ince, and of the delays
of justice. His complaints were soon removed. An early day was fixed for
his trial; and Arvandus appeared, with his accusers, before a numerous
assembly of the Roman senate. The mournful garb which they affected,
excited the compassion of the judges, who were scandalized by the gay
and splendid dress of their adversary: and when the praefect Arvandus,
with the first of the Gallic deputies, were directed to take their
places on the senatorial benches, the same contrast of pride and modesty
was observed in their behavior. In this memorable judgment, which
presented a lively image of the old republic, the Gauls exposed, with
force and freedom, the grievances of the province; and as soon as the
minds of the audience were sufficiently inflamed, they recited the
fatal epistle. The obstinacy of Arvandus was founded on the strange
supposition, that a subject could not be convicted of treason, unless he
had actually conspired to assume the purple. As the paper was read,
he repeatedly, and with a loud voice, acknowledged it for his genuine
composition; and his astonishment was equal to his dismay, when the
unanimous voice of the senate declared him guilty of a capital offence.
By their decree, he was degraded from the rank of a praefect to the
obscure condition of a plebeian, and ignominiously dragged by servile
hands to the public prison. After a fortnight's adjournment, the senate
was again convened to pronounce the sentence of his death; but while he
expected, in the Island of AEsculapius, the expiration of the thirty
days allowed by an ancient law to the vilest malefactors, his friends
interposed, the emperor Anthemius relented, and the praefect of Gaul
obtained the milder punishment of exile and confiscation. The faults of
Arvandus might deserve compassion; but the impunity of Seronatus accused
the justice of the republic, till he was condemned and executed, on
the complaint of the people of Auvergne. That flagitious minister, the
Catiline of his age and country, held a secret correspondence with the
Visigoths, to betray the province which he oppressed: his industry
was continually exercised in the discovery of new taxes and obsolete
offences; and his extravagant vices would have inspired contempt, if
they had not excited fear and abhorrence.

Such criminals were not beyond the reach of justice; but whatever might
be the guilt of Ricimer, that powerful Barbarian was able to contend
or to negotiate wit