rmed
by the senate, the people, and the Barbarian confederates of Italy. The
solemn inauguration of Anthemius was followed by the nuptials of
his daughter and the patrician Ricimer; a fortunate event, which was
considered as the firmest security of the union and happiness of the
state. The wealth of two empires was ostentatiously displayed; and many
senators completed their ruin, by an expensive effort to disguise their
poverty. All serious business was suspended during this festival; the
courts of justice were shut; the streets of Rome, the theatres, the
places of public and private resort, resounded with hymeneal songs and
dances: and the royal bride, clothed in silken robes, with a crown on
her head, was conducted to the palace of Ricimer, who had changed
his military dress for the habit of a consul and a senator. On this
memorable occasion, Sidonius, whose early ambition had been so fatally
blasted, appeared as the orator of Auvergne, among the provincial
deputies who addressed the throne with congratulations or complaints.
The calends of January were now approaching, and the venal poet, who
had loved Avitus, and esteemed Majorian, was persuaded by his friends
to celebrate, in heroic verse, the merit, the felicity, the second
consulship, and the future triumphs, of the emperor Anthemius. Sidonius
pronounced, with assurance and success, a panegyric which is still
extant; and whatever might be the imperfections, either of the subject
or of the composition, the welcome flatterer was immediately rewarded
with the praefecture of Rome; a dignity which placed him among the
illustrious personages of the empire, till he wisely preferred the more
respectable character of a bishop and a saint.

The Greeks ambitiously commend the piety and catholic faith of the
emperor whom they gave to the West; nor do they forget to observe, that
when he left Constantinople, he converted his palace into the pious
foundation of a public bath, a church, and a hospital for old men. Yet
some suspicious appearances are found to sully the theological fame of
Anthemius. From the conversation of Philotheus, a Macedonian sectary, he
had imbibed the spirit of religious toleration; and the Heretics of Rome
would have assembled with impunity, if the bold and vehement censure
which Pope Hilary pronounced in the church of St. Peter, had not obliged
him to abjure the unpopular indulgence. Even the Pagans, a feeble and
obscure remnant, conceived some vain ho