[1] Scarcely had a few days passed since these affairs were settled according to the desire of the emperor and the soldiers, ¹ when Mamertinus, the praetorian prefect, ² on his return from Rome, to which he had gone to correct certain abuses, was charged with peculation ³ by Avitianus, a former deputy governor. ⁴

[2] Therefore he was displaced by Vulcatius Rufinus, a man excellent in all respects, who seemed to be displaying the crown of an honoured old age, ⁵ except that he never let slip a favourable opportunity for gain, if there was hope of concealment.

[3] As soon as he gained the imperial ear, he brought it about that Orfitus, a former prefect of Rome, was freed from banishment, ⁶ and, after restoration of his lost patrimony, was restored to his home.

[4] Valentinian was known to be a cruel man, and although in the early part of his reign, in order to lessen his reputation for harshness, he sometimes strove to keep his savage impulses under his mind’s control, yet the fault, as yet lurking and postponed, little by little broke forth without restraint and caused the destruction of many men; and was increased by fierce outbreaks of hot anger. For the philosophers define anger as a long-continued, sometimes permanent, ulcer of the mind, usually caused by weakness of the intellect; and they give for their opinion the plausible ground that the sickly are more inclined to anger than the sound, women than men, the old than the young, and the wretched than the fortunate. ⁷

[5] Most conspicuous, however, at that time was the death (among the executions of other persons of low rank ⁸ ) of Diodes, former head of the state treasury in Illyricum, whom the emperor ordered to be burned to death because of some small offences; and also that of Diodorus, former state agent, and of three attendants of the deputy-governor of Italy; all these suffered cruel execution because the commanding general complained to the emperor that Diodorus had implored the aid of the law against him, as was his right, ⁹ and that the officials, ¹⁰ by order of the judge, had ventured to summon him as he was going on a journey, to answer to the action according to law. The memory of these victims is still honoured by the Christians in Milan, ¹¹ who call the place where they are buried The Place of the Innocents.

[6] Later, in the affair of a certain Maxentius of Pannonia, when the judge had rightly commanded a speedy execution, the emperor ordered the death of the decurions of three towns; but Eupraxius, who was then quaestor, intervened, saying: Act more mercifully, most dutiful emperor, for these men whom you order to be put to death as criminals the Christian religion will honour as martyrs (that is to say, as beloved of God). ¹²

[7] Eupraxius’ helpful self-confidence was imitated by the prefect Florentius ¹³ when he heard that, because of some pardonable offence, the emperor had flown into a passion and ordered the execution likewise of three decurions in each of a number of cities; for he said: What is to be done, then, if any town does not have so many decurions? ¹⁴ To the rest this also should be added, ¹⁵ that they shall be killed, when the town has them.

[8] To this ruthlessness was added another thing, dreadful to do or even to tell of, namely, that if anyone came before him to avoid being tried before some powerful enemy, and asked that another judge be assigned him, the request was denied and the man was sent back to the person whom he feared, however many just reasons for the change he might present. Still another horrible thing was talked about; for when he learned that any debtor ¹⁶ could pay nothing because of the pressure of want, the emperor ruled that he ought to be put to death. ¹⁷

[9] That some princes commit these and similar arbitrary acts with lofty arrogance is because they do not allow their friends the opportunity of dissuading them from unjust designs or deeds, and that because of their great power they make their enemies afraid to speak. No correction is possible of the perverse actions of those who believe that what they desire to do must be the highest virtue. ¹⁸