"Rule thou in my place, O Princess!" he said, soon after this
interview with the barbarian envoys. "Thou alone, of all in this
broad empire, art best fitted to take lead and direction in the
duties of its governing."
Pulcheria, though a wise young girl, was prudent and
conscientious.
"Such high authority is not for a girl like me, good Anthemius,"
she replied. "Rather let me shape the ways and the growth of the
emperor my brother, and teach him how best to maintain himself in
a deportment befitting his high estate, so that he may become a
wise and just ruler; but do thou bear sway for him until such
time as he may take the guidance on himself."
"Nay, not so, Princess," the old prefect said. "She who can shape
the ways of a boy may guide the will of an empire. Be thou, then,
Regent and Augusta, and rule this empire as becometh the daughter
of Arcadius and the granddaughter of the great Theodosius."
And as he desired, so it was decided. The Senate of the East
decreed it and, in long procession, over flower-strewn pavements
and through gorgeously decorated streets, with the trumpets
sounding their loudest, with swaying standards, and rank upon
rank of imperial troops, with great officers of the government
and throngs of palace attendants, this young girl of sixteen, on
the fourth day of July, in the year 414, proceeded to the Church
of the Holy Apostles, and was there publicly proclaimed Pulcheria
Augusta, Regent of the East, solemnly accepting the trust as a
sacred and patriotic duty.
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