ficulties, while that abandoned profligate persisted with unyielding
obstinacy in maintaining the truth of his assertions, while the severest
tortures were unable to wring any confession from the prisoners, and
when every circumstance proved that those eminent men were free from all
consciousness of anything of the kind, still the false accuser was
treated with the same respect as he had previously received. But though
the prisoners were sentenced to exile and a heavy fine, a short time
afterwards they were recalled from banishment, restored to their former
rank and dignity, and their fine repaid.

12. Still after all these shameful transactions, the prince did not
proceed with any more moderation or decency than before; never
considering that in a wise government it is well not to be too keen in
hunting out offences, even as a means of inflicting distress upon one's
enemies; and that nothing is so unbecoming as to display a bitterness of
disposition in connection with supreme authority.

13. But when Heliodorus died, whether of sickness or through some
deliberate violence is uncertain (I should not like to say, and I wish
that the facts themselves were equally silent), many men of rank in
mourning robes, among whom were these two brothers of consular rank, by
the express command of the emperor, attended his funeral when he was
borne to his grave by the undertakers.

14. At that time, and in that place, the whole vileness and stupidity of
the ruler of the empire was publicly displayed. When he was entreated to
abstain from abandoning himself to inconsolable grief, he remained
obstinately inflexible, as if he had stopped his ears with wax to pass
the rocks of the Sirens.

15. But at last, being overcome by the pertinacious entreaties of his
court, he ordered some persons to go on foot, bareheaded, and with their
hands folded, to the burial-place of this wretched gladiator to do him
honour. One shudders now to recollect the decree by which so many men of
high rank were humiliated, especially some of consular dignity, after
all their truncheons and robes of honour, and all the worldly parade of
having their names recorded in the annals of their nation.

16. Among them all, our friend Hypatius was most conspicuous,
recommended as he was to every one by the beauty of the virtues which he
had practised from his youth; being a man of quiet and gentle wisdom,
preserving an undeviating honesty combined with the greatest cour