Buat (Hist. des Peup es de l'Europe, tom.
vii. p. 292-300) has established the reality, explained the motives, and
traced the consequences, of this remarkable cession.]

[Footnote 7: See the first Novel of Theodosius, by which he ratifies and
communicates (A.D. 438) the Theodosian Code. About forty years before
that time, the unity of legislation had been proved by an exception. The
Jews, who were numerous in the cities of Apulia and Calabria, produced a
law of the East to justify their exemption from municipal offices, (Cod.
Theod. l. xvi. tit. viii. leg. 13;) and the Western emperor was obliged
to invalidate, by a special edict, the law, quam constat meis partibus
esse damnosam. Cod. Theod. l. xi. tit. i. leg. 158.] Valentinian, when
he received the title of Augustus, was no more than six years of age;
and his long minority was intrusted to the guardian care of a mother,
who might assert a female claim to the succession of the Western empire.
Placidia envied, but she could not equal, the reputation and virtues of
the wife and sister of Theodosius, the elegant genius of Eudocia, the
wise and successful policy of Pulcheria. The mother of Valentinian was
jealous of the power which she was incapable of exercising; [8] she
reigned twenty-five years, in the name of her son; and the character of
that unworthy emperor gradually countenanced the suspicion that Placidia
had enervated his youth by a dissolute education, and studiously
diverted his attention from every manly and honorable pursuit. Amidst
the decay of military spirit, her armies were commanded by two generals,
Aetius [9] and Boniface, [10] who may be deservedly named as the last
of the Romans. Their union might have supported a sinking empire; their
discord was the fatal and immediate cause of the loss of Africa. The
invasion and defeat of Attila have immortalized the fame of Aetius;
and though time has thrown a shade over the exploits of his rival,
the defence of Marseilles, and the deliverance of Africa, attest the
military talents of Count Boniface. In the field of battle, in
partial encounters, in single combats, he was still the terror of the
Barbarians: the clergy, and particularly his friend Augustin, were
edified by the Christian piety which had once tempted him to retire from
the world; the people applauded his spotless integrity; the army dreaded
his equal and inexorable justice, which may be displayed in a very
singular example. A peasant, who complained