appointed before the death of Arcadius, formed an aristocracy, which
might have inspired them with the idea of a free republic; and the
government of the Eastern empire was fortunately assumed by the praefect
Anthemius, who obtained, by his superior abilities, a lasting ascendant
over the minds of his equals. The safety of the young emperor proved the
merit and integrity of Anthemius; and his prudent firmness sustained the
force and reputation of an infant reign. Uldin, with a formidable host
of Barbarians, was encamped in the heart of Thrace; he proudly rejected
all terms of accommodation; and, pointing to the rising sun, declared
to the Roman ambassadors, that the course of that planet should
alone terminate the conquest of the Huns. But the desertion of his
confederates, who were privately convinced of the justice and liberality
of the Imperial ministers, obliged Uldin to repass the Danube: the tribe
of the Scyrri, which composed his rear-guard, was almost extirpated; and
many thousand captives were dispersed to cultivate, with servile labor,
the fields of Asia. In the midst of the public triumph, Constantinople
was protected by a strong enclosure of new and more extensive walls;
the same vigilant care was applied to restore the fortifications of the
Illyrian cities; and a plan was judiciously conceived, which, in the
space of seven years, would have secured the command of the Danube, by
establishing on that river a perpetual fleet of two hundred and fifty
armed vessels.

But the Romans had so long been accustomed to the authority of a
monarch, that the first, even among the females, of the Imperial family,
who displayed any courage or capacity, was permitted to ascend the
vacant throne of Theodosius. His sister Pulcheria, who was only two
years older than himself, received, at the age of sixteen, the title of
_Augusta_; and though her favor might be sometimes clouded by caprice or
intrigue, she continued to govern the Eastern empire near forty years;
during the long minority of her brother, and after his death, in her
own name, and in the name of Marcian, her nominal husband. From a motive
either of prudence or religion, she embraced a life of celibacy; and
notwithstanding some aspersions on the chastity of Pulcheria, this
resolution, which she communicated to her sisters Arcadia and Marina,
was celebrated by the Christian world, as the sublime effort of heroic
piety. In the presence of the clergy and people, the thr