to the incapacity of the monarch. At length, in the
thirty-first year of his age, after a reign (if we may abuse that word)
of thirteen years, three months, and fifteen days, Arcadius expired
in the palace of Constantinople. It is impossible to delineate his
character; since, in a period very copiously furnished with historical
materials, it has not been possible to remark one action that properly
belongs to the son of the great Theodosius.

[Footnote 59: Zosimus, l. v. p. 315. The chastity of an empress should
not be impeached without producing a witness; but it is astonishing,
that the witness should write and live under a prince whose legitimacy
he dared to attack. We must suppose that his history was a party libel,
privately read and circulated by the Pagans. Tillemont (Hist. des
Empereurs, tom. v. p. 782) is not averse to brand the reputation of
Eudoxia.]

[Footnote 60: Porphyry of Gaza. His zeal was transported by the order
which he had obtained for the destruction of eight Pagan temples of
that city. See the curious details of his life, (Baronius, A.D. 401, No.
17-51,) originally written in Greek, or perhaps in Syriac, by a monk,
one of his favorite deacons.]

[Footnote 61: Philostorg. l. xi. c. 8, and Godefroy, Dissertat. p. 457.]

[Footnote 62: Jerom (tom. vi. p. 73, 76) describes, in lively colors,
the regular and destructive march of the locusts, which spread a dark
cloud, between heaven and earth, over the land of Palestine. Seasonable
winds scattered them, partly into the Dead Sea, and partly into the
Mediterranean.]

The historian Procopius [63] has indeed illuminated the mind of the
dying emperor with a ray of human prudence, or celestial wisdom.
Arcadius considered, with anxious foresight, the helpless condition
of his son Theodosius, who was no more than seven years of age, the
dangerous factions of a minority, and the aspiring spirit of Jezdegerd,
the Persian monarch. Instead of tempting the allegiance of an ambitious
subject, by the participation of supreme power, he boldly appealed
to the magnanimity of a king; and placed, by a solemn testament,
the sceptre of the East in the hands of Jezdegerd himself. The royal
guardian accepted and discharged this honorable trust with unexampled
fidelity; and the infancy of Theodosius was protected by the arms and
councils of Persia. Such is the singular narrative of Procopius; and his
veracity is not disputed by Agathias, [64] while he presumes to dissent