s
this form of trial might be deemed partial and arbitrary, the further
inquiry into the crimes of Timasius was delegated to Saturninus and
Procopius; the former of consular rank, the latter still respected as
the father-in-law of the emperor Valens. The appearances of a fair and
legal proceeding were maintained by the blunt honesty of Procopius; and
he yielded with reluctance to the obsequious dexterity of his colleague,
who pronounced a sentence of condemnation against the unfortunate
Timasius. His immense riches were confiscated in the name of the
emperor, and for the benefit of the favorite; and he was doomed to
perpetual exile a Oasis, a solitary spot in the midst of the
sandy deserts of Libya. [14] Secluded from all human converse, the
master-general of the Roman armies was lost forever to the world;
but the circumstances of his fate have been related in a various and
contradictory manner. It is insinuated that Eutropius despatched a
private order for his secret execution. [15] It was reported, that, in
attempting to escape from Oasis, he perished in the desert, of thirst
and hunger; and that his dead body was found on the sands of Libya. [16]
It has been asserted, with more confidence, that his son Syagrius, after
successfully eluding the pursuit of the agents and emissaries of the
court, collected a band of African robbers; that he rescued Timasius
from the place of his exile; and that both the father and the son
disappeared from the knowledge of mankind. [17] But the ungrateful
Bargus, instead of being suffered to possess the reward of guilt was
soon after circumvented and destroyed, by the more powerful villany of
the minister himself, who retained sense and spirit enough to abhor the
instrument of his own crimes.

[Footnote 10: Drunk with riches, is the forcible expression of Zosimus,
(l. v. p. 301;) and the avarice of Eutropius is equally execrated in the
Lexicon of Suidas and the Chronicle of Marcellinus Chrysostom had often
admonished the favorite of the vanity and danger of immoderate wealth,
tom. iii. p. 381. -certantum saepe duorum Diversum suspendit onus: cum
pondere judex Vergit, et in geminas nutat provincia lances. Claudian (i.
192-209) so curiously distinguishes the circumstances of the sale, that
they all seem to allude to particular anecdotes.]

[Footnote 12: Claudian (i. 154-170) mentions the guilt and exile of
Abundantius; nor could he fail to quote the example of the artist, who
made the fir