168

' THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

XIX.

Power ofIhe eu-nuchs.

CHAP. XIX.

Constantius sole emperor—Elevation and deathof Gallus—Danger and elevation of Julian —-Sarmatian and Persian wars—Victories ofJulian in Gaul.

The divided provinces of the empire wereagain united by the victory of Constantius : butas that feeble prince was destitute of personalmerit, either in peace or war; as he feared hisgenerals, and distrusted his ministers; the tri-umph of his arms served only to establish thereign of the eunuchs over the Roman world.Those unhappy beings, the ancient productionof oriental jealousy and despotism,’ were intro-duced into Greece and Rome by the contagionof Asiatic luxury. b Their progress was rapid ;and the eunuchs, who, in the time of Augustus ,had been abhorred, as the monstrous retinue ofan Egyptian queen,' w'ere gradually admitted

* Ammianus (1. xiv, c. 6) imputes the first practice of castration tothe cruel ingenuity of Seiniramis, who is supposed to have reignedabove nineteen hundred years before Christ. The use of Eunuchs isof high antiquity, both in Asia and Egypt . They are mentioned in thelaw of Moses , Dcuteron. xxiii. 1. See Goguet, Origines des I.oix, &c.Part i, 1. i, c. 3.

b Eunnchum dixti velle te;

Quia sol® utuntur his veginse-

Terent. Eunuch, act i, scene 2.

This play is translated from Menander , and the original must haveappeared soon after the eastern conquests of Alexander.c Miles . . spadonibusServire rugosis potest.

Horat. Carm. v. 9, and Dacicr ad loc.

By