ince from their
love of booty they had left nothing behind, they were intercepted by a
movement of the emperor's troop, and were cut off and all slain to a
man. And their children, who were at the time very young, were also
destroyed to prevent their growing up in the likeness of their fathers;
and their houses which they had built with great splendour at the
expense of the misery of others, were all pulled down. These things
happened in the order in which they have been related.

III.

Sec. 1. But Theodosius, a general of very famous reputation, departed in
high spirits from Augusta, which the ancients used to call Londinium,
with an army which he had collected with great energy and skill;
bringing a mighty aid to the embarrassed and disturbed fortunes of the
Britons. His plan was to seek everywhere favourable situations for
laying ambuscades for the barbarians; and to impose no duties on his
troops of the performance of which he did not himself cheerfully set the
example.

2. And in this way, while he performed the duties of a gallant soldier,
and showed at the same time the prudence of an illustrious general, he
routed and vanquished the various tribes in whom their past security had
engendered an insolence which led them to attack the Roman territories;
and he entirely restored the cities and the fortresses which through the
manifold disasters of the time had been injured or destroyed, though
they had been originally founded to secure the tranquillity of the
country.

3. But while he was pursuing this career, a great crime was planned
which was likely to have resulted in serious danger, if it had not been
crushed at the very beginning.

4. A certain man named Valentine, in Valeria of Pannonia, a man of a
proud spirit, the brother-in-law of Maximin, that wicked and cruel
deputy, who afterwards became prefect, having been banished to Britain
for some grave crime, and being a restless and mischievous beast, was
eager for any kind of revolution or mischief, began to plot with great
insolence against Theodosius, whom he looked upon as the only person
with power to resist his wicked enterprise.

5. But while both openly and privily taking many precautions, as his
pride and covetousness increased, he began to tamper with the exiles and
the soldiers, promising them rewards sufficient to tempt them as far at
least as the circumstances and his enterprise would permit.

6. But when the time for putting his attempt i