e, strong, and handsome--and were at
this time living on the north bank of the Danube. Many of their young
men hired themselves to fight as soldiers in the Roman army; and they
were learning Christianity, but only as Arians. It was for them that
their Bishop Ulfilas translated the Gospels into Gothic, and invented an
alphabet to write them in. A copy of this translation is still to be
seen at Upsal in Sweden, written on purple vellum in silver letters.

[Illustration: GOTHS.]

Another great and holy man of this time was Ambrose, the Archbishop
of Milan, who was the guide and teacher of Gratian, Valentinian's eldest
son, a good and promising youth so far as he went, but who, after the
habit of the time, was waiting to be baptized till he should be further
on in life. Valentinian's second wife was named Justina; and when he
died, as it is said, from breaking a blood-vessel in a fit of rage, in
375, the Western Empire was shared between her little son Valentinian
and Gratian.

Justina was an Arian, and wanted to have a church in Milan where she
could worship without ascribing full honor and glory to God the Son; but
Ambrose felt that the churches were his Master's, not his own to be
given away, and filled the Church with Christians, who watched there
chanting Psalms day and night, while the soldiers Justina sent to turn
them out joined them, and sang and prayed with them.

Gratian did not choose to be called Pontifex Maximus, or chief priest of
all the Roman idols, as all the Emperors had been; and this offended
many persons. A general named Maximus rose and reigned as Emperor in
Britain, and Gratian had too much on his hands in the north to put him
down.

In the meantime, a terrible wild tribe called Huns were coming from the
West and driving the Goths before them, so that they asked leave from
Valens to come across the Danube and settle themselves in Thrace. The
reply was so ill managed by Valens' counsellors that the Goths were
offended, and came over the river as foes when they might have come as
friends; and Valens was killed in battle with them at Adrianople in 378.

Gratian felt that he alone could not cope with the dangers that beset
the empire, and his brother was still a child, so he gave the Eastern
Empire to a brave and noble Spanish general named Theodosius, who was a
Catholic Christian and baptized, and who made peace with the Goths, gave
them settlements, and took their young men into his armies. In th