Gratian, which degraded his character in the eyes of mankind,
could not have disturbed the security of his reign, if the army
had not been provoked to resent their peculiar injuries. As long
as the young emperor was guided by the instructions of his
masters, he professed himself the friend and pupil of the
soldiers; many of his hours were spent in the familiar
conversation of the camp; and the health, the comforts, the
rewards, the honors, of his faithful troops, appeared to be the
objects of his attentive concern. But, after Gratian more freely
indulged his prevailing taste for hunting and shooting, he
naturally connected himself with the most dexterous ministers of
his favorite amusement. A body of the Alani was received into
the military and domestic service of the palace; and the
admirable skill, which they were accustomed to display in the
unbounded plains of Scythia, was exercised, on a more narrow
theatre, in the parks and enclosures of Gaul. Gratian admired
the talents and customs of these favorite guards, to whom alone
he intrusted the defence of his person; and, as if he meant to
insult the public opinion, he frequently showed himself to the
soldiers and people, with the dress and arms, the long bow, the
sounding quiver, and the fur garments of a Scythian warrior. The
unworthy spectacle of a Roman prince, who had renounced the dress
and manners of his country, filled the minds of the legions with
grief and indignation. ^7 Even the Germans, so strong and
formidable in the armies of the empire, affected to disdain the
strange and horrid appearance of the savages of the North, who,
in the space of a few years, had wandered from the banks of the
Volga to those of the Seine. A loud and licentious murmur was
echoed through the camps and garrisons of the West; and as the
mild indolence of Gratian neglected to extinguish the first