Prosperity awaits our empire; thy name is earnest for the fulfilment of our hopes. The past guarantees the future; each time that thy sire made thee chief magistrate of the year the laurels of victory crowned his arms. Once the Gruthungi, hewing down a forest to make them boats, dared to pass beyond the Danube. Three thousand vessels, each crowded with a barbarous crew, made a dash across the river. Odothaeus was their leader. Thy youth, nay, the first year of thy life, crushed the attempt of that formidable fleet. Its boats filled and sank; never did the fish of that northern river feed more lavishly on the bodies of men. The island of Peuce was heaped high with corpses. Scarce even through five mouths could the river rid itself of barbarian blood, and thy sire, owning thine influence, gave thanks to thee for the spoils won in person from King Odothaeus. Consul a second time thou didst end civil war by thine auspices. Let the world thank thee for the overthrow of the Gruthungi and the defeat of their king; thou wast consul when the Danube ran red with their blood, thou wast consul, too, when thy sire crossed the Alps to victory.[167] But thou, once author of thy father’s successes, shalt now be author of thine own. Triumph has ever attended thy consulship and victory thy fasces. [166] A reference to the Roman method of manumitting a slave _alapa et festuca_, _i.e._ by giving him a slight blow (_alapa_) with a rod (_festuca_). See Gaius on _vindicatio_ (iv. 16) and on the whole question R. G. Nisbet in _Journal of Roman Studies_, viii. Pt. 1. [167] The campaign of Theodosius against Odothaeus, King of the Gruthungi (Zosimus iv. 35 calls him Ὀδόθεος) is thus dated as 386, the year of Honorius’ first consulship (see note on viii. 153). Honorius’ second consulship (394) saw the defeat of Eugenius. * * * * * Page 334 sis, precor, adsiduus consul Mariique relinquas et senis Augusti numerum. quae gaudia mundo, per tua lanugo cum serpere coeperit ora, cum tibi protulerit festas nox pronuba taedas! quae tali devota toro, quae murice fulgens 645 ibit in amplexus tanti regina mariti? quaenam tot divis veniet nurus, omnibus arvis et toto donanda mari? quantusque feretur idem per Zephyri metas Hymenaeus et Euri! o mihi si liceat thalamis intendere carmen 650 conubiale tuis, si te iam dicere patrem! tempus erit, cum tu trans Rheni cornua victor, Arcadius captae spoliis Babylonis onustus communem maiore toga signabitis annum; crinitusque tuo sudabit fasce Suebus, 655 ultima fraternas horrebunt Bactra secures. * * * * * Page 335