of producing very serious and solemn thoughts
in the mind of the victorious emperor. But the feeble emotion of
involuntary pity was checked by his regard for public justice, and the
memory of Gratian; and he abandoned the victim to the pious zeal of
the soldiers, who drew him out of the Imperial presence, and instantly
separated his head from his body. The intelligence of his defeat and
death was received with sincere or well-dissembled joy: his son Victor,
on whom he had conferred the title of Augustus, died by the order,
perhaps by the hand, of the bold Arbogastes; and all the military plans
of Theodosius were successfully executed. When he had thus terminated
the civil war, with less difficulty and bloodshed than he might
naturally expect, he employed the winter months of his residence at
Milan, to restore the state of the afflicted provinces; and early in the
spring he made, after the example of Constantine and Constantius, his
triumphal entry into the ancient capital of the Roman empire. [77]

[Footnote 76: See Godefroy's Chronology of the Laws, Cod. Theodos, tom
l. p. cxix.]

[Footnote 77: Besides the hints which may be gathered from chronicles
and ecclesiastical history, Zosimus (l. iv. p. 259--267,) Orosius, (l.
vii. c. 35,) and Pacatus, (in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 30-47,) supply the
loose and scanty materials of this civil war. Ambrose (tom. ii. Epist.
xl. p. 952, 953) darkly alludes to the well-known events of a magazine
surprised, an action at Petovio, a Sicilian, perhaps a naval, victory,
&c., Ausonius (p. 256, edit. Toll.) applauds the peculiar merit and good
fortune of Aquileia.] The orator, who may be silent without danger, may
praise without difficulty, and without reluctance; [78] and posterity
will confess, that the character of Theodosius [79] might furnish the
subject of a sincere and ample panegyric. The wisdom of his laws, and
the success of his arms, rendered his administration respectable in the
eyes both of his subjects and of his enemies. He loved and practised
the virtues of domestic life, which seldom hold their residence in
the palaces of kings. Theodosius was chaste and temperate; he enjoyed,
without excess, the sensual and social pleasures of the table; and the
warmth of his amorous passions was never diverted from their lawful
objects. The proud titles of Imperial greatness were adorned by the
tender names of a faithful husband, an indulgent father; his uncle was
raised, by his affectionate