|
Nearly at the same time with the holding of these Synods at
Constantinople, the following events occurred in the Western parts.
Maximus, from the island of Britain, rebelled against the Roman
empire, and attacked Gratian, who was then wearied and exhausted in a
war with the Alemanni. In Italy, Valentinian being still a minor,
Probus, a man of consular dignity, had the chief administration of
affairs, and was at that time prefect of the Praetorium. Justina,
the mother of the young prince, who entertained Arian sentiments, as
long as her husband lived had been unable to molest the Homoousians;
but going to Milan while her son was still young, she manifested great
hostility to Ambrose the bishop, and commanded that he should be
banished. While the people from their excessive attachment to
Ambrose, were offering resistance to those who were charged with
taking him into exile, intelligence was brought that Gratian had been
assassinated by the treachery of the usurper Maximus. In fact
Andragathius, a general under Maximus, having concealed himself in a
litter resembling a couch, which was carried by mules, ordered his
guards to spread a report before him that the litter contained the
Emperor Gratian's wife. They met the emperor near the city of
Lyons in France just as he had crossed the river: who believing it to
be his wife, and not suspecting any treachery, fell into the hands of
his enemy as a blind man into the ditch; for Andragathius, suddenly
springing forth from the litter, slew him. Gratian thus perished in
the consulate of Merogaudes and Saturninus, in the twenty-fourth
year of his age, and the fifteenth of his reign. When this happened
the Empress Justina's indignation against Ambrose was repressed.
Afterwards Valentinian most unwillingly, but constrained by the
necessity of the time, admitted Maximus as his colleague in the
empire. Probus alarmed at the power of Maximus, resolved to retreat
into the regions of the East: leaving Italy therefore, he proceeded
to Illyricum, and fixed his residence at Thessalonica a city of
Macedonia.
|
|