Empire.—Part III.
But in the calmer moments of reflection, when the mind of Valens
was not agitated by fear, or that of Valentinian by rage, the
tyrant resumed the sentiments, or at least the conduct, of the
father of his country. The dispassionate judgment of the Western
emperor could clearly perceive, and accurately pursue, his own
and the public interest; and the sovereign of the East, who
imitated with equal docility the various examples which he
received from his elder brother, was sometimes guided by the
wisdom and virtue of the præfect Sallust. Both princes invariably
retained, in the purple, the chaste and temperate simplicity
which had adorned their private life; and, under their reign, the
pleasures of the court never cost the people a blush or a sigh.
They gradually reformed many of the abuses of the times of
Constantius; judiciously adopted and improved the designs of
Julian and his successor; and displayed a style and spirit of
legislation which might inspire posterity with the most favorable
opinion of their character and government. It is not from the
master of _Innocence_, that we should expect the tender regard
for the welfare of his subjects, which prompted Valentinian to
condemn the exposition of new-born infants; 60 and to establish
fourteen skilful physicians, with stipends and privileges, in the
fourteen quarters of Rome. The good sense of an illiterate
soldier founded a useful and liberal institution for the
education of youth, and the support of declining science. 61 It
was his intention, that the arts of rhetoric and grammar should
be taught in the Greek and Latin languages, in the metropolis of
every province; and as the size and dignity of the school was
usually proportioned to the importance of the city, the academies
of Rome and Constantinople claimed a just and singular
preëminence. The fragments of the literary edicts of Valentinian
imperfectly represent the school of Constantinople, which was
gradually improved by subsequent regulations. That school
consisted of thirty-one professors in different branches of
learning. One philosopher, and two lawyers; five sophists, and
ten grammarians for the Greek, and three orators, and ten
grammarians for the Latin tongue; besides seven scribes, or, as
they were then styled, antiquarians, whose laborious pens
supplied the public library with fair and correct copies of the
classic writers. The rule of conduct, which was prescribed to the
students, is the more curious, as it affords the first outlines
of the form and discipline of a modern university. It was
required, that they should bring proper certificates from the
magistrates of their native province. Their names, professions,
and places of abode, were regularly entered in a public register.
60 (return) [ See the Code of Justinian, l. viii. tit. lii. leg.
2. Unusquisque sabolem suam nutriat. Quod si exponendam putaverit
animadversioni quæ constituta est subjacebit. For the present I
shall not interfere in the dispute between Noodt and Binkershoek;
how far, or how long this unnatural practice had been condemned
or abolished by law philosophy, and the more civilized state of
society.]
61 (return) [ These salutary institutions are explained in the
Theodosian Code, l. xiii. tit. iii. _De Professoribus et
Medicis_, and l. xiv. tit. ix. _De Studiis liberalibus Urbis
Romæ_. Besides our usual guide, (Godefroy,) we may consult
Giannone, (Istoria di Napoli, tom. i. p. 105-111,) who has
treated the interesting subject with the zeal and curiosity of a
man of latters who studies his domestic history.]
The studious youth were severely prohibited from wasting their
time in feasts, or in the theatre; and the term of their
education was limited to the age of twenty. The præfect of the
city was empowered to chastise the idle and refractory by stripes
or expulsion; and he was directed to make an annual report to the
master of the offices, that the knowledge and abilities of the
scholars might be usefully applied to the public service. The
institutions of Valentinian contributed to secure the benefits of
peace and plenty; and the cities were guarded by the
establishment of the _Defensors;_ 62 freely elected as the
tribunes and advocates of the people, to support their rights,
and to expose their grievances, before the tribunals of the civil
magistrates, or even at the foot of the Imperial throne. The
finances were diligently administered by two princes, who had
been so long accustomed to the rigid economy of a private
fortune; but in the receipt and application of the revenue, a
discerning eye might observe some difference between the
government of the East and of the West. Valens was persuaded,
that royal liberality can be supplied only by public oppression,
and his ambition never aspired to secure, by their actual
distress, the future strength and prosperity of his people.
Instead of increasing the weight of taxes, which, in the space of
forty years, had been gradually doubled, he reduced, in the first
years of his reign, one fourth of the tribute of the East. 63
Valentinian appears to have been less attentive and less anxious
to relieve the burdens of his people. He might reform the abuses
of the fiscal administration; but he exacted, without scruple, a
very large share of the private property; as he was convinced,
that the revenues, which supported the luxury of individuals,
would be much more advantageously employed for the defence and
improvement of the state. The subjects of the East, who enjoyed
the present benefit, applauded the indulgence of their prince.
The solid but less splendid, merit of Valentinian was felt and
acknowledged by the subsequent generation. 64
62 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. i. tit. xi. with Godefroy’s
_Paratitlon_, which diligently gleans from the rest of the code.]
63 (return) [ Three lines of Ammianus (xxxi. 14) countenance a
whole oration of Themistius, (viii. p. 101-120,) full of
adulation, pedantry, and common-place morality. The eloquent M.
Thomas (tom. i. p. 366-396) has amused himself with celebrating
the virtues and genius of Themistius, who was not unworthy of the
age in which he lived.]
64 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 202. Ammian. xxx. 9. His
reformation of costly abuses might entitle him to the praise of,
in provinciales admodum parcus, tributorum ubique molliens
sarcinas. By some his frugality was styled avarice, (Jerom.
Chron. p. 186)]
But the most honorable circumstance of the character of
Valentinian, is the firm and temperate impartiality which he
uniformly preserved in an age of religious contention. His strong
sense, unenlightened, but uncorrupted, by study, declined, with
respectful indifference, the subtle questions of theological
debate. The government of the _Earth_ claimed his vigilance, and
satisfied his ambition; and while he remembered that he was the
disciple of the church, he never forgot that he was the sovereign
of the clergy. Under the reign of an apostate, he had signalized
his zeal for the honor of Christianity: he allowed to his
subjects the privilege which he had assumed for himself; and they
might accept, with gratitude and confidence, the general
toleration which was granted by a prince addicted to passion, but
incapable of fear or of disguise. 65 The Pagans, the Jews, and
all the various sects which acknowledged the divine authority of
Christ, were protected by the laws from arbitrary power or
popular insult; nor was any mode of worship prohibited by
Valentinian, except those secret and criminal practices, which
abused the name of religion for the dark purposes of vice and
disorder. The art of magic, as it was more cruelly punished, was
more strictly proscribed: but the emperor admitted a formal
distinction to protect the ancient methods of divination, which
were approved by the senate, and exercised by the Tuscan
haruspices. He had condemned, with the consent of the most
rational Pagans, the license of nocturnal sacrifices; but he
immediately admitted the petition of Prætextatus, proconsul of
Achaia, who represented, that the life of the Greeks would become
dreary and comfortless, if they were deprived of the invaluable
blessing of the Eleusinian mysteries. Philosophy alone can boast,
(and perhaps it is no more than the boast of philosophy,) that
her gentle hand is able to eradicate from the human mind the
latent and deadly principle of fanaticism. But this truce of
twelve years, which was enforced by the wise and vigorous
government of Valentinian, by suspending the repetition of mutual
injuries, contributed to soften the manners, and abate the
prejudices, of the religious factions.
65 (return) [ Testes sunt leges a me in exordio Imperii mei datæ;
quibus unicuique quod animo imbibisset colendi libera facultas
tributa est. Cod. Theodos. l. ix. tit. xvi. leg. 9. To this
declaration of Valentinian, we may add the various testimonies of
Ammianus, (xxx. 9,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 204,) and Sozomen, (l.
vi. c. 7, 21.) Baronius would naturally blame such rational
toleration, (Annal. Eccles A. D. 370, No. 129-132, A. D. 376, No.
3, 4.) ——Comme il s’était prescrit pour règle de ne point se
mêler de disputes de religion, son histoire est presque
entièrement dégagée des affaires ecclésiastiques. Le Beau. iii.
214.—M.]
The friend of toleration was unfortunately placed at a distance
from the scene of the fiercest controversies. As soon as the
Christians of the West had extricated themselves from the snares
of the creed of Rimini, they happily relapsed into the slumber of
orthodoxy; and the small remains of the Arian party, that still
subsisted at Sirmium or Milan, might be considered rather as
objects of contempt than of resentment. But in the provinces of
the East, from the Euxine to the extremity of Thebais, the
strength and numbers of the hostile factions were more equally
balanced; and this equality, instead of recommending the counsels
of peace, served only to perpetuate the horrors of religious war.
The monks and bishops supported their arguments by invectives;
and their invectives were sometimes followed by blows. Athanasius
still reigned at Alexandria; the thrones of Constantinople and
Antioch were occupied by Arian prelates, and every episcopal
vacancy was the occasion of a popular tumult. The Homoousians
were fortified by the reconciliation of fifty-nine Macelonian, or
Semi-Arian, bishops; but their secret reluctance to embrace the
divinity of the Holy Ghost, clouded the splendor of the triumph;
and the declaration of Valens, who, in the first years of his
reign, had imitated the impartial conduct of his brother, was an
important victory on the side of Arianism. The two brothers had
passed their private life in the condition of catechumens; but
the piety of Valens prompted him to solicit the sacrament of
baptism, before he exposed his person to the dangers of a Gothic
war. He naturally addressed himself to Eudoxus, 66 6611 bishop of
the Imperial city; and if the ignorant monarch was instructed by
that Arian pastor in the principles of heterodox theology, his
misfortune, rather than his guilt, was the inevitable consequence
of his erroneous choice. Whatever had been the determination of
the emperor, he must have offended a numerous party of his
Christian subjects; as the leaders both of the Homoousians and of
the Arians believed, that, if they were not suffered to reign,
they were most cruelly injured and oppressed. After he had taken
this decisive step, it was extremely difficult for him to
preserve either the virtue, or the reputation of impartiality. He
never aspired, like Constantius, to the fame of a profound
theologian; but as he had received with simplicity and respect
the tenets of Euxodus, Valens resigned his conscience to the
direction of his ecclesiastical guides, and promoted, by the
influence of his authority, the reunion of the _Athanasian
heretics_ to the body of the Catholic church. At first, he pitied
their blindness; by degrees he was provoked at their obstinacy;
and he insensibly hated those sectaries to whom he was an object
of hatred. 67 The feeble mind of Valens was always swayed by the
persons with whom he familiarly conversed; and the exile or
imprisonment of a private citizen are the favors the most readily
granted in a despotic court. Such punishments were frequently
inflicted on the leaders of the Homoousian party; and the
misfortune of fourscore ecclesiastics of Constantinople, who,
perhaps accidentally, were burned on shipboard, was imputed to
the cruel and premeditated malice of the emperor, and his Arian
ministers. In every contest, the Catholics (if we may anticipate
that name) were obliged to pay the penalty of their own faults,
and of those of their adversaries. In every election, the claims
of the Arian candidate obtained the preference; and if they were
opposed by the majority of the people, he was usually supported
by the authority of the civil magistrate, or even by the terrors
of a military force. The enemies of Athanasius attempted to
disturb the last years of his venerable age; and his temporary
retreat to his father’s sepulchre has been celebrated as a fifth
exile. But the zeal of a great people, who instantly flew to
arms, intimidated the præfect: and the archbishop was permitted
to end his life in peace and in glory, after a reign of
forty-seven years. The death of Athanasius was the signal of the
persecution of Egypt; and the Pagan minister of Valens, who
forcibly seated the worthless Lucius on the archiepiscopal
throne, purchased the favor of the reigning party, by the blood
and sufferings of their Christian brethren. The free toleration
of the heathen and Jewish worship was bitterly lamented, as a
circumstance which aggravated the misery of the Catholics, and
the guilt of the impious tyrant of the East. 68
66 (return) [ Eudoxus was of a mild and timid disposition. When
he baptized Valens, (A. D. 367,) he must have been extremely old;
since he had studied theology fifty-five years before, under
Lucian, a learned and pious martyr. Philostorg. l. ii. c. 14-16,
l. iv. c. 4, with Godefroy, p 82, 206, and Tillemont, Mém.
Eccles. tom. v. p. 471-480, &c.]
6611 (return) [ Through the influence of his wife say the
ecclesiastical writers.—M.]
67 (return) [ Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. xxv. p. 432) insults the
persecuting spirit of the Arians, as an infallible symptom of
error and heresy.]
68 (return) [ This sketch of the ecclesiastical government of
Valens is drawn from Socrates, (l. iv.,) Sozomen, (l. vi.,)
Theodoret, (l. iv.,) and the immense compilations of Tillemont,
(particularly tom. vi. viii. and ix.)]
The triumph of the orthodox party has left a deep stain of
persecution on the memory of Valens; and the character of a
prince who derived his virtues, as well as his vices, from a
feeble understanding and a pusillanimous temper, scarcely
deserves the labor of an apology. Yet candor may discover some
reasons to suspect that the ecclesiastical ministers of Valens
often exceeded the orders, or even the intentions, of their
master; and that the real measure of facts has been very
liberally magnified by the vehement declamation and easy
credulity of his antagonists. 69 1. The silence of Valentinian
may suggest a probable argument that the partial severities,
which were exercised in the name and provinces of his colleague,
amounted only to some obscure and inconsiderable deviations from
the established system of religious toleration: and the judicious
historian, who has praised the equal temper of the elder brother,
has not thought himself obliged to contrast the tranquillity of
the West with the cruel persecution of the East. 70 2. Whatever
credit may be allowed to vague and distant reports, the
character, or at least the behavior, of Valens, may be most
distinctly seen in his personal transactions with the eloquent
Basil, archbishop of Cæsarea, who had succeeded Athanasius in the
management of the Trinitarian cause. 71 The circumstantial
narrative has been composed by the friends and admirers of Basil;
and as soon as we have stripped away a thick coat of rhetoric and
miracle, we shall be astonished by the unexpected mildness of the
Arian tyrant, who admired the firmness of his character, or was
apprehensive, if he employed violence, of a general revolt in the
province of Cappadocia. The archbishop, who asserted, with
inflexible pride, 72 the truth of his opinions, and the dignity
of his rank, was left in the free possession of his conscience
and his throne. The emperor devoutly assisted at the solemn
service of the cathedral; and, instead of a sentence of
banishment, subscribed the donation of a valuable estate for the
use of a hospital, which Basil had lately founded in the
neighborhood of Cæsarea. 73 3. I am not able to discover, that
any law (such as Theodosius afterwards enacted against the
Arians) was published by Valens against the Athanasian sectaries;
and the edict which excited the most violent clamors, may not
appear so extremely reprehensible. The emperor had observed, that
several of his subjects, gratifying their lazy disposition under
the pretence of religion, had associated themselves with the
monks of Egypt; and he directed the count of the East to drag
them from their solitude; and to compel these deserters of
society to accept the fair alternative of renouncing their
temporal possessions, or of discharging the public duties of men
and citizens. 74 The ministers of Valens seem to have extended
the sense of this penal statute, since they claimed a right of
enlisting the young and ablebodied monks in the Imperial armies.
A detachment of cavalry and infantry, consisting of three
thousand men, marched from Alexandria into the adjacent desert of
Nitria, 75 which was peopled by five thousand monks. The soldiers
were conducted by Arian priests; and it is reported, that a
considerable slaughter was made in the monasteries which
disobeyed the commands of their sovereign. 76
69 (return) [ Dr. Jortin (Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol.
iv. p. 78) has already conceived and intimated the same
suspicion.]
70 (return) [ This reflection is so obvious and forcible, that
Orosius (l. vii. c. 32, 33,) delays the persecution till after
the death of Valentinian. Socrates, on the other hand, supposes,
(l. iii. c. 32,) that it was appeased by a philosophical oration,
which Themistius pronounced in the year 374, (Orat. xii. p. 154,
in Latin only.) Such contradictions diminish the evidence, and
reduce the term, of the persecution of Valens.]
71 (return) [ Tillemont, whom I follow and abridge, has extracted
(Mém. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 153-167) the most authentic
circumstances from the Panegyrics of the two Gregories; the
brother, and the friend, of Basil. The letters of Basil himself
(Dupin, Bibliothèque, Ecclesiastique, tom. ii. p. 155-180) do not
present the image of a very lively persecution.]
72 (return) [ Basilius Cæsariensis episcopus Cappadociæ clarus
habetur... qui multa continentiæ et ingenii bona uno superbiæ
malo perdidit. This irreverent passage is perfectly in the style
and character of St. Jerom. It does not appear in Scaliger’s
edition of his Chronicle; but Isaac Vossius found it in some old
Mss. which had not been reformed by the monks.]
73 (return) [ This noble and charitable foundation (almost a new
city) surpassed in merit, if not in greatness, the pyramids, or
the walls of Babylon. It was principally intended for the
reception of lepers, (Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. xx. p. 439.)]
74 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. xii. tit. i. leg. 63. Godefroy
(tom. iv. p. 409-413) performs the duty of a commentator and
advocate. Tillemont (Mém. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 808) _supposes_ a
second law to excuse his orthodox friends, who had misrepresented
the edict of Valens, and suppressed the liberty of choice.]
75 (return) [ See D’Anville, Description de l’Egypte, p. 74.
Hereafter I shall consider the monastic institutions.]
76 (return) [ Socrates, l. iv. c. 24, 25. Orosius, l. vii. c. 33.
Jerom. in Chron. p. 189, and tom. ii. p. 212. The monks of Egypt
performed many miracles, which prove the truth of their faith.
Right, says Jortin, (Remarks, vol iv. p. 79,) but what proves the
truth of those miracles.]
The strict regulations which have been framed by the wisdom of
modern legislators to restrain the wealth and avarice of the
clergy, may be originally deduced from the example of the emperor
Valentinian. His edict, 77 addressed to Damasus, bishop of Rome,
was publicly read in the churches of the city. He admonished the
ecclesiastics and monks not to frequent the houses of widows and
virgins; and menaced their disobedience with the animadversion of
the civil judge. The director was no longer permitted to receive
any gift, or legacy, or inheritance, from the liberality of his
spiritual-daughter: every testament contrary to this edict was
declared null and void; and the illegal donation was confiscated
for the use of the treasury. By a subsequent regulation, it
should seem, that the same provisions were extended to nuns and
bishops; and that all persons of the ecclesiastical order were
rendered incapable of receiving any testamentary gifts, and
strictly confined to the natural and legal rights of inheritance.
As the guardian of domestic happiness and virtue, Valentinian
applied this severe remedy to the growing evil. In the capital of
the empire, the females of noble and opulent houses possessed a
very ample share of independent property: and many of those
devout females had embraced the doctrines of Christianity, not
only with the cold assent of the understanding, but with the
warmth of affection, and perhaps with the eagerness of fashion.
They sacrificed the pleasures of dress and luxury; and renounced,
for the praise of chastity, the soft endearments of conjugal
society. Some ecclesiastic, of real or apparent sanctity, was
chosen to direct their timorous conscience, and to amuse the
vacant tenderness of their heart: and the unbounded confidence,
which they hastily bestowed, was often abused by knaves and
enthusiasts; who hastened from the extremities of the East, to
enjoy, on a splendid theatre, the privileges of the monastic
profession. By their contempt of the world, they insensibly
acquired its most desirable advantages; the lively attachment,
perhaps of a young and beautiful woman, the delicate plenty of an
opulent household, and the respectful homage of the slaves, the
freedmen, and the clients of a senatorial family. The immense
fortunes of the Roman ladies were gradually consumed in lavish
alms and expensive pilgrimages; and the artful monk, who had
assigned himself the first, or possibly the sole place, in the
testament of his spiritual daughter, still presumed to declare,
with the smooth face of hypocrisy, that _he_ was only the
instrument of charity, and the steward of the poor. The
lucrative, but disgraceful, trade, 78 which was exercised by the
clergy to defraud the expectations of the natural heirs, had
provoked the indignation of a superstitious age: and two of the
most respectable of the Latin fathers very honestly confess, that
the ignominious edict of Valentinian was just and necessary; and
that the Christian priests had deserved to lose a privilege,
which was still enjoyed by comedians, charioteers, and the
ministers of idols. But the wisdom and authority of the
legislator are seldom victorious in a contest with the vigilant
dexterity of private interest; and Jerom, or Ambrose, might
patiently acquiesce in the justice of an ineffectual or salutary
law. If the ecclesiastics were checked in the pursuit of personal
emolument, they would exert a more laudable industry to increase
the wealth of the church; and dignify their covetousness with the
specious names of piety and patriotism. 79
77 (return) [ Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. ii. leg. 20. Godefroy,
(tom. vi. p. 49,) after the example of Baronius, impartially
collects all that the fathers have said on the subject of this
important law; whose spirit was long afterwards revived by the
emperor Frederic II., Edward I. of England, and other Christian
princes who reigned after the twelfth century.]
78 (return) [ The expressions which I have used are temperate and
feeble, if compared with the vehement invectives of Jerom, (tom.
i. p. 13, 45, 144, &c.) In _his_ turn he was reproached with the
guilt which he imputed to his brother monks; and the
_Sceleratus_, the _Versipellis_, was publicly accused as the
lover of the widow Paula, (tom. ii. p. 363.) He undoubtedly
possessed the affection, both of the mother and the daughter; but
he declares that he never abused his influence to any selfish or
sensual purpose.]
79 (return) [ Pudet dicere, sacerdotes idolorum, mimi et aurigæ,
et scorta, hæreditates capiunt: solis _clericis_ ac _monachis_
hac lege prohibetur. Et non prohibetur a persecutoribus, sed a
principibus Christianis. Nec de lege queror; sed doleo cur
_meruerimus_ hanc legem. Jerom (tom. i. p. 13) discreetly
insinuates the secret policy of his patron Damasus.]
Damasus, bishop of Rome, who was constrained to stigmatize the
avarice of his clergy by the publication of the law of
Valentinian, had the good sense, or the good fortune, to engage
in his service the zeal and abilities of the learned Jerom; and
the grateful saint has celebrated the merit and purity of a very
ambiguous character. 80 But the splendid vices of the church of
Rome, under the reign of Valentinian and Damasus, have been
curiously observed by the historian Ammianus, who delivers his
impartial sense in these expressive words: “The præfecture of
Juventius was accompanied with peace and plenty, but the
tranquillity of his government was soon disturbed by a bloody
sedition of the distracted people. The ardor of Damasus and
Ursinus, to seize the episcopal seat, surpassed the ordinary
measure of human ambition. They contended with the rage of party;
the quarrel was maintained by the wounds and death of their
followers; and the præfect, unable to resist or appease the
tumult, was constrained, by superior violence, to retire into the
suburbs. Damasus prevailed: the well-disputed victory remained on
the side of his faction; one hundred and thirty-seven dead bodies
81 were found in the _Basilica_ of Sicininus, 82 where the
Christians hold their religious assemblies; and it was long
before the angry minds of the people resumed their accustomed
tranquillity. When I consider the splendor of the capital, I am
not astonished that so valuable a prize should inflame the
desires of ambitious men, and produce the fiercest and most
obstinate contests. The successful candidate is secure, that he
will be enriched by the offerings of matrons; 83 that, as soon as
his dress is composed with becoming care and elegance, he may
proceed, in his chariot, through the streets of Rome; 84 and that
the sumptuousness of the Imperial table will not equal the
profuse and delicate entertainments provided by the taste, and at
the expense, of the Roman pontiffs. How much more rationally
(continues the honest Pagan) would those pontiffs consult their
true happiness, if, instead of alleging the greatness of the city
as an excuse for their manners, they would imitate the exemplary
life of some provincial bishops, whose temperance and sobriety,
whose mean apparel and downcast looks, recommend their pure and
modest virtue to the Deity and his true worshippers!” 85 The
schism of Damasus and Ursinus was extinguished by the exile of
the latter; and the wisdom of the præfect Prætextatus 86 restored
the tranquillity of the city. Prætextatus was a philosophic
Pagan, a man of learning, of taste, and politeness; who disguised
a reproach in the form of a jest, when he assured Damasus, that
if he could obtain the bishopric of Rome, he himself would
immediately embrace the Christian religion. 87 This lively
picture of the wealth and luxury of the popes in the fourth
century becomes the more curious, as it represents the
intermediate degree between the humble poverty of the apostolic
fishermen, and the royal state of a temporal prince, whose
dominions extend from the confines of Naples to the banks of the
Po.
80 (return) [ Three words of Jerom, _sanctæ memoriæ Damasus_
(tom. ii. p. 109,) wash away all his stains, and blind the devout
eyes of Tillemont. (Mem Eccles. tom. viii. p. 386-424.)]
81 (return) [ Jerom himself is forced to allow, crudelissimæ
interfectiones diversi sexûs perpetratæ, (in Chron. p. 186.) But
an original _libel_, or petition of two presbyters of the adverse
party, has unaccountably escaped. They affirm that the doors of
the Basilica were burnt, and that the roof was untiled; that
Damasus marched at the head of his own clergy, grave-diggers,
charioteers, and hired gladiators; that none of _his_ party were
killed, but that one hundred and sixty dead bodies were found.
This petition is published by the P. Sirmond, in the first volume
of his work.]
82 (return) [ The _Basilica_ of Sicininus, or Liberius, is
probably the church of Sancta Maria Maggiore, on the Esquiline
hill. Baronius, A. D. 367 No. 3; and Donatus, Roma Antiqua et
Nova, l. iv. c. 3, p. 462.]
83 (return) [ The enemies of Damasus styled him _Auriscalpius
Matronarum_ the ladies’ ear-scratcher.]
84 (return) [ Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. xxxii. p. 526) describes
the pride and luxury of the prelates who reigned in the Imperial
cities; their gilt car, fiery steeds, numerous train, &c. The
crowd gave way as to a wild beast.]
85 (return) [ Ammian. xxvii. 3. Perpetuo Numini, _verisque_ ejus
cultoribus. The incomparable pliancy of a polytheist!]
86 (return) [ Ammianus, who makes a fair report of his præfecture
(xxvii. 9) styles him præclaræ indolis, gravitatisque senator,
(xxii. 7, and Vales. ad loc.) A curious inscription (Grutor MCII.
No. 2) records, in two columns, his religious and civil honors.
In one line he was Pontiff of the Sun, and of Vesta, Augur,
Quindecemvir, Hierophant, &c., &c. In the other, 1. Quæstor
candidatus, more probably titular. 2. Prætor. 3. Corrector of
Tuscany and Umbria. 4. Consular of Lusitania. 5. Proconsul of
Achaia. 6. Præfect of Rome. 7. Prætorian præfect of Italy. 8. Of
Illyricum. 9. Consul elect; but he died before the beginning of
the year 385. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom v. p. 241,
736.]
87 (return) [ Facite me Romanæ urbis episcopum; et ero protinus
Christianus (Jerom, tom. ii. p. 165.) It is more than probable
that Damasus would not have purchased his conversion at such a
price.]