altar of the Moon at
Carrhae, had privately invested Procopius with the Imperial purple.
He endeavored, by his dutiful and submissive behavior, to disarm the
jealousy of Jovian; resigned, without a contest, his military command;
and retired, with his wife and family, to cultivate the ample patrimony
which he possessed in the province of Cappadocia. These useful and
innocent occupations were interrupted by the appearance of an officer
with a band of soldiers, who, in the name of his new sovereigns,
Valentinian and Valens, was despatched to conduct the unfortunate
Procopius either to a perpetual prison or an ignominious death. His
presence of mind procured him a longer respite, and a more splendid
fate. Without presuming to dispute the royal mandate, he requested the
indulgence of a few moments to embrace his weeping family; and while
the vigilance of his guards was relaxed by a plentiful entertainment,
he dexterously escaped to the sea-coast of the Euxine, from whence he
passed over to the country of Bosphorus. In that sequestered region he
remained many months, exposed to the hardships of exile, of solitude,
and of want; his melancholy temper brooding over his misfortunes, and
his mind agitated by the just apprehension, that, if any accident should
discover his name, the faithless Barbarians would violate, without much
scruple, the laws of hospitality. In a moment of impatience and
despair, Procopius embarked in a merchant vessel, which made sail for
Constantinople; and boldly aspired to the rank of a sovereign, because
he was not allowed to enjoy the security of a subject. At first he
lurked in the villages of Bithynia, continually changing his habitation
and his disguise. By degrees he ventured into the capital, trusted his
life and fortune to the fidelity of two friends, a senator and a eunuch,
and conceived some hopes of success, from the intelligence which he
obtained of the actual state of public affairs. The body of the people
was infected with a spirit of discontent: they regretted the justice and
the abilities of Sallust, who had been imprudently dismissed from the
praefecture of the East. They despised the character of Valens, which
was rude without vigor, and feeble without mildness. They dreaded the
influence of his father-in-law, the patrician Petronius, a cruel and
rapacious minister, who rigorously exacted all the arrears of tribute
that might remain unpaid since the reign of the emperor Aurelian. The
cir