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THE Emperor Jovian having died, as we have said, at Dadastana,
in his own consulate and that of Varronian his son on the 17th of
February, the army leaving Galatia arrived at Nicaea in Bithynia in
seven days' march, and there unanimously proclaimed Valentinian
emperor, on the 25th of February, in the same consulate. He was a
Pannonian by race, a native of the city of Cibalis, and being
entrusted with a military command, had displayed great skill in
tactics. He was moreover endowed with such greatness of mind, that he
always appeared superior to any degree of honor he might have attained.
As soon as they had created him emperor, he proceeded forthwith to
Constantinople; and thirty days after his own possession of the
imperial dignity, he made his brother Valens his colleague in the
empire. They both professed Christianity, but did not hold the same
Christian creed: for Valentinian respected the Nicene Creed; but
Valens was prepossessed in favor of the Arian opinions. And this
prejudice was caused by his having been baptized by Eudoxius bishop of
Constantinople. Each of them was zealous for the views of his own
party; but when they had attained sovereign power, they manifested
very different dispositions. For previously in the reign of Julian,
when Valentinian was a military tribune, and Valens held a command in
the emperor's guards, they both proved their zeal for the faith; for
being constrained to sacrifice, they chose rather to give up their
military rank than to do so and renounce Christianity. Julian,
however, knowing the necessity of the men to the state, retained them
in their respective places, as did also Jovian, his successor in the
empire. Later on, being invested with imperial authority, they were
in accord in the management of public affairs, but as regards
Christianity, as I have said, they behaved themselves very
differently: for Valentinian while he favored those who agreed with
him in sentiment, offered no violence to the Arians; but Valens, in
his anxiety to promote the Arian cause, grievously disturbed those who
differed from them, as the course of our history will show. Now at
that time Liberius presided over the Roman church; and at Alexandria
Athanasius was bishop of the Homoousians, while Lucius had been
constituted George's successor by the Arians. At Antioch Euzoius
was at the head of the Arians: but the Homoousians were divided into
two parties, of one of which Paulinus was chief, and Melitius of the
other. Cyril was again constituted over the church at Jerusalem.
The churches at Constantinople were under the government of
Eudoxius, who openly taught the dogmas of Arianism, but the
Homoousians had but one small edifice in the city wherein to hold their
assemblies. Those of the Macedonian heresy who had dissented from the
Acacians at Seleucia, then retained their churches in every city.
Such was the state of ecclesiastical affairs at that time.
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