satisfied with their own situation, or with the character and conduct
of their successive sovereigns. The Arian subjects of Theodosius
deplored the loss of their churches; and as three rival bishops
disputed the throne of Antioch, the sentence which decided their
pretensions excited the murmurs of the two unsuccessful congregations.
The exigencies of the Gothic war, and the inevitable expense that
accompanied the conclusion of the peace, had constrained the emperor
to aggravate the weight of the public impositions; and the provinces
of Asia, as they had not been involved in the distress were the less
inclined to contribute to the relief, of Europe. The auspicious period
now approached of the tenth year of his reign; a festival more
grateful to the soldiers, who received a liberal donative, than to the
subjects, whose voluntary offerings had been long since converted into
an extraordinary and oppressive burden. The edicts of taxation
interrupted the repose, and pleasures, of Antioch; and the tribunal of
the magistrate was besieged by a suppliant crowd; who, in pathetic,
but, at first, in respectful language, solicited the redress of their
grievances. They were gradually incensed by the pride of their haughty
rulers, who treated their complaints as a criminal resistance; their
satirical wit degenerated into sharp and angry invectives; and, from
the subordinate powers of government, the invectives of the people
insensibly rose to attack the sacred character of the emperor himself.
Their fury, provoked by a feeble opposition, discharged itself on the
images of the Imperial family, which were erected, as objects of
public veneration, in the most conspicuous places of the city. The
statues of Theodosius, of his father, of his wife Flaccilla, of his
two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, were insolently thrown down from
their pedestals, broken in pieces, or dragged with contempt through
the streets; and the indignities which were offered to the
representations of Imperial majesty, sufficiently declared the impious