tions are explained in the
Theodosian Code, l. xiii. tit. iii. De Professoribus et Medicis, and
l. xiv. tit. ix. De Studiis liberalibus Urbis Romoe. Besides our usual
guide, (Godefroy,) we may consult Giannone, (Istoria di Napoli, tom. i.
p. 105-111,) who has treated the interesting subject with the zeal and
curiosity of a man of latters who studies his domestic history.]

[Footnote 62: Cod. Theodos. l. i. tit. xi. with Godefroy's Paratitlon,
which diligently gleans from the rest of the code.]

[Footnote 63: Three lines of Ammianus (xxxi. 14) countenance a whole
oration of Themistius, (viii. p. 101-120,) full of adulation, pedantry,
and common-place morality. The eloquent M. Thomas (tom. i. p.
366-396) has amused himself with celebrating the virtues and genius of
Themistius, who was not unworthy of the age in which he lived.]

[Footnote 64: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 202. Ammian. xxx. 9. His reformation
of costly abuses might entitle him to the praise of, in provinciales
admodum parcus, tributorum ubique molliens sarcinas. By some his
frugality was styled avarice, (Jerom. Chron. p. 186)]

But the most honorable circumstance of the character of Valentinian, is
the firm and temperate impartiality which he uniformly preserved in
an age of religious contention. His strong sense, unenlightened, but
uncorrupted, by study, declined, with respectful indifference, the
subtle questions of theological debate. The government of the Earth
claimed his vigilance, and satisfied his ambition; and while he
remembered that he was the disciple of the church, he never forgot that
he was the sovereign of the clergy. Under the reign of an apostate, he
had signalized his zeal for the honor of Christianity: he allowed to his
subjects the privilege which he had assumed for himself; and they might
accept, with gratitude and confidence, the general toleration which was
granted by a prince addicted to passion, but incapable of fear or of
disguise. [65] The Pagans, the Jews, and all the various sects which
acknowledged the divine authority of Christ, were protected by the laws
from arbitrary power or popular insult; nor was any mode of worship
prohibited by Valentinian, except those secret and criminal practices,
which abused the name of religion for the dark purposes of vice and
disorder. The art of magic, as it was more cruelly punished, was more
strictly proscribed: but the emperor admitted a formal distinction to
protect the ancient methods of divina