300 
The Empire. 
ROME. The Empire. 
prince, astonished at his fortune, was invested with the im¬ 
perial ornaments, and received the oath of fidelity from the 
generals. 
The first order of the new emperor, who had supported 
with credit the character of a Christian and a soldier, was to 
prosecute the intended march ; but the news of the death of 
Julian having revived the confidence of Sapor, he threw the 
rear guard into so much disorder, that with difficulty they 
reached the city of Dura. The Tigris was still on their left; 
and after several ineffectual efforts, the army was compelled 
to relinquish its design of passing that rapid stream. Their 
distress was hourly augmented by the pressure of famine, and 
the increasing numbers of the enemy; when the cession of 
five provinces and of some important cities, purchased the 
deliverance of the emperor and his army, from the forlorn 
situation to which they had been reduced. 
The faith of Jovian was announced to the people, by 
his displaying the banners of the cross at the head of his 
legions, in their fatiguing return towards Constantinople. 
The edicts of Julian were abolished; and the attachment of 
the emperor to the orthodox belief, was declared by the re¬ 
verence he expressed for the virtues of the great Athanasius. 
Impatient to occupy the palace of Constantinople, Jovian 
had rapidly advanced as far as Dadastana, a town lying 
between Ancyra and Nice; while his wife with an imperial 
train was hastening to meet him. She brought with her 
their infant son Veronianus; and the moment of embracing 
her husband seemed at hand, when, like a stroke of thun¬ 
der, it was announced to her that he was no more. Having 
indulged rather freely at supper, he retired to rest; and next 
morning was found dead in his bed. His corpse was carried 
to Constantinople; after he had reigned somewhat less than 
twelve months. 
For ten days after the death of Jovian, the Roman world 
remained without a master. At last, after several candidates 
had been proposed and rejected, the suffrages of the electors 
were united in favour of Valentinian, the son of Gratian. 
His father, from an obscure situation, had risen to the high¬ 
est commands of Africa and Britain; and the son had on 
every occasion displayed a manly and vigorous mind. In 
his person he was tall, in his countenance dignified; and 
his general habits had acquired him the esteem and respect 
of the army. He professed the Christian faith, and was 
now in the forty-third year of his age. 
Valentinian, having consulted the assembly of chiefs, be¬ 
stowed the title of Augustus on his brother Valens; and 
assigning his colleague the prefecture of the East, with the 
capital of Constantinople, while he retained Illyricum, Italy, 
and Gaul, fixed his court at Milan. 
At this juncture, the barbarians were pressing on the fron¬ 
tiers of the Roman empire in all quarters, and gradually 
pushing their inroads to the very centre. The Germans 
attacked Gaul and Rhsetia; the Sarmatians and Quadi over¬ 
ran Pannonia ; the Piets, Saxons, Scots, and Attacottis, in¬ 
vaded Britain ; the Asturians, Spain ; and the Moors, Af¬ 
rica. 
It required all the bravery and conduct of Valentinian, 
and all the skill of his generals, to make head against so 
many powerful nations. Jovian, however, was considered 
as the scourge of the Germans, as Theodosius was of the 
Piets. The sou of the latter was equally renowned in arms; 
and these commanders were no less distinguished for the 
vigour with which they carried on war, than for the good 
faith with which they observed treaties when once made. 
Some of the other generals of Valentinian were, perhaps, 
more politic though less sincere. Considering that they 
had only barbarians to deal with, they thought it no dis¬ 
grace to take advantage of them in the interpretation of trea¬ 
ties, or to sacrifice truth and justice to the preservation of 
the integrity of the empire. 
At this period, indeed, corruption had risen to its height, 
and truth and honesty shrunk abashed. Valentinian was 
severe in punishing those ministers who abused his confidence, 
yet no one was ever more frequently deceived. At last he 
knew not whom to trust, in such a degenerate state of man¬ 
ners. Complaints of the most serious nature having been 
preferred against Romanus, the governor of Africa, and a 
person of great influence at court, Valentinian determined 
to probe the business. Accordingly, he deputed Palladius 
as commissioner, on account of his character tor probity; yet 
the governor found means by intrigue to destroy the inde¬ 
pendence of his censor’s report, and to keep him from pub¬ 
lishing the irregularities which he had discovered. With 
consummate art, he engaged the officers to whom Palladius 
distributed their pay to make him presents, under colour of 
the respect which they owed to a man who was in such high 
favour with the emperor; and when Palladius, having in¬ 
formed himself of ihe truth of affairs, reproached the 
governor with his conduct in the administration of the pro¬ 
vince, and avowed his resolution to make a report to the 
emperor according to the truth, “You are at liberty so to 
do,” said the insolent Romanus; “ but neither shall I conceal 
from our common master your facility in receiving presents, 
and the use you make of the trust which he reposes in you.” 
The conscience of Palladius was touched, and dreading the 
indignant justice of the emperor, he entered into an accommo¬ 
dation wfith the governor, and returned a favourable report. 
But though craft and avarice characterised the ministers of 
Valentinian in general, there were some splendid instances of 
a contrary conduct among them. The sincerity of Iphicles 
may well contrast with the duplicity of Palladius, which 
has just been mentioned. This man being delegated by the 
Epirots, to thank the emperor for the upright government of 
Probus, who presided over their province; and Valentinian, 
suspecting that these thanks were the result of entreaty, or 
extorted by threats, said to Iphicles, “ Are you really and 
truly charged by your countrymen to give me thanks 
The reply, though consonant to truth, would have done 
honour to the dexterity of a modern jesuit: “They undoubt¬ 
edly gave me in charge to come and express their gratitude 
to you; but when I received the commission, their eyes 
were filled with tears.” 
Valentinian, though often duped, took the most sedulous 
pains to discover the truth, and with unrelenting severity 
punished every dereliction. His wife Severn, who had un¬ 
justly acquired an estate, he first obliged to restore it, and 
then repudiated her for the fault. He exhibited many exam¬ 
ples of torture, and even burning alive unfaithful officers; 
and yet the punishments he inflicted seldom operated as a 
warning on others. 
Throughout his whole reign he was fully employed in 
repressing the incursions of the numerous enemies that envi¬ 
roned his division of the empire, and in giving energy to 
the feeble councils of Valens. The Quadi were the last ob¬ 
jects of his enmity. These having provoked him highly, 
he reviled their ambassadors who had come to sue for mercy, 
in language at once gross and intemperate; but while he 
was straining his voice, and the violence of his gestures ex¬ 
pressed the agitation of his soul, he burst a blood-vessel, 
and fell speechless into the arms of his attendants. He died 
at the age of fifty-five, after having reigned twelve years; 
and left his. throne to his son Gratian, whom he had 
invested with the purple from his earliest youth. 
But to return to Valens. In the second year of this prince’s 
reign, a competitor arose, in the person of Procopius, a 
kinsman of Julian. A rumour prevailed, that he had been 
invested with the imperial purple by the Apostate, before the 
altar of the Moon at Carrhae; and certain it was, he had 
some pretensions, either natural or delegated, to the empire. 
On the election of Jovian he was removed to a distance, by 
being appointed to conduct the corpse of Julian to Tarsus, 
and to superintend the celebration of his obsequies. When 
the ceremony was concluded, Procopius withdrew himself 
from the eyes of the public, and all endeavours to discover 
his retreat proved ineffectual. In fact, he had concealed 
himself with a friend in the vicinity of Constantinople, 
which he occasionally entered in disguise, in order to observe 
the disposition of men’s minds, in regard to the reigning 
prince. 
Finding, after some time, that the character of Valens was 
despised 
