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Chap, xxxvi] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 45 convicted of treason, unless he had actually conspired to assume the purple. As the paper was read, he repeatedly, and with a loud voice, acknowledged it for his genuine com- position ; and his astonishment was equal to his dismay, when the unanimous voice of the senate declared him guilty of a capital offence. By their decree, he was degraded from the rank of a praefect to the obscure condition of a plebeian, and ignominiously dragged by servile hands to the public prison. After a fortnight's adjournment, the senate was again convened to pronounce the sentence of his death ; but, while he expected, in the island of iEsculapius, the expiration of the thirty days allowed by an ancient law to the vilest malefactors, 109 his friends interposed, the emperor Anthemius relented, and the prsefect of Gaul obtained the milder punishment of exile and confiscation. The faults of Arvandus might deserve com- passion ; but the impunity of Seronatus accused the justice of the republic, till he was condemned, and executed, on the complaint of the people of Auvergne. That flagitious minister, the Catiline of his age and country, held a secret correspondence with the Visigoths, to betray the province which he oppressed ; his industry was continually exercised in the discovery of new taxes and obsolete offences ; and his extravagant vices would have inspired contempt, if they had not excited fear and abhorrence. 110 Such criminals were not beyond the reach of justice ; but Discord of . ' . . , i> i t-> i Anthem- whatever might be the guilt of Ricimer, that powerful ±5arba-iusand to " . , f, Ricimer. nan was able to contend or to negotiate with the prince whose a.d. hi alliance he had condescended to accept. The peaceful and prosperous reign which Anthemius had promised to the West was soon clouded by misfortune and discord. Eicimer, appre- hensive, or impatient, of a superior, retired from Eome, and fixed his residence at Milan, an advantageous situation either to invite or to repel the warlike tribes that were seated between the Alps and the Danube. 111 Italy was gradually divided into 109 Senatusconsultum Tiberianum (Sirroond, Not. p. 17), but that law allowed only ten days between the sentence and execution : the remaining twenty were added in the reign of Theodosius. 110 Catilina seculi nostri. Sidonius, 1. ii. epist. 1, p. 33; 1. v. epist. 13, p. 143 ; 1. vii. epist. 7, p. 185. He execrates the crimes, and applauds the punish- ment, of Seronatus, perhaps with the indignation of a virtuous citizen, perhaps with the resentment of a personal enemy. 111 Eicimer, under the reign of Anthemius, defeated and slew in battle Beorgor, king of the Alani (Jornandes, c. 45, p. 678). His sister had married the king of