5. Not long afterwards, two of the secretaries who had been banished came to him, boldly promising to point out the hiding-place of Florentius if he would restore them to their rank in the army; but he abused them, and called them informers; adding that it did not become an emperor to be led by underhand information to bring back a man who had concealed himself out of fear of death, and who perhaps would not long be left in his retreat unpardoned. 6. On all these occasions Prætextatus was present, a senator of a noble disposition and of old-fashioned dignity; who at that time had come to Constantinople on his own private affairs, and whom Julian by his own choice selected as governor of Achaia with the rank of proconsul. 7. Still, while thus diligent in correcting civil evils, Julian did not omit the affairs of the army: continually appointing over the soldiers officers of long-tried worth; repairing the exterior defences of all the cities throughout Thrace, and taking great care that the soldiers on the banks of the Danube, who were exposed to the attacks of the barbarians, and who, as he heard were doing their duty with vigilance and courage, should never be in want of arms, clothes, pay, or provisions. 8. And while superintending these matters he allowed nothing to be done carelessly: and when those about him advised him to attack the Gauls as neighbours who were always deceitful and perfidious, he said he wished for more formidable foes; for that the Gallic merchants were enough for them, who sold them at all times without any distinction of rank. 9. While he gave his attention to these and similar matters, his fame was spreading among foreign nations for courage, temperance, skill in war, and eminent endowments of every kind of virtue, so that he gradually became renowned throughout the whole world. 10. And as the fear of his approach pervaded both neighbouring and distant countries, embassies hastened to him with unusual speed from all quarters at one time; the people beyond the Tigris and the Armenians sued for peace. At another the Indian tribes vied with each other, sending nobles loaded with gifts even from the Maldive Islands and Ceylon; from the south the Moors offered themselves as subjects of the Roman empire; from the north, and also from those hot climates through which the Phasis passes on its way to the sea, and from the people of the Bosphorus, and from other unknown tribes came ambassadors entreating that on the payment of annual duties they might be allowed to live in peace within their native countries. VIII. § 1. The time is now appropriate, in my opinion, since in treating of this mighty prince we are come to speak of these districts, to explain perspicuously what we have learnt by our own eyesight or by reading, about the frontiers of Thrace and the situation of the Black Sea.