, the imperial robe, as we have
all desired, which has been conferred on you with favourable auspices by
my will and that of our comrades. Therefore now, considering the weight
of the affairs which press upon us, gird yourself up as the colleague of
your father and your uncle; and accustom yourself to pass fearlessly
with the infantry over the Danube and the Rhine, which are made passable
by the frost, to keep close to your soldiers, to devote your blood and
your very life with all skill and deliberation for the safety of those
under your command; to think nothing unworthy of your attention which
concerns any portion of the Roman empire.

13. "This is enough by way of admonition to you at the present moment,
at other times I will not fail to give further advice. Now you who
remain, the defenders of the state, I entreat, I beseech you to preserve
with a steady affection and loyalty your youthful emperor thus intrusted
to your fidelity."

14. These words of the emperor were accepted and ratified with all
possible solemnity; Eupraxius, a native of Mauritania Caesariensis, at
that time master of the records, led the way by the exclamation, "The
family of Gratian deserves this." And being at once promoted to be
quaestor, he set an example of judicious confidence worthy of being
imitated by all wise men; especially as he in no wise departed from the
habits of his fearless nature, but was at all times a man of consistency
and obedient to the laws, which, as we have remarked, speak to all men
with one and the same voice under the most varied circumstances. He at
this time was the more steady in adhering to the side of justice which
he always espoused, because on one occasion when he had given good
advice, the emperor had attacked him with violence and threats.

15. After this, the whole assembly broke out into praises of both
emperors, the elder and the new one; and especially of the boy, whose
brilliant eyes, engaging countenance and person, and apparent sweetness
of disposition, recommended him to their favour. And these qualities
would have rendered him an emperor worthy to be compared to the most
excellent princes of former times, if fate had permitted, and his
relations who even then began to overshadow his virtue, before it was
firmly rooted, with their own wicked actions.

16. But in this affair, Valentinian went beyond the custom which had
been established for several generations, in making his brother and his
son,