[1] This is a brief account of the emperor’s deeds. Now, in the belief that posterity, being bound neither by fear nor by base flattery, is usually an uncorrupted judge of the past, I shall give a summary of his defects, to be followed by an account of his excellent qualities.

[2] He sometimes assumed an appearance of mildness, although his hot temper made him more inclined to severity; for he evidently forgot that a ruler should avoid all excess, as he would a precipice.

[3] For he was never found to be content with a mild punishment, but he continually ordered blood-thirsty investigations one after the other; and in his cruel inquisitions some were tortured even to the danger of their lives; in fact, he was so prone to cruelty that he never rescued from death any of those who had been capitally condemned, by merciful terms in a warrant which was presented for his subscription, although sometimes this has been done even by the most savage of princes.

[4] And yet he could have contemplated many examples of the men of old, and might have imitated native and foreign instances of humanity and righteous mercy, which philosophers call the kind sisters of the virtues Of these it will suffice to mention the following. Artaxerxes, that mighty king of the Persians, whom the length of one of his limbs made known as Macrochir, ¹ with inborn mildness corrected various punishments which that cruel nation had always practised, by sometimes cutting off the turbans of the guilty, in lieu of ² their heads; and instead of cutting off men’s ears for various offences, as was the habit of the kings, he sheared off threads hanging from their head-coverings. This moderation of character so won for him the contentment and respect of his subjects, that through their unanimous support he accomplished many noteworthy deeds, which are celebrated by the Greek writers.

[5] A general of Praeneste in one of the Samnite wars had been ordered to hasten to his post, but had been slow to obey, and was summoned to expiate that misdeed; Papirius Cursor, who was dictator at the time, ordered the lictor to make ready his axe, and in sight of the man, who was overcome with terror and had given up hope of excusing himself, he gave orders that a bush seen near should be cut down, by a jest of this kind ³ at the same time punishing and acquitting the man; and thereby he suffered no loss of respect, and he brought to an end the long and difficult wars of his fathers and was considered the only man capable of resisting Alexander the Great, if that king should have set foot on Italian soil. ⁴

[6] Valentinian, who perhaps knew nothing of these instances, and did not consider that slowness to anger in rulers is always a solace for unhappy circumstances, increased the number of punishments by fire and sword, which a righteous spirit regards as the last resort in times of stress, as the splendid writer Isocrates says; ⁵ there is an utterance of his for all time whereby he teaches that sometimes a ruler who has been overcome by arms ought to be pardoned, more than one who did not know what is just.

[7] I think it was under the influence of this that Cicero made the glorious statement in his defence of Oppius: ⁶ and indeed, to have great power for the salvation of another has brought honour to many; to have had too little power to destroy him has never been a reproach to anyone.

[8] The greed for greater possessions without distinguishing right from wrong, and of seeking advantages of various kinds through the shipwreck of others’ lives, grew ever greater and became excessive in this emperor. This fault some tried to excuse by offering the example of the emperor Aurelian, declaring that as, when the treasury was exhausted after Gallienus and the lamentable disasters to the state, he fell upon the rich like a torrent, so Valentinian, after the losses of the Parthian campaign, feeling the need of a vast quantity of expenditure in order to provide reinforcements and pay for his troops, mingled with cruelty the desire to amass excessive wealth, affecting not to know that there are some things which ought not to be done, even if one has the power to do them. In this he was quite unlike the famous Themistocles, for when after the fight with the Persians and the annihilation of their army ⁷ the Athenian was aimlessly strolling about, and saw golden bracelets and a neck-chain lying on the ground, he turned to one of his attendants who stood near by and said: Pick up these, since you are not Themistocles, thus showing his scorn of any love of money in a noble leader.

[9] Like instances of this same selfrestraint are found in abundance in Roman generals. Passing these by, since they are no indication of perfect virtue (for not to seize the property of others deserves no praise), I will give one certain indication (among many) of the integrity of the common people of early days. When Marius and Cinna ⁸ had turned over to the Roman plebeians the rich dwellings of the proscribed to be plundered, the rough spiritof the commons, wont however to respect human misfortunes, so spared what had been gained by the toil of others that no one of the poor or of the lowest class was found who allowed himself, though permission was given him, to handle profits from the woes of his country. ⁹

[10] Besides this there was a fire of envy in the very marrow of this same emperor, and knowing that most vices are wont to assume the appearance of virtues, ¹⁰ he had ever upon his lips the saying, that malice of severity is the inseparable associate of rightful power. And as men of the highest position always think that everything is allowed them, and they are strongly inclined to suspect those who oppose them and to overthrow better men than themselves, so he hated the well dressed, the learned, the rich, and the high-born; and he depreciated brave men, in order to give the appearance of surpassing all men in good qualities, a fault, as we read, by which the emperor Hadrian was inflamed. ¹¹

[11] This same prince often denounced cowards, calling such men sullied, unclean, and deserving to be thrust down below the humblest estate; and yet he himself, in the presence of empty terrors, sometimes turned abjectly pale and dreaded in his inmost soul something that did not exist at all.

[12] It was the knowledge of this that led Remigius, marshal of the court, when he perceived that the emperor was boiling with anger at something which had occurred, to hint among other things that some outbreaks of the barbarians threatened; and when Valentinian heard this, immediately he was so overcome with fear that he became as calm and mild as Antoninus the Good ¹² himself.

[13] He never intentionally chose cruel judges, but if he had learned that Those whomhehad once advanced ¹³ were acting cruelly, he maintained that he had found men like Lycurgus ¹⁴ and Cassius, ¹⁵ those ancient pillars of justice; and he often urged them in writing to punish even light offences with all severity.

[14] Those in trouble, whom a reverse of fortune had befallen, found no refuge in the kindness of their prince, which has always been a longed-for haven, as it were, for those tossed on a stormy sea. For the purpose of a just rule (as the philosophers teach) is supposed to be the advantage and safety of its subjects.