the calamities of a falling world, there may have been a progress of luxury which could not have been too severely reprobated. The splendour of the imperial establishment at Constantinople was, unless we have been utterly deceived, grotesquely elaborate and magnificent. It was of a thoroughly Oriental type, as we gather from the invectives of Chrysostom, the most conspicuous figure, perhaps, of the inglorious reign of Arcadius. To his eloquence and earnestness we may, no doubt, fairly attribute the gathering strength and numbers of the Christian Church, a fact which we have already noted. The crying sin of the age was, in his judgment, its vulgar luxury and extravagance. There is a memorable passage in one of his homilies, familiar to all readers of Gibbon, in which, as the historian says, "he celebrates while he condemns" the excessive pomp and show of the court of Arcadius. The emperor's throne was of massive gold; his silken robe embroidered with golden dragons; his chariot drawn by mules of spotless white, glittering with gold, and itself of pure and solid gold, with purple curtains and snow-white carpet, and precious stones of a size to amaze the beholders. Within the impregnable walls of his city the degenerate son of Theodosius knew that he could safely enjoy all this state and grandeur, which must have taxed heavily even the resources of an empire stretching from the Adriatic to the Tigris, and embracing the richest regions of the world. The fact that Huns and Goths, in Asia and in Europe, were menacing its order and civilization, does not seem to have seriously troubled him.
