Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/142

 19] 122 THE DECLINE AND FALL murder of his father ! What expectations must have been formed of his abihties to encourage the hope that a single man could save, and restore, the empire of the East ! Theodosius AD. 379 Jan. was invested with the purple in the thirty-third year of his age. The vulgar gazed with admiration on the manly beauty of his face, and the graceful majesty of his person, which they were pleased to compare with the pictures and medals of the emperor Trajan ; whilst intelligent observers discovered, in the qualities of his heart and understanding, a more important resemblance to the best and greatest of the Roman princes. His prudent It is not witliout the most sincere regret that I must now take oondu°c"of tS ^^i^'e of an accurate and faithful guide, who has composed the A^u'sT^lffi history of his own times without indulging the prejudices and passions which usually affect the mind of a contemporary. Ammianus Marcellinus, who terminates his useful work with the defeat and death of Valens, recommends the more glorious subject of the ensuing reign to the youthful vigour and eloquence of the rising generation.^^^ The rising generation was not dis- posed to accept his advice or to imitate his example ; ^^ and, in the study of the reign of Theodosius, we are reduced to illustrate the pai-tial narrative of Zosimus by the obscure hints of fragments and chronicles, by the figurative style of poetry or panegyric, and by the precarious assistance of the ecclesiastical writers who, in the heat of religious faction, are apt to despise the profane virtues of sincerity and moderation. Conscious of these disadvantages, which will continue to involve a consider- able portion of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, I shall proceed with doubtful and timorous steps. Yet I may boldly pronounce that the battle of Hadrianople was never revenged by any signal or decisive victory of Theodosius over the Bar- barians ; and the expressive silence of his venal orators may be confirmed by the observation of the condition and circumstances of the times. The fabric of a mighty state, >vhich has been lis Let us hear Ammianus himself. Hnec, ut miles quondam et GrDecus, a principatu Ccesaris Nervee exorsus, adusque Valentis interitum, pro virium e.vplicavi mensuril : nunquam, ut arbitror, sciens, silentio ausus corrumpere vel mendacio. Scribant reliqua potiores setate doctrinisque florentes. Quos id, si libuerit, ag- gressuros, procudere linguas ad majores moneo stilos. Ammian. xxxi. i6. The first thirteen books, a siiperiiciai epitome of two hundred and lifty-seven years, are now lost; the last eighteen, which contain no more than twentv-five years, still preserve the copious and authentic history of his own times. [Cp. vol. 2, Appendix i.] 11" Ammianus was the last subject of Rome who composed a profane history in the I>atin language. The East, in the next century, produced some rhetorical historians, Zosimus, Olympiodorus, Malchus, Candidus, &c. See Vossius de Hisloricis Graecis, 1. ii. c. i8, de Historicis Latinis, 1. ii. c, lo, &c.