that he should not hesitate to accuse him before the tribunal
of a Christian emperor, who would punish, without destroying, the
sinner. "Our king," continued Isaac, "is too much addicted to licentious
pleasures, but he has been purified in the holy waters of baptism. He is
a lover of women, but he does not adore the fire or the elements. He may
deserve the reproach of lewdness, but he is an undoubted Catholic;
and his faith is pure, though his manners are flagitious. I will never
consent to abandon my sheep to the rage of devouring wolves; and you
would soon repent your rash exchange of the infirmities of a believer,
for the specious virtues of a heathen." Exasperated by the firmness of
Isaac, the factious nobles accused both the king and the archbishop
as the secret adherents of the emperor; and absurdly rejoiced in the
sentence of condemnation, which, after a partial hearing, was solemnly
pronounced by Bahram himself. The descendants of Arsaces were degraded
from the royal dignity, which they had possessed above five hundred and
sixty years; and the dominions of the unfortunate Artasires, under the
new and significant appellation of Persarmenia, were reduced into the
form of a province. This usurpation excited the jealousy of the Roman
government; but the rising disputes were soon terminated by an amicable,
though unequal, partition of the ancient kingdom of Armenia: and a
territorial acquisition, which Augustus might have despised, reflected
some lustre on the declining empire of the younger Theodosius.

Chapter XXXIII: Conquest Of Africa By The Vandals.--Part I.

Death Of Honorius.--Valentinian III.--Emperor Of The East.--
Administration Of His Mother Placidia--AEtius And Boniface.--
Conquest Of Africa By The Vandals.

During a long and disgraceful reign of twenty-eight years, Honorius,
emperor of the West, was separated from the friendship of his
brother, and afterwards of his nephew, who reigned over the East; and
Constantinople beheld, with apparent indifference and secret joy, the
calamities of Rome. The strange adventures of Placidia gradually renewed
and cemented the alliance of the two empires. The daughter of the great
Theodosius had been the captive, and the queen, of the Goths; she lost
an affectionate husband; she was dragged in chains by his insulting
assassin; she tasted the pleasure of revenge, and was exchanged, in the
treaty of peace, for six hundred thousand measures of wheat.