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 OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 319 degree of countenance, or at least of toleration, from a prince who, in his native country of Ionia, had been educated in the Pagan superstition, and who had since received the sacrament of baptism from the hands of an Arian bishop.'-'^ The first days of the reign of Attalus were fair and prosperous. An officer of confidence was sent with an inconsiderable body of troops to secure the obedience of Africa ; the greatest part of Italy sub- mitted to the terror of the Gothic powers ; and, though the city of Bologna made a vigorous and effectual resistance, the people of Milan, dissatisfied perhaps with the absence of Honor ius, accepted, with loud acclamations, the choice of the Roman senate. At the head of a formidable army Alaric con- ducted his royal captive almost to the gates of Ravenna ; and a solemn embassy of the principal ministers, of Jovius, the Prae- [a.d. 4io] torian praefect, of Valens, master of the cavalry and infantry, of the quaestor Potamius, and of Julian, the first of the notaries, Avas introduced Avith martial pomp into the Gothic camp. In the name of their sovereign they consented to acknowledge the lawful election of his competitor, and to divide the provinces of Italy and the West between the two emperors. Their proposals were rejected with disdain ; and the refusal was aggravated by the insulting clemency of Attalus, who condescended to promise that, if Honorius would instantly resign the purple, he should be permitted to pass the remainder of his life in the peaceful exile of some remote island. ^*^ So desperate indeed did the situation of the son of Theodosius appear to those who were the best acquainted Av'th his strength and resources, that Jovius and Valens, his minister and his general, beti-ayed their trust, in- famously deserted the sinking cause of their benefactor, and devoted their treacherous allegiance to the service of his more fortunate rival. Astonished by such examples of domestic treason, Honorius trembled at the approach of every servant, at the arrival of every messenger. He dreaded the secret enemies, who might lurk in his capital, his palace, his bed-chamber ; and some ships lay ready in the harbour of Ravenna to transport the 9-5 We may admit the evidence of Sozomen for the Arian baptism, and that of Philostorgius for the Pagan education, of Attalus. The visible joy of Zosiiiius, and the discontent which he imputes to the Anician family, are very unfavotuable to the Christianity of the new emperor. 9® He carried his insolence so far as to declare that he should mutilate Honorius before he sent him into exile. But this assertion of Zosimus is destroyed by the more impartial testimony of Olympiodorus, who attributes the ungenerous pro- posal (which was absolutely rejected by Attalus) to the baseness, and perhaps the treachery, of Jovius.