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 northern shores of the Adriatic, in the year 394. His rival was given up to him and killed, and now Theodosius was able to hand over the empire of the West to his youthful brother-in-law. But the unfortunate Valentinian was himself soon afterwards murdered by one of his generals, Arbogastes, who had served under Theodosius in the war with Maximus, and who was then commanding the Roman army in Gaul. The man, instead of having himself made emperor (he was but a barbarian), raised to the imperial power one Eugenius, said to be a rhetorician, and his secretary. But the murder of Valentinian was speedily avenged. With the aid of the famous soldier Stilicho, Theodosius, again in the neighbourhood of Aquileia, in the same year, overthrew this new and contemptible rival. It is said that heaven favoured him in the battle, and contributed to his enemy's discomfiture by a violent storm. Now for the last time the empire was united under a single head. For a few months Theodosius was emperor of the East and of the West, but in the following year (395) he died. His two sons, Honorius and Arcadius, had already received the rank and title of Augusti. The first was a boy of eleven years of age, and, with Stilicho for his guardian, he was to reign over the West. It would seem that the father trusted that the principle of hereditary succession was now in some degree recognized, and might be sufficiently respected to ensure something like a permanent settlement.

His elder son Arcadius was to succeed him in the East. With Arcadius begins the definite final separation