protector, and the respect which he had for him contributed A. D. 394. not a little to his conversion. He retired, therefore, to a place near the church where his relics were deposited, in an agreeable situation, half a mile from the city of Nola, and lived there with his wife St. Therasia, upon a small estate which he had reserved for himself. He looked upon himself as the keeper of that church; he cleansed the doors every morning, and watched there all night; and every year made a poem in honour of St. Felix, which he published on the 14th of January, the day of his festival. There are ten of them still remaining, the first of which was composed while he was still in Spain, preparing to return into Italy; the second in the first year that he was settled there, but he must have made many more since he stayed there about thirty-five years. In this retreat St. Paulinus lived in a state of poverty, using earthen and wooden vessels, wearing a coarse and neglected garment, fasting and praying, and practising all the exercises of a monastic life. Ambr. 58. St. Ambrose, hearing of his retreat, wrote about it to Ep. S. St. Sabinus, Bishop of Placentia, his friend, foreseeing how [Ser. circ. indignant the world would be at so strange an alteration. 393.] "They will not endure," said he, "that a man of such a family, of such a mind, and so eloquent, should leave the Senate, and suffer his family to become extinct; men, who "used to shave their heads and eyebrows when they con"secrated themselves to Isis', esteem it an unworthy action [Bingham, 7. 3. 6.] "in a Christian to change his habit through zeal for re"ligion." Death of dosius. cap. ult. The Emperor Theodosius3 was returning to Constantinople LVIII. in the beginning of the year 395, when he was seized with a the Empedropsy, brought on by the fatigue of the last war, which ror Theoproved fatal. As soon as he found himself ill, he called to Soc. 5. mind the prophecy of St. John' of Egypt, and being per- Soz. 7. suaded that he should never recover, he applied himself to cap. ult. the last to regulate the business of the state, foreseeing the disorders that would happen after his death. He com-Claud. de mended' his children to Stilicho, who had married his niece Honor. Serena, and even resolved to marry their daughter Mary to See Gibhis son Honorius; he exhorted' both his sons, in dividing his bon, ch. 29. dominions, to be zealous for religion, as being the support of p. 114.] $ 2 iii. Cons. [v.144,&c.] vol. 3. 25. Theod. 5. A. D. 395. the empire. Having no farther orders to give concerning his children, he made his will merely for the benefit of the people. de Ob. Theod. $ 4, 5. 1 S. Ambr. He confirmed' the pardon of those who had borne arms against him, and whose patents had not yet been finished; he likewise confirmed the discharge of a tax, in pursuance of a promise that he had made; and not satisfied with enjoining his children to perform these two points, he left a law concerning them ready drawn up; his last concern was for the welfare of the churches. He died at Milan on the 17th of January 3, under the Consulship of Olybrius and Probinus, i. e. in the year 395, after having reigned sixteen years, and lived sixty. [* § 25.] Socr. 5. cap. ult. ↑ De Ob. 5 Const. Apost. 8. c. 42. Vid. Not. Bened. in § 3. de Ob. Th. 6 § 7, 8. 7 St. Ambrose upon this occasion made his funeral oration t at the time of the service of the fortieth' day, in the preTheod. § 3. sence of the Emperor Honorius. He notices that some observed the third and thirtieth day after the person's decease, and others the seventh and the fortieth; which we find elsewhere confirmed in ecclesiastical antiquity. He attributes the victories of Theodosius to his faith, particularly the last, against Eugenius; and exhorts his soldiers to observe an inviolable fidelity towards his children, considering not only their youth, but the obligations which they owed to their father. He particularly extols his clemency, which many rebels had experienced; and his penitence, of which he was so faithful a witness; he doubts not but that he will be § 15. [See a powerful protector for his children's youth with God!. Theodosius' body, which had been embalmedy, was afterwards transported to Constantinople, and was received by the Emperor Arcadius, who buried him in the tomb of the Emperors on the eighth of November the same year, 7 8 § 13. 9 § 14. supr.ch.31. note i.] 2 Chron. t For other instances of Funeral Orations, see Bingham, bk. 23. ch. 3. [πρὸ ε' ίδ. u Let the third day be observed for the dead with Psalms and lessons and prayers, because CHRIST on the third day rose again from the dead; and let the ninth day be observed in remembrance of the living and the dead; and also the fortieth day, according to the ancient manner of the Israelites mourning for Moses forty days; and finally, let the anniversary day be observed in commemoration of the deceased. Bing ham, 23. 3. 19. from the Apost. Constitutions, 8. 42. St. Augustine complains of the abuses which sometimes accompanied the ninth day commemoration, probably resembling the Novendialia of the heathens. x For the doctrine of the Intercession of the Saints, see supra ch. 31. note i. y The Christian custom of embalming (which was less usual among the heathens, from their custom of burning the dead) is spoken of by Bingham, bk. 23. ch. 2. § 5. Character dosius. Thus died the Emperor Theodosius, whom all Christian A. D. 395. authors, and even most of the Pagans, have greatly extolled. LIX. Zosimus is the only person who has laid great faults to his of Theocharge. He accuses him of being naturally soft and vo- Zosim. lib. luptuous, fond of festivals, dancers, and the shows of the 4. pp. 758. circus and the theatre; "insomuch," says he, "that I am [c.27-29.] "astonished at the inconsistency of his character. For when [2 c. 50.] no cause of alarm troubled him, he abandoned himself to "his natural disposition; but when any thing threatened the "state, he quitted his pleasures, resumed his courage and "valour, and willingly underwent fatigue and labour." He accuses him of being eager for money, in order to furnish the expenses of his table, and his other extravagances, and of selling his governments and employments; so that you might see money-brokers and other low persons bearing publicly the insignia of the magistracy. He finds fault with the number and the great power of his eunuchs; and it must be acknowledged that the prodigious fortune of Eutropius gives some colour to this reproach. 5 768.773. p. 754. [c. 28.] Orat. 18, 19. But Symmachus, who was a Pagan as well as Zosimus, and as living at the same time had better information than he, in a letter to his friend Flavian, speaking to him of the Lib. 11. panegyric on Theodosius, which he had himself pronounced Ep. 13. publicly, owns that he had only touched lightly upon the subject, and particularly commends his disinterestedness. This is a testimony which cannot be suspected, being contained in a confidential letter between two Pagans, both very zealous for idolatry, and consequently not much inclined to flatter Theodosius. The sophist Themistius, in two of his Themist. discourses, places him above the greatest men of antiquity. Lastly, Aurelius Victor, a Pagan historian, speaks thus of Victor. him:-"Theodosius resembled Trajan, in his qualities both Epit. in fin. [c. 48.] "of body and mind, as far as we can judge from the writings "and the paintings of the ancients. Like him he was tall " and well-proportioned; his hair and face were much the "same; in his mind he perfectly resembled him, being gentle, obliging, and popular; thinking that there was no difference "between him and others but in his dress, and friendly to "every body, but particularly to men of worth. He loved "the candid, admired the learned, provided they did not 6 A. D. 395. " abuse their learning to do harm; he made liberal presents, "and in a liberal manner; he continued attached to those "with whom he was acquainted while he was but a private person, and bestowed honours, money, and other favours upon them; especially those whose fidelity he had experienced in adversity, either in his own person, or that of "his father. But he had so great an aversion to Trajan's "faults, excess in drinking and fondness for triumphs, that " he never made war until he found himself engaged in it, " and by a law forbade the presence of wanton attendants or "female musicians at feasts. He was such an encourager "of modesty as to prohibit men from marrying their cousins, "no less than their sisters. He had a moderate share of "knowledge in comparison with the learned; but was intelligent and diligent in the study of history, in which he "always abhorred those persons who were proud, cruel and "hostile to liberty, such as Cinna, Marius, Sylla, and all "who were ambitious; but above all, the treacherous and "ungrateful." [annonæ curam] "It is true that he was passionate when provoked with reason; but he was soon appeased, and a little delay I mitigated his orders, which were sometimes severe. It was "a rare virtue in him, that he certainly improved when time "had increased his power, and still more, after the civil war. "He applied himself very carefully to the regulation of pro"visions'; and as the tyrant had raised and expended im mense sums, he restored them to many out of his own "treasury, whereas some of the most liberal princes have "with much difficulty restored inheritances, and those "stripped and spoiled." "As to his behaviour within his court and family, he re"spected his uncle as his father, he treated the children of "his brother and sister as his own; he had the affection of a "father for his relations and connections. He knew how to "give an entertainment with taste and cheerfulness, without profusion; he suited his discourse to the persons with whom "he conversed, to their character and their rank, mixing gravity with pleasantry. He was a kind father, and a faithful "husband; he used bodily exercises without being too fond "of them or fatiguing himself, and of them, he preferred walking, to relax his mind when he was at leisure; he pre- A. D. 395. "served his health by sobriety." This is the character which Aurelius Victor has left us of Theodosius 2. 1. 10. de scan. We have still remaining one of the laws, which he mentions in his panegyric on Theodosius, dated' at Constantinople' Cod. Theod. [15. on the eighth of the Calends of July, under the Consulship Tit. 7.1 of Arcadius and Bauto, i. e. on the twenty-fourth of June, 385, forbidding all persons to buy, instruct, or sell any woman that played upon musical instruments, or to bring [? fidicinam] her to banquets or shows, or to have slaves that were musicians by profession. This was an old abuse against which the Fathers had often complained. The other law Vid. Goagainst marrying cousin-germans is not to be met with; but other authors mention it, and particularly St. Ambrose' in an Epistle to Paternus, who was a man of considerable rank among the Romans, and had consulted him by the advice of his Bishop, in relation to a treaty of marriage between his son and his daughter's child, i. e. between the uncle and [3 Vid. Not. niece. St. Ambrose absolutely dissuades him from this mar- Schott, ad riage, as being contrary to the divine law, and the human de leg. laws of his time. We meet with a law of Theodosius of the Nerva.] 6 of year 390 addressed to the Vicar of Rome, which condemns thof. ibid. S. Ambr. Ep. 60. § 8. [scr. 293.] Andr. Aurel. Vic. 6 Cod. Th. [9. Tit. 7.] Ï. 5. ad leg. Jul, de Ibid. [4. Tit. 4.] 1. 2. adul. de Testam. 8 Lib. 2. Ep. 13. LX. Probus and Marcell. The Consuls of this year, 395, are remarkable for the glory of their family, all the members of which became Christians. Anicius They were two brothers, Olybrius and Probinus; and that his family. two brothers should be colleagues in the Consulate was an event, up to that time, unheard of. Their father, Sextus Anicius Petronius Probus, was the most famous Roman of Ammian. his time, from his nobility, his riches, and his dignities; his lib. 27.c.11. father and grandfather had been Consuls, and he himself held et ibi Vales. that office with the Emperor Gratian in 371. He was at first Proconsul of Africa, after that, four times Prætorian Præfect, one while of the Gauls, another while of Italy; and it was in this last capacity that he gave' St. Ambrose the government! Supra z Compare the character of Theodosius, given by Gibbon, ch. 27. vol. 3. pp. 42-45. bk. 17. ch. 21, |