; or of securing
the obedience of the Italians and Africans, whose minds were alienated
by the irreconcilable difference of language and interest. Instead of
listening to the voice of ambition, Theodosius resolved to imitate the
moderation of his grandfather, and to seat his cousin Valentinian on the
throne of the West. The royal infant was distinguished at Constantinople
by the title of Nobilissimus: he was promoted, before his departure from
Thessalonica, to the rank and dignity of Caesar; and after the conquest
of Italy, the patrician Helion, by the authority of Theodosius, and in
the presence of the senate, saluted Valentinian the Third by the name
of Augustus, and solemnly invested him with the diadem and the Imperial
purple. [5] By the agreement of the three females who governed the Roman
world, the son of Placidia was betrothed to Eudoxia, the daughter of
Theodosius and Athenais; and as soon as the lover and his bride had
attained the age of puberty, this honorable alliance was faithfully
accomplished. At the same time, as a compensation, perhaps, for the
expenses of the war, the Western Illyricum was detached from the Italian
dominions, and yielded to the throne of Constantinople. [6] The emperor
of the East acquired the useful dominion of the rich and maritime
province of Dalmatia, and the dangerous sovereignty of Pannonia and
Noricum, which had been filled and ravaged above twenty years by
a promiscuous crowd of Huns, Ostrogoths, Vandals, and Bavarians.
Theodosius and Valentinian continued to respect the obligations of their
public and domestic alliance; but the unity of the Roman government was
finally dissolved. By a positive declaration, the validity of all future
laws was limited to the dominions of their peculiar author; unless he
should think proper to communicate them, subscribed with his own hand,
for the approbation of his independent colleague. [7]

[Footnote 4: See Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis, l. ii. c. 7. He
has laboriously out vainly, attempted to form a reasonable system of
jurisprudence from the various and discordant modes of royal succession,
which have been introduced by fraud or force, by time or accident.]

[Footnote 5: The original writers are not agreed (see Muratori, Annali
d'Italia tom. iv. p. 139) whether Valentinian received the Imperial
diadem at Rome or Ravenna. In this uncertainty, I am willing to believe,
that some respect was shown to the senate.]

[Footnote 6: The count de