other. The captives and the
spoils of Africa were laid at the feet of the emperor; but more sincere,
in the midst of prosperity, still affected to consult the laws of the
republic; and referred to the senate and people of Rome the judgment of
the most illustrious criminals. Their trial was public and solemn;
but the judges, in the exercise of this obsolete and precarious
jurisdiction, were impatient to punish the African magistrates, who had
intercepted the subsistence of the Roman people. The rich and guilty
province was oppressed by the Imperial ministers, who had a visible
interest to multiply the number of the accomplices of Gildo; and if an
edict of Honorius seems to check the malicious industry of informers, a
subsequent edict, at the distance of ten years, continues and renews the
prosecution of the which had been committed in the time of the general
rebellion. The adherents of the tyrant who escaped the first fury of the
soldiers, and the judges, might derive some consolation from the
tragic fate of his brother, who could never obtain his pardon for the
extraordinary services which he had performed. After he had finished an
important war in the space of a single winter, Mascezel was received at
the court of Milan with loud applause, affected gratitude, and secret
jealousy; and his death, which, perhaps, was the effect of passage of
a bridge, the Moorish prince, who accompanied the master-general of the
West, was suddenly thrown from his horse into the river; the officious
haste of the attendants was on the countenance of Stilicho; and while
they delayed the necessary assistance, the unfortunate Mascezel was
irrecoverably drowned.

The joy of the African triumph was happily connected with the nuptials
of the emperor Honorius, and of his cousin Maria, the daughter of
Stilicho: and this equal and honorable alliance seemed to invest the
powerful minister with the authority of a parent over his submissive
pupil. The muse of Claudian was not silent on this propitious day; he
sung, in various and lively strains, the happiness of the royal pair;
and the glory of the hero, who confirmed their union, and supported
their throne. The ancient fables of Greece, which had almost ceased to
be the object of religious faith, were saved from oblivion by the genius
of poetry. The picture of the Cyprian grove, the seat of harmony and
love; the triumphant progress of Venus over her native seas, and the
mild influence which her presen