ath. Men compared him to Trajan, and in a happier age he
might have rivalled Trajan's fame. But now the Empire was ready to
perish. The beaten army was hopelessly demoralized, and Theodosius had
to form a new army of barbarian legionaries before the old tradition of
Roman superiority could resume its wonted sway. It soon appeared that
the Goths could do nothing with their victory, and sooner or later would
have to make their peace with Rome. Theodosius drove them inland in the
first campaign; and while he lay sick at Thessalonica in the second,
Gratian or his generals received the submission of the Ostrogoths.
Fritigern died the same year, and his old rival Athanaric was a fugitive
before it ended. When the returning Ostrogoths dislodged him from his
Transylvanian forest, he was welcomed with honourable courtesy by
Theodosius in person at Constantinople. But the old enemy of Rome and
Christianity had only come to lay his bones on Roman soil. In another
fortnight the barbarian chief was carried out with kingly splendour to
his Roman funeral. Theodosius had nobly won Athanaric's inheritance. His
wondering Goths at once took service with their conqueror: chief after
chief submitted, and the work of peace was completed on the Danube in
the autumn of 382.

[Sidenote: Baptism of Theodosius.]

We can now return to ecclesiastical affairs. The dangerous illness of
Theodosius in 380 had important consequences, for his baptism by
Ascholius of Thessalonica was the natural signal for a more decided
policy. Ascholius was a zealous Nicene, so that Theodosius was committed
to the Nicene side as effectually as Valens had been to the Homoean;
and Theodosius was less afraid of strong measures than Valens. His first
rescript (Feb. 27, 380) commands all men to follow the Nicene doctrine
'committed by the apostle Peter to the Romans, and now professed by
Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria,' and plainly threatens to
impose temporal punishments on the heretics. Here it will be seen that
Theodosius abandons Constantine's test of orthodoxy by subscription to a
creed. It seemed easier now, and more in the spirit of Latin
Christianity, to require communion with certain churches. The choice of
Rome is natural, the addition of Alexandria shows that the Emperor was
still a stranger to the mysteries of Eastern partizanship.

[Sidenote: Suppression of Arian worship inside cities.]

There was no reason for delay when the worst dangers of the Got