The Letter of Theodosius to Valentinian

The illustrious emperor Theodosius heard what the young emperor had done, and what the usurper Maximus had written to him. So he wrote to the fleeing youth along these lines: “You must not be surprised that panic has come to you and victory to your enemy. You have been fighting against true religion, and he has been fighting for it. You threw it away, and now you are running away naked. He has put it on like a full suit of armor, and he is getting the better of you, stripped of it as you are. For the One who has given us the law of true religion is always on its side.”

That is what Theodosius wrote while he was still far away. But when he heard that Valentinian had fled, he came to his aid. He saw him an exile, taking refuge in his own part of the empire, and his first thought was to help his soul: to drive out the plague of false religion that had crept in, and to win him back to the true religion of his fathers. Then he told him to take heart, and marched against the usurper. He gave the young man back his empire without bloodshed and put Maximus to death. For he felt that he would be guilty of wrong, and would break the terms of his treaty with Gratian, if he did not punish those who had caused his ally’s death. [a]