Zosimus, New History 4.47

The translation of Zosimus' New History offered here was printed in 1814 by W. Green and T. Chaplin in London, and was probably prepared by J. Davis of the Military Chronicle and Military Classics Office. The translator is anonymous. The text was found at Tertullian.org. The notes were added by Jona Lendering.

[4.47.1] Theodosius, having heard, that when Maximus came from beyond the Alps he left his son Victor, whom he had dignified with the title of caesar, he immediately sent for his general, named Arbogast, who deprived the youth boy of his dignity and life. When this intelligence reached Andragathius, who was then cruising in the Ionian Sea, it excited in him so great an apprehension of the innumerable dangers to which he was exposed, that he did not wait the arrival of his enemies, but became his own executioner. He threw himself into the sea, preferring rather to trust to the waves than to men who were his greatest enemies.

[4.47.2] Theodosius then delivered to Valentinian as much of the empire as his father had possessed; in which he only acted as he was enjoined by his duty to those who so merited his kindness. Having afterwards embodied the choicest soldiers of Maximus with his own, he sent Valentinian into Italy, Celtica, and other countries, to arrange the affairs of his share of the empire. His mother accompanied him, to supply, as much as was possible in a woman, the prudence which his youth required.