Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Sozomen/Book IV/Chapter 4
Chapter IV.—Campaign of Constantius in Sirmium, and Details concerning Vetranio and Magnentius. Gallus receives the Title of Cæsar, and is sent to the East.
On the expulsion of Athanasius, which took place about this period, George persecuted[1]
all those throughout Egypt who refused to conform to his sentiments.
The emperor marched into Illyria, and entered Sirmium, whither Vetranio
had repaired by appointment. The soldiers who had proclaimed him
emperor suddenly changed their mind, and saluted Constantius as sole
sovereign, and as Augustus, for both the emperor and his supporters,
strove for this very action. Vetranio perceived that he was betrayed,
and threw himself as a suppliant at the feet of Constantius.
Constantius pitied him indeed, but stripped him of the imperial
ornaments and purple, obliged him to return to private life, liberally
provided for his wants out of the public treasury, and told him that it
was more seemly to an old man to abstain from the cares of empire and
to live in quietude. After terminating these arrangements in favor of
Vetranio, Constantius sent a large army into Italy against Magnentius.
He then conferred the title of Cæsar on his cousin Gallus, and
sent him into Syria to defend the provinces of the East.
Footnotes
[edit]- ↑ Eutrop.Brev. Hist. Rom. x. 11, 12; Zos. ii. 44, 45; Athan.Apol. de fuga sua, 6, 7; Ep. ad Episc. Æg. et Lib. 7; Soc. ii. 25–29; Ruf. H. E. i. 19; Philost. iii. 22, 25.