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 The Eastern empire was safe, though much of its territory had suffered calamities so dreadful that Jerome quaintly describes them as leaving nothing in the countries desolated but "the sky and the earth."

Once more the world was to be united for the short space of a few months under one head, in the person of a man of whom Gibbon says, "that with him the genius of Rome expired." This was Theodosius, the first emperor who humbled himself before a Christian bishop. His submission to Ambrose and his public penance in the church of Milan for his barbarous punishment of a riot at Thessalonica, are perhaps the most familiar facts in the history of the period. Two important events mark his reign; the permanent settlement of the Goths within the boundaries of the empire, and the final overthrow of paganism, at least, of its outward forms and manifestations. His father was a distinguished general, and had suppressed rebellion in Britain and in Africa. But he fell into disgrace, and for some unknown cause was executed at Carthage. The son, who had already governed with ability the province of Moesia and saved it from an inroad of Sarmatians, had retired to Spain, the country of his birth, and thence, like Cincinnatus in the old days of the republic, he was summoned from his farm to be the colleague of Gratian in the empire. Much was expected of him, and it was hoped that he would prove himself a second Trajan, whom in his features he was said to resemble. He had been well educated, and at the same time trained in the simple habits of a soldier, and under his father he had had a wide and