tal of the East was restored
to the enjoyment of her ancient dignity and splendor. Theodosius
condescended to praise the senate of Constantinople, who had generously
interceded for their distressed brethren: he rewarded the eloquence of
Hilarius with the government of Palestine; and dismissed the bishop of
Antioch with the warmest expressions of his respect and gratitude. A
thousand new statues arose to the clemency of Theodosius; the applause
of his subjects was ratified by the approbation of his own heart; and
the emperor confessed, that, if the exercise of justice is the most
important duty, the indulgence of mercy is the most exquisite pleasure,
of a sovereign. [90]

[Footnote 84: The Christians and Pagans agreed in believing that the
sedition of Antioch was excited by the daemons. A gigantic woman (says
Sozomen, l. vii. c. 23) paraded the streets with a scourge in her hand.
An old man, says Libanius, (Orat. xii. p. 396,) transformed himself into
a youth, then a boy, &c.]

[Footnote 85: Zosimus, in his short and disingenuous account, (l. iv.
p. 258, 259,) is certainly mistaken in sending Libanius himself to
Constantinople. His own orations fix him at Antioch.]

[Footnote 86: Libanius (Orat. i. p. 6, edit. Venet.) declares, that
under such a reign the fear of a massacre was groundless and absurd,
especially in the emperor's absence, for his presence, according to the
eloquent slave, might have given a sanction to the most bloody acts.]

[Footnote 87: Laodicea, on the sea-coast, sixty-five miles from Antioch,
(see Noris Epoch. Syro-Maced. Dissert. iii. p. 230.) The Antiochians
were offended, that the dependent city of Seleucia should presume to
intercede for them.]

[Footnote 88: As the days of the tumult depend on the movable festival
of Easter, they can only be determined by the previous determination of
the year. The year 387 has been preferred, after a laborious inquiry,
by Tillemont (Hist. des. Emp. tom. v. p. 741-744) and Montfaucon,
(Chrysostom, tom. xiii. p. 105-110.)]

[Footnote 89: Chrysostom opposes their courage, which was not attended
with much risk, to the cowardly flight of the Cynics.]

[Footnote 90: The sedition of Antioch is represented in a lively, and
almost dramatic, manner by two orators, who had their respective shares
of interest and merit. See Libanius (Orat. xiv. xv. p. 389-420, edit.
Morel. Orat. i. p. 1-14, Venet. 1754) and the twenty orations of St.
John Chrysostom, de Statuis, (to