[181] Manuscript imperfect.

[182] The Dardanians were a Thracian tribe.

BOOK XXX.

ARGUMENT.

I. Para, king of Armenia, being summoned by Valens to Tarsus, and
being detained there under pretence of doing him honour, escapes
with three hundred of his countrymen; and having baffled the
sentinels on the roads, he regains his kingdom on horseback; but
not long afterwards he is slain by Duke Trajan at an
entertainment.--II. The embassies of the Emperor Valens and Sapor,
king of Persia, who are at variance about the kingdoms of Armenia
and Hiberia.--III. Valentinian, after having ravaged several
districts of the Allemanni, has a conference with their king
Macrianus, and makes peace with him.--IV. Modestus, the prefect of
the praetorium, diverts Valens from his purpose of sitting as a
judge--A statement of the condition of the bar, of counsel learned
in the law, and the different classes of advocates.--V.
Valentinian, intending to wage war against the Sarmatians and the
Quadi, who had been devastating Pannonia, marches into Illyricum,
and having crossed the Danube, he ravages the territories of the
Quadi, burns their villages, and slaughters the inhabitants,
without regard to age.--VI. Valentinian, while giving answer, in a
great passion, to the ambassadors of the Quadi, who are trying to
excuse their countrymen, bursts a blood-vessel, and dies.--VII. Who
his father was, and what was his conduct as emperor.--VIII. His
cruelty, avarice, envy, and cowardice.--IX. His virtues.--X.
Valentinian the younger, the son of Valentinian, is saluted as
emperor in the camp at Bregetio.

I.

A.D. 374.

Sec. 1. While all these difficulties and disturbances had been caused by
the perfidy of the Duke Marcellianus, in treacherously murdering the
king of the Quadi, a terrible crime was committed in the East, where
Para, king of Armenia was also murdered by secret treachery; the
original cause of which wicked action we have ascertained to be this:--

2. Some men of perverse temperament, who delighted in public misfortune,
had concocted a number of accusations against this prince for acts which
they imputed to him even when scarcely grown up, and had exaggerated
them to Valens. Among these men was the Duke Terentius, a man who always
walked about with a downcast melancholy look, and throughout his life
was a