110

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

XVIII.

admitted into the secrets of the palace, still lov-ed his virtues, and respected his dignity, a poetwho solicits his recal from exile, adores withequal devotion the majesty of the father andthat of the son. 9 The time was now arrived forcelebrating the august ceremony of the twen-tieth year of the reign of Constantine ; and theemperor, for that purpose, removed his courtfrom Nicomedia to Rome , where the most splen-did preparations had been made for his recep-tion. Every eye, and every tongue, affected toexpress their sense of the general happiness;and the veil of ceremony and dissimulation wasdrawn for a while over the darkest designs ofrevenge and murder/ In the midst of the fes-tival, the unfortunate Crispus was apprehendedby order of the emperor, who laid aside thetenderness of a father, without assuming theequity of a judge. The examination was shortand private;* and as it was thought decent toconceal the fate of the young prince from theeyes of the Roman people, he was sent under astrong guard to Pola, in Istria, where, soon

s His name was Porphyrins Optatianns. The date of his panegyric,written, according to the taste of the age, in vile acrostics, is settled byScaliger ad Enseb. p. 205. Tillemont, tom. iv, p. 607, and FabriciusBiblioth. Latin . 1. iv, c. 1.

’ Zosim. 1. ii. p. 103. Godefroy Chronol. Legum, p. 28.

• AxfiT«c, without a trial, is the strong, and most probably the just,expression of Suidas . The elder Victor, who wrote under the nextreign, speaks with becoming caution. “ Natu grandior incertum quicausk, paths judiqio occidisset.” If we consult the succeeding wri-ters, Entropies, the younger Victor, Orosius, Jerom, Zosimus , Pkilo-storgius, and Gregory of Tours ; their knowledge will appear graduallyto increase, as their means of information must have diminished ; a cir-enmstance which frequently occurs in historical disquisition.