And after deep consideration, by the agreement of manylearned men it was arranged that the completion of the year’s course has a single definite end, and is neither changeable nor uncertain; so that the reckoning of the sun’s course no longer appears beclouded by any error, and the months retain their appointed seasons.

The Romans were long ignorant of all this, since their realm was not yet widely extended, and for many centuries they were involved in obscure difficulties; and they wandered in still deeper darkness of error when they gave over the power of intercalation to the priests, who lawlessly served the advantage of tax-collectors or of parties in litigation by arbitrarily subtracting or adding days.

From this beginning many other errors arose, which I think it superfluous to mention here. These were done away with by Octavianus AugustusActually it was Julius Caesar; cf. Suet., 40; 31, 2; though Augustus corrected a misinterpretation of Caesar’s scheme. who, following the Greeks, corrected the confusion and brought order into this inconsistency by adopting after great deliberation the arrangement of twelve months and six hours, during which the sun in its eternal course through the twelve signs completes a whole year.

This reason for the bisextile yearSee note 2, p. 571; bisextile is the correct spelling. Rome, which will live even through the centuries, with the aid of the divine power approved and firmly established. Now let us go on to the rest of our narrative.

When the day unfavourable (as some think) for beginning great enterprises had passed, just as evening was coming on, at the motion of the prefect Salutius it was promptly and unanimously decided that, under penalty of death, no one who held high authority, or had been suspected of aiming at a higher station, should appear in public on the following morning.

And when to the chagrin of many, tormented by their vain hopes, the night ended and day at last appeared, the whole army was assembled. Then Valentinian appeared on the plain, was allowed to mount a tribunal raised on high and after the custom of elections was chosen by the favourable votes of all present as a man of serious purpose, to be the ruler of the empire.

Then, wearing the imperial robes and a coronet, with all the praises which the charm of novelty could call forth he was hailed as Augustus, and was already getting ready to make the speech he had prepared. But as he bared his arm, in order to speak more conveniently, a threatening murmur arose, as the centuries and maniples made a loud noise and all the common maniples clashed their shields and all the common soldiers persistently urged that a second emperor should at once be named.

But although some thought that a few had been bribed to do this, in favour of those who had been passed over, yet such a suspicion seemed to have no ground, for the reason that the shouts which were heard were not purchased, but came unanimously as an expression of the wish of the whole throng, since from a recent exampleI.e. the sudden death of Jovian. they dreaded the frailty of lofty fortunes. Then the whispers of the uproarious army seemed likely to be succeeded by a violent outbreak, and men began to fear the recklessness of the soldiers, who sometimes break out in deeds of violence.

Since Valentinian more than all others feared lest this should happen, quickly raising his hand, with the authority of an emperor who was full of confidence, he had the courage to upbraid some of them as rebellious and intractable. Then, without further interruption, he delivered the speech which he had prepared:—

I rejoice, brave defenders of our provinces, and I maintain and always shall maintain that it is your services that have bestowed on me, rather than another, the rule of the Roman world, which I neither hoped for nor desired.

The task, then, which was placed in your hands before the ruler of the empire was chosen you carried out expediently and gloriously, by raising to the pinnacle of honours one whom from his earliest youth until the present prime of life you know by experience to have lived with distinction and uprightness. Therefore, I beg of you, listen with friendly ears while I tell you in simple words what I think is best for the common welfare.

That to meet all chances necessity demands the choice of a colleague with equal powers, at the demands of much varied reasoning I neither doubt nor dispute, since I myself also, as a man, fear masses of cares and varied changes of circumstances. But with all our strength we must strive for harmony, through which even the weakest states grow strong; and this will easily be attained, if your calmness combined with fairness willingly allows me what belongs to my position.

For Fortune (I hope) which aids good purposes, so far as I can accomplish this and effect it, will give me after careful search a man of sober character.As colleague in the imperial power. For as the philosophers teach us, not only in royal power, where the greatest and most numerous dangers are found, but also in the relations of private and everyday life, a stranger ought to be admitted to friendship by a prudent man only after he has first tested him; not tested after he has been admitted to friendship.

This I promise you with the hope of a happier future. Do you, while the winter rest allows, retain your firmness and loyalty of conduct and refresh your strength of spirit and body: then be sure that you will receive without delay what is your dueThe emperors chosen by the soldiers, on entrance into power often gave them gifts (donativa). According to Dio, this was repeated every fifth and tenth year, and each because of your imperial nomination of myself.

Having finished his address, to which his unexpected assumption of authority had given greater weight, the emperor gained the favour of the soldier received five aurei. The custom was finally abolished by Justinian. whole assembly; and even those who shortly before were with excited cries making another demand followed his advice and escorted him to the imperial quarters, surrounded by eagles and standards, with a splendid retinue of various ranks, and already an object of fear.

While the changing lots of the fates were unfolding these events in the Orient, Apronianus, prefect of the eternal city, a just and strict official, among urgent cares with which that office is often burdened, made it his first main effort that the sorcerers, who at that time were becoming few in number, should be arrested, and that those who, after having been put to the question, were clearly convicted of having harmed anybody, after naming their accomplices, should be punished with death; and that thus through the danger to a few, the remainder, if any were still in concealment, might be driven away through dread of a similar fate.

In this work he is said to have shown special activity for the following reason, namely, that after his appointment by authority of Julian, when he was still living in Syria, he had lost one eye on the way, and suspecting that he had been attacked by wicked arts, with justifiable but extraordinary resentment he tracked out these and other crimes with great energy. In this he seemed cruel to some because more than once during the races in the ampitheatre, while throngs of people were crowding in, he in- vestigated the greatest crimes.Cf. xv. 7, 2, of Leontius.

Finally, after many punishments of the kind, a charioteerSuch men used poison and magic against the horses of their rivals; cf. xxviii. 1, 27; 4, 25. called Hilarinus was convicted on his own confession of having entrusted his son, who had barely reached the age of puberty, to a mixer of poisons to be instructed in certain secret practices forbidden by law, in order to use his help at home without other witnesses; and he was condemned to death. But since the executioner was lax in guarding him, the man suddenly escaped and took refuge in a chapel of the Christian sect; however, he was at once dragged from there and beheaded.

But efforts were still made to check these and similar offences, and none, or at any rate very few, who were engaged in such abominations defied the public diligence. But later, long-continued impunity nourished these monstrous offences, and lawlessness went so far that a certain senator followed the example of Hilarinus, and was convicted of having apprenticed a slave of his almost by a written contract to a teacher of evil practices to be initiated into criminal secrets; but he bought escape from the death penalty, as current gossip asserted, for a large sum of money.