A Roman poet’s trek through eastern Gaul

In AD 368, the Roman emperor Valentinian I marched east from Augusta Treverorum (now Trier, in western Germany), the imperial capital of Roman Gaul, to campaign beyond the Rhine. Later that year he won a hard-fought victory against the Alamanni at the battle of Solicinium, perhaps near modern-day Hechingen in south-west Germany. Valentinian’s display of Roman might deep in enemy territory was a notable sign of the power that the empire still wielded even in its twilight, and was one of the last successful offensives against the Germanic tribes that were the historic enemies of Rome.

Yet despite Valentinian’s victory, the expedition is remembered largely not for the martial exploits of the emperor but for a literary achievement – a work by a brilliant ex-lawyer and Latin professor from Bordeaux named Decimus Magnus Ausonius. Valentinian was accompanied on the campaign not just by his army but also by his eight-year-old son and co-emperor, Gratian, whose personal