Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Socrates/Book VII/Chapter 24
Chapter XXIV.—Valentinian a Son of Constantius and Placidia, Aunt of Theodosius, is proclaimed Emperor.
After the usurper’s death, the emperor Theodosius became very anxious as to whom he should proclaim emperor of the West. He had a cousin then very young named Valentinian; the son of his aunt Placidia, daughter of Theodosius the Great, and sister of the two Augusti Arcadius and Honorius and of that Constantius who had been proclaimed emperor by Honorius,[1]
and had died after a short reign with him. This cousin he created
Cæsar, and sent into the Western parts, committing the
administration of affairs to his mother Placidia. He himself also
hastened towards Italy, that he might in person both proclaim his
cousin emperor, and also being present among them, endeavor to
influence the natives and residents by his counsels not to submit to
usurpers readily. But when he reached Thessalonica he was prevented
from proceeding further by sickness; he therefore sent forward the
imperial crown to his cousin by Helion the patrician, and he himself
returned to Constantinople. But concerning these matters I deem the
narrative here given sufficient.
Footnotes
[edit]- ↑ Cf. I. 39, and II. 1.