, ii. 47.--M.]

[Footnote 97: Zosimus, l. ii. p. 134. Liban. Orat. x. p. 268, 269.
The latter most vehemently arraigns this cruel and selfish policy of
Constantius.]

[Footnote 98: Julian. Orat. i. p. 40. Zosimus, l. ii. p. 134. Socrates,
l. ii. c. 32. Sozomen, l. iv. c. 7. The younger Victor describes his
death with some horrid circumstances: Transfosso latere, ut erat vasti
corporis, vulnere naribusque et ore cruorem effundens, exspiravit. If
we can give credit to Zonaras, the tyrant, before he expired, had the
pleasure of murdering, with his own hand, his mother and his brother
Desiderius.]

[Footnote 99: Julian (Orat. i. p. 58, 59) seems at a loss to determine,
whether he inflicted on himself the punishment of his crimes, whether
he was drowned in the Drave, or whether he was carried by the avenging
daemons from the field of battle to his destined place of eternal
tortures.]

[Footnote 99a: This is scarcely correct, ut erat in complicandis
negotiis artifex dirum made ei Catenae inditum est cognomentum. Amm.
Mar. loc. cit.--M.]

[Footnote 100: Ammian. xiv. 5, xxi. 16.]

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, [1] were introduced into
Greece and Rome by the contagion of Asiatic luxury. [2] Their progress
was rapid; and the eunuchs, who, in the time of Augustus, had been
abhorred, as the monstrous retinue of an Egyptian queen, [3] were
gradually admitted into the families of matrons, of senators, and of the
emperors themselves. [4] 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, [6] 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 spe