will require a more considerable sum.
The eunuch wishes to obliterate, by the general disgrace, his personal
ignominy; and as he has been sold himself, he is desirous of selling the
rest of mankind. In the eager contention, the balance, which contains
the fate and fortunes of the province, often trembles on the beam; and
till one of the scales is inclined, by a superior weight, the mind of
the impartial judge remains in anxious suspense. Such," continues
the indignant poet, "are the fruits of Roman valor, of the defeat of
Antiochus, and of the triumph of Pompey." This venal prostitution of
public honors secured the impunity of _future_ crimes; but the riches,
which Eutropius derived from confiscation, were _already_ stained
with injustice; since it was decent to accuse, and to condemn, the
proprietors of the wealth, which he was impatient to confiscate. Some
noble blood was shed by the hand of the executioner; and the most
inhospitable extremities of the empire were filled with innocent
and illustrious exiles. Among the generals and consuls of the East,
Abundantius had reason to dread the first effects of the resentment of
Eutropius. He had been guilty of the unpardonable crime of introducing
that abject slave to the palace of Constantinople; and some degree of
praise must be allowed to a powerful and ungrateful favorite, who was
satisfied with the disgrace of his benefactor. Abundantius was stripped
of his ample fortunes by an Imperial rescript, and banished to Pityus,
on the Euxine, the last frontier of the Roman world; where he subsisted
by the precarious mercy of the Barbarians, till he could obtain,
after the fall of Eutropius, a milder exile at Sidon, in Phnicia. The
destruction of Timasius required a more serious and regular mode
of attack. That great officer, the master-general of the armies of
Theodosius, had signalized his valor by a decisive victory, which he
obtained over the Goths of Thessaly; but he was too prone, after the
example of his sovereign, to enjoy the luxury of peace, and to abandon
his confidence to wicked and designing flatterers. Timasius had despised
the public clamor, by promoting an infamous dependent to the command
of a cohort; and he deserved to feel the ingratitude of Bargus, who
was secretly instigated by the favorite to accuse his patron of a
treasonable conspiracy. The general was arraigned before the tribunal
of Arcadius himself; and the principal eunuch stood by the side of the
thr