12-28-2009, 01:59 PM
Quote:I'm curious what you think of Theodosius.I can do no better than to quote Gibbon:
Quote:Theodosius was chaste and temperate; he enjoyed, without excess, the sensual and social pleasures of the table; and the warmth of his amorous passions was never diverted from their lawful objects. [ :wink: ] The proud titles of imperial greatness were adorned by the tender names of a faithful husband, an indulgent father; ... His familiar friends were judiciously selected from among those persons who, in the equal intercourse of private life, had appeared before his eyes without a mask; the consciousness of personal and superior merit enabled him to despise the accidental distinction of the purple; and he proved by his conduct that he had forgotten all the injuries, while he most gratefully remembered all the favours and services, which he had received before he ascended the throne of the Roman empire.What a splendid fellow! (And let us pass swiftly over the massacre at Thessalonica. :oops: )
