It is considered the greatest and a regal thing for the ruler of the whole people to possess, at least, one of the homely virtues; but no such great estimate has been made of piety, which is, after all, the true ornament of the empire. Thou, however, O most powerful Emperor Theodosius, hast in a word, by God's help, cultivated every virtue. Girt with the purple robe and crown, a symbol of your dignity to onlookers, you wear within always that true ornament of sovereignty, piety and philanthropy.
Whence it happens that poets and writers, and the greater part of your officers as well as the rest of your subjects, concern themselves on every occasion with you and your deeds. And when you preside as ruler of contests and judge of discourses, you are not robbed of your accuracy by any artificial sound and form, but you award the prize sincerely, observing whether the diction is suitable to the design of the composition; so also with respect to the form of words, divisions, order, unity, phraseology, construction, arguments, thought, and narrative.
You recompense the speakers with your favorable judgment and applause, as well as with golden images, erection of statues, gifts, and every kind of honor. Thou showest greater personal favor toward the speakers than the ancient Cretans did toward the much-sung Homer; or the Alevadæ did to Simonides; or Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily to Plato, the companion of Socrates; or Philip the Macedonian, to Theopompus the historian; or the Emperor Severus to Oppianus, who related in verse the kinds, nature, and catching of fish.
For after the Cretans had rewarded Homer with a thousand nummi, they inscribed the amount of the gift on a public column as if to boast of their excessive munificence. The Alevadæ, Dionysius, and Philip were not more reserved than the Cretans, who boasted of their modest and philosophical government, but quickly imitated their column, so that they might not be inferior in their donative. But when Severus bestowed upon Oppianus a golden gift for each line of his moderate verse, he so astonished everybody with his liberality, that the poems of Oppianus are popularly called golden words to this day.
Such were the donations of former lovers of learning and discourses. But thou, O Emperor, surpassest any of the ancients in your liberality to letters, and you seem to me to do this not unreasonably. For while you strive to conquer all by your virtues, you also conduct your own affairs successfully, according to your thorough knowledge of the story of those ancient affairs, so prosperously directed by the Greeks and Romans. Rumor says that during the day, you take military and bodily exercise, and arrange affairs of state by giving judicial decisions, and by making note of what is necessary, and by observation, both in public and private, of the things which ought to be done; and at night that you busy yourself with books.
It is a saying, that there serves you for the study of these works, a lamp which causes the oil to flow automatically into the wick, by means of some mechanism, so that not one of the servants in the palace should be compelled to be taxed with your labors, and to do violence to nature by fighting against sleep. Thus you are humane and gentle, both to those near, and to all, since you imitate the Heavenly King who is your pattern; in that He loves to send rain, and causes the sun to rise on the just and unjust, as well as to furnish other blessings ungrudgingly.
As is natural, I hear also that by your various learning, you are no less familiar with the nature of stones, and the virtues of roots, and forces of remedies, than Solomon, the wisest son of David; while you excel him in virtue; for Solomon became the slave of his pleasures, and did not preserve to the end, that piety which had been for him the source of prosperity and wisdom. But thou, most powerful Emperor, because you set your restraining reason in array against levity, art not only an autocrat of men, but also of the passions of soul and body, as one would naturally suppose.
And this, too, ought to be remarked: I understand that you conquer the desire for all food and drink; neither the sweeter figs, to speak poetically, nor any other kind of fruit in its season, can take you prisoner, except the little that you touch and taste, after you have returned thanks to the Maker of all things. You are wont to vanquish thirst, stifling heat, and cold by your daily exercise, so that you seem to have self-control as a second nature. Lately, as is well known, you were anxious to visit the city of Heraclea in Pontus, and to restore it, prostrated by time, and you took the way in the summer season through Bithynia.
When the sun about midday was very fiery, one of the body-guard saw you, heated with much sweat and clouds of dust, and, as if to do you a favor, he anticipatingly offered to you a bowl which reflected brilliantly the rays of the sun; he poured in some sweet drink, and added cold water thereto. But you, most powerful Emperor, received it, and praised the man for his good will, and you made it obvious that you would soon reward him for his well-wrought deed with royal munificence.
But when all the soldiers were wondering with open mouth at the dish, and were counting him blessed who should drink, you, O noble Emperor, returned the drink to him and commanded him to use it in whatever way he pleased. So that it seems to me that Alexander, the son of Philip, was surpassed by your virtue; of whom it is reputed by his admirers, that while he, with the Macedonians, was passing through a waterless place, an anxious soldier found water, drew it, and offered it to Alexander; he would not drink it, but poured out the draught.
Therefore, in a word, it is appropriate to call you, according to Homer, more regal than the kings who preceded you; for we have heard of some who acquired nothing worthy of admiration, and others who adorned their reign with scarcely one or two deeds. But thou, O most powerful Emperor, hast gathered together all the virtues, and hast excelled every one in piety, philanthropy, courage, prudence, justice, munificence, and a magnanimity befitting royal dignity. And every age will boast of your rule as alone unstained and pure from murder, beyond all governments that ever existed.
Thou teachest your subjects to pursue serious things with pleasure, so that they show zeal for you and public affairs, with good will and respect. So that for all these reasons, it has appeared to me, as a writer of Ecclesiastical History, necessary to address myself to you. For to whom can I do this more appropriately, since I am about to relate the virtue of many devoted men, and the events of the Catholic Church; and since her conflicts with so many enemies lead me to your threshhold and that of your fathers?
Come thou, who knowest all things and possessest every virtue, especially that piety, which the Divine Word says is the beginning of wisdom, receive from me this writing, and marshal its facts and purify it by your labors, out of your accurate knowledge, whether by addition or elimination. For whatever course may seem pleasing to you, that will be wholly advantageous and brilliant for the readers, nor shall any one put a hand to it after your approval. My history begins with the third consulate of the Cæsars, Crispus and Constantine, and stretches to your seventeenth consulship. I deemed it proper to divide the whole work into nine parts: the first and second books will embrace the ecclesiastical affairs under Constantine; the third and fourth, those under his sons; the fifth and sixth, those under Julian, the cousin of the sons of the great Constantine, and Jovian, and, further, of Valentinian and Valens; the seventh and eighth books, O most powerful Emperor, will open up the affairs under the brothers Gratian and Valentinian, until the proclamation of Theodosius, your divine grandfather, as far as your celebrated father Arcadius, together with your uncle, the most pious and godly Honorius, received the paternal government and shared in the regulation of the Roman world; the ninth book I have devoted to your Christ-loving and most innocent majesty, which may God always preserve in unbroken good will, triumphing greatly over enemies, and having all things under your feet and transmitting the holy empire to your sons' sons with the approbation of Christ, through whom and with whom, be glory to God, and the Father, with the Holy Spirit forever. Amen.
Source: Ecclesiastical History (New Advent)