rostrate at the feet of Theodosius. Arbogastes, after the
loss of a battle, in which he had discharged the duties of a soldier and
a general, wandered several days among the mountains. But when he was
convinced that his cause was desperate, and his escape impracticable,
the intrepid Barbarian imitated the example of the ancient Romans, and
turned his sword against his own breast. The fate of the empire was
determined in a narrow corner of Italy; and the legitimate successor
of the house of Valentinian embraced the archbishop of Milan, and
graciously received the submission of the provinces of the West. Those
provinces were involved in the guilt of rebellion; while the inflexible
courage of Ambrose alone had resisted the claims of successful
usurpation. With a manly freedom, which might have been fatal to any
other subject, the archbishop rejected the gifts of Eugenius, [1201]
declined his correspondence, and withdrew himself from Milan, to avoid
the odious presence of a tyrant, whose downfall he predicted in discreet
and ambiguous language. The merit of Ambrose was applauded by the
conqueror, who secured the attachment of the people by his alliance with
the church; and the clemency of Theodosius is ascribed to the humane
intercession of the archbishop of Milan. [121]

[Footnote 116: Claudian (in iv. Cons. Honor. 77, &c.) contrasts the
military plans of the two usurpers:--

.... Novitas audere priorem
Suadebat; cautumque dabant exempla sequentem.
Hic nova moliri praeceps: hic quaerere tuta
Providus. Hic fusis; colectis viribus ille.
Hic vagus excurrens; hic claustra reductus
Dissimiles, sed morte pares......]

[Footnote 117: The Frigidus, a small, though memorable, stream in the
country of Goretz, now called the Vipao, falls into the Sontius, or
Lisonzo, above Aquileia, some miles from the Adriatic. See D'Anville's
ancient and modern maps, and the Italia Antiqua of Cluverius, (tom. i.
c. 188.)]

[Footnote 118: Claudian's wit is intolerable: the snow was dyed red; the
cold ver smoked; and the channel must have been choked with carcasses
the current had not been swelled with blood. Confluxit populus: totam
pater undique secum Moverat Aurorem; mixtis hic Colchus Iberis, Hic
mitra velatus Arabs, hic crine decoro Armenius, hic picta Saces,
fucataque Medus, Hic gemmata tiger tentoria fixerat Indus.--De Laud.
Stil. l. 145.--M.]

[Footnote 119: Theodoret affirms, that St. John, and St. Phili