CHAPTER XXVI

DEATH OF THE EMPEROR THEODOSIUS

THE anxiety and fatigues connected with this war threw the emperor Theodosius into an ill state of health; and believing the disease which had attacked him would be mortal, he became more concerned about the public affairs than his own life, revolving in his mind the calamities in which the people are often involved after the death of their sovereign. He therefore hastily summoned his son Honorius from Constantinople, being principally desirous of setting in order the state of things in the Western parts of the empire. After his son’s arrival at Milan, he seemed to recover a little, and gave directions for the celebration of the games of the Hippodrome on account of his victory. Before dinner he was pretty well, and a spectator of the sports; but after he had dined he became too ill to return to them, and sent his son to preside in his stead. On the following night he died, being the 17th of January, under the consulate of Olybrius and Probus, in the first year of the two hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad. The emperor Theodosius lived sixty years, and reigned sixteen. This book therefore comprehends the transactions of sixteen years and eight months.