cies, appears to have degraded their character, and to
have rendered them almost as incapable as they were supposed to be, of
conceiving any generous sentiment, or of performing any worthy action.
[7] But the eunuchs were skilled in the arts of flattery and intrigue;
and they alternately governed the mind of Constantius by his fears, his
indolence, and his vanity. [8] Whilst he viewed in a deceitful mirror
the fair appearance of public prosperity, he supinely permitted them to
intercept the complaints of the injured provinces, to accumulate immense
treasures by the sale of justice and of honors; to disgrace the most
important dignities, by the promotion of those who had purchased
at their hands the powers of oppression, [9] and to gratify their
resentment against the few independent spirits, who arrogantly
refused to solicit the protection of slaves. Of these slaves the most
distinguished was the chamberlain Eusebius, who ruled the monarch and
the palace with such absolute sway, that Constantius, according to
the sarcasm of an impartial historian, possessed some credit with
this haughty favorite. [10] By his artful suggestions, the emperor was
persuaded to subscribe the condemnation of the unfortunate Gallus, and
to add a new crime to the long list of unnatural murders which pollute
the honor of the house of Constantine.

[Footnote 1: Ammianus (l. xiv. c. 6) imputes the first practice of
castration to the cruel ingenuity of Semiramis, who is supposed to have
reigned above nineteen hundred years before Christ. The use of eunuchs
is of high antiquity, both in Asia and Egypt. They are mentioned in the
law of Moses, Deuteron. xxxiii. 1. See Goguet, Origines des Loix, &c.,
Part i. l. i. c. 3.]

[Footnote 2: Eunuchum dixti velle te; Quia solae utuntur his
reginae--Terent. Eunuch. act i. scene 2. This play is translated from
Meander, and the original must have appeared soon after the eastern
conquests of Alexander.]

[Footnote 3: Miles.... spadonibus Servire rugosis potest. Horat. Carm.
v. 9, and Dacier ad loe. By the word spado, the Romans very forcibly
expressed their abhorrence of this mutilated condition. The Greek
appellation of eunuchs, which insensibly prevailed, had a milder sound,
and a more ambiguous sense.]

[Footnote 4: We need only mention Posides, a freedman and eunuch of
Claudius, in whose favor the emperor prostituted some of the most
honorable rewards of military valor. See Sueton. in Claudio, c. 28.
Posi