fess, that I am willing to
find, or even to seek, in the revolutions of the world, some traces of
the mild and tender sentiments of domestic life; and amidst the crowd
of fierce and ambitious conquerors, I can distinguish, with peculiar
complacency, a gentle hero, who may be supposed to receive his armor
from the hands of love. The alliance of the Persian king was secured by
the faith of treaties; the martial Barbarians were persuaded to follow
the standard, or to respect the frontiers, of an active and liberal
monarch; and the dominions of Theodosius, from the Euphrates to the
Adriatic, resounded with the preparations of war both by land and sea.
The skilful disposition of the forces of the East seemed to multiply
their numbers, and distracted the attention of Maximus. He had reason
to fear, that a chosen body of troops, under the command of the intrepid
Arbogastes, would direct their march along the banks of the Danube, and
boldly penetrate through the Rhaetian provinces into the centre of Gaul.
A powerful fleet was equipped in the harbors of Greece and Epirus, with
an apparent design, that, as soon as the passage had been opened by a
naval victory, Valentinian and his mother should land in Italy, proceed,
without delay, to Rome, and occupy the majestic seat of religion and
empire. In the mean while, Theodosius himself advanced at the head of a
brave and disciplined army, to encounter his unworthy rival, who, after
the siege of Aemona, [7511] had fixed his camp in the neighborhood of
Siscia, a city of Pannonia, strongly fortified by the broad and rapid
stream of the Save.

[Footnote 75: The flight of Valentinian, and the love of Theodosius
for his sister, are related by Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 263, 264.) Tillemont
produces some weak and ambiguous evidence to antedate the second
marriage of Theodosius, (Hist. des Empereurs, to. v. p. 740,) and
consequently to refute ces contes de Zosime, qui seroient trop
contraires a la piete de Theodose.]

[Footnote 7511: Aemonah, Laybach. Siscia Sciszek.--M.]

Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.--Part IV.

The veterans, who still remembered the long resistance, and successive
resources, of the tyrant Magnentius, might prepare themselves for the
labors of three bloody campaigns. But the contest with his successor,
who, like him, had usurped the throne of the West, was easily decided in
the term of two months, [76] and within the space of two hundred miles.
The super