OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 389 marriage of her daughter, was permitted to discharge her grateful vows by a solemn progress to Jerusalem. Her ostentatious progress through the East may seem inconsistent with the spirit of Christian humility ; she pronounced, from a thi'one of gold and gems, an eloquent oration to the senate of Antioch, declared her i-oyal 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 im- poverished by this excessive liberality, she enjoyed the con- scious satisfaction of returning to Constantinople with the chains of St. Peter, the right arm of St. Stephen, and an un- doubted 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 govern- ment of the Eastern empire ; the palace was disti*acted by female discord ; but the victory was at last decided by the superior ascendant of the sister of Theodosius. The execution of Paulinas, master of the offices, and the disgrace of Cyrus, Praetorian pra^fect of the East, convinced the public that the favour of Eudocia was insufficient to protect her most faithful friends ; and the uncommon beauty of Paulinus encouraged the secret rumour that his guilt was that of a successful lover."*" As soon as the empress perceived that the affection of Theodo- sius was irreti'ievably lost, she requested the permission of re- tiring to the distant solitude of Jerusalem. She obtained her request ; but the jealousy of Theodosius, or the vindictive spirit of Pulcheria, pursued her in her last retreat ; and Saturninus, count of the domestics, was directed to punish with death two ecclesiastics, her most favoured servants. Eudocia instantly revenged them by the assassination of the count ; the furious passions, which she indulged on this suspicious occasion, seemed to justify the severity of Theodosius ; and the empress, "fi Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. d. 438, 439) is copious and florid; but he is accused of placing the hes of different ages on the same level of authenticity. "'i'ln this short view of the disgrace of Eudocia, I have imitated the caution of Evagrius (1. i. c. 21) and 'count Marcellinus (in Chron. A.D. 440 and 444). The two authentic dates assigned by the latter overturn a g^eat part of the Greek fictions ; and the celebrated story of the apple, &'c. is fit only for the Arabian Nights, where something not very unlike it may be found.
