e character of Valens, which was rude without vigor,
and feeble without mildness. They dreaded the influence of his
father-in-law, the patrician Petronius, a cruel and rapacious minister,
who rigorously exacted all the arrears of tribute that might remain
unpaid since the reign of the emperor Aurelian. The circumstances were
propitious to the designs of a usurper. The hostile measures of the
Persians required the presence of Valens in Syria: from the Danube
to the Euphrates the troops were in motion; and the capital was
occasionally filled with the soldiers who passed or repassed the
Thracian Bosphorus. Two cohorts of Gaul were persuaded to listen to
the secret proposals of the conspirators; which were recommended by the
promise of a liberal donative; and, as they still revered the memory
of Julian, they easily consented to support the hereditary claim of his
proscribed kinsman. At the dawn of day they were drawn up near the baths
of Anastasia; and Procopius, clothed in a purple garment, more suitable
to a player than to a monarch, appeared, as if he rose from the dead,
in the midst of Constantinople. The soldiers, who were prepared for his
reception, saluted their trembling prince with shouts of joy and vows
of fidelity. Their numbers were soon increased by a band of sturdy
peasants, collected from the adjacent country; and Procopius, shielded
by the arms of his adherents, was successively conducted to the
tribunal, the senate, and the palace. During the first moments of his
tumultuous reign, he was astonished and terrified by the gloomy silence
of the people; who were either ignorant of the cause, or apprehensive
of the event. But his military strength was superior to any actual
resistance: the malecontents flocked to the standard of rebellion; the
poor were excited by the hopes, and the rich were intimidated by the
fear, of a general pillage; and the obstinate credulity of the multitude
was once more deceived by the promised advantages of a revolution. The
magistrates were seized; the prisons and arsenals broke open; the gates,
and the entrance of the harbor, were diligently occupied; and, in a few
hours, Procopius became the absolute, though precarious, master of the
Imperial city. [36a] The usurper improved this unexpected success with
some degree of courage and dexterity. He artfully propagated the rumors
and opinions the most favorable to his interest; while he deluded the
populace by giving audience to the frequen