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XX.

dissuade him from prosecuting his rash and dangerous CHAP.
design. A legion was ordered to pursue the royal
fugitive; but the pursuit of infantry could not be
very alarming to a body of light cavalry; and upon
the first cloud of arrows that was discharged into the
air, they retreated with precipitation to the gates of
Tarsus. After an incessant march of two days and
two nights, Para and his Armenians reached the banks
of the Euphrates; but the passage of the river, which
they were obliged to swim, was attended with some
delay and some loss. The country was alarmed; and
the two roads, which were only separated by an in-
terval of three miles, had been occupied by a thou-
sand archers on horseback, under the command of a
count and a tribune. Para must have yielded to
superior force, if the accidental arrival of a friendly
traveller had not revealed the danger, and the means
of escape. A dark and almost impervious path se-
curely conveyed the Armenian troop through the
thicket; and Para had left behind him the count and
the tribune, while they patiently expected his approach
along the public highways. They returned to the
Imperial court to excuse their want of diligence or
success; and seriously alleged, that the king of Ar-
menia, who was a skilful magician, had transformed
himself and his followers, and passed before their eyes
under a borrowed shape. After his return to his na-
tive kingdom, Para still continued to profess himself
the friend and ally of the Romans; but the Romans
had injured him too deeply ever to forgive, and the
secret sentence of his death was signed in the council
of Valens. The execution of the bloody deed was
committed to the subtle prudence of Count Trajan;
and he had the merit of insinuating himself into the
confidence of the credulous prince, that he might find
an opportunity of stabbing him to the heart. Para
was invited to a Roman banquet, which had been pre-

XX.

CHAP. pared with all the pomp and sensuality of the East: the hall resounded with cheerful music, and the com pany was already heated with wine; when the count retired for an instant, drew his sword, and gave the signal of the murder. A robust and desperate Barbarian instantly rushed on the king of Armenia; and though he bravely defended his life with the first weapon that chance offered to his hand, the table of A. D. 374. the Imperial general was stained with the royal blood

V. THE DANUBE. Conquests of Hermanric.

of a guest, and an ally. Such were the weak and wicked maxims of the Roman administration, that, to attain a doubtful object of political interest, the laws of nations, and the sacred rites of hospitality, were inhumanly violated in the face of the world*.

V. During a peaceful interval of thirty years, the Romans secured their frontiers, and the Goths extended their dominions. The victories of the great Hermanric†, king of the Ostrogoths, and the most noble of the race of the Amali, have been compared, by the enthusiasm of his countrymen, to the exploits of Alexander: with this singular, and almost incredible, difference, that the martial spirit of the Gothic hero, instead of being supported by the vigour of youth, was displayed with glory and success in the extreme period of human life; between the age of fourscore and one hundred and ten years. The independent tribes were persuaded, or compelled, to acknowledge the king of the Ostrogoths as the sovereign of the Gothic nation: the chiefs of the Visigoths, or Thervingi, renounced the royal title, and assumed the more humble appellation of Judges; and, among those judges, Athanaric, Fritigern, and Alavivus, were the most illustrious, by their personal merit, as well as by their vicinity to the Roman pro

*See in Ammianus (xxx. 1.) the adventures of Para.

+ The concise account of the reign and conquests of Hermanric seems to be one of the valuable fragments which Jornandes (c. 28.) borrowed from the Gothic histories of Ablavius, or Cassiodorius.

eres

XX.

vinces. These domestic conquests, which increased CHAP. the military power of Hermanric, enlarged his ambitious designs. He invaded the adjacent countries of the north; and twelve considerable nations, whose names and limits cannot be accurately defined, successively yielded to the superiority of the Gothic arms. The Heruli, who inhabited the marshy lands near the lake Mæotis, were renowned for their strength and the agility; and the assistance of their light infantry was eagerly solicited, and highly esteemed, in all the wars of the Barbarians. But the active spirit of the Heruli was subdued by the slow and steady perseverance of the Goths; and, after a bloody action, in which the king was slain, the remains of that warlike tribe became an useful accession to the camp of Hermanric. He then marched against the Venedi; unskilled in the use of arms, and formidable only by their numbers, which filled the wide extent of the plains of modern Poland. The victorious Goths, who were not inferior in numbers, prevailed in the contest, by the decisive advantages of exercise and discipline. After the submission of the Venedi, the conqueror advanced, without resistance, as far as the confines of the Estii; an ancient people, whose name is still preserved in the province of Esthonia. Those distant inhabitants of the Baltic coast were supported by the labours of agriculture, enriched by the trade of amber, and consecrated by the peculiar worship of the Mother of the Gods. But the scarcity of iron obliged the Estian warriors to content themselves with wooden clubs; and the reduction of that wealthy country is ascribed to the prudence, rather than to the arms, of Hermanric. His dominions, which extended from the Danube to the Baltic, included the native seats, and the recent acquisitions, of the Goths; and he reigned over the greatest part of Germany and Scythia with the authority of a conqueror, and some

hees

XX.

CHAP. times with the cruelty of a tyrant. But he reigned over a part of the globe incapable of perpetuating and adorning the glory of its heroes. The name of Her manric is almost buried in oblivion; his exploits are imperfectly known; and the Romans themselves ap peared unconscious of the progress of an aspiring power, which threatened the liberty of the North, and the peace of the empire.

The cause of the Gothic war,

A.D. 366.

The Goths had contracted an hereditary attach ment for the Imperial house of Constantine, of whose power and liberality they had received so many signal proofs. They respected the public peace: and if a hostile band sometimes presumed to pass the Roman limit, their irregular conduct was candidly ascribed to the ungovernable spirit of the Barbarian youth. Their contempt for two new and obscure princes, who had been raised to the throne by a popular election, inspired the Goths with bolder hopes; and, while they agitated some design of marching their confe derate force under the national standard, they were easily tempted to embrace the party of Procopius; and to foment, by their dangerous aid, the civil dis cord of the Romans. The public treaty might sti pulate no more than ten thousand auxiliaries; but the design was so zealously adopted by the chiefs of the Visigoths, that the army which passed the Danube amounted to the number of thirty thousand men. They marched with the proud confidence, that their invincible valour would decide the fate of the Roman empire; and the provinces of Thrace groaned under the weight of the Barbarians, who displayed the insolence of masters, and the licentiousness of enemies. But the intemperance which gratified their appetites retarded their progress; and before the Goths could receive any certain intelligence of the defeat and death of Procopius, they perceived, by the hostile state of the country, that the civil and military powers

XX.

were resumed by his successful rival. A chain of CHAP.
posts and fortifications skilfully disposed by Valens, or
the generals of Valens, resisted their march, prevent-
ed their retreat, and intercepted their subsistence.
The fierceness of the Barbarians was tamed and sus-
pended by hunger; they indignantly threw down
their arms at the feet of the conqueror, who offered
them food and chains: the numerous captives were
distributed in all the cities of the East; and the pro-
vincials, who were soon familiarized with their savage
appearance, ventured, by degrees, to measure their own
strength with these formidable adversaries, whose
name had so long been the object of their terror.
The king of Scythia (and Hermanric alone could
deserve so lofty a title) was grieved and exasperated
by this national calamity. His ambassadors loudly
complained, at the court of Valens, of the infraction
of the ancient and solemn alliance, which had so long
subsisted between the Romans and the Goths. They
alleged, that they had fulfilled the duty of allies, by
assisting the kinsman and successor of the emperor
Julian; they required the immediate restitution of
the noble captives; and they urged a very singular
claim, that the Gothic generals, marching in arms,
and in hostile array, were entitled to the sacred cha-
racter and privileges of ambassadors. The decent,
but peremptory, refusal of these extravagant demands,
was signified to the Barbarians by Victor, master-
general of the cavalry; who expressed, with force
and dignity, the just complaints of the emperor of the
East. The negotiation was interrupted; and the manly
exhortations of Valentinian encouraged his timid bro-
ther to vindicate the insulted majesty of the empire.

and peace,

The splendour and magnitude of this Gothic war Hostilities are celebrated by a contemporary historian: but the A. D. 367, events scarcely deserve the attention of posterity, ex- 368, 369. cept as the preliminary steps of the approaching de