the elder Brutus revisit the earth, that stern republican would abjure his hatred of kings at the feet of Theodosius." But in many respects he was a good and a great ruler, and at a peculiarly difficult time he rendered the empire important service. He deserves to have gone down to posterity as Theodosius the Great.
It was not till nearly the end of his life that he became for a brief space the emperor of the West as well as of the East. An insurrection in Britain in the year 383 A.D. was the means of ultimately accomplishing this result. The movement was headed by one of the generals in the province, Maximus, who was particularly popular with the troops, and was even proclaimed emperor by them. The rebellion was at once carried into Gaul. Gratian, Valens' nephew, now the reigning emperor of the West, was defeated in the neighbourhood of Paris, and murdered by one of the emissaries of Maximus near Lyons. The provinces of Britain, of Gaul and Spain, now submitted the usurper, and Gratian's brother, Valentinian, a mere youth, feeling that his position in Italy was precarious, fled with his mother Justina to Thessalonica, and threw himself on the protection of Theodosius. The emperor of the East received the fugitives kindly, and fell in love with Valentinian's beautiful sister, the princess Galla. It seems that his passion for her prompted him to restore her brother to the imperial throne. As soon as he had married her, he decided on war against Maximus. At the head of an army made up of various nations—a mixed host, it is said, of Goths and Huns—he fought a decisive battle at Aquileia, at no great distance from the
