, who imitated with equal docility the various
examples which he received from his elder brother, was sometimes
guided by the wisdom and virtue of the praefect Sallust. Both princes
invariably retained, in the purple, the chaste and temperate simplicity
which had adorned their private life; and, under their reign, the
pleasures of the court never cost the people a blush or a sigh. They
gradually reformed many of the abuses of the times of Constantius;
judiciously adopted and improved the designs of Julian and his
successor; and displayed a style and spirit of legislation which might
inspire posterity with the most favorable opinion of their character
and government. It is not from the master of Innocence, that we should
expect the tender regard for the welfare of his subjects, which prompted
Valentinian to condemn the exposition of new-born infants; [60] and to
establish fourteen skilful physicians, with stipends and privileges, in
the fourteen quarters of Rome. The good sense of an illiterate soldier
founded a useful and liberal institution for the education of youth, and
the support of declining science. [61] It was his intention, that the
arts of rhetoric and grammar should be taught in the Greek and Latin
languages, in the metropolis of every province; and as the size and
dignity of the school was usually proportioned to the importance of
the city, the academies of Rome and Constantinople claimed a just
and singular preeminence. The fragments of the literary edicts of
Valentinian imperfectly represent the school of Constantinople, which
was gradually improved by subsequent regulations. That school consisted
of thirty-one professors in different branches of learning. One
philosopher, and two lawyers; five sophists, and ten grammarians for
the Greek, and three orators, and ten grammarians for the Latin tongue;
besides seven scribes, or, as they were then styled, antiquarians, whose
laborious pens supplied the public library with fair and correct copies
of the classic writers. The rule of conduct, which was prescribed to the
students, is the more curious, as it affords the first outlines of the
form and discipline of a modern university. It was required, that they
should bring proper certificates from the magistrates of their native
province. Their names, professions, and places of abode, were regularly
entered in a public register.

The studious youth were severely prohibited from wasting their time in
feasts, or in t