ing these points he feared him, as likely
to be in the one case a cruel friend, while in the other case he
recollected that he had always been successful in civil disturbances.
Above all things his anxiety was increased by the example of his brother
Gallus, who had been betrayed by his own want of caution and the
perjured deceit of certain individuals.

3. Nevertheless he often raised himself to ideas of energetic action,
thinking it safest to show himself as an avowed enemy to him whose
movements he could, as a prudent man, judge of only from his past
actions, in order not to be entrapped by secret snares founded on
pretended friendship.

4. Therefore, paying little attention to the letters which Constantius
had sent by Leonas, and admitting none of his appointments with the
exception of that of Nebridius, he now celebrated the
Quinquennalia[114] as emperor, and wore a splendid diadem inlaid with
precious stones, though when first entering on that power he had worn
but a paltry-looking crown like that of a president of the public games.

5. At this time also he sent the body of his wife Helen, recently
deceased, to Rome, to be buried in the suburb on the road to Nomentum,
where also Constantina, his sister-in-law, the wife of Gallus, had been
buried.

6. His desire to march against Constantius, now that Gaul was
tranquillized, was inflamed by the belief which he had adopted from many
omens (in the interpretation of which he had great skill), and from
dreams that the emperor would soon die.

7. And since malignant people have attributed to this prince, so erudite
and so eager to acquire all knowledge, wicked practices for the purpose
of learning future events, we may here briefly point out how this
important branch of learning may be acquired by a wise man.

8. The spirit which directs all the elements, and which at all times and
throughout all places exercises its activity by the movement of these
eternal bodies, can communicate to us the capacity of foreseeing the
future by the sciences which we attain through various kinds of
discipline. And the ruling powers, when properly propitiated, as from
everlasting springs, supply mankind with words of prophecy, over which
the deity of Themis is said to preside, and which, because she teaches
men to know what has been settled for the future by the law of Fate, has
received that name from the Greek word +_tetheimena_+ ("fixed"),
and has been placed by ancient theologian