OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 229 guilty praefect, and Rufinus fell, groaned and expired at the feet of the affrighted emperor. If the agonies of a moment could expiate the crimes of a whole life, or if the outrages inflicted on a breathless corpse could be the object of pity, our humanity might perhaps be affected by the horrid circumstances which accompanied the murder of Rufinus. His mangled body was abandoned to the brutal fuiy of the populace of either sex, who hastened in crowds from every quarter of the city to trample on the remains of the haughty minister at whose frown they had so lately trembled. His right hand was cut off and carried through the streets of Constantinople in cruel mockery to ex- tort contributions for the avaricious tyrant, whose head was publicly exposed, borne aloft on the point of a long lance. 3^ According to the savage maxims of the Greek republics his in- nocent family would have shared the punishment of his crimes. The wife and daughter of Rufinus were indebted for their safety to the influence of religion. Her sanctuary protected them from the raging madness of the people ; and they were per- mitted to spend the remainder of their lives in the exercises of Christian devotion in the peaceful retirement of Jerusalem. ^^ The servile poet of Stilicho applauds, with ferocious joy, this Discord of horrid deed, which, in the execution, perhaps, of justice, engir^. _^^ violated every law of nature and society, profaned the majesty of the prince, and renewed the dangerous examples of military licence. The contemplation of the universal order and harmony had satisfied Claudian of the existence of the Deity ; but the prosperous impunity of vice appeared to contradict his moral attributes ; and the fate of Rufinus was the only event which could dispel the religious doubts of the poets'^ Such an act might vindicate the honour of Providence ; but it did not much contribute to the happiness of the people. In less than three months they were informed of the maxims of the new adminis- 32 The dissection of Rufinus, which Claudian performs with the savage coolness of an anatomist (in Rufin. ii. 405-415), is likewise specified by Zosimus [ib.] and Jerom (torn. i. p. 26). . 33 The Pagan Zosimus mentions their sanctuary and pilgrmiage. The sister ot Rufinus, Sylvania, who passed her life at Jerusalem, is famous in monastic history. I. The studious virgin had diligently, and even repeatedly, perused the commen- tators on the Bible, Origen, Gregory, Basil, &c., to the amount of five millions of lines. 2. At the age of threescore, she could boast that she had never washed her hands, face, or any part of her whole body, except the tips of her fingers to receive communion. See the Vitag Patrum, p. '779. 977- [For the confiscation of the property of Rufinus, cp. Symmachus, ep. vi. 14.] .... 3* See the beautiful exordium of his invective against Rufinus, which is curiously discussed by the sceptic Bayle, Dictionnaire Critique, RuFiN. Not. E.
