e acclamations of the capital and the
provinces. Athenais, who was easily persuaded to renounce the errors of
Paganism, received at her baptism the Christian name of Eudocia; but
the cautious Pulcheria withheld the title of Augusta, till the wife of
Theodosius had approved her fruitfulness by the birth of a daughter,
who espoused, fifteen years afterwards, the emperor of the West. The
brothers of Eudocia obeyed, with some anxiety, her Imperial summons; but
as she could easily forgive their unfortunate unkindness, she indulged
the tenderness, or perhaps the vanity, of a sister, by promoting them to
the rank of consuls and praefects. In the luxury of the palace, she still
cultivated those ingenuous arts which had contributed to her greatness;
and wisely dedicated her talents to the honor of religion, and of her
husband. Eudocia composed a poetical paraphrase of the first eight books
of the Old Testament, and of the prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah;
a cento of the verses of Homer, applied to the life and miracles of
Christ, the legend of St. Cyprian, and a panegyric on the Persian
victories of Theodosius; and her writings, which were applauded by a
servile and superstitious age, have not been disdained by the candor of
impartial criticism. The fondness of the emperor was not abated by time
and possession; and Eudocia, after the marriage of her daughter, was
permitted to discharge her grateful vows by a solemn pilgrimage
to Jerusalem. Her ostentatious progress through the East may seem
inconsistent with the spirit of Christian humility; she pronounced, from
a throne of gold and gems, an eloquent oration to the senate of Antioch,
declared her royal intention of enlarging the walls of the city,
bestowed a donative of two hundred pounds of gold to restore the public
baths, and accepted the statues, which were decreed by the gratitude of
Antioch. In the Holy Land, her alms and pious foundations exceeded the
munificence of the great Helena, and though the public treasure might
be impoverished by this excessive liberality, she enjoyed the conscious
satisfaction of returning to Constantinople with the chains of St.
Peter, the right arm of St. Stephen, and an undoubted picture of the
Virgin, painted by St. Luke. But this pilgrimage was the fatal term
of the glories of Eudocia. Satiated with empty pomp, and unmindful,
perhaps, of her obligations to Pulcheria, she ambitiously aspired to the
government of the Eastern empire; the palac