ich we have thus
digressed.

V.

A.D. 375.

Sec. 1. At the beginning of the spring Valentinian quitted Treves, and
proceeded by rapid marches along the usual high roads. And as he
approached the districts to which he was hastening, he was met by
ambassadors from the Sarmatians, who threw themselves at his feet, and,
with prayers, breathing no wish but for peace, entreated him to be
favourable and merciful to them, assuring him that he would not find any
of their countrymen implicated in or privy to any evil action.

2. And when they had frequently repeated this assertion, he, after
careful deliberation, made answer to them, that these matters must be
diligently inquired into by an accurate investigation in the district
where they were said to have happened, and if they had happened, then
they must be punished. After this, when he had reached Carnuntum, a city
of the Illyrians, now indeed in a desolate and ruinous state, but still
very convenient for the general of an army, he from thence sallied out
whenever either chance or skill afforded him an opportunity; and by the
possession of this post in their neighbourhood, he checked the inroads
of the barbarians.

3. And although he alarmed all people in that district, since it was
expected that, as a man of active and impetuous feelings, he would
speedily command the judges to be condemned through whose perfidy or
desertion the empire had been left undefended on the side of the
Pannonians, yet when he did arrive he was so lukewarm in the business
that he neither inquired into the death of the king Gabricius, nor did
he make any accurate investigation into the calamities which the
republic had sustained, with a view to learning through whose misconduct
or negligence these events had taken place; so that in fact, in
proportion as he was severe in punishing his common soldiers, he was
remiss in correcting (even by harsh words) those of higher rank.

4. The only person whom he pursued with any especial hatred was Probus;
whom from the first moment that he saw him he never ceased to threaten,
and to whom he never softened; and the causes of this animosity against
him were not obscure nor trivial. When Probus first obtained the rank of
prefect of the praetorium, the power of which he was continually
labouring to extend by all kinds of means (I wish I could say by all
lawful means), he forgot the lessons which he might have learnt from his
illustrious descent, and devote