Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/31

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 11 whole proceedings of this delicate inquiry appear to have been conducted with a reasonable share of wisdom and moderation. ^2 The festivity of a new reign received a short and suspicious interruption from the sudden illness of the two princes ; but, as soon as their health was restored, they left Constantinople in the beginning of the spring. In the castle or palace of Mediana, only three miles from Naissus, they executed the solemn and final division of the Roman empire. -'^ Valentinian bestowed on his brother the rich praefecture of the Ea^t, from the Lower Danube to tlie confines of Persia ; whilst he reserved for his immediate government the warlike praefectures otilh/riann, Italy and Gaul, from the extremity of Greece to the Caledonian rampart ; and from the rampart of Caledonia to the foot of Mount Atlas. The provincial administration remained on its former basis ; but a double supply of generals and magistrates was re- quired for two councils and two courts : the division was made with a just regard to their peculiar merit and situation, and seven master-generals were soon created, either of the cavalry or infantry. When this important business had been amicably transacted, Valentinian and Valens embraced for the last time. The emperor of the West established his temporary residence at Milan ; and the emperor of the East returned to Con- stantinople, to assume the dominion of fifty provinces, of whose language he was totally ignorant.^-^ The tranquillity of the East was soon disturbed by rebellion ; |^J°^*j°^ and the throne of Valens was threatened by the daring attempts a.d^^^^^^^ of a rival, whose affinity to the Emperor Julian ^^ was his sole merit, and had been his only crime. Procopius had been hastily promoted from the obscure station of a tribune and a notary to the joint command of the army of Mesopotamia ; the public opinion already named him as the successor of a prince who was destitute of natural heirs ; and a vain rumour was propagated by his friends, or his enemies, that Julian, before the altar of the Moon, at Carrhae, had privately invested Procopius with the 32 The loose assertions of a general disgrace (Zosimus, 1. iv. p. 201 [c. 2]) are detected and refuted by Tillemont (torn. v. p. 21). 33Ammianus, xxvi. 5. s^Ammianus says, in general terms, subagrestis ingenii, nee bellicis nee liberalibus studiis eruditus. Ammian. xxxi. 14. The orator Themistius, with the genuine impertinence of a Greek, wished for the first time to speak the Latin language, the dialect of his sovereign, -r'-qv SidkeKTov Kparova-av. Orat. vi. p. 71. ^5 The uncertain degree of alliance, or consanguinity, is expressed by the words aKei/dos, cognatus, consobrinus (see Valesius ad Ammian. xxiii. 3). The mother of Procopius might be a sister of Basilina and Count Julian, the mother and uncle of tjie apostate. Ducange, Fam. Byzantin. p. 49.