s wife had been sincere, her
chastity was still inviolate, and that it could never be restored if
she had consented to the will of the adulterer. A patriot would
have hesitated before he plunged himself and his country into those
inevitable calamities which must follow the extinction of the royal
house of Theodosius. The imprudent Maximus disregarded these salutary
considerations; he gratified his resentment and ambition; he saw the
bleeding corpse of Valentinian at his feet; and he heard himself saluted
Emperor by the unanimous voice of the senate and people. But the day of
his inauguration was the last day of his happiness. He was imprisoned
(such is the lively expression of Sidonius) in the palace; and after
passing a sleepless night, he sighed that he had attained the summit of
his wishes, and aspired only to descend from the dangerous elevation.
Oppressed by the weight of the diadem, he communicated his anxious
thoughts to his friend and quaestor Fulgentius; and when he looked back
with unavailing regret on the secure pleasures of his former life, the
emperor exclaimed, "O fortunate Damocles, [3] thy reign began and
ended with the same dinner;" a well-known allusion, which Fulgentius
afterwards repeated as an instructive lesson for princes and subjects.

[Footnote 1: Sidonius Apollinaris composed the thirteenth epistle of
the second book, to refute the paradox of his friend Serranus, who
entertained a singular, though generous, enthusiasm for the deceased
emperor. This epistle, with some indulgence, may claim the praise of
an elegant composition; and it throws much light on the character of
Maximus.]

[Footnote 2: Clientum, praevia, pedisequa, circumfusa, populositas, is
the train which Sidonius himself (l. i. epist. 9) assigns to another
senator of rank]

[Footnote 3:

Districtus ensis cui super impia
Cervice pendet, non Siculoe dapes
Dulcem elaborabunt saporem:
Non avium citharaeque cantus
Somnum reducent.
--Horat. Carm. iii. 1.

Sidonius concludes his letter with the story of Damocles, which Cicero
(Tusculan. v. 20, 21) had so inimitably told.]

The reign of Maximus continued about three months. His hours, of which
he had lost the command, were disturbed by remorse, or guilt, or terror,
and his throne was shaken by the seditions of the soldiers, the people,
and the confederate Barbarians. The marriage of his son Paladius with
the eldest daughter of the late emperor, might