death attached to any neglect of it, that no one of
higher authority, or suspected of aiming at any objects of ambition,
should appear in public the next morning.

2. And when, while the numbers who allowed their own empty wishes to
torment them were weary of the slowness of time, the night ended at
last, and daylight appeared, the soldiers were all assembled in one
body, and Valentinian advanced into the open space, and mounting a
tribunal of some height which had been erected on purpose, he was
declared ruler of the empire as a man of due wisdom by this assembly,
bearing the likeness of a comitia, with the unanimous acclamations of
all present.

3. Presently he was clothed with the imperial robe, and crowned, and
saluted as Augustus with all the delight which the pleasure of this
novelty could engender; and then he began to harangue the multitude in a
premeditated speech. But as he put forth his arm to speak more freely, a
great murmur arose, the centuries and maniples beginning to raise an
uproar, and the whole mass of the cohorts presently urging that a second
emperor should be at once elected.

4. And though some people fancied that this cry was raised by a few
corrupt men in order to gain the favour of those who had been passed
over, it appeared that that was a mistake, for the cry that was raised
did not resemble a purchased clamour, but rather the unanimous voice of
the whole multitude all animated with the same wish, because recent
examples had taught them to fear the instability of this high fortune.
Presently the murmurs of the furious and uproarious army appeared likely
to give rise to a complete tumult, and men began to fear that the
audacity of the soldiers might break out into some atrocious act.

5. And as Valentinian feared this above everything, he raised his hand
firmly with the vigour of an emperor full of confidence, and venturing
to rebuke some as obstinate and seditious, he delivered the speech he
had intended without interruption.

6. "I exult, O ye gallant defenders of our provinces, and boast and
always shall boast that your valour has conferred on me, who neither
expected nor desired such an honour, the government of the Roman empire,
as the fittest man to discharge its duties. That which was in your
hands before an emperor was elected, you have completed beneficially and
gloriously, by raising to this summit of honour a man whom you know by
experience to have lived from his earliest yout