53:1
Per idem tempus in Orientis regno Gothorum gens sedibus suis pulsa, per omnes se Thracias infudit, armisque urbes et agros vastare feraliter coepit. Tum vero Valentis bella quae Ecclesiis inferebat, in hostem coepta converti, seraque poenitentia Episcopos et presbyteros relaxari exiliis, ac de metallis resolvi monachos jubet. Ipse tamen ab hostibus circumventus in praedio, quo ex bello trepidus confugerat, impietatis suae poenas igni exustus dedit, annis in Imperio cum fratre primo, et post cum filiis fratris, quatuordecim pariter exactis. Quae pugna initium mali Romano Imperio tunc et deinceps fuit.
約在同時，東方境內哥特人的民族被逐出自己的居所，湧入色雷斯全境，開始凶殘地以兵刃毀滅城邑和田地。那時瓦倫斯向教會所發動的爭戰，便開始轉向仇敵；他帶著遲來的悔改，下令把主教和長老從流放中釋放，把修士從礦坑中解放出來。然而他自己卻在從戰場驚惶逃往的一座田莊裏被仇敵圍困，被火焚燒，償還了他不敬虔的刑罰；他在帝位上共十四年——先與兄長同朝，後與兄長的眾子同朝。這場戰役在當時和此後，都成了羅馬帝國禍患的開端。
About the same time, in the realm of the East, the nation of the Goths, driven from their own dwellings, poured itself through all the Thracian regions, and began savagely to lay waste cities and fields with arms. Then indeed the wars which Valens was waging against the Churches began to be turned against the enemy, and with belated repentance he ordered the bishops and presbyters to be released from exile and the monks to be loosed from the mines. Yet he himself, surrounded by the enemy in a farmstead to which in his alarm he had fled from the battle, paid the penalties of his impiety, burned by fire, having completed fourteen years in the Empire—first with his brother, and afterward with his brother's sons. This battle was then, and thereafter, the beginning of evil for the Roman Empire.
53:2
Igitur Gratianus cum fratre admodum parvulo, post patrui necem Orientis quoque suscepit Imperium. Is pietate et religione omnes pene, qui ante fuerant principes, superabat. Usu armorum strenuus, velox corpore, et ingenio bonus erat, sed juvenili exultatione plus fere laetus, quam sufficiebat, et plus verecundus, quam Reipublicae intererat.
於是格拉提安在其叔父死後，與年幼的兄弟一同接掌了東方的帝國。他在虔敬和信仰上幾乎勝過從前所有的君王。他善於用兵，身手矯捷，性情良善；只是在年少的歡騰中，他比相宜的更為開朗，又比對國家有利的更為謙退。
Gratian, therefore, together with his very young brother, after his uncle's death, took up also the Empire of the East. He surpassed almost all the princes who had been before him in piety and religion. He was vigorous in the use of arms, swift of body, and good of disposition; but in his youthful exuberance he was rather more cheerful than was fitting, and more modest than was advantageous to the commonwealth.