most suspicious malignity cannot ascribe to Theodosius,
in his obscure solitude of Caucha, the arts, the desires, or even the
hopes, of an ambitious statesman; and the name of the Exile would long
since have been forgotten, if his genuine and distinguished virtues had
not left a deep impression in the Imperial court. During the season
of prosperity, he had been neglected; but, in the public distress, his
superior merit was universally felt and acknowledged. What confidence
must have been reposed in his integrity, since Gratian could trust, that
a pious son would forgive, for the sake of the republic, the murder of
his father! What expectations must have been formed of his abilities
to encourage the hope, that a single man could save, and restore, the
empire of the East! Theodosius was invested with the purple in the
thirty-third year of his age. The vulgar gazed with admiration on the
manly beauty of his face, and the graceful majesty of his person, which
they were pleased to compare with the pictures and medals of the emperor
Trajan; whilst intelligent observers discovered, in the qualities of his
heart and understanding, a more important resemblance to the best and
greatest of the Roman princes.

[Footnote 107: Italica, founded by Scipio Africanus for his wounded
veterans of Italy. The ruins still appear, about a league above Seville,
but on the opposite bank of the river. See the Hispania Illustrata of
Nonius, a short though valuable treatise, c. xvii. p. 64--67.]

[Footnote 108: I agree with Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p.
726) in suspecting the royal pedigree, which remained a secret till the
promotion of Theodosius. Even after that event, the silence of Pacatus
outweighs the venal evidence of Themistius, Victor, and Claudian, who
connect the family of Theodosius with the blood of Trajan and Hadrian.]

[Footnote 109: Pacatas compares, and consequently prefers, the youth
of Theodosius to the military education of Alexander, Hannibal, and the
second Africanus; who, like him, had served under their fathers, (xii.
8.)]

[Footnote 110: Ammianus (xxix. 6) mentions this victory of Theodosius
Junior Dux Maesiae, prima etiam tum lanugine juvenis, princeps postea
perspectissimus. The same fact is attested by Themistius and Zosimus but
Theodoret, (l. v. c. 5,) who adds some curious circumstances, strangely
applies it to the time of the interregnum.]

[Footnote 111: Pacatus (in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 9) prefers the