314 
she moved without noise or ostentation the wheel of govern¬ 
ment, she discreetly attributed to the genius of the emperor, 
the long tranquillity of his reign. In the last years of his 
peaceful life, Europe was indeed afflicted by the arms of 
Attila; but the more extensive provinces of Asia still con¬ 
tinued to enjoy a profound and permanent repose. 
The Roman world was deeply interested in the education 
of its master. A regular course of study and exercise w'as ju¬ 
diciously instituted; to the military exercises of riding, and 
shooting with the bow; to the liberal studies of grammar, 
rhetoric, and philosophy,: the most skilful masters of the East 
ambitiously solicited the attention of their royal pupil; and 
several noble youths were introduced into the palace, to ani¬ 
mate his diligence by the emulation of friendship. Pulcheria 
alone discharged the important task of instructing her 
brother in the arts of government; but her precepts may 
countenance some suspicion of the extent of her capacity, or 
of the purity of her intentions. She taught him to maintain 
a grave and majestic deportment; to walk, to hold his 
robes, to seat himself on his throne, in a manner worthy of a 
great prince; to abstain from laughter; to listen with con¬ 
descension ; to return suitable answers ; to assume, by turns, 
a serious or a placid countenance; in a word, to represent 
with grace and dignity the external figure of a Roman 
emperor. But Theodosius was never excited to support the 
weight and glory of an illustrious name; and instead of 
aspiring to imitate his ancestors, he degenerated below the 
weakness of his father and his uncle. 
The marriage of Theodosius with the Greek maiden Eu- 
docia (see Eudocia), raised a formidable rival to the power 
of Pulcheria; but the victory was at last decided, by the 
superior ascendant of the sister of Theodosius. The execu¬ 
tion of Paulinus, master of the offices, and the disgrace of 
Cyrus, Praetorian praefect of the East, convinced the public, 
that the favour of Eudocia was insufficient to protect her 
most faithful friends ; and the uncommon beauty of Pauli¬ 
nus encouraged the secret rumour, that his guilt was that of 
a successful lover. Soon the empress perceived that the 
affection of Theodosius was irretrievably lost, and she was 
ignominiously stript of the honours of her rank. 
The feeble mind of Theodosius was never inflamed by the 
ambition of conquest or military renown ; and the slight 
alarm of a Persian war scarcely interrupted the tranquillity of 
the East. The motives of this war were just and honourable. 
In the last year of the reign of Jezdegerd, the supposed guar¬ 
dian of Theodosius, a bishop, who aspired to the crown of 
martyrdom, destroyed one of the fire-temples of Susa. His 
zeal and obstinacy -were revenged on his brethren ; the Magi 
excited a cruel persecution ; and the intolerant zeal of Jezde¬ 
gerd w'as imitated by his son Vararanes,' or Bahram, who 
soon afterwards ascended the throne. Some Christian fugi¬ 
tives, who escaped to the Roman frontier, were sternly de¬ 
manded and generously refused ; and the refusal, aggravated 
by commercial disputes, soon kindled a war between the 
rival monarchies. Some engagements were fought, some 
towns were besieged, with various and doubtful success. 
In their accounts, the historians of the age narrate extra¬ 
ordinary, and, perhaps, fabulous tales of the proud challenge 
of a Persian hero, who was entangled by the net, and dis¬ 
patched by the sword of Areobindus, the Goth; of ten 
thousand Immortals, who were slain in the attack of the 
Roman camp; and of the hundred thousand Arabs, or 
Saracens, who were impelled by a panic terror to throw 
themselves headlong into the Euphrates. Such events may 
be disbelieved, or disregarded ; but the charity of a bishop, 
Acaciusof Amida, whose name might have dignified the 
saintly calendar, must not be lost in oblivion. Boldly de¬ 
claring that vases of gold and silver are useless to a God who 
neither eats nor drinks, the generous prelate sold the plate of 
the church of Amida ; employed the price in the redemption 
of seven thousand Persian captives; supplied their wants 
with affectionate liberality; and dismissed them to their 
native country, to inform the king of the true spirit of the 
religion which he persecuted. The practice of benevolence 
The Eastern Empire; 
in the midst of war, must always tend to assuage the animo¬ 
sity of contending nations. , Soon after a truce of one hun¬ 
dred years was solemnly ratified; the essential conditions 
whereof were respected near fourscore years by the successors 
of Constantine and Artaxerxes. 
Under the article Attiua, we have given an account of 
the character and exploits of that fierce barbarian. 
An alliance w'ith the Vandals induced him to invade the 
provinces of the East. The Illyrian frontier was covered by a 
line of castles and fortresses: but these slight obstacles were 
instantly swept away by the inundation ofthe Huns. They 
destroyed, with fire and sword, the populous cities of Sir. 
mium and Singidunum, of Ratiaria and Marcianapolis, of 
Naissus andSardica; where every circumstance, in the dis¬ 
cipline of the people, and the construction ofthe buildings, 
had been gradually adapted to the sole purpose of defence. 
The whole breadth of Europe, as it extends above five hun¬ 
dred miles from the Euxine to the Adriatic, was at once 
invaded, and occupied, and desolated, by the myriads of 
barbarians whom Attila led into the field. The public 
danger and distress could not, however, provoke Theodosius 
to interrupt his amusements and devotion, or to appear in 
person at the head of the Roman legions. But the troops, 
which had been sent against Genseric, were hastily recalled 
from Sicily ; the garrisons, on the side of Persia, were ex¬ 
hausted ; and a military force was collected in Europe, formid¬ 
able by their arms and numbers, if the generals had under¬ 
stood the science of command, and their soldiers the duty of 
obedience. The armies of the Eastern empire were van¬ 
quished in three successive engagements; and from the 
Hellespont to Thermopylae and the suburbs of Constantinople, 
Attila ravaged, without resistance and without mercy, the 
provinces of Thrace and Macedonia. Theodosius, his 
court, and his unwarlike people, were protected by the walls 
of Constantinople; but those walls had been shaken by 
a recent earthquake, and the fall of fifty-eight towers had 
opened a large and tremendous breach. Theodosius was 
reduced to solicit the clemency of Attila, who dictated the 
harsh and humiliating conditions of peace, that the emperor 
of the East should resign an extensive and important terri¬ 
tory, a province on the Danube, extending from Singidunum 
or Belgrade, as far as Novae, in the diocese of Thrace: and 
that Theodosius should increase the tribute orsubsidy oftheking 
of the Huns, from seven hundred pounds of gold to the annual 
sum of two thousand one hundred, and immediately pay six 
thousand pounds of gold to defray the expenses, or to ex¬ 
piate the guilt, ofthe war. One might imagine, that such a 
demand, which scarcely equalled the measure of private 
wealth, w'ould have been readily discharged by the opulent 
empire ofthe East; and the public distress affords a remarkable 
proof ofthe impoverished, or at least of the disorderly, state 
of the finances. A large proportion of the taxes, extorted 
from the people, was detained and intercepted in their pas¬ 
sage, through the foulest channels, to the treasury of Con¬ 
stantinople. The revenue w'as dissipated by Theodosius 
and his favourites, in wasteful and profuse luxury;' which 
was disguised by the names of Imperial magnificence, or 
Christian charity. The immediate supplies had been ex¬ 
hausted by the unforeseen necessity of military preparations. 
A personal contribution, rigorously, but capriciously, im¬ 
posed on the members of the senatorian order, was the only 
expedient that could disarm, without loss of time, the im¬ 
patient avarice of Attila: and the poverty of the nobles com¬ 
pelled them to adopt the painful resource of exposing to 
public auction the jewels of their wives, and the hereditary 
ornaments of their palaces. Lastly, the king of the Huns 
obtained that all the barbarians, who had deserted the stan¬ 
dard of Attila, should be restored, without any promise, or 
stipulation, of pardon. In the execution of this cruel and 
ignominious treaty, the Imperial officers were farced to 
massacre several loyal and noble deserters, who refused to 
devote themselves to certain death; and the Romans forfeited 
all reasonable claims to the friendship of any Scythian people, 
by this public confession, that they were destitute either of 
faith, 
The Eastern Empire. ROME. 
