governor was urged to the necessity
of turning against his breast the sword with which he had been provoked
to wound the Imperial minister. The most innocent subjects of the West
were exposed to exile and confiscation, to death and torture; and as
the timid are always cruel, the mind of Constantius was inaccessible to
mercy.

Chapter XIX: Constantius Sole Emperor.--Part I.

Constantius Sole Emperor.--Elevation And Death Of Gallus.--
Danger And Elevation Of Julian.--Sarmatian And Persian
Wars.--Victories Of Julian In Gaul.

The divided provinces of the empire were again united by the victory of
Constantius; but as that feeble prince was destitute of personal merit,
either in peace or war; as he feared his generals, and distrusted his
ministers; the triumph of his arms served only to establish the reign
of the eunuchs over the Roman world. Those unhappy beings, the ancient
production of Oriental jealousy and despotism, were introduced into
Greece and Rome by the contagion of Asiatic luxury. Their progress was
rapid; and the eunuchs, who, in the time of Augustus, had been abhorred,
as the monstrous retinue of an Egyptian queen, were gradually admitted
into the families of matrons, of senators, and of the emperors
themselves. Restrained by the severe edicts of Domitian and Nerva,
cherished by the pride of Diocletian, reduced to an humble station
by the prudence of Constantine, they multiplied in the palaces of his
degenerate sons, and insensibly acquired the knowledge, and at length
the direction, of the secret councils of Constantius. The aversion and
contempt which mankind had so uniformly entertained for that imperfect
species, appears to have degraded their character, and to have rendered
them almost as incapable as they were supposed to be, of conceiving any
generous sentiment, or of performing any worthy action. But the eunuchs
were skilled in the arts of flattery and intrigue; and they alternately
governed the mind of Constantius by his fears, his indolence, and his
vanity. Whilst he viewed in a deceitful mirror the fair appearance
of public prosperity, he supinely permitted them to intercept the
complaints of the injured provinces, to accumulate immense treasures
by the sale of justice and of honors; to disgrace the most important
dignities, by the promotion of those who had purchased at their hands
the powers of oppression, and to gratify their resentment against
the few independent spirits, w