moneyed interest become ruler of a province, nor was any
government sold, unless it was at the beginning of his
reign, when wicked actions were sometimes committed in
the hope that the new prince would be too much occupied
to punish them.

4. In waging war, and in defending himself from
attacks, he was prudent and very skilful, like a veteran of
great experience in military affairs. He was a very wise
admirer of all that was good, and dissuader from all that
was bad; and a very accurate observer of all the details of
military service. He wrote with elegance, and described
everything with great neatness and skill in composition.
He was an inventor of new arms. He had an excellent
memory, and a fluent, easy style of speaking, which at
times bordered closely upon eloquence. He was a lover
of elegant simplicity, and was fond, not so much of profuse
banquets, as of entertainments directed by good taste.

5. Lastly, he was especially remarkable during his reign for his moderation in this particular, that he kept a middle course between the different sects of religion; and never troubled any one, nor issued any orders in favour of one kind of worship or another; nor did he promulgate any threatening edicts to bow down the necks of his subjects to the form of worship to which he himself was inclined; but he left these parties just as he found them, without making any alterations.

6. His body was muscular and strong: the brightness of his hair the brilliancy of his complexion, with his blue eyes, which always looked askance with a stern aspect--the beauty of his figure-his lofty stature, and the admirable harmony of all his features-filled up the dignity and beauty of an appearance which bespoke a monarch.

X.

§1. AFTER the last honours had been paid to the emperor,
and his body had been prepared for burial, in order to be
sent to Constantinople to be there entombed among the
remains of former emperors, the campaign which was in
preparation was suspended, and people began to be anxious
as to what part would be taken by the Gallic cohorts,
who were not always steady in loyalty to the lawful

emperor, but looked upon themselves as the disposers of power, and were regarded by others as very likely to venture on some new enterprise at so favourable a moment. This circumstance also was likely to aid any attempt that might be made at a revolution, that Gratian, who knew nothing of what had taken place, was still at Treves, where his father, when about to set out on his own expedition, had desired him to wait.

2. While affairs were in this state of uncertainty, and when every one shared the same fears, looking on themselves as all in the same boat, and sure to be partners in danger, if danger should arise, at last it was decided by the advice of the principal nobles to take up the bridge which had been necessarily made when they meditated invading the territories of the enemy, in order that, in com pliance with the commands given by Valentinian while alive, Merobaudes might be at once summoned to the

camp.

3 He, being a man of great cunning and penetration, divined what had happened (perhaps indeed he had been informed of it by the messenger who brought him his siminons), and suspecting that the Gallic troops were likely to break the existing concord, he pretended that a token which had been agreed upon had been sent to him that he was to return with the messenger to watch the banks of the Rhine; since the fury of the barbarians was again menacing hostilities, and (in compliance with a secret injunction which he received at the same time) he removed to a distance. Sebastian also as yet was ignorant of the death of the emperor; and he being an

orderly and

quietly disposed man, but very popular among the soldiers,

required on that account to be strictly watched. 4. Accordingly when Merobaudes had returned, the chief men took careful counsel as to what was to be done; and at last it was arranged that the child Valentinian, the son of the deceased emperor, at that time a boy of four years old, should be associated in the imperial power. He was at present a hundred miles off, living with his mother,

Justina, in a small town called Murocincta.

5. This decision was ratified by the unanimous consent of all parties; and Cerealis, his uncle, was sent with speed to Murocincta, where he placed the royal child on a litter,

and so conducted him to the camp. On the sixth day after his father's death, he was declared lawful emperor, and saluted as Augustus with the usual solemnities.

6. And although at the time many persons thought that Gratian would be indignant that any one else had been appointed emperor without his permission, yet afterwards, when all fear and anxiety was removed, they lived in greater security, because he, wise and kindhearted man as he was, loved his young relative with exceeding affection, and brought him up with great care.

BOOK XXXI.

ARGUMENT.

I. Omens announcing the death of the Emperor Valens, and a disaster to be inflicted by the Gauls.-II. A description of the abodes and customs of the Huns, the Alani, and other tribes, natives of Asiatic Scythia.-III. The Huns, either by arms or by treaties, unite the Alani on the Don to themselves; invade the Goths, and drive them from their country.-IV. The chief division of the Goths, surnamed the Thuringians, having been expelled from their homes, by permission of Valens are conducted by the Romans into Thrace, on condition of promising obedience and a supply of auxiliary troops. The Gruthungi also, who form the other division of the Goths, secretly cross the Danube by a bridge of boats. -V. The Thuringians being in great distress from hunger and the want of supplies, under the command of their generals Alavivus and Fritigern, revolt from Valens, and defeat Lupicinus and his army. VI. Why Sueridus and Colias, nobles of the Gothic nation, after having been received in a friendly manner, revolted; and after slaying the people of Hadrianopolis, united themselves to Fritigern, and then turned to ravage Thrace.-VII. Profuturus, Trajan, and Richomeres fought a drawn battle against the Goths. -VIII. The Goths being hemmed in among the defiles at the bottom of the Balkan, after the Romans by returning had let them escape, invaded Thrace, plundering, massacring, ravishing, and burning, and slay Barzimeres, the tribune of the Scutarii.-IX. Frigeridus, Gratian's general, routs Farnobius at the head of a large body of Goths and Taifale; sparing the rest, and giving them some lands around the Po.-X. The Lentiensian

Alemanni are defeated in battle by the generals of the enperor Gratian, and their king Priamis is slain. Afterwards, having yielded and furnished Gratian with a body of recruits, they are allowed to return to their own country.-XI. Sebastian surprises the Goths at Berea as they are returning home loaded with plun der, and defeats them with great slaughter; a few saved themselves by flight. Gratian hastens to his uncle Valens, to carry him aid against the Goths.-XII. Valens, before the arrival of Gratian resolves to fight the Goths.-XIII. All the Goths unite together, that is to say, the Thuringians, under their king Friti gern. The Gruthungi, under their dukes Alatheus and Salaces, encounter the Romans in a pitched battle, rout their cavalry, and then falling on the infantry when deprived of the support of their horse, and huddled together in a dense body, they defeat them with enormous loss, and put them to flight. Valens is slain, but his body cannot be found.-XIV. The virtues and vices of Valens -XV. The victorious Goths besiege Hadrianopolis, where Valens had left his treasures and his insignia of imperial rank, with the prefect and the members of his council; but after trying every means to take the city, without success, they at last retire. XVI. The Goths, having by bribes won over the forces of the Huns and of the Alani to join them, make an attack upon Cocommander of the forces beyond Mount Taurus, delivered the The device by which Julius, the

stantinople without success.

eastern provinces from the Goths.

I.

A.D. 375.

§ 1. In the mean time the swift wheel of Fortune, which continually alternates adversity with prosperity, was giving Bellona the Furies for her allies, and arming her for war: and now transferred our disasters to the East, as many presages and portents foreshowed by undoubted signs.

2. For after many true prophecies uttered by diviners and augurs, dogs were seen to recoil from howling wolves, and the birds of night constantly uttered querulous and mournful cries; and lurid sunrises made the mornings dark. Also, at Antioch, among the tumults and squabbles of the poplace, it had come to be a custom for any one who fancied himself ill treated to cry out in a licentious manner, "May Valens be burnt alive!" And the voices of the criers were constantly heard ordering wood to be carried to warm baths of Valens, which had been built under the supertendence of the emperor himself.

the

3. All which circumstances all but pointed out in express words that the end of the emperor's life was at

and. Besides all these things, the ghost of the king of Armenia, and the miserable shades of those who had lately been put to death in the affair of Theodorus, agitated numbers of people with terrible alarms, appearing to them in their sleep, and shrieking out verses of horrible import." 4. . . . and its death indicated an extensive and general calamity arising from public losses and deaths. Last of all, when the ancient walls of Chalcedon were thrown lown in order to build a bath at Constantinople, and the stones were torn asunder, on one squared stone which was hidden in the very centre of the walls these Greek verses were found engraved, which gave a full revelation of what was to happen

“ 'Αλλ' ὅποταν νύμφαι δροσερῇ κατὰ ἄστυ χορείῃ
Τερπόμεναι στρέψωνται εὐστεέφας κατ ̓ ἀγυιὰς
Καὶ τεῖχος λούτροιο πολύστονον ἔσσεται ἄλκαὶ
Δὴ τότε μύρια φύλα πολυσπερέων ἀνθρώπων
Ιστρου καλλιρόνιο πόρον περάοντα σὺν αἰχμῇ
Καὶ Σκυθικὴν ὀλέσει χώρῃν καὶ Μυσίδα γαῖαν
Παιονίης δ ̓ ἐπιβάντα σὺν σὺν ἐλπίσι μαινομένῃσιν
Αὐτῶν καὶ βιότο ο τέλος καὶ δῆρις εφεξει.”

TRANSLATION.

But when young wives and damsels blithe, in dances that delight,
Shall glide along the city streets, with garlands gaily bright;
And when these walls, with sad regrets, shall fall to raise a bath,
Then shall the Huns in multitude break forth with might and wrath.
By force of arms the barrier-stream of Ister they shall cross,
O'er Scythic ground and Moesian lands spreading dismay and loss:
They shall Pannonian horsemen brave, and Gallic soldiers slay,
And nought but loss of life and breath their course shall ever stay."

II.

$1. THE following circumstances were the original cause of all the destruction and various calamities which the fury of Mars roused up, throwing .everything into confusion by his usual ruinous violence: the people called Huns, slightly mentioned in the ancient records, live beyond the Sea of Azov, on the border of the Frozen Ocean, and are a race savage beyond all parallel.

2. At the very moment of their birth the cheeks of their infant children are deeply marked by an iron, in order 1 The text is unusually mutilated here. It has been proposed to sert, "A little goat with its throat cut was found dead in the street."