THE DECLINE AND FALL

384

CHAP.

XXI.

exile, Athanasius repeated his visits to his fairand faithful companion; and the formal decla-ration, that he saiv the councils of Rimini andSeleucia,' forces us to believe that he was se-cretly present at the time and place of theirconvocation. The advantage of personally ne-gociating with his friends, and of observing andimproving the divisions of his enemies, mightjustify, in a prudent statesman, so bold anddangerous an enterprise; and Alexandria wasconnected by trade and navigation with everyseaport of the Mediterranean. From the depthof his inaccessible retreat, the intrepid primatewaged an incessant and offensive war againstthe protector of the arians ; and his seasonablewritings, which were diligently circulated andeagerly perused, contributed to unite and ani-mate the orthodox party. In his public apo-logies, which he addressed to the emperor him-self, he sometimes affected the praise of mode-ration ; whilst at the same time, in secret andvehement invectives, he exposed Constantius asa weak and wicked prince, the executioner ofhis family, the tyrant of the republic, and theantichrist of the church. In the height of hisprosperity, the victorious monarch, who hadchastised the rashness of Gallus, and suppres-sed the revolt of Sylvanus, who had taken thediadem from the head of Vetranio, and van-

mont, &c. who almost reject a story so unworthy, as they deem it, ofthe gravity ef ecclesiastical history.

* Athanas. tom. i, p. 869. I agree with Tillemont (tom. viii, p. 1197)that bis expressions imply a personal, though perhaps secret, visit tothe synods.