of the other, were equally incapable of the
laborious duties of government. Several candidates were proposed; and,
after weighing the objections of character or situation, they were
successively rejected; but, as soon as the name of Valentinian was
pronounced, the merit of that officer united the suffrages of the whole
assembly, and obtained the sincere approbation of Sallust himself.
Valentinian was the son of Count Gratian, a native of Cibalis, in
Pannonia, who from an obscure condition had raised himself, by matchless
strength and dexterity, to the military commands of Africa and Britain;
from which he retired with an ample fortune and suspicious integrity.
The rank and services of Gratian contributed, however, to smooth the
first steps of the promotion of his son; and afforded him an early
opportunity of displaying those solid and useful qualifications, which
raised his character above the ordinary level of his fellow-soldiers.
The person of Valentinian was tall, graceful, and majestic. His manly
countenance, deeply marked with the impression of sense and spirit,
inspired his friends with awe, and his enemies with fear; and to second
the efforts of his undaunted courage, the son of Gratian had inherited
the advantages of a strong and healthy constitution. By the habits of
chastity and temperance, which restrain the appetites and invigorate
the faculties, Valentinian preserved his own and the public esteem. The
avocations of a military life had diverted his youth from the elegant
pursuits of literature; * he was ignorant of the Greek language, and the
arts of rhetoric; but as the mind of the orator was never disconcerted
by timid perplexity, he was able, as often as the occasion prompted him,
to deliver his decided sentiments with bold and ready elocution. The
laws of martial discipline were the only laws that he had studied; and
he was soon distinguished by the laborious diligence, and inflexible
severity, with which he discharged and enforced the duties of the
camp. In the time of Julian he provoked the danger of disgrace, by the
contempt which he publicly expressed for the reigning religion; and
it should seem, from his subsequent conduct, that the indiscreet and
unseasonable freedom of Valentinian was the effect of military spirit,
rather than of Christian zeal. He was pardoned, however, and still
employed by a prince who esteemed his merit; and in the various events
of the Persian war, he improved the reputation w