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 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 31 rationally (continues the honest Pagan) would those pontiffs consult their true happiness^ if, instead of alleging the greatness of the city as an excuse for their manners, they would imitate the exemplary life of some provincial bishops, whose temperance and sobriety, whose mean apparel and downcast looks, recom- mended their pure and modest virtue to the Deity and his true worshippers." ^^ The schism of Damasus and Ursinus was extinguished by the exile of the latter ; and the wisdom of the praefect Praetextatus ^^ restored the tranquillity of the city. Praetextatus was a philosophic Pagan, a man of learning, of taste, and politeness ; who disguised a reproach in the form of a jest, when he assured Damasus that, if he could obtain the bishopric of Rome, he himself would immediately embrace the Christian religion.^*^ This lively picture of the wealth and luxury of the popes in the fourth century becomes the more curious as it represents the intermediate degree between the humble poverty of the apostolic fisherman and the royal state of a temporal prince whose dominions extend from the confines of Naples to the banks of the Po. When the suffrage of the generals and of the army com- Foreign mitted the sceptre of the Roman empire to the hands of ad.' '^ 364-375 Valentinian, his reputation in arms, his military skill and experience, and his rigid attachment to the forms, as well as spirit, of ancient discipline, were the principal motives of their judicious choice. The eagerness of the troops who pressed him to nominate his colleague was justified by the dangerous situa- tion of public affairs ; and Valentinian himself was conscious that the abilities of the most active mind were unequal to the defence 88Ammian. xxvii. 3. Perpetuo Numini, verisque ejus cultoribus. The incom- parable pliancy of a Polytheist ! ^^Ammianus, who makes a fair report of his prsefecture (xxvii. 9), styles him prseclarae indolis gravitatisque senator (xxii. 7, and Vales, ad loc). A curious inscription (Gruter MCII. No. 2) records, in two columns, his religious and civil honours. In one line he was Pontiff of the Sun, and of Vesta, Augur, Quindecem vir, Hierophant, &c., &c. In the other, i. Quaestor candidatus, more probably titular. 2. Praetor. 3. Corrector of Tuscany and Umbria. 4. Consular of Lusitania. 5. Proconsul of Achaia. 6. Prefect of Rome. 7. Prsetorian praefect of Italy. 8. Of Illyricum. [This is incorrect : the writer states that he was Praet. Pragf. Italiaeet Illyrici, — which formed one prefecture. See above, vol. ii. Appendix 15.] 9. Consul elect ; but he died before the beginning of the year 385. See Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs, torn. v. p. 241, 736. [See C. I. L. 6, 1778. Cp. 1777 and i779> of which the latter contains a most remarkable iambic and pagan poem to his wife Paulina.] ^ Facite me Romanas urbis episcopum ; et ero protinus Christianus (Jerom, torn. ii. p. 165). It is more than probable that Damasus would not have purchased his conversion at such a price.