of a capital offence. By their decree, he was degraded from
the rank of a praefect to the obscure condition of a plebeian, and
ignominiously dragged by servile hands to the public prison. After a
fortnight's adjournment, the senate was again convened to pronounce
the sentence of his death; but while he expected, in the Island of
Aesculapius, the expiration of the thirty days allowed by an ancient
law to the vilest malefactors, [100] his friends interposed, the
emperor Anthemius relented, and the praefect of Gaul obtained the milder
punishment of exile and confiscation. The faults of Arvandus might
deserve compassion; but the impunity of Seronatus accused the justice
of the republic, till he was condemned and executed, on the complaint
of the people of Auvergne. That flagitious minister, the Catiline of
his age and country, held a secret correspondence with the Visigoths,
to betray the province which he oppressed: his industry was continually
exercised in the discovery of new taxes and obsolete offences; and his
extravagant vices would have inspired contempt, if they had not excited
fear and abhorrence. [101]

[Footnote 97: See Sidonius, l. i. epist. 7, p. 15-20, with Sirmond's
notes. This letter does honor to his heart, as well as to his
understanding. The prose of Sidonius, however vitiated by a false and
affected taste, is much superior to his insipid verses.]

[Footnote 98: When the Capitol ceased to be a temple, it was
appropriated to the use of the civil magistrate; and it is still the
residence of the Roman senator. The jewellers, &c., might be allowed to
expose then precious wares in the porticos.]

[Footnote 99: Haec ad regem Gothorum, charta videbatur emitti, pacem cum
Graeco Imperatore dissuadens, Britannos super Ligerim sitos impugnari
oportere, demonstrans, cum Burgundionibus jure gentium Gallias dividi
debere confirmans.]

[Footnote 100: Senatusconsultum Tiberianum, (Sirmond Not. p. 17;) but
that law allowed only ten days between the sentence and execution; the
remaining twenty were added in the reign of Theodosius.]

[Footnote 101: Catilina seculi nostri. Sidonius, l. ii. epist. 1, p.
33; l. v. epist 13, p. 143; l. vii. epist. vii. p. 185. He execrates
the crimes, and applauds the punishment, of Seronatus, perhaps with
the indignation of a virtuous citizen, perhaps with the resentment of a
personal enemy.]

Such criminals were not beyond the reach of justice; but whatever might
be the guilt of Ricim