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jovian—Valentinian.
and lias acquired great renown by his edict granting uncon-
ditional liberty of conscience. After a reign of eighteen
months, he died suddenly at Ancyra, while following his aιmy
towards the West. The reports that his death was Unnatuially
accelerated deserve no credit, any more than that he committed
suicide by using a basin with burning charcoal.
After his death, there was again a difficulty respecting the
election of a successor. His son was a child under age; and
the consulship was then, for the first time, degraded by a child
being entered in the Fasti. Sallustius again declined to become
emperor, and thus Valentinian, an Illyrian, who had greatly
distinguished himself in the Persian war, was raised to the
throne in a.d. 365. It is singular tlιat in all these elections
we no longer find any trace of donatives : in the time of
Probus they were reduced to one-tenth (20 aurei = £15), and
now, in the fourth century, they disappear altogether. A few
weeks after his accession, Valentinian took his brother Valens
for his colleague, wheιeby he satisfied the demand for a second
emperor, though the general wish was to see an able man on the
throne, such a one perhaps as Dagalaiphus. Valentinian was
a remarkable person, and one of those characters respecting
which it is very difficult to give a brief opinion. He was a
distinguished general, gave fresh support to the rapidly sinking
state, gained brilliant trophies in a war against the Alemannians
and Franks, and in another against the Sarmatians; he kept
order in the empire, and made many useful laws and enact-
ments. He himself was indeed a man without education, but
he employed his influence to support knowledge and educa-
tion, and inflicted severe punishment upon tyrannical governors
and frivolous judges. He was cruel, however; and, where he
was offended, or suspected a conspiracy, imposed no restraint
upon that disposition. We may therefore take it for granted,
that the nobles did not feel at ease under him, and that the
people, on the other hand were attached to him. His bɪother
Valens was not blood-thirsty, but inexorable and cruel, and
just as cowardly as inexorable. IIis government did not pro-
duce the blessings which marked that of his brother; he was,
moreover, a fanatic Arian, oppressing the Hoinoousii, or
Athanasians, as much as he could, whence his government
is deservedly represented in an odious light by the ecclesi-
astical historians. Valentinian too wras an Arian, but always
Valentinian—valens — grλtian.
331
conceded a just liberty in matters of faith, oppressing neither
pagans nor Athanasians. The number of Christians increased
from year to year. Manichaeism spread, at the expense, not
of the orthodox, but of the old Gnostic sects, which latter
were constantly decreasing. In relation to foreign countries,
the empire was powerful: it was at peace with Persia, the
aged Sapor being quiet. Valentinian had two sons, Gratian
by his first wife, and Valcntinian II. by the second, the latter
being yet a child. Gratian was a charming boy, and his
education was conducted with great care. VaIentinian was a
man of good sense, and felt that he was uneducated; but it is
no wonder that he erred in the choice of a teacher, and
imagined that in Ausonius he had an excellent master for
Gratian, just as Antoninus had been mistaken in Pronto.
In Λ.D. 375, when Valentinian died, Gratian was seventeen
years old, and really capable of undertaking the administration
of the empire. During the first years, his government indeed
answered all expectations; he exercised justice, was mild, and
granted religious liberty. He took possession of the West and
Italy, leaving the East to his uncle Valens. The latter was
now placed in fearful circumstances, for the Gotlis who, after
the time of Claudius and Aurelian, had settled in Dacia, in-
vaded the Roman empire, under the command of Hermanric,
whose memory is still preserved in the Heldenbuch and the
Icelandic Sagas. The original of the lay of the Nibelungen
was Gothic, from which it is a translation. Whether Her-
manric belongs to the period to which Jornandes assigns him,
is a different question; I believe, however, that he is much
older, and an historical personage. There can be no doubt
that at one time there existed in the south-east of Europe a
large Gothic empire, which was destroyed by the Huns. I
am convinced also, that Desguignes5 account of the origin of
the Huns is incorrect. They were a mighty nomadic people,
of the Mongol race, quite different from the inhabitants of
southern Asia and Europe. They appear to have been the
same as the other nations of the table-land of Upper Asia.
The Goths were divided into three tribes, — Ostrogoths,
Visigoths and Gepidae; they were any thing but an unculti-
vated people, and had en masse adopted the Christian religion,
much earlier than the inhabitants of the Roman empire; at
the time of their advance into which, the majority of them