ally retreated from the confines
of Thrace to the more secure station of Sirmium. Five months after
the death of Valens, the emperor Gratian produced before the assembled
troops his colleague and their master; who, after a modest, perhaps
a sincere, resistance, was compelled to accept, amidst the general
acclamations, the diadem, the purple, and the equal title of Augustus.
[105] The provinces of Thrace, Asia, and Egypt, over which Valens had
reigned, were resigned to the administration of the new emperor; but,
as he was specially intrusted with the conduct of the Gothic war, the
Illyrian praefecture was dismembered; and the two great dioceses of
Dacia and Macedonia were added to the dominions of the Eastern empire.
[106]

[Footnote 104: A life of Theodosius the Great was composed in the last
century, (Paris, 1679, in 4to-1680, 12mo.,) to inflame the mind of
the young Dauphin with Catholic zeal. The author, Flechier, afterwards
bishop of Nismes, was a celebrated preacher; and his history is adorned,
or tainted, with pulpit eloquence; but he takes his learning from
Baronius, and his principles from St. Ambrose and St Augustin.]

[Footnote 105: The birth, character, and elevation of Theodosius are
marked in Pacatus, (in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 10, 11, 12,) Themistius,
(Orat. xiv. p. 182,) (Zosimus, l. iv. p. 231,) Augustin. (de Civitat.
Dei. v. 25,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 34,) Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 2,)
Socrates, (l. v. c. 2,) Theodoret, (l. v. c. 5,) Philostorgius, (l. ix.
c. 17, with Godefroy, p. 393,) the Epitome of Victor, and the Chronicles
of Prosper, Idatius, and Marcellinus, in the Thesaurus Temporum of
Scaliger. * Note: Add a hostile fragment of Eunapius. Mai, p. 273, in
Niebuhr, p 178--M.]

[Footnote 106: Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 716, &c.]

The same province, and perhaps the same city, [107] which had given to
the throne the virtues of Trajan, and the talents of Hadrian, was the
orignal seat of another family of Spaniards, who, in a less fortunate
age, possessed, near fourscore years, the declining empire of Rome.
[108] They emerged from the obscurity of municipal honors by the active
spirit of the elder Theodosius, a general whose exploits in Britain
and Africa have formed one of the most splendid parts of the annals
of Valentinian. The son of that general, who likewise bore the name of
Theodosius, was educated, by skilful preceptors, in the liberal studies
of youth; but he was instructed in the ar