CHAPTER XXIV

VALENTINIAN PROCLAIMED EMPEROR

AFTER the tyrant’s death, the emperor Theodosius became very anxious as to whom he should proclaim emperor of the West. He had a cousin then very young named Valentinian; the son of that Constantius who had been proclaimed emperor by Honorius, and had died after a short reign with him, and of his aunt Placidia, daughter of Theodosius the Great, and sister of the two Augusti, Arcadius and Honorius. This cousin he created Cæsar, and sent into the Western parts, committing the administration of affairs to his mother Placidia. He himself also hastened towards Italy, that he might in person both proclaim his cousin emperor, and also being present among them, endeavour to influence the Italians by his counsels not willingly to submit to tyrants. But when he reached Thessalonica he was prevented from proceeding further by sickness; he therefore sent forward the imperial crown to his cousin by Helion a patrician, and he himself returned to Constantinople.