OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

391

frequently restored by the violence of the peo-ple, than by the permission of the prince; andthe power of Macedonius could be secured onlyby the death of his rival. The unfortunate Paulwas dragged in chains from the sandy desertsof Mesopotamia to the most desolate places ofmount Taurus,” confined in a dark and narrowdungeon, left six days without food, and atlength strangled, by the order of Philip, one ofthe principal ministers of the emperor Constanttins. 1 " The first blood which stained the newcapital was spilt in this ecclesiastical contest;and many persons were slain on both sides, inthe furious and obstinate seditions of the peo-ple. The commission of enforcing a sentenceof banishment against Paul, had been entrustedto Hermogenes, the master-general of the ca-valry ; but the execution of it, was fatal to him-self. The catholics rose in the defence of theirbishop; the palace of Hermogenes was con-sumed ; the first military officer of the empirewas dragged by the heels through the streetsof Constantinople , and, after he expired, his

m Cticusus was the last stage of his life aud sufferings, The situa-tion of that lonely town, on Ihe confines of Cappadocia, Cilicia and theLesser Armenia, has occasioned some geographical perplexity; butwe are directed to the true spot by the course of the Roman road fromCaesarea to Auazarbus. See Cellarii. Geograph, tom. ii, p. 213. Wes-seling ad Itinerar p, 179-703.

n Athanasius (tom- i , p. 703-813, 81-1), affirms, in the most posi-tive terms, that Pan! was murdered; and appeals not only to commonfame, but even to the unsuspicious testimony of Philagrius , one of thearian persecutors. Yet he acknowledges, that the heretics attributedto disease the death of the bishop of Constantinople. Athanasius isservilely copied by Socrates (1. ii, c. 26); but Sczomen, who disco*vers a more liberal temper, presumes (l. iv, c. 2) to insinuate a prudentdoubt.

CHAP

XXI.