Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/141

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 121 Theodosius obtained, as a favour, the permission of retiring to a private life in his native province of Spain. He displayed a firm and tempei'ate character in the ease with which he adapted himself to this new situation. His time was almost equally divided between the town and country : the spirit which had animated his public conduct was shewn in the active and affec- tionate performance of every social duty ; and the diligence of the soldier was profitably converted to the improvement of his ample patrimony,^!^ which lay between Valladolid and Segovia, in the midst of a fruitful district still famous for a most exquisite breed of sheep. ^^* From the innocent but humble labours of his farm Theodosius was transported, in less than four months, to the throne of the Eastern empire ; ^^^ and the whole period of the history of the world will not perhaps afford a similar example of an elevation, at the same time, so pure and so honourable. The princes who peaceably inherit the sceptre of their fathers claim and enjoy a legal right, the more secure as it is absolutely distinct from the merits of their personal characters. The subjects, who, in a monarchy or a popular estate, acquire the possession of supreme power, may have raised themselves, by the superiority either of genius or virtue, above the heads of their equals ; but their virtue is seldom exempt from ambition ; and the cause of the successful candidate is frequently stained by the guilt of conspiracy or civil war. Even in those govern- ments which allow the reigning monarch to declare a colleague or a successor, his partial choice, which may be influenced by the blindest passions, is often directed to an unworthy object. But the most suspicious malignity cannot ascribe to Theodosius, in his obscure solitude of Caucha, the arts, the desires, or even the hopes, of an ambitious statesman ; and the name of the Exile would long since have been foi-gotten, if his genuine and distinguished virtues had not left a deep impression in the Im- perial court. During the season of prosperity, he had been neg- lected ; but, in the public distress, his superior merit was universally felt and acknowledged. What confidence must have been reposed in his integrity, since Gratian could trust that a pious son would forgive, for the sake of the republic, the ii^Pacatus (in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 9) prefers the rustic life of Theodosius to that of Cincinnatus ; the one was the effect of choice, the other of poverty. ^^^ M. d'Anville (G^-ographie Ancienne, torn. i. p. 25) has fixed the situation of Caucha, or Coca, in the old province of Gallicia, where Zosimus [iv. 24] and Idatins [in Cont. Chron. Hieron.] have placed the birth, or patrimony, of Theodosius. 115 [Recalled from exile some months before his investiture he won a victory over the Sarmatians ; see above, c. xxv. note 157. Cp. Ifland, p. 59.]