Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/198

 178 THE DECLINE AND FALL pernicious attachment to the Arian sect, which Valentinian liad imbibed from her example and instructions, was soon erased by the lessons of a more orthodox education. His grow- ing zeal for the faith of Nice and his filial reverence for the character and authority of Ambrose disposed the Catholics to entertain the most favourable opinion of the virtues of the young emperor of the West.^°^ They applauded his chastity and temperance, his contempt of pleasure, his application to business, and his tender affection for his two sisters ; which could not, however, seduce his impartial equity to pronounce an mijust sentence against the meanest of his subjects. But this amiable youth, before he had accomplished the twentieth year of his age, was oppressed by domestic treason ; and the empire was again involved in the horrors of a civil war, Arbogastes,!*^*^ a gallant soldier of the nation of the Franks, held the second rank in the service of Gratian. Or. the death of his master, he joined the standard of Theodosius ; contributed, by his valour and military conduct, to the destruction of the tyrant ; and was appointed, after the victory, master-general of the armies of Gaul. His real merit and apparent fidelity had gained the confidence both of the prince and people ; his boundless liberality corrupted the allegiance of the troops ; and, whilst he was universally esteemed as the pillar of the state, the bold and crafty Barbarian was secretly determined either to rule or to ruin the empire of the West. The important commands of the army were distributed among the Franks ; the creatures of Arbogastes were promoted to all the honours and offices of the civil government ; the progress of the con- spiracy removed every faithful servant from the presence of Valentinian ; and the emperor, without power and without in- telligence, insensibly sunk into the precarious and dependent condition of a captive.^*^"^ The indignation which he expressed, though it might arise only from the rash and impatient temper of youth, may be candidly ascribed to the generous spirit of a 1"* See Ambrose (torn. ii. de Obit. Valentinian. c. 15, &c. p. 1178 ; c. 36, &c. p. 1184). When the young emperor gave an entertainment, he fasted himself; he refused to see an handsome actress, Sec. Since he ordered his wild beasts to be killed, it is ungenerous in Philostorgius (1. xi. c. i) to reproach him with the love of that amusement. 1*6 Zosimus (1. iv. p. 275 [c. 53]) praises the enemy of Theodosius. But he is detested by Socrates (1. v. c. 25) and Orosius (1. ii. c. 35). [Ace. to John of Antioch (Miiller, F. H. G. iv. fr. 187), Arbogast was son of Bauto, and nephew of Richomer.] 10^ Gregory of Tours (1. ii. c. 9, p. 165, in the second volume of the Historians of France) has preserved a curious fragment of Sulpicius Alexander, an historian far more val t, ""le than himself.