o holy men--the presbyter
Severus and the deacon John, who had been favorites of Eudocia in
Constantinople and had followed her to Jerusalem--executed by the order
of Saturninus, her chamberlain. This cruel deed, however, did not remain
unavenged, for Eudocia did not interfere when Saturninus, in a monkish
riot, or at the hands of hired murderers, lost his life. Theodosius
punished her for this with undue severity, by removing all the officers
who attended her and reducing her to private station.

The remainder of the life of Eudocia, sixteen long years, was spent in
retirement and in holy exercises. Troubles heaped themselves upon her.
Her only daughter, whose future at her marriage with Valentinian had
looked so promising, also lost her royal station and was led a captive
from Rome to Carthage. She had to endure all the insults which could
fall to one who from supreme power had been reduced to private station.
But in the consolation of religion and in self-sacrificing devotion to
others more unfortunate, Eudocia found solace in her grief. Finally, in
the sixty-seventh year of her age, after experiencing all the
vicissitudes of human life, the philosopher's daughter expired at
Jerusalem, protesting with her dying breath her faithfulness to her
marriage vows and expressing forgiveness of all those who had injured
her.

In Constantinople, Eudocia's fall and exile had brought Pulcheria and
the orthodox party again to the front. The poetry-loving Cyrus, the head
of the Greek party, was deprived of his office and compelled to take
orders; and there was a return to the austerity which had characterized
the earlier years of Pulcheria's supremacy. Pulcheria and orthodoxy from
this time on controlled the court life and dominated the Empire.
Finally, in 450, Theodosius was fatally wounded while hunting, and upon
his demise Pulcheria was unanimously proclaimed Empress of the East. Her
first official act was one of popular justice as well as private
revenge--the execution of the crafty and rapacious eunuch, Chrysaphius.
In obedience to the murmur of the people, who objected to a woman being
sole ruler of the Empire, she selected an imperial consort in Marcian,
an aged senator who would respect the virginal vows and superior rank of
his wife. He was solemnly invested with the imperial purple, and proved
in every way equal to the demands of his exalted station.

Three years later, Pulcheria passed away. Because of her austerity of