Meanwhile, when Valentinian had come from the parts of Gaul into Illyricum for the Sarmatian war, there, the war scarcely begun, he was overcome by a sudden illness and met his end, leaving as heirs to the Empire his sons—Gratian Augustus, and Valentinian, a very small child not yet initiated with the royal insignia. Yet the necessity of those who were attempting to seize, as it were, an empty place of empire, compelled him—even in his brother's absence—to be clothed with the purple, while Probus, then Prefect, faithfully managed affairs.