Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/237

OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 217 advantages of territory, riches, populousness, and military strength, were fairly balanced and compensated in this final and permanent division of the Roman empire. The hereditary sceptre of the sons of Theodosius appeared to be the gift of nature, and of their father ; the generals and ministers had been accustomed to adore the majesty of the royal infants ; and the army and people were not admonished of their rights and of their power by the dangerous example of a recent election. The gradual discovery of the weakness of Arcadius and Honorius, and the repeated calamities of their reign, were not sufficient to obliterate the deep and early impressions of loyalty. The subjects of Rome, who still reverenced the persons or rather the names of their sovereigns, beheld, with equal abhorrence, the rebels who opposed, and the ministers who abused, the authority of the throne. Theodosius had tarnished the glory of his reign by the caiaracter elevation of Rufinus : an odious favourite, who, in an age of tration°of^'" civil and religious faction, has deserved, from every party, the a.d. sse-ass imputation of every crime. The strong impulse of ambition and avarice ^ had urged Rufinus to abandon his native country, an obscure corner of Gaul,'-^ to advance his fortune in the capital of the East ; the talent of bold and ready elocution ^ qualified him to succeed in the lucrative profession of the law ; and his success in that profession was a regular step to the most honourable and important employments of the state. He was raised, by just degrees, to the station of master of the offices. In the exercise of his various functions, so essentially connected with the whole system of civil government, he acquired the confidence of a monarch, who soon discovered his diligence and capacity in business, and who long remained ignorant of the pride, the malice, and the covetousness of his disposition. These vices were concealed beneath the mask of profound dissimulation ; ^ his passions were subservient only to the passions of his master ; yet, in the horrid massacre of Thes- 1 Alecto, envious of the public felicity, convenes an internal synod. Megaera recommends her pupil Rufinus, and excites him to deeds of mischief, &c. But there is as much difference between Claudian's fury and that of Virgil, as between the characters of Turnus and Rufinus. 2 It is evident (Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. tom. v. p. 770), though de Marca is ashamed of his countryman, that Rufinus was born at Elusa, the metropolis of Novempopulania, now a small village of Gascony (d'Anville, Notice de I'Ancienne Gaule, p. 219). 3 Philostorgius, 1. xi. c. 3, with Godefroy's Dissert, p. 440. 4 A passage of Suidas is expressive of his profound dissimulation : paQvyvuiiuv avdpwiTo<: Koi Kpvij/ivov:. [F. H, G. iv. p. 42.]