Returning for a moment to the outward world, we find that on the death
of Jovian, in 364, Valentinian, the new Emperor, continued the system of
toleration adopted by his predecessor. On his death, in 375, Gratian,
the successor to the imperial throne, so far improved on the example of
the two former potentates as to range himself boldly on the side of the
partisans of the new faith. Not content with merely encouraging, both
by precept and by example, the growth of Christianity, the Emperor
further testified to his zeal for the rising religion by inflicting
incessant persecutions upon the rapidly decreasing advocates of the
ancient worship; serving, by these acts of his reign, as pioneer to his
successor, Theodosius the Great, in the religious revolution which that
illustrious opponent of Paganism was destined to effect.
The death of Gratian, in 383, saw Ulpius enrolled among the chief
priests of the temple, and pointed out as the next inheritor of the
important office once held by the powerful and active Macrinus.
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