vorite, were converted into the clamors of the soldiers and people,
who reproached his crimes, and pressed his immediate execution. In this
hour of distress and despair, his only refuge was in the sanctuary of
the church, whose privileges he had wisely or profanely attempted to
circumscribe; and the most eloquent of the saints, John Chrysostom,
enjoyed the triumph of protecting a prostrate minister, whose choice
had raised him to the ecclesiastical throne of Constantinople. The
archbishop, ascending the pulpit of the cathedral, that he might be
distinctly seen and heard by an innumerable crowd of either sex and
of every age, pronounced a seasonable and pathetic discourse on the
forgiveness of injuries, and the instability of human greatness. The
agonies of the pale and affrighted wretch, who lay grovelling under the
table of the altar, exhibited a solemn and instructive spectacle; and
the orator, who was afterwards accused of insulting the misfortunes of
Eutropius, labored to excite the contempt, that he might assuage the
fury, of the people. [29] The powers of humanity, of superstition, and
of eloquence, prevailed. The empress Eudoxia was restrained by her own
prejudices, or by those of her subjects, from violating the sanctuary of
the church; and Eutropius was tempted to capitulate, by the milder arts
of persuasion, and by an oath, that his life should be spared. [30]
Careless of the dignity of their sovereign, the new ministers of the
palace immediately published an edict to declare, that his late favorite
had disgraced the names of consul and patrician, to abolish his statues,
to confiscate his wealth, and to inflict a perpetual exile in the Island
of Cyprus. [31] A despicable and decrepit eunuch could no longer alarm
the fears of his enemies; nor was he capable of enjoying what yet
remained, the comforts of peace, of solitude, and of a happy climate.
But their implacable revenge still envied him the last moments of
a miserable life, and Eutropius had no sooner touched the shores of
Cyprus, than he was hastily recalled. The vain hope of eluding, by
a change of place, the obligation of an oath, engaged the empress to
transfer the scene of his trial and execution from Constantinople to
the adjacent suburb of Chalcedon. The consul Aurelian pronounced the
sentence; and the motives of that sentence expose the jurisprudence of
a despotic government. The crimes which Eutropius had committed against
the people might have just