uired him. He laboured
that the Empire might rest.

[Sidenote: His official career.]

'We found him Magister; but he discharged the duties of Quaestor, and
willingly bestowed on us, the heir, the experience which he had gained
in the counsels of our grandfather.

[Sidenote: His military services.]

'And not only so, he helped the beginning of our reign both with his
arms and his pen. For when the care of our shores[627] occupied our
royal meditation, he suddenly emerged from the seclusion of his
cabinet, boldly, like his ancestors, assumed the office of
General[628], and triumphed by his character when there was no enemy
to overcome. For he maintained the Gothic warriors[629] at his own
charges, so that there should be no robbery of the Provincials on the
one hand, no too heavy burden on the exchequer on the other. Thus was
the soldier what he ought to be, the true defender, not the ravager of
his country. Then when the time for victualling the ships was over,
and the war was laid aside, he shone as an administrator rather than a
warrior, healing, without injury to the litigants, the various suits
which arose out of the sudden cessation of the contracts[630].

[Footnote 627: Probably from some expected descent of the Vandals, in
connection with the affair of Amalafrida.]

[Footnote 628: 'Par suis majoribus ducatum sumpsit intrepidus.']

[Footnote 629: 'Deputatos.']

[Footnote 630: A conjectural translation of a difficult sentence: 'Mox
autem ut tempus clausit navium commeatum, bellique cura resoluta est,
ingenium suum legum potius ductor exercuit: sanans sine damno
litigantium quod ante sub pretio comstabat esse laceratum.' I
conjecture that by the sudden stoppage of the warlike preparations
several of the contractors were in danger of being ruined, and there
was a general disposition to repudiate all purchases.]

'Such was the glory of the military command of a Metellus in Asia, of
a Cato in Spain--a glory far more durable than any that can be derived
from the varying shock of war.

[Sidenote: His religious character.]

'Yet with all these merits, how humble he has been, how modest, how
benevolent, how slow to wrath, how generous in the distribution of
that which is his own, how slow to covet the property of others! All
these virtues have been consolidated by his reading of the Divine
Book, the fear of God helping him to triumph over baser, human
motives. Thus has he been rendered humble towards all, as o