Note 006 Ammianus (xxxi. 10) and the younger Victor [Epit. c. 47] acknowledge the virtues of Gratian; and accuse, or rather lament, his degenerate taste. The odious parallel of Commodus is saved by "licet incruentus;" and perhaps Philostorgius (1. x. c. 10 [5], and Godefroy, p. 412) had guarded, with some similar reserve, the comparison of Nero.

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The History Of The Decline and Fall Of The Roman Empire— Chapter 27