tating 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. 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 praefect of the East,
and of praefect of Constantinople, were filled by Tatian, and his son
Proculus; whose united authority balanced, for some time, the ambition
and favor of the master of the offices. The two praefects 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 praefecture 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,