sign the sceptre of the world, and to seek
for content (where alone it could be found) in the peaceful obscurity of
a private condition. [78]

[Footnote 76: Zonaras, tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 16. The position of Sardica,
near the modern city of Sophia, appears better suited to this interview
than the situation of either Naissus or Sirmium, where it is placed by
Jerom, Socrates, and Sozomen.]

[Footnote 77: See the two first orations of Julian, particularly p.
31; and Zosimus, l. ii. p. 122. The distinct narrative of the historian
serves to illustrate the diffuse but vague descriptions of the orator.]

[Footnote 78: The younger Victor assigns to his exile the emphatical
appellation of "Voluptarium otium." Socrates (l. ii. c. 28) is the
voucher for the correspondence with the emperor, which would seem to
prove that Vetranio was indeed, prope ad stultitiam simplicissimus.]

The behavior of Constantius on this memorable occasion was celebrated
with some appearance of justice; and his courtiers compared the studied
orations which a Pericles or a Demosthenes addressed to the populace
of Athens, with the victorious eloquence which had persuaded an armed
multitude to desert and depose the object of their partial choice. [79]
The approaching contest with Magnentius was of a more serious and bloody
kind. The tyrant advanced by rapid marches to encounter Constantius, at
the head of a numerous army, composed of Gauls and Spaniards, of Franks
and Saxons; of those provincials who supplied the strength of the
legions, and of those barbarians who were dreaded as the most formidable
enemies of the republic. The fertile plains [80] of the Lower Pannonia,
between the Drave, the Save, and the Danube, presented a spacious
theatre; and the operations of the civil war were protracted during
the summer months by the skill or timidity of the combatants. [81]
Constantius had declared his intention of deciding the quarrel in
the fields of Cibalis, a name that would animate his troops by the
remembrance of the victory, which, on the same auspicious ground,
had been obtained by the arms of his father Constantine. Yet by the
impregnable fortifications with which the emperor encompassed his camp,
he appeared to decline, rather than to invite, a general engagement.

It was the object of Magnentius to tempt or to compel his adversary to
relinquish this advantageous position; and he employed, with that view,
the various marches, evolutions, and stratagem