Valentinian on the throne of Milan; and, without stipulating any present or future advantages, restored him to the absolute dominion of all the provinces from which he had been driven by the arms of Maximus. To the restitution of his ample patrimony, Theodosius added the free and generous gift of the countries beyond the Alps, which his successful valour had recovered from the assassin of Gratian (101). Satisfied with the glory which he had acquired, by revenging the death of his benefactor, and delivering the West from the yoke of tyranny, the emperor returned from Milan to Constantinople; and, in the peaceful possession of the East, insensibly relapsed into his former habits of luxury and indolence. Theodosius discharged his obligation to the brother, he indulged his conjugal tenderness to the sister, of Valentinian and posterity, which admires the pure and singular glory of his elevation, must applaud his unrivalled generosity in the use of victory. Valentinian, The empress Justina did not long survive her return to Italy; Character of and, though she beheld the triumph of Theodosius, she was not al-A. D. 391." lowed to influence the government of her son (102). The pernicious attachment to the Arian sect, which Valentinian had imbibed from her example and instructions, was soon erased by the lessons of a more orthodox education. His growing zeal for the faith of Nice, and his filial reverence for the character and authority of Ambrose, disposed the Catholics to entertain the most favourable opinion of the virtues of the young emperor of the West (103). They applauded his chastity and temperance, his contempt of pleasure, his application to business, and his tender affection for his two sisters; which could not, however, seduce his impartial equity to pronounce an unjust sentence against the meanest of his subjects. But this amiable youth, before he had accomplished the twentieth year of his age, was oppressed by domestic treason; and the empire was again involved in the horrors of a civil war. Arbogastes (104), a gallant soldier of the nation of the Franks, held the second rank in the service of Gratian. On the death of his master he joined the standard of Theodosius; contributed by his valour and military conduct, to the destruction of the tyrant; and was appointed, after the victory, master-general of the armies of Gaul. His real merit, and apparent fidelity, had gained the confidence both of the prince and people; his boundless liberality corrupted the allegiance of the (101) Τοῦτο περὶ τοὺς εὐεργέτας καθῆκον ἔδοξεν εἶναι, is the niggard praise of Zosimus himself (1. iv. p. 267.). Augustin says, with some happiness of expression, Valentinianum misericordissima veneratione restituit. (102) Sozomen, 1. vii. c. 14. His chronology is very irregular. .... (103) See Ambrose (tom. ii. de Obit. Valentinian. c. 15, &c. p. 1178. c. 36, &c. p. 1184.). When the young emperor gave an entertainment, he fasted himself; he refused to see an handsome actress, &c. Since he ordered his wild beasts to be killed, it is ungenerous in Philostorgius (1. xi. c. 1.), to reproach him with the love of that amusement. (104) Zosimus (1. iv. p. 275.) praises the enemy of Theodosius. But he is detested by Socrates (1. v. c. 25.), and Orosius (1. vii. c. 35.). His death, A. D. 392. May 15. troops; and, whilst he was universally esteemed as the pillar of the state, the bold and crafty Barbarian was secretly determined either to rule, or to ruin, the empire of the West. The important commands of the army were distributed among the Franks; the creatures of Arbogastes were promoted to all the honours and offices of the civil government; the progress of the conspiracy removed every faithful servant from the presence of Valentinian; and the emperor, without power, and without intelligence, insensibly sunk into the precarious and dependent condition of a captive (105). The indignation which he expressed, though it might arise only from the rash and impatient temper of youth, may be candidly ascribed to the generous spirit of a prince, who felt that he was not unworthy to reign. He secretly invited the archbishop of Milan to undertake the office of a mediator; as the pledge of his sincerity, and the guardian of his safety. He contrived to apprise the emperor of the East of his helpless situation; and he declared, that, unless Theodosius could speedily march to his assistance, he must attempt to escape from the palace, or rather prison, of Vienna in Gaul, where he had imprudently fixed his residence in the midst of the hostile faction. But the hopes of relief were distant, and doubtful; and, as every day furnished some new provocation, the emperor, without strength or counsel, too hastily resolved to risk an immediate contest with his powerful general. He received Arbogastes on the throne; and, as the count approached with some appearance of respect, delivered to him a paper, which dismissed him from all his employments. "My authority," replied Arbogastes with insulting coolness, " does .* not depend on the smile, or the frown, of a monarch;" and he contemptuously threw the paper on the ground. The indignant monarch snatched at the sword of one of the guards, which he struggled to draw from its scabbard; and it was not without some degree of violence that he was prevented from using the deadly Weapon against his enemy, or against himself. A few days after this extraordinary quarrel, in which he had exposed his resentment and his weakness, the unfortunate Valentinian was found strangled in his apartment; and some pains were employed to disguise the manifest guilt of Arbogastes, and to persuade the world, that the death of the young emperor had been the voluntary effect of his own despair (106). His body was conducted with decent pomp to the sepulchre of Milan; and the archbishop pronounced a funeral oration to commemorate his virtue, and his misfortunes (107). On (105) Gregory of Tours (1. ii. c. 9. p. 165. in the second volume of the Historians of France) has preserved a curious fragment of Sulpicius Alexander, an historiau far more valuable than himself. (106) Godefroy (Dissertat. ad Philostorg. p. 429-434.) has diligently collected all the circumstances of the death of Valentinian II. The variations, and the ignorance, of contemporary writers, prove that it was secret. (107) De Obitu Valentinian. tom. ii. p. 1173-1496. He is forced to speak a discreet and obseure language: yet he is much bolder than any layman, or perhaps any other ecclesiastic, would have dared to be. Eugenius. A. D. 392-394. this occasion, the humanity of Ambrose tempted him to make a singular breach in his theological system; and to comfort the weeping sisters of Valentinian, by the firm assurance, that their pious brother, though he had not received the sacrament of baptism, was introduced, without difficulty, into the mansions of eternal bliss (108). The prudence of Arbogastes had prepared the success of his Usurpation of ambitious designs: and the provincials, in whose breasts every sentiment of patriotism or loyalty was extinguished, expected, with tame resignation, the unknown master, whom the choice of a Frank might place on the Imperial throne. But some remains of pride and prejudice still opposed the elevation of Arbogastes himself; and the judicious Barbarian thought it more advisable to reign under the name of some dependent Roman. He bestowed the purple on the rhetorician Eugenius (109); whom he had already raised from the place of his domestic secretary, to the rank of master of the offices. In the course both of his private and public service, the count had always approved the attachment and abilities of Eugenius; his learning and eloquence, supported by the gravity of his manners, recommended him to the esteem of the people; and the reluctance, with which he seemed to ascend the throne, may inspire a favourable prejudice of his virtue and moderation. The ambassadors of the new emperor were immediately dispatched to the court of Theodosius, to communicate, with affected grief, the unfortunate accident of the death of Valentinian; and, without mentioning the name of Arbogastes, to request, that the monarch of the East would embrace, as his lawful colleague, the respectable citizen, who had obtained the unanimous suffrage of the armies and provinces of the West (110). Theodosius was justly provoked, that the perfidy of a Barbarian should have destroyed, in a moment, the labours, and the fruit, of his former victory; and he was excited by the tears of his beloved wife (111), to revenge the fate of her unhappy brother, and once more to assert by arms the violated majesty of the throne. But as the second conquest of the West was a task of difficulty and danger, he dismissed, with splendid presents, and an ambiguous answer, the ambassadors of Eugenius; and almost two years were consumed in the preparations of the civil war. Before he formed Theodosius any decisive resolution, the pious emperor was anxious to discover prepares for (108) See c. 51. p. 1188. c. 75. p. 1193. Dom Chardon (Hist. des Sacremens, tom. i. p. 86.), who owns that St. Ambrose most strenuously maintains the indispensable necessity of baptism, labours to reconcile the contradiction. (109) Quem sibi Germanus famulum delegerat exul, is the contemptuous expression of Claudian (iv. Cons. Hon. 74.). Eugenius professed Christianity; but his secret attachment to Paganism (Sozomen, 1. vii. c. 22. Philostorg. l. xi. c. 2.) is probable in a grammarian, and would secure the friendship of Zosimus (1. iv. p. 276, 277.). (110) Zosimus (1. iv. p. 278.) mentions this embassy; but he is diverted by another story from relating the event. (111) Συνετάραξεν ἡ τούτου γαμετὴ Γάλλα τὰ βασίλεια τὸν ἀδελφὸν ὀλοφυρομένη. Zosim. I. iv. p. 277. He afterwards says (p. 280.), that Galla died in childbed; and intimates, that the affliction of her husband was extreme, but short. war. the will of Heaven; and as the progress of Christianity had silenced the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, he consulted an Egyptian monk, who possessed, in the opinion of the age, the gift of miracles, and the knowledge of futurity. Eutropius, one of the favourite eunuchs of the palace of Constantinople, embarked for Alexandria, from whence he sailed up the Nile as far as the city of Lycopolis, or of Wolves, in the remote province of Thebais (112). In the neighbourhood of that city, and on the summit of a lofty mountain, the holy John (113) had constructed, with his own hands, an humble cell, in which he had dwelt above fifty years, without opening his door, without seeing the face of a woman, and without tasting any food that had been prepared by fire, or any human art. Five days of the week he spent in prayer and meditation; but on Saturdays and Sundays he regularly opened a small window, and gave audience to the crowd of suppliants who successively flowed from every part of the Christian world. The eunuch of Theodosius approached the window with respectful steps, proposed his questions concerning the event of the civil war, and soon returned with a favourable oracle, which animated the courage of the emperor by the assurance of a bloody, but infallible, victory (114). The accomplishment of the prediction was forwarded by all the means that human prudence could supply. The industry of the two mastergenerals, Stilicho and Timasius, was directed to recruit the numbers, and to revive the discipline, of the Roman legions. The formidable troops of Barbarians marched under the ensigns of their national chieftains. The Iberian, the Arab, and the Goth, who *gazed on each other with mutual astonishment, were enlisted in the service of the same prince;* and the renowned Alaric acquired, in the school of Theodosius, the knowledge of the art of war, which he afterwards so fatally exerted for the destruction of Rome (115). The emperor of the West, or, to speak more properly, his general 66 (112) Lycopolis is the modern Siut, or Osiot, a town of Said, about the size of St. Denis, which drives a profitable trade with the kingdom of Sennaar, and has a very convenient fountain, “cujus potu signa virginitatis eripiuntur." See D'Anville, Description de l'Égypte, p. 181. Abulfeda, Descript. Egypt. p. 14., and the curious Annotations, p. 25. 92. of his editor Michaelis. (113) The Life of John of Lycopolis is described by his two friends, Rufinus (l. ii. c. i. p. 449.), and Palladius (Hist. Lausiac. c. 43. p. 738.) in Rosweyde's great Collection of the Vitæ Patrum. Tillemont (Mém. Ecclés. tom. x. p. 718. 720.) has settled the chronology. (114) Sozomen, I. vii. c. 22. Claudian (in Eutrop. I. i. 312.) mentions the eunuch's journey: but he most contemptuously derides the Egyptian dreams, and the oracles of the Nile. (115) Zosimus, 1. iv. p. 280. Socrates, l. vii. 10. Alaric himself (de Bell. Getico, 524.) dwells with more complacency on his early exploits against the Romans. Yet his vanity could scarcely have proved this plurality of flying emperors. །་ *Gibbon has embodied the picturesque verses Hic mitra velatus Arabs, hic crine decoro of Claudian:- Armeuius, hic picta Saces, fucataque Medus, -M. Arbogastes, was instructed by the misconduct and misfortune of Maximus, how dangerous it might prove to extend the line of defence against a skilful antagonist, who was free to press, or to suspend, to contract, or to multiply, his various methods of attack (116). Arbogastes fixed his station on the confines of Italy: the troops of Theodosius were permitted to occupy, without resistance, the provinces of Pannonia, as far as the foot of the Julian Alps and even the passes of the mountains were negligently, or perhaps artfully, abandoned, to the bold invader. He descended from the hills, and beheld, with some astonishment, the formidable camp of the Gauls and Germans, that covered with arms and tents the open country, which extends to the walls of Aquileia, and the banks of the Frigidus (117), or Cold River (118). This narrow theatre of the war, circumscribed by the Alps and the Hadriatic, did not allow much room for the operations of military skill; the spirit of Arbogastes would have disdained a pardon; his guilt extinguished the hope of a negotiation and Theodosius was impatient to satisfy his glory and revenge, by the chastisement of the assassins of Valentinian. Without weighing the natural and artificial obstacles that opposed his efforts, the emperor of the East immediately attacked the fortifications of his rivals, assigned the post of honourable danger to the Goths, and cherished a secret wish, that the bloody conflict might diminish the pride and numbers of the conquerors. Ten thousand of those auxiliaries, and Bacurius, general of the Iberians, died bravely on the field of battle. But the victory was not purchased by their blood; the Gauls maintained their advantage; and the approach of night protected the disorderly flight, or retreat, of the troops of Theodosius. The emperor retired to the adjacent hills; where he passed a disconsolate night, without sleep, without provisions, and without hopes (119); except that strong assurance, which, under the most desperate circumstances, the independent mind may derive from the contempt of fortune and of life. The triumph of Eugenius was celebrated by the insolent and dissolute joy of his camp; whilst the active and vigilant Arbogastes secretly detached a considerable body of troops to occupy the (116) Claudian (in iv. Cous. Honor. 77, &c.) contrasts the military plans of the two usurpers :Novitas audere priorem .... (117) The Frigidus, a small, though memorable, stream in the country of Goretz, now called the Vipao, falls into the Sontius, or Lisonzo, above Aquileia, some miles from the Hadriatic. See D'Anville's ancient and modern maps, and the Italia Antiqua of Cluverius (tom. i. p. 188.). (118) Claudian's wit is intolerable: the snow was dyed red; the cold river smoked; and the channel must have been choked with carcasses if the current had not been swelled with blood. (119) Theodoret affirms, that St. John, and St. Philip, appeared to the waking, or sleeping, emperor, on horseback, &c. This is the first instance of apostolic chivalry, which afterwards became so popular in Spain, and in the Crusades. His victory over Eugenius, A. D. 394. Sept. 6. |