ged his passions
without remorse, and without resistance; and his malignant and rapacious
spirit rejected every passion that might have contributed to his own
glory, or the happiness of the people. His avarice, [11] which seems
to have prevailed, in his corrupt mind, over every other sentiment,
attracted the wealth of the East, by the various arts of partial and
general extortion; oppressive taxes, scandalous bribery, immoderate
fines, unjust confiscations, forced or fictitious testaments, by
which the tyrant despoiled of their lawful inheritance the children of
strangers, or enemies; and the public sale of justice, as well as
of favor, which he instituted in the palace of Constantinople. The
ambitious candidate eagerly solicited, at the expense of the fairest
part of his patrimony, the honors and emoluments of some provincial
government; the lives and fortunes of the unhappy people were abandoned
to the most liberal purchaser; and the public discontent was sometimes
appeased by the sacrifice of an unpopular criminal, whose punishment
was profitable only to the praefect of the East, his accomplice and
his judge. If avarice were not the blindest of the human passions, the
motives of Rufinus might excite our curiosity; and we might be tempted
to inquire with what view he violated every principle of humanity and
justice, to accumulate those immense treasures, which he could not spend
without folly, nor possess without danger. Perhaps he vainly imagined,
that he labored for the interest of an only daughter, on whom he
intended to bestow his royal pupil, and the august rank of Empress of
the East. Perhaps he deceived himself by the opinion, that his avarice
was the instrument of his ambition. He aspired to place his fortune on
a secure and independent basis, which should no longer depend on the
caprice of the young emperor; yet he neglected to conciliate the hearts
of the soldiers and people, by the liberal distribution of those riches,
which he had acquired with so much toil, and with so much guilt. The
extreme parsimony of Rufinus left him only the reproach and envy of
ill-gotten wealth; his dependants served him without attachment; the
universal hatred of mankind was repressed only by the influence of
servile fear. The fate of Lucian proclaimed to the East, that the
praefect, whose industry was much abated in the despatch of ordinary
business, was active and indefatigable in the pursuit of revenge.
Lucian, the son of the p