Adspiceres. Claudian, Laus Seren. p. 196, &c. A modern general
would deem their submission either heroic patriotism or abject
servility.]
24 (return) [ Compare the poem on the first consulship (i.
95-115) with the Laus Serenoe (227-237, where it unfortunately
breaks off.) We may perceive the deep, inveterate malice of
Rufinus.]
25 (return) [—Quem fratribus ipse Discedens, clypeum
defensoremque dedisti. Yet the nomination (iv. Cons. Hon. 432)
was private, (iii. Cons. Hon. 142,) cunctos discedere... jubet;
and may therefore be suspected. Zosimus and Suidas apply to
Stilicho and Rufinus the same equal title of guardians, or
procurators.]
26 (return) [ The Roman law distinguishes two sorts of minority,
which expired at the age of fourteen, and of twenty-five. The one
was subject to the tutor, or guardian, of the person; the other,
to the curator, or trustee, of the estate, (Heineccius,
Antiquitat. Rom. ad Jurisprudent. pertinent. l. i. tit. xxii.
xxiii. p. 218-232.) But these legal ideas were never accurately
transferred into the constitution of an elective monarchy.]
27 (return) [ See Claudian, (i. Cons. Stilich. i. 188-242;) but
he must allow more than fifteen days for the journey and return
between Milan and Leyden.]