Page:Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus.djvu/460

 had been saved with difficulty. And he proposed to invest his son Gratian, who was now on the point of arriving at manhood, with the ensigns of the imperial authority.

5. And when everything was prepared, and the consent of the soldiers secured, in order that all men might willingly accept the new emperor, immediately upon the arrival of Gratian, Valentinian advancing into the open space, mounted the tribune, and surrounded by a splendid circle of nobles and princes, and holding the boy by his right hand, showed him to them all, and in the following formal harangue recommended their intended sovereign to the army.

6. "This imperial robe which I wear is a happy indication of your good will towards me when you adjudged me superior to many illustrious men. Now, with you as the partners of my counsels and the favourers of my wishes, I will proceed to a seasonable work of affection, relying on the protecting promises of God, to whose eternal assistance it is owing that the Roman state stands and ever shall stand unshaken.

7.  "Listen, I beseech you, O most gallant men, with willing minds to my desire, recollecting that these things which the laws of natural affection sanction, we have in this instance not only wished to accomplish with your perfect cognizance, but we have also desired to have them confirmed by you as what is proper for us and likely to prove beneficial.

8.  This, my grown-up son Gratian, to whom all of you bear affection as a common pledge, who has long lived among your own children, I am, for the sake of securing the public tranquillity on all sides, about to take as my colleague in the imperial authority, if the propitious will of the ruler of heaven and of your dignity, shall co-operate with a parent's affection. He has not been trained by a rigid education from his very cradle as we ourselves have: nor has he been equally taught to endure hardships; nor is he as yet, as you see, able to endure the toils of war; but in his disposition he is not unworthy of the glorious; reputation of his family, or the mighty deeds of his ancestors, and, I venture to say, he is likely to grow up equal to still greater actions.

9.  "For as I often think when contemplating, as I am  wont