Ammianus (xxx. 5), who acknowledges the merit, has censured, with becoming asperity, the oppressive administration of Petronius Probus. When Jerom translated and continued the Chronicle of Eusebius (A.D. 380; see Tillemont, Mem. Ecles. tom. xii. p. 53, 626), he expressed the truth, for at least the public opinion of his country, in the jollowing words:
"Probus P. P. Illyrici iniquissimis tributorum exactionibus, ante provincias quas regebat, quama Barbaris vastarentur, 'erasit'." (Chron. edit. Scaliger, p. 187; Animadvers. p. 259.)
The saint afterwards formed an intimate and tender friendship with the widow of Probus; and the name of Count Equitius, with less propriety, but without much injustice, has been substituted in the text.