r, without seeing the face of a woman, and
without tasting any food that had been prepared by fire, or any human
art. Five days of the week he spent in prayer and meditation; but on
Saturdays and Sundays he regularly opened a small window, and gave
audience to the crowd of suppliants who successively flowed from every
part of the Christian world. The eunuch of Theodosius approached the
window with respectful steps, proposed his questions concerning the
event of the civil war, and soon returned with a favorable oracle, which
animated the courage of the emperor by the assurance of a bloody, but
infallible victory. [114] The accomplishment of the prediction was
forwarded by all the means that human prudence could supply. The
industry of the two master-generals, Stilicho and Timasius, was directed
to recruit the numbers, and to revive the discipline of the Roman
legions. The formidable troops of Barbarians marched under the ensigns
of their national chieftains. The Iberian, the Arab, and the Goth,
who gazed on each other with mutual astonishment, were enlisted in the
service of the same prince; [1141] and the renowned Alaric acquired,
in the school of Theodosius, the knowledge of the art of war, which he
afterwards so fatally exerted for the destruction of Rome. [115]

[Footnote 109: Quem sibi Germanus famulam delegerat exul, is the
contemptuous expression of Claudian, (iv. Cons. Hon. 74.) Eugenius
professed Christianity; but his secret attachment to Paganism (Sozomen,
l. vii. c. 22, Philostorg. l. xi. c. 2) is probable in a grammarian, and
would secure the friendship of Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 276, 277.)]

[Footnote 110: Zosimus (l. iv. p. 278) mentions this embassy; but he is
diverted by another story from relating the event.]

[Footnote 111: Zosim. l. iv. p. 277. He afterwards says (p. 280) that
Galla died in childbed; and intimates, that the affliction of her
husband was extreme but short.]

[Footnote 112: Lycopolis is the modern Siut, or Osiot, a town of Said,
about the size of St. Denys, which drives a profitable trade with the
kingdom of Senaar, and has a very convenient fountain, "cujus potu signa
virgini tatis eripiuntur." See D'Anville, Description de l'Egypte, p.
181 Abulfeda, Descript. Egypt. p. 14, and the curious Annotations, p.
25, 92, of his editor Michaelis.]

[Footnote 113: The Life of John of Lycopolis is described by his two
friends, Rufinus (l. ii. c. i. p. 449) and Palladius, (Hist. Lausiac.
c. 43, p.