Aug. 27J June 18] 166 THE DECLINE AND FALL at his feet, could not fail of producing very serious and solemn thoughts in the mind of the victorious emperor. But the feeble emotion of involuntary pity was checked by his regard for [July 28, or public justice and the memory of Gratian ; and he abandoned the victim to the pious zeal of the soldiers, who drew him out of the Imperial presence and instantly separated his head from his body. The intelligence of his defeat and death was received with sincere, or well-dissembled, joy : his son Victor, on whom he had conferred the title of Augustus, died by the order, perhaps by the hand, of the bold Arbogastes ; and all the mili- tary plans of Theodosius were successfully executed. When he had thus terminated the civil war with less difficulty and bloodshed than he might naturally expect, he employed the winter months of his residence at Milan to restore the state of the afflicted provinces ; and early in the spring he made, after the example of Constantine and Constantius, his triumphal entry into the ancient capital of the Roman empire."^ TO-tuesof The orator, who may be silent without danger, may praise without difficulty and without reluctance ; "^ and posterity will confess that the character of Theodosius '^'^ might furnish the subject of a sincere and ample panegyric. The wisdom of his laws, and the success of his arms, rendered his administration respectable in the eyes both of his subjects and of his enemies. He loved and practised the virtues of domestic life, which seldom hold their residence in the palaces of kings. Theodosius was chaste and temperate ; he enjoyed, without excess, the sensual and social pleasures of the table ; and the warmth of his amorous passions was never diverted from their lawful objects. The proud titles of Imperial greatness were adorned by the tender names of a faithful husband, an indulgent father ; his 78 Besides the hints which may be gathered from chronicles and ecclesiastical history, Zos. (1. iv. p. 259-267 [c. 44-47]), Oros. (1. vii. c. 35) and Pacatus (in Pan. Vet. xii. 30-47) supply the loose and scanty materials of this civil war. Ambrose (torn. ii. epist. xl. p. 952, 953) darkly alludes to the well-known events of a magazine surprised, an action at Poetovio, a Sicilian, perhaps a naval, victory, &c. Ausonius (p. 256, edit. Toll. [Ord. Urb. Nob. 66 -V/-]) applauds the peculiar merit, and good fortune, of Aquileia. [For the son of Maximus, Flavins Victor, see C. I. L. 5, 8032 and Eckhel, 8, 66. The victory in Sicilia must have been on sea, over the fleet of Andragathius ; cp. Oros. loc. r//.] "SQuam proniptuni laudare principem, tarn tutum silu?se de principe (Pacat. in Pan. Vet. xii. 2). Latinus Pacatus Drepanius, a native of Gaul, pronounced this oration at Rome (a.d. 388). He was afterwards proconsul of Africa ; and his friend Ausonius praises him as a poet, second only to Virgil. See Tille- mont, Hist, des Emper. torn. v. p. 303. 8u See the fair portrait of Theodosius by the younger Victor ; the strokes are distinct, and the colours are mixed. The praise of Pacatus is too vague: and Claudian always seems afraid of exalting the father above the son.
