92

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

XIX.

siers. Their streaming banners of silk, emboss-ed with gold, and shaped in the form of dra-gons, waved round the person of the emperor.Constantius sat alone in a lofty car, resplendentwith gold and precious gems; and, except whenhe bowed his head to pass under the gates ofthe cities, he affected a stately demeanour ofinflexible, and, as it might seem, of insensiblegravity. The severe discipline of the Persianyouth had been introduced by the eunuchs intothe imperial palace; and such were the habitsof patience which they had inculcated, that,during a slow and sultry march, he was neverseen to move his hand towards his face, or toturn his eyes either to the right or to the left.He was received by the magistrates and senateof Rome; and the emperor surveyed, with at-tention, the civil honours of the republic, andthe consular images of the noble families. Thestreets were lined with an innumerable multi-tude. Their repeated acclamations expressedtheir joy at beholding, after an absence of thirty-tivo years, the sacred person of their sovereign;and Constantius himself expressed, with somepleasautry, his affected surprise that the humanrace should thus suddenly be collected on thesame spot. The son of Constantine was lodg-ed in the ancient palace of Augustus ; he pre-sided in the senate, harangued the people fromthe tribunal which Cicero had so often ascend-ed, assisted with unusual courtesy at the gamesof the circus, and accepted the crowns of gold,as well as the panegyrics, which had been pre-pared for the ceremony by the deputies of the