Chapter XXXII: Emperors Arcadius, Eutropius, Theodosius II.—Part

III.

Yet a reasonable doubt may be entertained, whether any stain of
hereditary guilt could be derived from Arcadius to his successor.
Eudoxia was a young and beautiful woman, who indulged her
passions, and despised her husband; Count John enjoyed, at least,
the familiar confidence of the empress; and the public named him
as the real father of Theodosius the younger. 59 The birth of a
son was accepted, however, by the pious husband, as an event the
most fortunate and honorable to himself, to his family, and to
the Eastern world: and the royal infant, by an unprecedented
favor, was invested with the titles of Caesar and Augustus. In
less than four years afterwards, Eudoxia, in the bloom of youth,
was destroyed by the consequences of a miscarriage; and this
untimely death confounded the prophecy of a holy bishop, 60 who,
amidst the universal joy, had ventured 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 person who sincerely bewailed the loss of the haughty and
rapacious Eudoxia. Such a domestic misfortune afflicted him more
deeply than the public calamities of the East; 61 the licentious
excursions, from Pontus to Palestine, of the Isaurian robbers,
whose impunity accused the weakness of the government; and the
earthquakes, the conflagrations, the famine, and the flights of
locusts, 62 which the popular discontent 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 thirteen 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.

59 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 315. The chastity of an empress
should not be impeached without producing a witness; but it is
astonishing, that the witness should write and live under a
prince whose legitimacy he dared to attack. We must suppose that
his history was a party libel, privately read and circulated by
the Pagans. Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 782) is
not averse to brand the reputation of Eudoxia.]

60 (return) [ Porphyry of Gaza. His zeal was transported by the
order which he had obtained for the destruction of eight Pagan
temples of that city. See the curious details of his life,
(Baronius, A.D. 401, No. 17-51,) originally written in Greek, or
perhaps in Syriac, by a monk, one of his favorite deacons.]

61 (return) [ Philostorg. l. xi. c. 8, and Godefroy, Dissertat.
p. 457.]

62 (return) [ Jerom (tom. vi. p. 73, 76) describes, in lively
colors, the regular and destructive 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.]

The historian Procopius 63 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
condition 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
discharged this honorable 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, 64 while he presumes to
dissent from his judgment, and to arraign the wisdom of a
Christian emperor, who, so rashly, though so fortunately,
committed his son and his dominions to the unknown faith of a
stranger, a rival, and a heathen. At the distance of one hundred
and fifty years, this political question might be debated in the
court of Justinian; but a prudent historian will refuse to
examine the propriety, till he has ascertained the truth, of the
testament of Arcadius. As it stands without a parallel in the
history of the world, we may justly require, that it should be
attested by the positive and unanimous evidence of
contemporaries. The strange novelty of the event, which excites
our distrust, must have attracted their notice; and their
universal silence annihilates the vain tradition of the
succeeding age.

63 (return) [ Procopius, de Bell. Persic. l. i. c. 2, p. 8, edit.
Louvre.]

64 (return) [ Agathias, l. iv. p. 136, 137. Although he confesses
the prevalence of the tradition, he asserts, that Procopius was
the first who had committed it to writing. Tillemont (Hist. des
Empereurs, tom. 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. * Note:
See St Martin’s article on Jezdegerd, in the Biographie
Universelle de Michand.—M.]

The maxims of Roman jurisprudence, if they could fairly be
transferred from private property to public dominion, would have
adjudged to the emperor Honorius the guardianship of his nephew,
till he had attained, at least, the fourteenth year of his age.
But the weakness of Honorius, and the calamities of his reign,
disqualified him from prosecuting this natural claim; and such
was the absolute separation of the two monarchies, both in
interest and affection, that Constantinople would have obeyed,
with less reluctance, the orders of the Persian, than those of
the Italian, court. Under a prince whose weakness is disguised by
the external signs of manhood and discretion, the most worthless
favorites may secretly dispute the empire of the palace; and
dictate to submissive provinces the commands of a master, whom
they direct and despise. But the ministers of a child, who is
incapable of arming them with the sanction of the royal name,
must acquire and exercise an independent authority. The great
officers of the state and army, who had been appointed before the
death of Arcadius, formed an aristocracy, which might have
inspired them with the idea of a free republic; and the
government of the Eastern empire was fortunately assumed by the
præfect Anthemius, 65 who obtained, by his superior abilities, a
lasting ascendant over the minds of his equals. The safety of the
young emperor proved the merit and integrity of Anthemius; and
his prudent firmness sustained the force and reputation of an
infant reign. Uldin, with a formidable host of Barbarians, was
encamped in the heart of Thrace; he proudly rejected all terms of
accommodation; and, pointing to the rising sun, declared to the
Roman ambassadors, that the course of that planet should alone
terminate the conquest 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 labor, the fields of Asia. 66 In the
midst of the public triumph, Constantinople 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 perpetual fleet of two
hundred and fifty armed vessels. 67

65 (return) [ Socrates, l. vii. c. l. Anthemius was the grandson
of Philip, one of the ministers of Constantius, and the
grandfather of the emperor Anthemius. After his return from the
Persian embassy, he was appointed consul and Prætorian præfect
of the East, in the year 405 and held the præfecture about ten
years. See his honors and praises in Godefroy, Cod. Theod. tom.
vi. p. 350. Tillemont, Hist. des Emptom. vi. p. 1. &c.]

66 (return) [ Sozomen, l. ix. c. 5. He saw some Scyrri at work
near Mount Olympus, in Bithynia, and cherished the vain hope that
those captives were the last of the nation.]

67 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. vii. tit. xvi. l. xv. tit. i. leg.
49.]

But the Romans had so long been accustomed to the authority of a
monarch, that the first, even among the females, of the Imperial
family, who displayed any courage or capacity, was permitted to
ascend the vacant throne of Theodosius. His sister Pulcheria, 68
who was only two years older than himself, received, at the age
of sixteen, the title of Augusta; and though her favor 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 aspersions on the chastity of Pulcheria, 69
this resolution, which she communicated to her sisters Arcadia
and Marina, was celebrated by the Christian world, as the sublime
effort of heroic piety. In the presence of the clergy and people,
the three daughters of Arcadius 70 dedicated their virginity to
God; and the obligation of their solemn vow was inscribed on a
tablet of gold and gems; which they publicly offered in the great
church of Constantinople. Their palace was converted into a
monastery; and all males, except the guides of their conscience,
the saints who had forgotten the distinction of sexes, were
scrupulously excluded from the holy threshold. Pulcheria, her two
sisters, and a chosen train of favorite damsels, formed a
religious community: they denounced the vanity of dress;
interrupted, by frequent fasts, their simple and frugal diet;
allotted a portion of their time to works of embroidery; and
devoted several hours of the day and night to the exercises of
prayer and psalmody. The piety of a Christian virgin was adorned
by the zeal and liberality of an empress. Ecclesiastical history
describes the splendid churches, which were built at the expense
of Pulcheria, in all the provinces of the East; her charitable
foundations for the benefit of strangers and the poor; the ample
donations which she assigned for the perpetual maintenance of
monastic societies; and the active severity with which she
labored to suppress the opposite heresies of Nestorius and
Eutyches. Such virtues were supposed to deserve the peculiar
favor of the Deity: and the relics of martyrs, as well as the
knowledge of future events, were communicated in visions and
revelations to the Imperial saint. 71 Yet the devotion of
Pulcheria never diverted her indefatigable attention from
temporal affairs; and she alone, among all the descendants of the
great Theodosius, appears to have inherited any share of his
manly spirit and abilities. The elegant and familiar use which
she had acquired, both of the Greek and Latin languages, was
readily applied to the various occasions of speaking or writing,
on public business: her deliberations were maturely weighed; her
actions were prompt and decisive; and, while she moved, without
noise or ostentation, the wheel of government, she discreetly
attributed to the genius of the emperor the long tranquillity of
his reign. In the last years of his peaceful life, Europe was
indeed afflicted by the arms of war; but the more extensive
provinces of Asia still continued to enjoy a profound and
permanent repose. Theodosius the younger was never reduced to the
disgraceful necessity of encountering and punishing a rebellious
subject: and since we cannot applaud the vigor, some praise may
be due to the mildness and prosperity, of the administration of
Pulcheria.

68 (return) [ Sozomen has filled three chapters with a
magnificent panegyric of Pulcheria, (l. ix. c. 1, 2, 3;) and
Tillemont (Mémoires Eccles. tom. xv. p. 171-184) has dedicated a
separate article to the honor of St. Pulcheria, virgin and
empress. * Note: The heathen Eunapius gives a frightful picture
of the venality and a justice of the court of Pulcheria. Fragm.
Eunap. in Mai, ii. 293, in p. 97.—M.]

69 (return) [ 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
connection with the beautiful Paulinus, and her incest with her
brother Theodosius.]

70 (return) [ See Ducange, Famil. Byzantin. p. 70. Flaccilla, the
eldest daughter, either died before Arcadius, or, if she lived
till the year 431, (Marcellin. Chron.,) some defect of mind or
body must have excluded her from the honors of her rank.]

71 (return) [ She was admonished, by repeated dreams, of the
place where the relics of the forty martyrs had been buried. The
ground had successively belonged to the house and garden of a
woman of Constantinople, to a monastery of Macedonian monks, and
to a church of St. Thyrsus, erected by Caesarius, who was consul
A.D. 397; and the memory of the relics was almost obliterated.
Notwithstanding the charitable wishes of Dr. Jortin, (Remarks,
tom. iv. p. 234,) it is not easy to acquit Pulcheria of some
share in the pious fraud; which must have been transacted when
she was more than five-and-thirty years of age.]

The Roman world was deeply interested in the education of its
master. A regular course of study and exercise was judiciously
instituted; of the military exercises of riding, and shooting
with the bow; of the liberal studies of grammar, rhetoric, and
philosophy: the most skilful masters of the East ambitiously
solicited the attention of their royal pupil; and several noble
youths were introduced into the palace, to animate his diligence
by the emulation of friendship. Pulcheria alone discharged the
important task of instructing her brother in the arts of
government; but her precepts may countenance some suspicions of
the extent of her capacity, or of the purity of her intentions.
She taught him to maintain a grave and majestic deportment; to
walk, to hold his robes, to seat himself on his throne, in a
manner worthy of a great prince; to abstain from laughter; to
listen with condescension; to return suitable answers; to assume,
by turns, a serious or a placid countenance: in a word, to
represent with grace and dignity the external figure of a Roman
emperor. But Theodosius 72 was never excited to support the
weight and glory of an illustrious name: and, instead of aspiring
to support his ancestors, he degenerated (if we may presume to
measure the degrees of incapacity) below the weakness of his
father and his uncle. Arcadius and Honorius had been assisted by
the guardian care of a parent, whose lessons were enforced by his
authority and example. But the unfortunate prince, who is born in
the purple, must remain a stranger to the voice of truth; and the
son of Arcadius was condemned to pass his perpetual infancy
encompassed only by a servile train of women and eunuchs. The
ample leisure which he acquired by neglecting the essential
duties of his high office, was filled by idle amusements and
unprofitable studies. Hunting was the only active pursuit that
could tempt him beyond the limits of the palace; but he most
assiduously labored, sometimes by the light of a midnight lamp,
in the mechanic occupations of painting and carving; and the
elegance with which he transcribed religious books entitled the
Roman emperor to the singular epithet of Calligraphes, or a fair
writer. Separated from the world by an impenetrable veil,
Theodosius trusted the persons whom he loved; he loved those who
were accustomed to amuse and flatter his indolence; and as he
never perused the papers that were presented for the royal
signature, the acts of injustice the most repugnant to his
character were frequently perpetrated in his name. The emperor
himself was chaste, temperate, liberal, and merciful; but these
qualities, which can only deserve the name of virtues when they
are supported by courage and regulated by discretion, were seldom
beneficial, and they sometimes proved mischievous, to mankind.
His mind, enervated by a royal education, was oppressed and
degraded by abject superstition: he fasted, he sung psalms, he
blindly accepted the miracles and doctrines with which his faith
was continually nourished. Theodosius devoutly worshipped the
dead and living saints of the Catholic church; and he once
refused to eat, till an insolent monk, who had cast an
excommunication on his sovereign, condescended to heal the
spiritual wound which he had inflicted. 73

72 (return) [ There is a remarkable difference between the two
ecclesiastical historians, who in general bear so close a
resemblance. Sozomen (l. ix. c. 1) ascribes to Pulcheria the
government of the empire, and the education of her brother, whom
he scarcely condescends to praise. Socrates, though he affectedly
disclaims all hopes of favor or fame, composes an elaborate
panegyric on the emperor, and cautiously suppresses the merits of
his sister, (l. vii. c. 22, 42.) Philostorgius (l. xii. c. 7)
expresses the influence of Pulcheria in gentle and courtly
language. Suidas (Excerpt. p. 53) gives a true character of
Theodosius; and I have followed the example of Tillemont (tom.
vi. p. 25) in borrowing some strokes from the modern Greeks.]

73 (return) [ Theodoret, l. v. c. 37. The bishop of Cyrrhus, one
of the first men of his age for his learning and piety, applauds
the obedience of Theodosius to the divine laws.]

The story of a fair and virtuous maiden, exalted from a private
condition to the Imperial throne, might be deemed an incredible
romance, if such a romance had not been verified in the marriage
of Theodosius. The celebrated Athenais 74 was educated by her
father Leontius in the religion and sciences of the Greeks; and
so advantageous was the opinion which the Athenian philosopher
entertained of his contemporaries, that he divided his patrimony
between his two sons, bequeathing to his daughter a small legacy
of one hundred pieces of gold, in the lively confidence that her
beauty and merit would be a sufficient portion. The jealousy and
avarice of her brothers soon compelled Athenais to seek a refuge
at Constantinople; and, with some hopes, either of justice or
favor, to throw herself at the feet of Pulcheria. That sagacious
princess listened to her eloquent complaint; and secretly
destined the daughter of the philosopher Leontius for the future
wife of the emperor of the East, who had now attained the
twentieth year of his age. She easily excited the curiosity of
her brother, by an interesting picture of the charms of Athenais;
large eyes, a well-proportioned nose, a fair complexion, golden
locks, a slender person, a graceful demeanor, an understanding
improved by study, and a virtue tried by distress. Theodosius,
concealed behind a curtain in the apartment of his sister, was
permitted to behold the Athenian virgin: the modest youth
immediately declared his pure and honorable love; and the royal
nuptials were celebrated amidst the acclamations of the capital
and the provinces. Athenais, who was easily persuaded to renounce
the errors of Paganism, received at her baptism the Christian
name of Eudocia; but the cautious Pulcheria withheld the title of
Augusta, till the wife of Theodosius had approved her
fruitfulness by the birth of a daughter, who espoused, fifteen
years afterwards, the emperor of the West. The brothers of
Eudocia obeyed, with some anxiety, her Imperial summons; but as
she could easily forgive their unfortunate unkindness, she
indulged the tenderness, or perhaps the vanity, of a sister, by
promoting them to the rank of consuls and præfects. In the
luxury of the palace, she still cultivated those ingenuous arts
which had contributed to her greatness; and wisely dedicated her
talents to the honor of religion, and of her husband. Eudocia
composed a poetical paraphrase of the first eight books of the
Old Testament, and of the prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah; a
cento of the verses of Homer, applied to the life and miracles of
Christ, the legend of St. Cyprian, and a panegyric on the Persian
victories of Theodosius; and her writings, which were applauded
by a servile and superstitious age, have not been disdained by
the candor of impartial criticism. 75 The fondness of the emperor
was not abated by time and possession; and Eudocia, after the
marriage of her daughter, was permitted to discharge her grateful
vows by a solemn pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Her ostentatious
progress through the East may seem inconsistent with the spirit
of Christian humility; she pronounced, from a throne of gold and
gems, an eloquent oration to the senate of Antioch, declared her
royal intention of enlarging the walls of the city, bestowed a
donative of two hundred pounds of gold to restore the public
baths, and accepted the statues, which were decreed by the
gratitude of Antioch. In the Holy Land, her alms and pious
foundations exceeded the munificence of the great Helena, and
though the public treasure might be impoverished by this
excessive liberality, she enjoyed the conscious satisfaction of
returning to Constantinople with the chains of St. Peter, the
right arm of St. Stephen, and an undoubted picture of the Virgin,
painted by St. Luke. 76 But this pilgrimage was the fatal term of
the glories of Eudocia. Satiated with empty pomp, and unmindful,
perhaps, of her obligations to Pulcheria, she ambitiously aspired
to the government of the Eastern empire; the palace was
distracted by female discord; but the victory was at last
decided, by the superior ascendant of the sister of Theodosius.
The execution of Paulinus, master of the offices, and the
disgrace of Cyrus, Prætorian præfect of the East, convinced the
public that the favor of Eudocia was insufficient to protect her
most faithful friends; and the uncommon beauty of Paulinus
encouraged the secret rumor, that his guilt was that of a
successful lover. 77 As soon as the empress perceived that the
affection of Theodosius was irretrievably lost, she requested the
permission of retiring to the distant solitude of Jerusalem. She
obtained her request; but the jealousy of Theodosius, or the
vindictive spirit of Pulcheria, pursued her in her last retreat;
and Saturninus, count of the domestics, was directed to punish
with death two ecclesiastics, her most favored servants. Eudocia
instantly revenged them by the assassination of the count; the
furious passions which she indulged on this suspicious occasion,
seemed to justify the severity of Theodosius; and the empress,
ignominiously stripped of the honors of her rank, 78 was
disgraced, perhaps unjustly, in the eyes of the world. The
remainder of the life of Eudocia, about sixteen years, was spent
in exile and devotion; and the approach of age, the death of
Theodosius, the misfortunes of her only daughter, who was led a
captive from Rome to Carthage, and the society of the Holy Monks
of Palestine, insensibly confirmed the religious temper of her
mind. After a full experience of the vicissitudes of human life,
the daughter of the philosopher Leontius expired, at Jerusalem,
in the sixty-seventh year of her age; protesting, with her dying
breath, that she had never transgressed the bounds of innocence
and friendship. 79

74 (return) [ Socrates (l. vii. c. 21) mentions her name,
(Athenais, the daughter of Leontius, an Athenian sophist,) her
baptism, marriage, and poetical genius. The most ancient account
of her history is in John Malala (part ii. p. 20, 21, edit.
Venet. 1743) and in the Paschal Chronicle, (p. 311, 312.) Those
authors had probably seen original pictures of the empress
Eudocia. The modern Greeks, Zonaras, Cedrenus, &c., have
displayed the love, rather than the talent of fiction. From
Nicephorus, indeed, I have ventured to assume her age. The writer
of a romance would not have imagined, that Athenais was near
twenty eight years old when she inflamed the heart of a young
emperor.]

75 (return) [ Socrates, l. vii. c. 21, Photius, p. 413-420. The
Homeric cento is still extant, and has been repeatedly printed:
but the claim of Eudocia to that insipid performance is disputed
by the critics. See Fabricius, Biblioth. Graec. tom. i. p. 357.
The Ionia, a miscellaneous dictionary of history and fable, was
compiled by another empress of the name of Eudocia, who lived in
the eleventh century: and the work is still extant in
manuscript.]

76 (return) [ Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A.D. 438, 439) is copious
and florid, but he is accused of placing the lies of different
ages on the same level of authenticity.]

77 (return) [ In this short view of the disgrace of Eudocia, I
have imitated the caution of Evagrius (l. i. c. 21) and Count
Marcellinus, (in Chron A.D. 440 and 444.) The two authentic dates
assigned by the latter, overturn a great part of the Greek
fictions; and the celebrated story of the apple, &c., is fit only
for the Arabian Nights, where something not very unlike it may be
found.]

78 (return) [ Priscus, (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 69,) a
contemporary, and a courtier, dryly mentions her Pagan and
Christian names, without adding any title of honor or respect.]

79 (return) [ For the two pilgrimages of Eudocia, and her long
residence at Jerusalem, her devotion, alms, &c., see Socrates (l.
vii. c. 47) and Evagrius, (l. i. c. 21, 22.) The Paschal
Chronicle may sometimes deserve regard; and in the domestic
history of Antioch, John Malala becomes a writer of good
authority. The Abbe Guenee, in a memoir on the fertility of
Palestine, of which I have only seen an extract, calculates the
gifts of Eudocia at 20,488 pounds of gold, above 800,000 pounds
sterling.]

The gentle mind of Theodosius was never inflamed by the ambition
of conquest, or military renown; and the slight alarm of a
Persian war scarcely interrupted the tranquillity of the East.
The motives of this war were just and honorable. In the last year
of the reign of Jezdegerd, the supposed guardian of Theodosius, a
bishop, who aspired to the crown of martyrdom, destroyed one of
the fire-temples of Susa. 80 His zeal and obstinacy were revenged
on his brethren: the Magi excited a cruel persecution; and the
intolerant zeal of Jezdegerd was imitated by his son Varanes, or
Bahram, who soon afterwards ascended the throne. Some Christian
fugitives, who escaped to the Roman frontier, were sternly
demanded, and generously refused; and the refusal, aggravated by
commercial disputes, soon kindled a war between the rival
monarchies. The mountains of Armenia, and the plains of
Mesopotamia, were filled with hostile armies; but the operations
of two successive campaigns were not productive of any decisive
or memorable events. Some engagements were fought, some towns
were besieged, with various and doubtful success: and if the
Romans failed in their attempt to recover the long-lost
possession of Nisibis, the Persians were repulsed from the walls
of a Mesopotamian city, by the valor of a martial bishop, who
pointed his thundering engine in the name of St. Thomas the
Apostle. Yet the splendid victories which the incredible speed of
the messenger Palladius repeatedly announced to the palace of
Constantinople, were celebrated with festivals and panegyrics.
From these panegyrics the historians 81 of the age might borrow
their extraordinary, and, perhaps, fabulous tales; of the proud
challenge of a Persian hero, who was entangled by the net, and
despatched by the sword, of Areobindus the Goth; of the ten
thousand Immortals, who were slain in the attack of the Roman
camp; and of the hundred thousand Arabs, or Saracens, who were
impelled by a panic terror to throw themselves headlong into the
Euphrates. Such events may be disbelieved or disregarded; but the
charity of a bishop, Acacius of Amida, whose name might have
dignified the saintly calendar, shall not be lost in oblivion.
Boldly declaring, that vases of gold and silver are useless to a
God who neither eats nor drinks, the generous prelate sold the
plate of the church of Amida; employed the price in the
redemption of seven thousand Persian captives; supplied their
wants with affectionate liberality; and dismissed them to their
native country, to inform their king of the true spirit of the
religion which he persecuted. The practice of benevolence in the
midst of war must always tend to assuage the animosity of
contending nations; and I wish to persuade myself, that Acacius
contributed to the restoration of peace. In the conference which
was held on the limits of the two empires, the Roman ambassadors
degraded the personal character of their sovereign, by a vain
attempt to magnify the extent of his power; when they seriously
advised the Persians to prevent, by a timely accommodation, the
wrath of a monarch, who was yet ignorant of this distant war. A
truce of one hundred years was solemnly ratified; and although
the revolutions of Armenia might threaten the public
tranquillity, the essential conditions of this treaty were
respected near fourscore years by the successors of Constantine
and Artaxerxes.

80 (return) [ Theodoret, l. v. c. 39 Tillemont. Mem. Eccles tom.
xii. 356-364. Assemanni, Bibliot. Oriental. tom. iii. p. 396,
tom. iv. p. 61. Theodoret blames the rashness of Abdas, but
extols the constancy of his martyrdom. Yet I do not clearly
understand the casuistry which prohibits our repairing the damage
which we have unlawfully committed.]

81 (return) [ Socrates (l. vii. c. 18, 19, 20, 21) is the best
author for the Persian war. We may likewise consult the three
Chronicles, the Paschal and those of Marcellinus and Malala.]

Since the Roman and Parthian standards first encountered on the
banks of the Euphrates, the kingdom of Armenia 82 was alternately
oppressed by its formidable protectors; and in the course of this
History, several events, which inclined the balance of peace and
war, have been already related. A disgraceful treaty had resigned
Armenia to the ambition of Sapor; and the scale of Persia
appeared to preponderate. But the royal race of Arsaces
impatiently submitted to the house of Sassan; the turbulent
nobles asserted, or betrayed, their hereditary independence; and
the nation was still attached to the Christian princes of
Constantinople. In the beginning of the fifth century, Armenia
was divided by the progress of war and faction; 83 and the
unnatural division precipitated the downfall of that ancient
monarchy. Chosroes, the Persian vassal, reigned over the Eastern
and most extensive portion of the country; while the Western
province acknowledged the jurisdiction of Arsaces, and the
supremacy of the emperor Arcadius. 8111 After the death of
Arsaces, the Romans suppressed the regal government, and imposed
on their allies the condition of subjects. The military command
was delegated to the count of the Armenian frontier; the city of
Theodosiopolis 84 was built and fortified in a strong situation,
on a fertile and lofty ground, near the sources of the Euphrates;
and the dependent territories were ruled by five satraps, whose
dignity was marked by a peculiar habit of gold and purple. The
less fortunate nobles, who lamented the loss of their king, and
envied the honors of their equals, were provoked to negotiate
their peace and pardon at the Persian court; and returning, with
their followers, to the palace of Artaxata, acknowledged Chosroes
8411 for their lawful sovereign. About thirty years afterwards,
Artasires, the nephew and successor of Chosroes, fell under the
displeasure of the haughty and capricious nobles of Armenia; and
they unanimously desired a Persian governor in the room of an
unworthy king. The answer of the archbishop Isaac, whose sanction
they earnestly solicited, is expressive of the character of a
superstitious people. He deplored the manifest and inexcusable
vices of Artasires; and declared, that he should not hesitate to
accuse him before the tribunal of a Christian emperor, who would
punish, without destroying, the sinner. “Our king,” continued
Isaac, “is too much addicted to licentious pleasures, but he has
been purified in the holy waters of baptism. He is a lover of
women, but he does not adore the fire or the elements. He may
deserve the reproach of lewdness, but he is an undoubted
Catholic; and his faith is pure, though his manners are
flagitious. I will never consent to abandon my sheep to the rage
of devouring wolves; and you would soon repent your rash exchange
of the infirmities of a believer, for the specious virtues of a
heathen.” 85 Exasperated by the firmness of Isaac, the factious
nobles accused both the king and the archbishop as the secret
adherents of the emperor; and absurdly rejoiced in the sentence
of condemnation, which, after a partial hearing, was solemnly
pronounced by Bahram himself. The descendants of Arsaces were
degraded from the royal dignity, 86 which they had possessed
above five hundred and sixty years; 87 and the dominions of the
unfortunate Artasires, 8711 under the new and significant
appellation of Persarmenia, were reduced into the form of a
province. This usurpation excited the jealousy of the Roman
government; but the rising disputes were soon terminated by an
amicable, though unequal, partition of the ancient kingdom of
Armenia: 8712 and a territorial acquisition, which Augustus might
have despised, reflected some lustre on the declining empire of
the younger Theodosius.

82 (return) [ This account of the ruin and division of the
kingdom of Armenia is taken from the third book of the Armenian
history of Moses of Chorene. Deficient as he is in every
qualification of a good historian, his local information, his
passions, and his prejudices are strongly expressive of a native
and contemporary. Procopius (de Edificiis, l. iii. c. 1, 5)
relates the same facts in a very different manner; but I have
extracted the circumstances the most probable in themselves, and
the least inconsistent with Moses of Chorene.]

83 (return) [ The western Armenians used the Greek language and
characters in their religious offices; but the use of that
hostile tongue was prohibited by the Persians in the Eastern
provinces, which were obliged to use the Syriac, till the
invention of the Armenian letters by Mesrobes, in the beginning
of the fifth century, and the subsequent version of the Bible
into the Armenian language; an event which relaxed to the
connection of the church and nation with Constantinople.]

84 (return) [ Moses Choren. l. iii. c. 59, p. 309, and p. 358.
Procopius, de Edificiis, l. iii. c. 5. Theodosiopolis stands, or
rather stood, about thirty-five miles to the east of Arzeroum,
the modern capital of Turkish Armenia. See D’Anville, Geographie
Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 99, 100.]

8111 (return) [ The division of Armenia, according to M. St.
Martin, took place much earlier, A. C. 390. The Eastern or
Persian division was four times as large as the Western or Roman.
This partition took place during the reigns of Theodosius the
First, and Varanes (Bahram) the Fourth. St. Martin, Sup. to Le
Beau, iv. 429. This partition was but imperfectly accomplished,
as both parts were afterwards reunited under Chosroes, who paid
tribute both to the Roman emperor and to the Persian king. v.
439.—M.]

8411 (return) [ Chosroes, according to Procopius (who calls him
Arsaces, the common name of the Armenian kings) and the Armenian
writers, bequeathed to his two sons, to Tigranes the Persian, to
Arsaces the Roman, division of Armenia, A. C. 416. With the
assistance of the discontented nobles the Persian king placed his
son Sapor on the throne of the Eastern division; the Western at
the same time was united to the Roman empire, and called the
Greater Armenia. It was then that Theodosiopolis was built. Sapor
abandoned the throne of Armenia to assert his rights to that of
Persia; he perished in the struggle, and after a period of
anarchy, Bahram V., who had ascended the throne of Persia, placed
the last native prince, Ardaschir, son of Bahram Schahpour, on
the throne of the Persian division of Armenia. St. Martin, v.
506. This Ardaschir was the Artasires of Gibbon. The archbishop
Isaac is called by the Armenians the Patriarch Schag. St. Martin,
vi. 29.—M.]

85 (return) [ Moses Choren, l. iii. c. 63, p. 316. According to
the institution of St. Gregory, the Apostle of Armenia, the
archbishop was always of the royal family; a circumstance which,
in some degree, corrected the influence of the sacerdotal
character, and united the mitre with the crown.]

86 (return) [ A branch of the royal house of Arsaces still
subsisted with the rank and possessions (as it should seem) of
Armenian satraps. See Moses Choren. l. iii. c. 65, p. 321.]

87 (return) [ Valarsaces was appointed king of Armenia by his
brother the Parthian monarch, immediately after the defeat of
Antiochus Sidetes, (Moses Choren. l. ii. c. 2, p. 85,) one
hundred and thirty years before Christ. Without depending on the
various and contradictory periods of the reigns of the last
kings, we may be assured, that the ruin of the Armenian kingdom
happened after the council of Chalcedon, A.D. 431, (l. iii. c.
61, p. 312;) and under Varamus, or Bahram, king of Persia, (l.
iii. c. 64, p. 317,) who reigned from A.D. 420 to 440. See
Assemanni, Bibliot. Oriental. tom. iii. p. 396. * Note: Five
hundred and eighty. St. Martin, ibid. He places this event A. C
429.—M.——Note: According to M. St. Martin, vi. 32, Vagharschah,
or Valarsaces, was appointed king by his brother Mithridates the
Great, king of Parthia.—M.]

8711 (return) [ Artasires or Ardaschir was probably sent to the
castle of Oblivion. St. Martin, vi. 31.—M.]

8712 (return) [ The duration of the Armenian kingdom according to
M. St. Martin, was 580 years.—M]