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| Victory of Theodosius the Emperor over Eugenius.
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Chapter XXIV.—Victory
of Theodosius the Emperor over Eugenius.
When he had completed his
preparations for war,1565
| 1565Soz. has his account from an independent source. Cf.
Ruf. H. E. ii. 33; Philost. xi. 2; Soc. v. 25; Theodoret, H.
E. v. 24; Zos. iv. 55–58; Olymp. Fr. 19.
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Theodosius declared his younger son Honorius emperor, and leaving him
to reign at Constantinople conjointly with Arcadius, who had previously
been appointed emperor, he departed from the East to the West at the
head of his troops. His army consisted not only of Roman soldiers, but
of bands of barbarians from the banks of the Ister. It is said that
when he left Constantinople, he came to the seventh milestone, and went
to pray to God in the church which he had erected in honor of John the
Baptist; and in his name prayed that success might attend the Roman
arms, and besought the Baptist himself to aid him. After offering up
these prayers he proceeded towards Italy, crossed the Alps, and took
the first guard-posts. On descending from the heights of these
mountains, he perceived a plain before him covered with infantry and
cavalry, and became at the same time aware that some of the
enemy’s troops were lying in ambush behind him, among the
recesses of the mountains. The advance guard of his army attacked the
infantry stationed in the plain, and a desperate and very doubtful
conflict ensued. Further, when the army surrounded him, he considered
that he had come into the power of men, and could not be saved even by
those who would desire to do so, since those who had been posted in his
rear were seizing the heights; he fell prone upon the earth, and prayed
with tears, and God instantly answered him; for the officers of the
troops stationed in ambush on the height sent to offer him their
services as his allies, provided that he would assign them honorable
posts in his army. As he had neither paper nor ink within reach, he
took up some tablets, and wrote on them the high and befitting
appointments he would confer upon them, provided that they would
fulfill their promise to him. Under these conditions they advanced to
the emperor. The issue did not yet incline to either side, but the
battle was still evenly balanced in the plain, when a tremendous wind
descended into the face of the enemy. It was such an one as we have
never before recorded, and broke up the ranks of the enemies. The
arrows and darts which were sent against the Romans, as if projected by
the opposing ranks, were turned upon the bodies of those who had cast
them; and their shields were wrenched from their hands, and whirled
against them with filth and dust. Standing thus exposed, in a
defenseless condition, to the weapons of the Romans, many of them
perished, while the few who attempted to effect an escape were soon
captured. Eugenius threw himself at the feet of the emperor, and
implored him to spare his life; but while in the act of offering up
these entreaties, a soldier struck off his head. Arbogastes fled after
the battle, and fell by his own hands. It is said that while the battle
was being fought, a demoniac presented himself in the temple of God
which is in the Hebdomos, where the emperor had engaged in prayer on
starting out, and insulted John the Baptist, taunting him with having
his head cut off, and shouted the following words: “You conquer
me, and lay snares for my army.” The persons who happened to be
on the spot, and who were waiting impatiently to learn some news of the
war, were amazed, and wrote an account of it on the day that it
occurred, and afterwards ascertained that it was the same day as that
on which the battle had been fought. Such is the history of these
transactions.
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