Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/27

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 7 was chosen for the place of the election. ^^ In a solemn as- sembly of the civil and military powers of the empire, the diadem was a^ain unanimously offered to the praefect Sallust. He enjoyed the glory of a second refusal ; and, when the virtues of the father were alleged in favour of his son, the praefect, ■with the firmness of a disinterested patriot, declared to the electors that the feeble age of the one and the unexperienced youth of the other were equally incapable of the laborious duties of government. Several candidates were proposed, and, after weighing the objections of character or situation, they were successively rejected ; but, as soon as the name of Valentinian was pronounced, the merit of that officer united the suffrages Election and of the whole assembly, and obtained the sincere approbation vaientuuan of Sallust himself. Valentinian ^i was the son of count Gratian,22 a native of Cibalis, in Pannonia, who, from ancvinkovce] obscure condition, had raised himself, by matchless strength and dexterity, to the military commands of Africa and Britain ; from which he retired with an ample fortune and suspicious integrity. The rank and services of Gratian contributed, how- ever, to smooth the first steps of tlie promotion of his son ; and afforded him an early opportunity of displaying those solid and useful qualifications which raised his character above the ordinary level of his fellow-soldiers. The person of Valen- tinian was tall, graceful, and majestic. His manly countenance, deeply marked with the impression of sense and spirit, inspired his friends with awe, and his enemies with fear : and, to second the efforts of his undaunted courage, the son of Gratian had inherited the advantages of a strong and healthy constitution. By the habits of chastity and temperance, which restrain the appetites and invigorate the faculties, Valentinian preserved his own, and the public, esteem. The avocations of a military life had diverted his youth from the elegant pursuits of literature ; he was ignorant of the Greek language and the arts of rhetoric ; but, as the mind of the orator was never dis- 20Ammianus, xxvi. i. Zosimus, 1. iii. p. 198 [c. 36]. Philostor^us, 1. viii. c. 8, and Godefroy, Dissertat. p. 334. Philostorgius, who appears to have obtained some curious and authentic intelligence, ascribes the choice of Valentinian to the praefect Sallust [Secundus ; not Sallust], the master-general Arintheus, Dagalaiphus count of the domestics, and the Patrician Datianus, whose pressing recommenda- tions from Ancyra had a weighty influence in the election. 21 Ammianus (xxx. 7, 9), and the younger Victor [Epit. 45], have furnished the portrait of Valentinian ; which naturally precedes and illustrates the history of his reign. [Additional material in Symmachus, Or. i. ; cp. Appendix i.] 22 [^Inscription in memory of Gratian C. I. L. 8, 7014.]