301; he died A.D.309, not quite eight years later.

To this period historians assign scarcely any events.

The personal appearance of Hormisdas, if we may judge by a gem, was pleasing; [PLATE XVIII., Fig.

4.] he is said, however, to have been of a harsh temper by nature, but to have controlled his evil inclinations after he became king, and in fact to have then neglected nothing that could contribute to the welfare of his subjects.

He engaged in no wars; and his reign was thus one of those quiet and uneventful intervals which, furnishing no materials for history, indicate thereby the happiness of a nation.