318 VICTORIES OF THE HUNS CHAP. XXVI. in the mountains of Caucasus, between the Eux.ne and the Caspian, where they still preserve their name and their independence. Another colony advanced, with more intrepid courage, towards the shores of the Baltic; associated themselves with the northern tribes of Germany; and shared the spoil of the Roman provinces of Gaul and Spain. But the greatest part of the nation of the Alani embraced the offers of an honourable and advantageous union; and the Huns, who esteemed the valour of their less fortunate enemies, proceeded, with an increase of numbers and confidence, to invade the limits of the Gothic empire. Their the Goths, A.D. 375. 56 The great Hermanric, whose dominions extended from the Baltic to the Euxine, enjoyed, in the full maturity of age and revictories over putation, the fruit of his victories, when he was alarmed by the formidable approach of an host of unknown enemies, on whom his barbarous subjects might, without injustice, bestow the epithet of barbarians. The numbers, the strength, the rapid motions, and the implacable cruelty of the Huns were felt, and dreaded, and magnified by the astonished Goths, who beheld their fields and villages consumed with flames and deluged with indiscriminate slaughter. To these real terrors they added the surprise and abhorrence which were excited by the shrill voice, the uncouth gestures, and the strange deformity of the Huns." These savages of Scythia were compared (and the picture had some resemblance) to the ani 56 As we are possessed of the authentic history of the Huns, it would be impertinent to repeat or to refute the fables which misrepresent their origin and progress, their passage of the mud or water of the Mæotis in pursuit of an ox or stag, les Indes qu'ils avoient découvertes, &c. (Zosimus, 1. iv. [c. 20] p. 224. Sozomen, 1. vi. c. 37. Procopius, Hist. Miscell. c. 5. Jornandes, c. 24. Grandeur et Décadence, &c., des Romains, c. 17.) which is confirmed by the fact that their area, the country north of the Caucasus, between the lower Don and the lower Volga, is now occupied by the Nogay Turks, who cannot be shown to be of recent introduction. If we were to trust the Persian tradition as preserved by Ferdusi, the Alanân dwelt in the most ancient times on the northern side of the country of the Paropamisus, near the land Ghur or Ghordzeh. These Alanan are said by Klaproth to be mentioned in the Chinese Annals under the names of Yan-thsai, Alanna, Alan, and subsequently of Suthle and Suth. See Klaproth, Tableaux Historiques de l'Asie, p. 174, seq.; Zeuss, Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme, p. 700, seq.; Schafarik, Slawische Alterthümer, vol. i. p. 350; Lathain, The Germania of Tacitus, Epileg., p. c.-S. a Art added to their native ugliness; in fact, it is difficult to ascribe the proper share in the features of this hideous picture to nature, to the barbarous skill with which they were self-disfigured, or to the terror and hatred of the Romans. Their noses were flattened by their nurses, their cheeks were gashed by an iron instrument, that the scars might look more fearful and prevent the growth of the beard. (Jornandes and Sidonius Apollinaris [Carm. ii. v. 254, seqq.]): Obtundit teneras circumdata fascia nares, Stant pectora vasta, Si scdeaut. A.D. 375. 57 mals who walk very awkwardly on two legs, and to the misshapen figures, the Termini, which were often placed on the bridges of antiquity. They were distinguished from the rest of the human species by their broad shoulders, flat noses, and small black eyes, deeply buried in the head; and as they were almost destitute of beards, they never enjoyed either the manly graces of youth or the venerable aspect of age. A fabulous origin was assigned worthy of their form and manners,-that the witches of Scythia, who, for their fou and deadly practices, had been driven from society, had copulated in the desert with infernal spirits, and that the Huns were the offspring of this execrable conjunction.58 The tale, so full of horror and absurdity, was greedily embraced by the credulous hatred of the Goths; but while it gratified their hatred it increased their fear, since the posterity of dæmons and witches might be supposed to inherit some share of the præternatural powers as well as of the malignant temper of their parents. Against these enemies, Hermanric prepared to exert the united forces of the Gothic state; but he soon discovered that his vassal tribes, provoked by oppression, were much more inclined to second than to repel the invasion of the Huns. One of the chiefs of the Roxolani had formerly deserted the standard of Hermanric, and the cruel tyrant had condemned the innocent wife of the traitor to be torn asunder by wild horses. The brothers of that unfortunate woman seized the favourable moment of revenge. The aged king of the Goths languished some time after the dangerous wound which he received from their daggers; but the conduct of the war was retarded by his infirmities; and the public councils of the nation were distracted by a spirit of jealousy and discord. His death, which has been imputed to his own despair, left the reins of government in the hands of Withimer, who, with the doubtful aid of some Scythian mercenaries, maintained the unequal contest against the arms of the Huns and the Alani till he was defeated and slain in a decisive battle. The Ostrogoths submitted to their fate and the royal race of the Amali will hereafter be found among the subjects of the haughty Attila. But the person of Wi57 Prodigiosa forma, et pandi; ut bipedes existimes bestias; vel quales in commarginandis pontibus, effigiati stipites dolantur incompti. Ammian. xxxi. 2. Jornandes (c. 24) draws a strong caricature of a Calmuck face. Species pavendâ nigredine... quædam deformis offa, non facies; habensque magis puncta quam lumina. See Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. iii. p. 380. : 58 This execrable origin, which Jornandes (c. 24) describes with the rancour of a Goth, might be originally derived from a more pleasing fuble of the Greeks (Herodot. 1. iv. c. 9, &c.). 50 The Roxolani may be the fathers of the 'Pas, the Russians (D'Anville, Empire de Russie, p. 1-10), whose residence (A.D. 862) about Novogrod Veliki cannot be very remote from that which the Geographer of Ravenna (i. 12, iv. 4, 46, v. 28, 30) assignı to the Roxolani (A.D. 886)." See on the origin of the Russ Editor's note, c. lv. note 43.-S. 318 VICTORIES OF THE HUNS OVEF THE GOTHS. CHAP. XXVL theric, the infant king, was saved by the diligence of Alatheus and Saphrax; two warriors of approved valour and fidelity, who, by cautious marches, conducted the independent remains of the nation of the Ostrogoths towards the Danastus, or Dniester, a considerable river, which now separates the Turkish dominions from the empire of Russia. On the banks of the Dniester the prudent Athanaric, more attentive to his own than to the general safety, had fixed the camp of the Visigoths; with the firm resolution of opposing the victorious barbarians, whom he thought it less advisable to provoke. The ordinary speed of the Huns was checked by the weight of baggage and the encumbrance of captives; but their military skill deceived and almost destroyed the army of Athanaric. While the Judge of the Visigoths defended the banks of the Dniester he was encompassed and attacked by a numerous detachment of cavalry, who, by the light of the moon, had passed the river in a fordable place; and it was not without the utmost efforts of courage and conduct that he vas able to effect his retreat towards the hilly country. The undaunted general had already formed a new and judicious plan of defensive war; and the strong lines which he was preparing to construct between the mountains, the Pruth, and the Danube, would have secured the extensive and fertile territory that bears the modern name of Walachia from the destructive inroads of the Huns. 60 But the hopes and measures of the Judge of the Visigoths were soon disappointed by the trembling impatience of his dismayed countrymen, who were persuaded by their fears that the interposition of the Danube was the only barrier that could save them from the rapid pursuit and invincible valour of the barbarians of Scythia. Under the command of Fritigern and Alavivus, the body of the nation hastily advanced to the banks of the great river, and implored the protection of the Roman emperor of the East. Athanaric himself, still anxious to avoid the guilt of perjury, retired, with a band of faithful followers, into the mountainous country of Caucaland, which appears to have been guarded and almost concealed by the impenetrable forests of Transylvania.62 b 60 The text of Ammianus seems to be imperfect or corrupt; but the nature of the ground explains, and almost defines, the Gothic rampart. Mémoires de l'Académie, &c. tom. xxviii. p. 444-462. 61 M. de Buat (Hist. des Peuples de l'Europe, tom. vi. p. 407) has conceived a strange idea, that Alavivus was the same person as Ulphilas the Gothic bishop; and that Ulphilas, the grandson of a Cappadocian captive, became a temporal prince of the Goths. Ammianus (xxxi. 3) and Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 24) describe the subversion of the Gothic empire by the Huns. More correctly Danastris, called by the earlier classical writers Tyras.-S. b The most probable opinion as to the position of this land is that of M. Malte Brun. He thinks that Caucaland is the territory of the Cacoenses, placed by A.I. 376. THE GOTHS IMPLORE THE PROTECTION OF VALENS. 319 The Goths implore the protection of Valens, A.D. 376. After Valens had terminated the Gothic war with some appearance of glory and success, he made a progress through his dominions of Asia, and at length fixed his residence in the capital of Syria. The five years 63 which he spent at Antioch were employed to watch, from a secure distance, the hostile designs of the Persian monarch; to check the depredations of the Saracens and Isaurians; 64 to enforce, by arguments more prevalent than those of reason and eloquence, the belief of the Arian theology; and to satisfy his anxious suspicions by the promiscuous execution of the innocent and the guilty. But the attention of the emperor was most seriously engaged by the important intelligence which he received from the civil and military officers who were intrusted with the defence of the Danube. He was informed that the North was agitated by a furious tempest; that the irruption of the Huns, an unknown and monstrous race of savages, had subverted the power of the Goths; and that the suppliant multitudes of that warlike nation, whose pride was now humbled in the dust, covered a space of many miles along the banks of the river. With outstretched arms and pathetic lamentations they loudly deplored their past misfortunes and their present danger; acknowledged that their only hope of safety was in the clemency of the Roman government; and most solemnly protested that, if the gracious liberality of the emperor would permit them to cultivate the waste lands of Thrace, they should ever hold themselves bound, by the strongest obligations of duty and gratitude, to obey the laws and to guard the limits of the republic. These assurances were confirmed by the ambassadors of the Goths, who impatiently expected from the mouth of Valens an answer that must finally determine the fate of their unhappy countrymen. The emperor of the East was no longer guided by the wisdom and authority of his elder brother, whose death happened towards the end of the preceding year; and as the distressful situation of the Goths required an instant and peremptory decision, he was deprived of the favourite resource of feeble and timid minds, who consider he use of dilatory and ambiguous measures as the most A.D. 375, 63 The chronology of Ammianus is obscure and imperfect. Tillemont has laboured to clear and settle the annals of Valens. 64 Zosimus, 1. iv. [c. 20] p. 223. Sozomen, 1. vi. c. 38. The Isaurians, each winter, infested the roads of Asia Minor, as far as the neighbourhood of Constantinople. Basil, Epist. ccl. apud Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 106. Ptolemy, 1. iii. c. 8, towards the Carpathian mountains, on the side of the present Transylvania, and therefore the canton of Cacava, to the south of Hermanstadt, the capital of that principality. Caucaland, it is evident, is the Gothic form of these different names. St. Martin, iv. 103.-M. a Sozomen and Philostorgius say that the bishop Ulphilas was one of these ambassadors.-M. 320 NEGOCIATIONS WITH THE GOTHS. CHAP. XXVI admirable efforts of consummate prudence. As long as the same passions and interests subsist among mankind, the questions of war and peace, of justice and policy, which were debated in the councils of antiquity, will frequently present themselves as the subject of modern deliberation. But the most experienced statesman of Europe has never been summoned to consider the propriety or the danger of admitting or rejecting an innumerable multitude of barbarians, who are driven by despair and hunger to solicit a settlement on the territories of a civilized nation. When that important proposition, so essentially connected with the public safety, was referred to the ministers of Valens, they were perplexed and divided; but they soon acquiesced in the flattering sentiment which seemed the most favourable to the pride, the indolence, and the avarice of their sovereign. The slaves, who were decorated with the titles of præfects and generals, dissembled or disregarded the terrors of this national emigration,—so extremely different from the partial and accidental colonies which had been received on the extreme limits of the empire. But they applauded the liberality of fortune which had conducted, from the most distant countries of the globe, a numerous and invincible army of strangers to defend the throne of Valens, who might now add to the royal treasures the immense sums of gold supplied by the provincials to compensate their annual proportion of recruits. The prayers of the Goths were granted, a: d their service was accepted by the Imperial court; and orders were immediately despatched to the civil and military governors of the Thracian diocese to make the necessary preparations for the passage and subsistence of a great people, till a proper and sufficient territory could be allotted for their future residence. The liberality of the emperor was accompanied, however, with two harsh and rigorous conditions, which prudence might justify on the side of the Romans, but which distress alone could extort from the indignant Goths. Before they passed the Danube they were required to deliver their arms, and it was insisted that their children should be taken from them and dispersed through the provinces of Asia, where they might be civilized by the arts of education, and serve as hostages to secure the fidelity of their parents. During this suspense of a doubtful and distant negociation, the impatient Goths made some rash attempts to pass the transported Danube without the permission of the government whose Danube into protection they had implored. Their motions were strictly observed by the vigilance of the troops which were stationed along the river, and their foremost detachments were defeated with considerable saughter; yet such were the timid councils of the reign of Valens, that the brave officers who had served their They are over the the Roman empire. |