itius with less propriety, but without
much injustice, has been substituted in the text.]

[Footnote 152: Julian (Orat. vi. p. 198) represents his friend Iphicles,
as a man of virtue and merit, who had made himself ridiculous and
unhappy by adopting the extravagant dress and manners of the Cynics.]

[Footnote 153: Ammian. xxx. v. Jerom, who exaggerates the misfortune of
Valentinian, refuses him even this last consolation of revenge. Genitali
vastato solo et inultam patriam derelinquens, (tom. i. p. 26.)]

[Footnote 154: See, on the death of Valentinian, Ammianus, (xxx. 6,)
Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 221,) Victor, (in Epitom.,) Socrates, (l. iv. c.
31,) and Jerom, (in Chron. p. 187, and tom. i. p. 26, ad Heliodor.)
There is much variety of circumstances among them; and Ammianus is so
eloquent, that he writes nonsense.]

The polygamy of Valentinian is seriously attested by an ecclesiastical
historian. [155] "The empress Severa (I relate the fable) admitted into
her familiar society the lovely Justina, the daughter of an Italian
governor: her admiration of those naked charms, which she had often seen
in the bath, was expressed with such lavish and imprudent praise, that
the emperor was tempted to introduce a second wife into his bed; and
his public edict extended to all the subjects of the empire the same
domestic privilege which he had assumed for himself." But we may be
assured, from the evidence of reason as well as history, that the
two marriages of Valentinian, with Severa, and with Justina, were
successively contracted; and that he used the ancient permission of
divorce, which was still allowed by the laws, though it was condemned by
the church Severa was the mother of Gratian, who seemed to unite every
claim which could entitle him to the undoubted succession of the Western
empire. He was the eldest son of a monarch whose glorious reign had
confirmed the free and honorable choice of his fellow-soldiers. Before
he had attained the ninth year of his age, the royal youth received from
the hands of his indulgent father the purple robe and diadem, with the
title of Augustus; the election was solemnly ratified by the consent and
applause of the armies of Gaul; [156] and the name of Gratian was added
to the names of Valentinian and Valens, in all the legal transactions
of the Roman government. By his marriage with the granddaughter of
Constantine, the son of Valentinian acquired all the hereditary rights
of the Flavian family;