of the time, and,
like Rufinus, has been painted far blacker than he really was. All the
evil things that were said by his enemies of Rufinus were said of
Eutropius by his enemies; but in reading of the enormities of the latter
we must make great allowance for the general prejudice existing against
a person with Eutropius' physical disqualifications.

Eutropius naturally looked on the praetorian prefects, the most powerful
men in the administration next to the Emperor, with jealousy and
suspicion, as dangerous rivals. It was his interest to reduce their
power and to raise the dignity of his own office to an equality with
theirs. To his influence, then, we are probably justified in ascribing
two innovations which were made by Arcadius. The administration of the
_cursus publicus_, or office of postmaster-general, was transferred from
the praetorian prefects to the master of offices, and the same
transferrence was made in regard to the manufactories of arms. On the
other hand, the grand chamberlain, _praepositus sacri cubiculi_, was made
an _illustris_, equal in rank to the praetorian prefects. Both these
innovations were afterward altered.

The general historical import of the position of Eutropius is that the
empire was falling into a danger, by which it had been threatened from
the outset, and which it had been ever trying to avoid. We may say that
there were two dangers which constantly impended over the Roman Empire
from its inauguration by Augustus to its redintegration by Diocletian--a
Scylla and Charybdis, between which it had to steer. The one was a
cabinet of imperial freedmen, the other was a military despotism. The
former danger called forth, and was counteracted by, the creation of a
civil service system, to which Hadrian perhaps made the most important
contributions, and which was finally elaborated by Diocletian, who at
the same time averted the other danger by separating the military and
civil administrations. But both dangers revived in a new form. The
danger from the army became danger from the Germans, who preponderated
in it; and the institution of court ceremonial tended to create a
cabinet of chamberlains and imperial dependents.

This oriental ceremonial, so marked a feature of late "Byzantinism,"
involved, as one of its principles, difficulty of access to the Emperor,
who, living in the retirement of his palace, was tempted to trust less
to his eyes than his ears, and saw too little of public aff