CHAPTER XXXI

LETTER WRITTEN ON WAR BY VALENS TO VALENTINIAN, AND THE REPLY OF THE LATTER

THE Goths having prepared for war, Valens was obliged to retreat towards the Bosphorus, for he only knew how to fight against religion. Being aware of his own weakness, he sent to implore aid from his brother. But Valentinian wrote back in reply, that it would be wrong to assist a man who had taken up arms against God, and that it would be only just to allow his effrontery to be repressed. This reply filled the unhappy man with the deepest sorrow, yet he did not desist from his course of violence, but persevered in his opposition to the truth.