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The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret (CCEL)

Chapter XVIII. Of the Empress Placilla.

¹ Yet other opportunities of improvement lay within the emperor’s reach, for his wife used constantly to put him in mind of the divine laws in which she had first carefully educated herself. In no way exalted by her imperial rank she was rather fired by it with greater longing for divine things. The greatness of the good gift given her made her love for Him who gave it all the greater, so she bestowed every kind of attention on the maimed and the mutilated, declining all aid from her household and her guards, herself visiting the houses where the sufferers lodged, and providing every one with what he required. She also went about the guest chambers of the churches and ministered to the wants of the sick, herself handling pots and pans, and tasting broth, now bringing in a dish and breaking bread and offering morsels, and washing out a cup and going through all the other duties which are supposed to be proper to servants and maids. To them who strove to restrain her from doing these things with her own hands she would say, “It befits a sovereign to distribute gold; I, for the sovereign power that has been given me, am giving my own service to the Giver.” To her husband, too, she was ever wont to say, “Husband, you ought always to bethink you what you were once and what you have become now; by keeping this constantly in mind you will never grow ungrateful to your benefactor, but will guide in accordance with law the empire bestowed upon you, and thus you will worship Him who gave it.” By ever using language of this kind, she with fair and wholesome care, as it were, watered the seeds of virtue planted in her husband’s heart.

She died before her husband, and not long after the time of her death events occurred which showed how well her husband loved her.

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Kirchengeschichte (BKV)

1. Die Rechtgläubigkeit des Kaisers Gratian

S. 261 Wie Gott der Herr diejenigen, welche gegen ihn kämpfen, sehr lange erträgt und wie er diejenigen züchtigt, welche seine Langmut mißbrauchen, das zeigen uns deutlich die Taten und Schicksale des Valens. Der menschenfreundliche Gott gebraucht nämlich seine Barmherzigkeit und Gerechtigkeit wie die Gewichte an einer Wage. Wenn er sieht, daß jemand durch die Größe seiner Frevel das Maß seiner Güte überschreitet, dann hindert er durch gerechte Strafe das weitere Fortschreiten desselben (auf dem Wege der Sünde).

Gratian, der Sohn des Valentinian und Neffe des Valens, übernahm jetzt die Regierung des ganzen römischen Reiches. Denn schon früher, nach dem Tode seines Vaters, hatte er die Herrschaft über Europa erlangt, ja bereits zu dessen Lebzeiten hatte er an der kaiserlichen Regierung teilgenommen. Dazu erhielt er jetzt, da Valens kinderlos gestorben war, noch Asien und den übrigen Teil von Libyen¹.