the vanity of the favorite was flattered with
the most extraordinary honors. In the senate, in the capital, in the
provinces, the statues of Eutropius were erected, in brass, or marble,
decorated with the symbols of his civil and military virtues, and
inscribed with the pompous title of the third founder of Constantinople.
He was promoted to the rank of _patrician_, which began to signify in a
popular, and even legal, acceptation, the father of the emperor; and the
last year of the fourth century was polluted by the _consulship_ of
a eunuch and a slave. This strange and inexpiable prodigy awakened,
however, the prejudices of the Romans. The effeminate consul was
rejected by the West, as an indelible stain to the annals of the
republic; and without invoking the shades of Brutus and Camillus,
the colleague of Eutropius, a learned and respectable magistrate,
sufficiently represented the different maxims of the two
administrations.

The bold and vigorous mind of Rufinus seems to have been actuated by a
more sanguinary and revengeful spirit; but the avarice of the eunuch was
not less insatiate than that of the praefect. As long as he despoiled the
oppressors, who had enriched themselves with the plunder of the people,
Eutropius might gratify his covetous disposition without much envy or
injustice: but the progress of his rapine soon invaded the wealth which
had been acquired by lawful inheritance, or laudable industry. The
usual methods of extortion were practised and improved; and Claudian
has sketched a lively and original picture of the public auction of the
state. "The impotence of the eunuch," says that agreeable satirist, "has
served only to stimulate his avarice: the same hand which in his servile
condition, was exercised in petty thefts, to unlock the coffers of his
master, now grasps the riches of the world; and this infamous broker of
the empire appreciates and divides the Roman provinces from Mount Haemus
to the Tigris. One man, at the expense of his villa, is made proconsul
of Asia; a second purchases Syria with his wife's jewels; and a third
laments that he has exchanged his paternal estate for the government of
Bithynia. In the antechamber of Eutropius, a large tablet is exposed
to public view, which marks the respective prices of the provinces.
The different value of Pontus, of Galatia, of Lydia, is accurately
distinguished. Lycia may be obtained for so many thousand pieces of
gold; but the opulence of Phrygia