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 or THE ROMAN EMPIRE 47 sent, which lie required before he would march to the assistance of Tripoli^ his demand was equivalent to a refusal, and he might justly be accused as the author of the public calamity. In the annual assembly of the three cities, they nominated two deputies, to lay at the feet of Valentinian the customaiy offering of a gold victoiy ; and to accompany this tribute of duty, rather than of gratitude, with their humble complaint that they were ruined by the enemy and betrayed by their governor. If the severity of Valentinian had been rightly directed, it would have fallen on the guilty head of Romanus. But the Count, long exercised in the arts of corruption, had dispatched a swift and trusty messen- ger to secure the venal friendship of Remigius, master of the offices. The wisdom of the Imperial council was deceived by artifice ; and their honest indignation was cooled by delay. At length, when the repetition of complaint had been justified by the repetition of public misfortunes, the notary Palladius was sent from the court of Treves, to examine the state of Africa, and the conduct of Romanus. The rigid impartiality of Palladius was easily disarmed : he was tempted to reserve for himself a part of the public treasure which he brought with him for the payment of the troops ; and from the moment that he was conscious of his owti guilt, he could no longer refuse to attest the innocence and merit of the Count. The charge of the Tripolitans was declared to be false and frivolous ; and Palladius himself was sent back from Treves to Africa, with a special commission to discover and prosecute the authors of this impious conspiracy against the representatives of the sovereign. His inquiries were managed with so much dexterity and success that he compelled the citizens of Leptis, who had sustained a recent siege of eight days, to contradict the truth of their own decx*ees and to censure the behaviour of their own deputies. A bloody sentence was pronomiced, without hesitation, by the rash and headstrong cruelty of Valentinian. The president of Tripoli, who had presumed to pity the distress of the province, was pub- licly executed at Utica ; four distinguished citizens were put to death as the accomplices of the imaginary fraud ; and the tongues of two others were cut out by the express order of the emperor. Romanus, elated by impunity and irritated by resist- ance, was still continued in the militarj^ command ; till the Africans were provoked by his avarice to join the rebellious standard of Firm us, the Moor.^^^ 125 Ammian. xviii. 6. Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. v. p. 25, 676) has discussed the chronological difficulties of the history of Count Romanus. [Attacks