XXVI. CHAP. within the vaft circle of the inclofure, enjoyed the fruits of their valour, and the fpoils of the province. In the midst of riotous intemperance, the watchful Fritigern obferved the motions, and penetrated the defigns, of the Romans. He perceived, that the numbers of the enemy were continually increafing; and, as he understood their intention of attacking his rear, as foon as the scarcity of forage fhould oblige him to remove his camp; he recalled to their standard his predatory detachments, which covered the adjacent country. As foon as they As foon as they defcried the flaming beacons ", they obeyed, with incredible speed, the fignal of their leader; the camp was filled with the martial crowd of Barbarians; their impatient clamours demanded the battle, and their tumultuous zeal was approved and animated by the fpirit of their chiefs. The evening was already far advanced; and the two armies prepared themselves for the approaching combat, which was deferred only till the dawn of day. While the trumpets founded to arms, the undaunted courage of the Goths was confirmed by the mutual obligation of a folemn oath; and as they advanced to meet the enemy, the rude fongs, which celebrated the glory of their forefathers, were mingled with their fierce and diffonant outcries; and opposed to the artificial harmony of 81 Statim ut accenfi malleoli. I have used the literal sense of real torches or beacons : but I almost fufpect, that it is only one of those turgid metaphors, thofe falfe ornaments, that perpetually disfigure the ftyle of Ammianus. the XXVI. the Roman shout. Some military skill was dif- CHAP. played by Fritigern to gain the advantage of a commanding eminence; but the bloody conflict, which began and ended with the light, was maintained, on either fide, by the perfonal and obftinate efforts of ftrength, valour, and agility. The legions of Armenia fupported their fame in arms; but they were oppreffed by the irrefiftible weight of the hostile multitude: the left wing of the Romans was thrown into diforder, and the field was ftrewed with their mangled carcaffes. This partial defeat was balanced, however, by partial fuccefs; and when the two armies, at a late hour of the evening, retreated to their refpective camps, neither of them could claim the honours, or the effects, of a decifive victory. The real loss was more feverely felt by the Romans, in proportion to the fmallnefs of their numbers; but the Goths were fo deeply confounded and dismayed by this vigorous, and perhaps unexpected, refiftance, that they remained feven days within the circle of their fortifications. Such funeral rites, as the circumstances of time and place would admit, were piously discharged to fome officers of distinguished rank; but the indifcriminate vulgar was left unburied on the plain. Their flesh was greedily devoured by the birds of prey, who, in that age, enjoyed very frequent and delicious feasts; and feveral years afterwards the white and naked bones, which covered the wide extent of the fields, presented XXVI. CHAP. to the eyes of Ammianus, a dreadful monument of the battle of Salices "". Union of the Goths with the Huns, Alani, &c. 82 The progrefs of the Goths had been checked by the doubtful event of that bloody day; and the Imperial generals, whofe army would have been confumed by the repetition of fuch a con. teft, embraced the more rational plan, of deftroying the Barbarians, by the wants and preffure of their own multitudes. They prepared to confine the Vifigoths in the narrow angle of land, between the Danube, the defert of Scythia, and the mountains of Hamus, till their ftrength and fpirit fhould be infenfibly wafted by the inevitable operation of famine. The defign was profecuted with fome conduct and fuccefs; the Barbarians had almoft exhaufted their own magazines, and the harvests of the country; and the diligence of Saturninus, the master-general of the cavalry, was employed to improve the strength, and to contract the extent, of the Roman fortifications. His labours were interrupted by the alarming intelligence, that new fwarms of Barbarians had paffed the unguarded Danube, either to fupport the caufe, or to imitate the example, of Fritigern. The juft apprehenfion, that he himself might be furrounded, and overwhelmed, by the arms of hostile and unknown nations, 82 Indicant nunc ufque albentes offibus campi. Ammian. xxxi. 7. The historian might have viewed those plains, either as a foldier, or as a traveller. But his modefty has fuppreffed the adventures of his own life fubfequent to the Perfian wars of Conftantius and Julian. We are ignorant of the time when he quitted the fervice and retired to Rome, where he appears to have compofed his History of his Own Times. com. 83 XXVI. compelled Saturninus to relinquish the fiege of CHAP. the Gothic camp: and the indignant Vifigoths, breaking from their confinement, fatiated their hunger and revenge, by the repeated devaftation of the fruitful country, which extends above three hundred miles from the banks of the Danube to the ftreights of the Hellefpont ". The fagacious Fritigern had fuccefsfully appealed to the paffions, as well as to the intereft, of his Barbarian allies; and the love of rapine, and the hatred of Rome, feconded, or even prevented, the eloquence of his ambaffadors. He cemented a strict and ufeful alliance with the great body of his countrymen, who obeyed Alatheus and Saphrax as the guardians of their infant king: the long animofity of rival tribes was fufpended by the fense of their common intereft; the independent part of the nation was affociated under one ftandard; and the chiefs of the Oftrogoths appear to have yielded to the fuperior genius of the general of the Vifigoths. He obtained the formidable aid of the Taifale, whofe military renown was difgraced and polluted by the public infamy of their domeftic manners. Every youth, on his entrance into the world, was united by the ties of honourable friendship, and brutal love, to fome warrior of the tribe; nor could he hope to be released from this unnatural connection, till he had approved his manhood, by flaying, in fingle combat, a huge bear, or a wild boar of the fo 83 Ammian. xxxi. 8. reft. CHAP. reft 4. XXVI. But the most powerful auxiliaries of the Goths were drawn from the camp of thofe enemies who had expelled them from their native feats. The loofe fubordination, and extenfive poffeffions, of the Huns and the Alani, delayed the conquefts, and diftracted the councils, of that victorious people. Several of the hords were allured by the liberal promises of Fritigern; and the rapid cavalry of Scythia, added weight and energy to the steady and strenuous efforts of the Gothic infantry. The Sarmatians, who could never forgive the fucceffor of Valentinian, enjoyed and increased the general confufion; and a seasonable irruption of the Alemanni, into the provinces of Gaul, engaged the attention, and diverted the forces, of the emperor of the Weft 3. One of the most dangerous inconveniencies of the introduction of the Barbarians into the army Alemanni, and the palace, was fenfibly felt in their corA. D. 378. refpondence with their hoftile countrymen; to whom they imprudently, or maliciously, revealed the weakness of the Roman empire. A foldier, of the life-guards of Gratian, was of the nation Victory of Gratian over the May. 84 Hanc Taifalorum gentem turpem, et obfcenæ vitæ flagitiis ita accipimus merfam; ut apud eos nefandi concubitus fœdere copulentur mares puberes, ætatis viriditatem in eorum pollutis ufibus confumpturi. Porro, fi qui jam adultus aprum exceperit folus, vel interemit urfum immanem, colluvione liberatur incefti. Ammian. xxxi. 9. Among the Greeks likewise, more especially among the Cretans, the holy bands of friendship were confirmed, and fullied, by unnatural love. 85 Ammian. xxxi. 8, 9. Jerom. (tom. i. p. 26.) enumerates the nations, and marks a calamitous period of twenty years. This epistle to Heliodorus was compofed in the year 397 (Tillemont, Mem. Ecclef. tom. xii. p. 645.). of |