assembly of the civil and military powers of the empire, the
diadem was again unanimously offered to the praefect Sallust. He enjoyed
the glory of a second refusal: and when the virtues of the father
were alleged in favor of his son, the praefect, with the firmness of a
disinterested patriot, declared to the electors, that the feeble age
of the one, and the unexperienced youth of the other, were equally
incapable of the laborious duties of government. Several candidates were
proposed; and, after weighing the objections of character or situation,
they were successively rejected; but, as soon as the name of Valentinian
was pronounced, the merit of that officer united the suffrages of the
whole assembly, and obtained the sincere approbation of Sallust himself.
Valentinian [21] was the son of Count Gratian, a native of Cibalis, in
Pannonia, who from an obscure condition had raised himself, by matchless
strength and dexterity, to the military commands of Africa and Britain;
from which he retired with an ample fortune and suspicious integrity.
The rank and services of Gratian contributed, however, to smooth the
first steps of the promotion of his son; and afforded him an early
opportunity of displaying those solid and useful qualifications, which
raised his character above the ordinary level of his fellow-soldiers.
The person of Valentinian was tall, graceful, and majestic. His manly
countenance, deeply marked with the impression of sense and spirit,
inspired his friends with awe, and his enemies with fear; and to second
the efforts of his undaunted courage, the son of Gratian had inherited
the advantages of a strong and healthy constitution. By the habits of
chastity and temperance, which restrain the appetites and invigorate
the faculties, Valentinian preserved his own and the public esteem. The
avocations of a military life had diverted his youth from the elegant
pursuits of literature; [21a] he was ignorant of the Greek language,
and the arts of rhetoric; but as the mind of the orator was never
disconcerted by timid perplexity, he was able, as often as the occasion
prompted him, to deliver his decided sentiments with bold and ready
elocution. The laws of martial discipline were the only laws that he had
studied; and he was soon distinguished by the laborious diligence, and
inflexible severity, with which he discharged and enforced the duties of
the camp. In the time of Julian he provoked the danger of disgrace, by
the conte