EUGENIUS, USURPER. - When the powerful *magister militum* Arbogast freed himself by crime from the young Emperor Valentinian II, he did not dare to take the purple himself, for it still seemed inconceivable that a barbarian like Arbogast could command the Romans. He deemed it wiser to rule through an intermediary and chose to make Flavius E., a master of rhetoric who had risen through the administrative career to the rank of *magister officiorum*, emperor. E.'s temperament and way of life made Arbogast believe he would be unable to escape his control. However, despite the fabrication of a story about Valentinian II's natural death, recognition from the elder emperor at Constantinople, Theodosius I, could not be obtained, which amounted to a declaration of war.
As he prepared for hostilities, E., though a Christian, sought the support of the pagans by arranging for state funds to cover the expenses of the old idolatrous cults and in other ways favoring them. The war thus became almost a religious war, and this character was emphasized by erecting on E.'s side statues of Jupiter Lustralis on the passes of the Julian Alps, where Theodosius' army would pass, and by Theodosius resorting to prophecies of certain victory, which were said to have come from a saint in Egypt.
The battle that took place on the Friulian plain, along the course of the Vipacco, lasted all day, and only on the second day of fighting (6 Sept. 394), when a furious wind arose that struck E.'s soldiers in the face, were they defeated. The intervention of natural elements seemed miraculous, and this final battle, in which the pagan gods appeared to clash with the God of the Christians, marked the definitive defeat of paganism. E., taken prisoner, was condemned to death; Arbogast killed himself (395).