Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The

Empire.—Part VII.

The mind of Valentinian, who then resided at Treves, was deeply
affected by the calamities of Illyricum; but the lateness of the
season suspended the execution of his designs till the ensuing
spring. He marched in person, with a considerable part of the
forces of Gaul, from the banks of the Moselle: and to the
suppliant ambassadors of the Sarmatians, who met him on the way,
he returned a doubtful answer, that, as soon as he reached the
scene of action, he should examine, and pronounce. When he
arrived at Sirmium, he gave audience to the deputies of the
Illyrian provinces; who loudly congratulated their own felicity
under the auspicious government of Probus, his Prætorian præfect.
151 Valentinian, who was flattered by these demonstrations of
their loyalty and gratitude, imprudently asked the deputy of
Epirus, a Cynic philosopher of intrepid sincerity, 152 whether he
was freely sent by the wishes of the province. “With tears and
groans am I sent,” replied Iphicles, “by a reluctant people.” The
emperor paused: but the impunity of his ministers established the
pernicious maxim, that they might oppress his subjects, without
injuring his service. A strict inquiry into their conduct would
have relieved the public discontent. The severe condemnation of
the murder of Gabinius, was the only measure which could restore
the confidence of the Germans, and vindicate the honor of the
Roman name. But the haughty monarch was incapable of the
magnanimity which dares to acknowledge a fault. He forgot the
provocation, remembered only the injury, and advanced into the
country of the Quadi with an insatiate thirst of blood and
revenge. The extreme devastation, and promiscuous massacre, of a
savage war, were justified, in the eyes of the emperor, and
perhaps in those of the world, by the cruel equity of
retaliation: 153 and such was the discipline of the Romans, and
the consternation of the enemy, that Valentinian repassed the
Danube without the loss of a single man. As he had resolved to
complete the destruction of the Quadi by a second campaign, he
fixed his winter quarters at Bregetio, on the Danube, near the
Hungarian city of Presburg. While the operations of war were
suspended by the severity of the weather, the Quadi made an
humble attempt to deprecate the wrath of their conqueror; and, at
the earnest persuasion of Equitius, their ambassadors were
introduced into the Imperial council. They approached the throne
with bended bodies and dejected countenances; and without daring
to complain of the murder of their king, they affirmed, with
solemn oaths, that the late invasion was the crime of some
irregular robbers, which the public council of the nation
condemned and abhorred. The answer of the emperor left them but
little to hope from his clemency or compassion. He reviled, in
the most intemperate language, their baseness, their ingratitude,
their insolence. His eyes, his voice, his color, his gestures,
expressed the violence of his ungoverned fury; and while his
whole frame was agitated with convulsive passion, a large blood
vessel suddenly burst in his body; and Valentinian fell
speechless into the arms of his attendants. Their pious care
immediately concealed his situation from the crowd; but, in a few
minutes, the emperor of the West expired in an agony of pain,
retaining his senses till the last; and struggling, without
success, to declare his intentions to the generals and ministers,
who surrounded the royal couch. Valentinian was about fifty-four
years of age; and he wanted only one hundred days to accomplish
the twelve years of his reign. 154

151 (return) [ Ammianus, (xxx. 5,) who acknowledges the merit,
has censured, with becoming asperity, the oppressive
administration of Petronius Probus. When Jerom translated and
continued the Chronicle of Eusebius, (A. D. 380; see Tillemont,
Mém. Eccles. tom. xii. p. 53, 626,) he expressed the truth, or at
least the public opinion of his country, in the following words:
“Probus P. P. Illyrici inquissimus tributorum exactionibus, ante
provincias quas regebat, quam a Barbaris vastarentur, _erasit_.”
(Chron. edit. Scaliger, p. 187. Animadvers p. 259.) The Saint
afterwards formed an intimate and tender friendship with the
widow of Probus; and the name of Count Equitius with less
propriety, but without much injustice, has been substituted in
the text.]

152 (return) [ Julian (Orat. vi. p. 198) represents his friend
Iphicles, as a man of virtue and merit, who had made himself
ridiculous and unhappy by adopting the extravagant dress and
manners of the Cynics.]

153 (return) [ Ammian. xxx. v. Jerom, who exaggerates the
misfortune of Valentinian, refuses him even this last consolation
of revenge. Genitali vastato solo et _inultam_ patriam
derelinquens, (tom. i. p. 26.)]

154 (return) [ See, on the death of Valentinian, Ammianus, (xxx.
6,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 221,) Victor, (in Epitom.,) Socrates, (l.
iv. c. 31,) and Jerom, (in Chron. p. 187, and tom. i. p. 26, ad
Heliodor.) There is much variety of circumstances among them; and
Ammianus is so eloquent, that he writes nonsense.]

The polygamy of Valentinian is seriously attested by an
ecclesiastical historian. 155 “The empress Severa (I relate the
fable) admitted into her familiar society the lovely Justina, the
daughter of an Italian governor: her admiration of those naked
charms, which she had often seen in the bath, was expressed with
such lavish and imprudent praise, that the emperor was tempted to
introduce a second wife into his bed; and his public edict
extended to all the subjects of the empire the same domestic
privilege which he had assumed for himself.” But we may be
assured, from the evidence of reason as well as history, that the
two marriages of Valentinian, with Severa, and with Justina, were
_successively_ contracted; and that he used the ancient
permission of divorce, which was still allowed by the laws,
though it was condemned by the church. Severa was the mother of
Gratian, who seemed to unite every claim which could entitle him
to the undoubted succession of the Western empire. He was the
eldest son of a monarch whose glorious reign had confirmed the
free and honorable choice of his fellow-soldiers. Before he had
attained the ninth year of his age, the royal youth received from
the hands of his indulgent father the purple robe and diadem,
with the title of Augustus; the election was solemnly ratified by
the consent and applause of the armies of Gaul; 156 and the name
of Gratian was added to the names of Valentinian and Valens, in
all the legal transactions of the Roman government. By his
marriage with the granddaughter of Constantine, the son of
Valentinian acquired all the hereditary rights of the Flavian
family; which, in a series of three Imperial generations, were
sanctified by time, religion, and the reverence of the people. At
the death of his father, the royal youth was in the seventeenth
year of his age; and his virtues already justified the favorable
opinion of the army and the people. But Gratian resided, without
apprehension, in the palace of Treves; whilst, at the distance of
many hundred miles, Valentinian suddenly expired in the camp of
Bregetio. The passions, which had been so long suppressed by the
presence of a master, immediately revived in the Imperial
council; and the ambitious design of reigning in the name of an
infant, was artfully executed by Mellobaudes and Equitius, who
commanded the attachment of the Illyrian and Italian bands. They
contrived the most honorable pretences to remove the popular
leaders, and the troops of Gaul, who might have asserted the
claims of the lawful successor; they suggested the necessity of
extinguishing the hopes of foreign and domestic enemies, by a
bold and decisive measure. The empress Justina, who had been left
in a palace about one hundred miles from Bregetio, was
respectively invited to appear in the camp, with the son of the
deceased emperor. On the sixth day after the death of
Valentinian, the infant prince of the same name, who was only
four years old, was shown, in the arms of his mother, to the
legions; and solemnly invested, by military acclamation, with the
titles and ensigns of supreme power. The impending dangers of a
civil war were seasonably prevented by the wise and moderate
conduct of the emperor Gratian. He cheerfully accepted the choice
of the army; declared that he should always consider the son of
Justina as a brother, not as a rival; and advised the empress,
with her son Valentinian to fix their residence at Milan, in the
fair and peaceful province of Italy; while he assumed the more
arduous command of the countries beyond the Alps. Gratian
dissembled his resentment till he could safely punish, or
disgrace, the authors of the conspiracy; and though he uniformly
behaved with tenderness and regard to his infant colleague, he
gradually confounded, in the administration of the Western
empire, the office of a guardian with the authority of a
sovereign. The government of the Roman world was exercised in the
united names of Valens and his two nephews; but the feeble
emperor of the East, who succeeded to the rank of his elder
brother, never obtained any weight or influence in the councils
of the West. 157

155 (return) [ Socrates (l. iv. c. 31) is the only original
witness of this foolish story, so repugnant to the laws and
manners of the Romans, that it scarcely deserved the formal and
elaborate dissertation of M. Bonamy, (Mém. de l’Académie, tom.
xxx. p. 394-405.) Yet I would preserve the natural circumstance
of the bath; instead of following Zosimus who represents Justina
as an old woman, the widow of Magnentius.]

156 (return) [ Ammianus (xxvii. 6) describes the form of this
military election, and _august_ investiture. Valentinian does not
appear to have consulted, or even informed, the senate of Rome.]

157 (return) [ Ammianus, xxx. 10. Zosimus, l. iv. p. 222, 223.
Tillemont has proved (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 707-709)
that Gratian _reigned_ in Italy, Africa, and Illyricum. I have
endeavored to express his authority over his brother’s dominions,
as he used it, in an ambiguous style.]