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.