The usurpers came from Gaul (France) and went immediately to Milan. Ambrose, knowing they were coming and in any case torn by remorse that he had not made it to Vienne before Valentinian’s death, saw fit to leave the city. He had been organizing relief for the war refugees, but had no desire to lend legitimacy to Arbogastes’ gang by remaining in the capital. He took the chance to take an interesting journey to Bologna, where he found the relics of Agricola and Vitalis, then to Florence, where he “seeded” a new church with some of those relics. While there he worked with Juliana, the great philanthrope who gave her wealth to build churches and her children to the religious life: 3 daughters and a son. Ambrose did write Eugenius, the titular emperor, excusing his absence. The Battle of Lake Frigidus lasted two days. The first day favored the pagans, to whose side a contingent of barbarian troops switched. On the second day Theodosius was heard to utter a very loud plea for God’s help: “Where is the God of Theodosius!” (de Obitu Theodosii 7). The boreal wind came up strongly from behind his ranks—some said so strongly that it blew the arrows of the enemy back at them. Others claimed they saw Saints James and John swirling overhead like Castor and Pollux of old. In the end it was the new heavily-armed cavalry—the cataphracti—who won the day. These were a relatively new innovation and are much closer to medieval knights than to the foot soldiers of the legions of Caesar. Eugenius, the puppet emperor, died that day. He was a scholar and poet, the one-time tutor of princes, who was set up as ruler to attract the approbation of Rome’s pagan Senate class. Nichomachus was tracked down and killed. He was a staunch pagan of the Senate class who seems to have seen this conflict as a showdown between tradition and innovation. Arbogastes, the third of the usurping triumvirate, had been a general for Theodosius, the nephew and son of two of his most trusted men, but he was a pagan and had aspiration. He was certainly behind the death of Valentinian II in Vienne, even if the young man did commit suicide, and he was the force behind this bid for power. The field was left to a Nicaean emperor who had recently—just after his Thessaloniki penance was completed—made Christianity the official religion of the empire and had Rome declared the First City of what will eventually be called Christendom. Though not without issues to resolve, such as the superabundance of non-Romanized barbarians in the army, the increasing pressure from the Huns, the economic woes caused by so much civil war, and the cultural battles between and among sects of Christians, pagans, and Jews. But the future looked bright. He had two sons who now enjoyed a clear route to the throne. He immediately had them made co-Emperors with him. The elder, Arcadius, Theodosius left in Constantinople, the younger, Honorius, he sent for to join him in Milan, along with that boy’s half sister Galla Placidia. General Stilecho, husband to Theodosius’ neice, was tasked to hold the West in the name of Honorius. Tellingly, Theodosius had taken it upon himself to refrain from the Eucharist until his family was safely at his side. That, apparently, was the proof he needed that God was indeed propitiated and that this most recent civil war would not damn him. He also heeded the plea by Ambrose for leniency for all the usurpers save the three leaders. This included, by the way, Symmachus, who seems to have been coerced into writing a panegyric, something like a eulogy-poem at an inauguration, for Maximus. It also included his son-in-law who might not have had anything to do with the rebellion personally, but whose father was none other than Nichomachus. 92
Warrior king mosaic from the Fifth Century, palace of Theodoric in Ravenna
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