one to suggest the questions and answers of his sovereign. But as
this form of trial might be deemed partial and arbitrary, the further
inquiry into the crimes of Timasius was delegated to Saturninus and
Procopius; the former of consular rank, the latter still respected as
the father-in-law of the emperor Valens. The appearances of a fair and
legal proceeding were maintained by the blunt honesty of Procopius; and
he yielded with reluctance to the obsequious dexterity of his colleague,
who pronounced a sentence of condemnation against the unfortunate
Timasius. His immense riches were confiscated in the name of the
emperor, and for the benefit of the favorite; and he was doomed to
perpetual exile a Oasis, a solitary spot in the midst of the sandy
deserts of Libya. Secluded from all human converse, the master-general
of the Roman armies was lost forever to the world; but the circumstances
of his fate have been related in a various and contradictory manner. It
is insinuated that Eutropius despatched a private order for his secret
execution. It was reported, that, in attempting to escape from Oasis, he
perished in the desert, of thirst and hunger; and that his dead body was
found on the sands of Libya. It has been asserted, with more confidence,
that his son Syagrius, after successfully eluding the pursuit of the
agents and emissaries of the court, collected a band of African robbers;
that he rescued Timasius from the place of his exile; and that both the
father and the son disappeared from the knowledge of mankind. But the
ungrateful Bargus, instead of being suffered to possess the reward of
guilt was soon after circumvented and destroyed, by the more powerful
villany of the minister himself, who retained sense and spirit enough to
abhor the instrument of his own crimes.

The public hatred, and the despair of individuals, continually
threatened, or seemed to threaten, the personal safety of Eutropius; as
well as of the numerous adherents, who were attached to his fortune,
and had been promoted by his venal favor. For their mutual defence,
he contrived the safeguard of a law, which violated every principal
of humanity and justice. I. It is enacted, in the name, and by the
authority of Arcadius, that all those who should conspire, either with
subjects or with strangers, against the lives of any of the persons whom
the emperor considers as the members of his own body, shall be punished
with death and confiscation. This species