70. This reflection is so obvious and forcible, that Orosius
(1. vii. c. 32, 33) delays the persecution till after the
death of Valentinian. Socrates, on the other hand, supposes
(1. iii. [iv.3 c. 32) that it was appeased by a
philosophical oration which Themistius pronounced in the
year 374 (Orat. xii. p. 154, in Latin only). Such
contradictions diminish the evidence and reduce the term of
the persecution of Valens.