accompanied by the greatest part of his court and senate. After the
first tender expressions of friendship and sympathy, the pious emperor
of the East gently admonished Justina, that the guilt of heresy was
sometimes punished in this world, as well as in the next; and that the
public profession of the Nicene faith would be the most efficacious
step to promote the restoration of her son, by the satisfaction which
it must occasion both on earth and in heaven. The momentous question
of peace or war was referred, by Theodosius, to the deliberation of
his council; and the arguments which might be alleged on the side of
honor and justice, had acquired, since the death of Gratian, a
considerable degree of additional weight. The persecution of the
Imperial family, to which Theodosius himself had been indebted for his
fortune, was now aggravated by recent and repeated injuries. Neither
oaths nor treaties could restrain the boundless ambition of Maximus;
and the delay of vigorous and decisive measures, instead of prolonging
the blessings of peace, would expose the Eastern empire to the danger
of a hostile invasion. The Barbarians, who had passed the Danube, had
lately assumed the character of soldiers and subjects, but their
native fierceness was yet untamed: and the operations of a war, which
would exercise their valor, and diminish their numbers, might tend to
relieve the provinces from an intolerable oppression. Notwithstanding
these specious and solid reasons, which were approved by a majority of
the council, Theodosius still hesitated whether he should draw the
sword in a contest which could no longer admit any terms of
reconciliation; and his magnanimous character was not disgraced by the
apprehensions which he felt for the safety of his infant sons, and the
welfare of his exhausted people. In this moment of anxious doubt,
while the fate of the Roman world depended on the resolution of a
single man, the charms of the princess Galla most powerfully pleaded
the cause of her brother Valentinian. The heart of Theodosius was