Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/204

 :184 THE DECLINE AND FALL such as is often felt among the Alps, suddenly arose from the East. The army of Theodosius was sheltered by their position from the impetuosity of the wind, which blew a cloud of dust in the faces of the enemy, disordered their ranks, wrested their weapons from their hands, and diverted or re- pelled their ineffectual javelins. This accidental advantage was skilfully improved ; the violence of the storm was magnified by the superstitious terrors of the Gauls ; and they yielded without shame to the invisible powers of heaven, who seemed to militate on the side of the pious emperor. His victory was decisive ; and the deaths of his two rivals were distinguished only by the difference of their characters. The rhetorician Eugenius, who had almost acquired the dominion of the world, was reduced to implore the mercy of the con- queror ; and the unrelenting soldiers separated his head from his body, as he lay prostrate at the feet of Theodosius. Arbogastes, after the loss of a battle in which he had discharged the duties of a soldier and a general, wandered several days among the mountains. But, when he was convinced that his cause was desperate, and his escape impracticable, the in- trepid Barbarian imitated the example of the ancient Romans, and turned his sword against his own breast. The fate of the empire was determined in a narrow corner of Italy, and the legitimate successor of the house of Valentinian embraced the archbishop of Milan, and graciously received the submission of the provinces of the West. Those provinces were involved in the guilt of rebellion ; while the inflexible courage of Ambrose alone had resisted the claims of successful usurpation. With a manly freedom, which might have been fatal to any other subject, the archbishop rejected the gifts of Eugenius, declined [toFiorencej his Correspondence, and withdrew himself from Milan, to avoid the odious presence of a tyi'ant, whose downfall he predicted in discreet and ambiguous language. The merit of Ambrose was applauded by the conqueror, who secured the attachment of the people by his alliance with the church ; and the clemency of Theodosius is ascribed to the humane intercession of the arch- bishop of Milan.i^^ 124 The events of this civil war are gathered from Ambrose (torn. ii. epist. Ixii. p. I022 [cp. Ep. 57]), Paiilinus (in Vit. Ambros. c. 26-34), Augustin (de Civitat. Dei, V. 26), Orosius (1. vii. c. 35), Sozomen (1. vii. c. 24), Theodoret (1. v. c. 24), Zosimus (1. iv. p. 281, 282 [c. 58]), Claudian (in iii. Cons. Hon. 63-105, in iv. Cons. Hon. 70-117), and the Chronicles published by Scaliger. [See also Philo- storg. xi. 2 ; .Socrates, v. 25 ; Victor, Epit. ; and cp. Sievers, Siudien, p. 326 sqq. Cp. Appendix lo.j