e Goths,
who had been converted to Christianity by Ulfilas, an Arian. To escape
the Huns, a part of this people, the West Goths (Visigoths), fled into
Roman territory, defeated the Roman armies, and overspread the country
even to Greece. Valens, the emperor of the East, had perished in the
defeat of Adrianople (378); Gratian, the emperor of the West, took as
colleague a noble Spaniard, Theodosius by name, and gave him the title
of Augustus of the East (379). Theodosius was able to rehabilitate his
army by avoiding a great battle with the Visigoths and by making a war
of skirmishes against them; this decided them to conclude a treaty.
They accepted service under the empire, land was given them in the
country to the south of the Danube, and they were charged with
preventing the enemies of the empire from crossing the river.

Theodosius, having reestablished peace in the East, came to the West
where Gratian had been killed by order of the usurper Maximus (383).
This Maximus was the commander of the Roman army of Britain; he had
crossed into Gaul with his army, abandoning the Roman provinces of
Britain to the ravages of the highland Scotch, had defeated Gratian,
and invaded Italy. He was master of the West, Theodosius of the East.
The contest between them was not only one between persons; it was a
battle between two religions: Theodosius was Catholic and had
assembled a council at Constantinople to condemn the heresy of Arius
(381); Maximus was ill-disposed toward the church. The engagement
occurred on the banks of the Save; Maximus was defeated, taken, and
executed.

Theodosius established Valentinian II, the son of Gratian, in the West
and then returned to the East. But Arbogast, a barbarian Frank, the
general of the troops of Valentinian, had the latter killed, and
without venturing to proclaim himself emperor since he was not a
Roman, had his Roman secretary Eugenius made emperor. This was a
religious war: Arbogast had taken the side of the pagans; Theodosius,
the victor, had Eugenius executed and himself remained the sole
emperor. His victory was that of the Catholic church.

In 391 the emperor Theodosius promulgated the Edict of Milan. It
prohibited the practice of the ancient religion; whoever offered a
sacrifice, adored an idol, or entered a temple should be condemned to
death as a state criminal, and his goods should be confiscated to the
profit of the informer. All the pagan temples were razed to the ground
or