HKB
and murmurs of the barbarians had been quieted, a long discussion took place on both sides, and at last a firm friendship was agreed on, and ratified with an oath.
When this was over, the king, who had been the cause of all these troubles, retired, quite pacified, and destined to prove an ally to us for the future; indeed, he afterwards, to the very end of his life, gave proof of his constancy and resolution to preserve his agreement with us, by many noble and gallant actions.
But subsequently he died in the country of the Franks, which he had invaded and ravaged in a most destructive manner, till at last he was cut off by the manoeuvres of Mellobaudes, the warlike king of that nation, and slain. After the treaty had thus been solemnly ratified, Valentinian retired into winter quarters, at Treves.
IV.
§ 1. These were the events which took place in Gaul and the northern countries. But in the east, while all our foreign affairs were quiet, great domestic evils were increasing in consequence of the conduct of the friends and relations of Valens, who had more regard to expediency than honesty; for they laboured with the utmost diligence to bring about the recall from his post a judge of rigid probity, who was fond of deciding lawsuits equitably, out of a fear lest, as in the times of Julian, when Innocence was allowed a fair opportunity of defending itself, the pride of the powerful nobles, which was accustomed to roam at large with unrestrained licence, might again be broken down.
With these and similar objects a great number of persons conspired together, being led by Modestus, the prefect of the prætorium, who was a complete slave to the wishes of the emperor's eunuchs, and who, under a specious countenance, concealed a rough disposition which had never been polished by any study of ancient virtue or literature, and who was continually asserting that to look into the minute details of private actions was beneath the dignity of the emperor. He thinking, as he said, that the examination of such matters had been imposed on the nobles to lower their dignity, abstained from all such matters himself, and opened the doors to plunder; which doors are now daily more and more opened by the depravity of the judges and advocates, who are all of the same mind, and who sell the interests of the poor to the military commanders, or the persons of influence within the palace, by which conduct they themselves have gained riches and high rank.
This profession of forensic oratory the wisdom of Plato defines to be +politikês moriou eidôlon+, "the shadow of a fraction of the art of government," or a fourth part of the art of flattery. But Epicurus calls it +kakotechnia+, reckoning it among the wicked arts. Tisias, who has Gorgias of Leontinum on his side, calls the orator an artist of persuasion.
And while such has been the opinion formed of this art by the ancients, the craft of some of the Eastern people has put it forward so as to make it an object of hatred to good men, on which account an orator it is sometimes restricted to a limited time for speaking.[184] Therefore, after saying a few words about its unworthy character, as I found by experience while in those countries, I will return to my original subject.