hardy that they neither require fire nor well-flavored food, but live on
the roots of such herbs as they get in the fields, or on the half-raw
flesh of any animal, which they merely warm rapidly by placing it
between their own thighs and the back of their horses.
They never shelter themselves under roofed houses, but avoid them, as
people ordinarily avoid sepulchres as things not fitted for common use.
Nor is there even to be found among them a cabin thatched with reed; but
they wander about, roaming over the mountains and the woods, and
accustom themselves to bear frost and hunger and thirst from their very
cradles. And even when abroad they never enter a house unless under the
compulsion of some extreme necessity; nor, indeed, do they think people
under roofs as safe as others.
They wear linen clothes, or else garments made of the skins of
field-mice; nor do they wear a different dress out of doors from that
which they wear at home; but after a tunic is once put round their
necks, however much it becomes worn, it is never taken off or changed
till, from long decay, it becomes actually so ragged as to fall to
pieces.
They cover their heads with round caps, and their shaggy legs with the
skins of kids; their shoes are not made on any lasts, but are so
unshapely as to hinder them from walking with a free gait. And for this
reason they are not well suited to infantry battles, but are nearly
always on horseback, their horses being ill-shaped, but hardy; and
sometimes they even sit upon them like women if they want to do anything
more conveniently. There is not a person in the whole nation who cannot
remain on his horse day and night. On horseback they buy and sell, they
take their meat and drink, and there they recline on the narrow neck of
their steed, and yield to sleep so deep as to indulge in every variety
of dream.
And when any deliberation is to take place on any weighty matter, they
all hold their common council on horseback. They are not under the
authority of a king, but are contented with the irregular government of
their nobles, and under their lead they force their way through all
obstacles.
Sometimes, when provoked, they fight; and when they go into battle, they
form in a solid body, and utter all kinds of terrific yells. They are
very quick in their operations, of exceeding speed, and fond of
surprising their enemies. With a view to this, they suddenly disperse,
then reunite, and again, after having inflicted vast loss upon the
enemy, scatter themselves over the whole plain in irregular formations:
always avoiding the fort or an intrenchment.
And in one respect you may pronounce them the most formidable of all
warriors, for when at a distance they use missiles of various kinds,
tipped with sharpened bones instead of the usual points of javelins, and
these bones are admirably fastened into the shaft of the javelin or
arrow; but when they are at close quarters they fight with the sword,
without any regard for their own safety; and often while their
antagonists are warding off their blows they entangle them with twisted
cords, so that, their hands being fettered, they lose all power of
either riding or walking.
None of them plough, or even touch a plough handle; for they have no
settled abode, but are homeless and lawless, perpetually wandering with
their wagons, which they make their homes; in fact, they seem to be
people always in flight. Their wives live in these wagons, and there
weave their miserable garments; and here, too, they sleep with their
husbands, and bring up their children till they reach the age of
puberty; nor, if asked, can any one of them tell you where he was born,
as he was conceived in one place, born in another at a great distance,
and brought up in another still more remote.
In truces they are treacherous and inconstant, being liable to change
their minds at every breeze of every fresh hope which presents itself,
giving themselves up wholly to the impulse and inclination of the
moment; and, like brute beasts, they are utterly ignorant of the
distinction between right and wrong. They express themselves with great
ambiguity and obscurity; have no respect for any religion or
superstition whatever; are immoderately covetous of gold; and are so
fickle and irascible that they very often, on the same day that they
quarrel with their companions without any provocation, again become
reconciled to them without any mediator.
This active and indomitable race, being excited by an unrestrainable
desire of plundering the possessions of others, went on ravaging and
slaughtering all the nations in their neighborhood till they reached the
Alani, who were formerly called the Massagetæ; and from what country
these Alani came, or what territories they inhabit--since my subject has
led me so far--it is expedient now to explain, after showing the
confusion existing in the accounts of the geographers, who, at last,
have found out the truth.
The Danube, which, is greatly increased by other rivers falling into it,
passes through the territory of the Sauromatæ [Scythians], which extends
as far as the river Don, the boundary between Asia and Europe. On the
other side of this river the Alani inhabit the enormous deserts of
Scythia, deriving their own name from the mountains around; and they,
like the Persians, having gradually subdued all the bordering nations by
repeated victories, have united them to themselves and comprehended them
under their own name. Of these other tribes the Neuri inhabit the inland
districts, being near the highest mountain chains, which are both
precipitous and covered with the everlasting frost of the north. Next to
them are the Budini, and the Geloni, a race of exceeding ferocity, who
flay the enemies they have slain in battle, and make of their skins
clothes for themselves and trappings for their horses. Next to the
Geloni are the Agathyrsi, who dye both their bodies and their hair of a
blue color, the lower classes using spots few in number and small; the
nobles broad spots, close and thick, and of a deeper hue.
Next to those are the Melanchlænæ and the Anthropophagi, who roam about
upon different tracts of land and live on human flesh. And these men are
so avoided on account of their horrid food that all the tribes which
were their neighbors have removed to a distance from them. And in this
way the whole of that region to the northeast, till you come to the
Chinese, is uninhabited.
On the other side the Alani again extend to the east, near the
territories of the Amazons, and are scattered among many populous and
wealthy nations, stretching to the parts of Asia which, as I am told,
extend up to the Ganges, a river which passes through the country of the
Indians, and falls into the Southern Ocean.
Then the Alani, being thus divided among the two quarters of the
globe--the various tribes which make up the whole nation it is not worth
while to enumerate--although widely separated, wander, like the nomads,
over enormous districts. But in the progress of time all these tribes
came to be united under one generic appellation, and are called Alani.
They have no cottages, and never use the plough, but live solely on meat
and plenty of milk, mounted on their wagons which they cover with a
curved awning made of the bark of trees, and then drive them through
their boundless deserts. And when they come to any pasture land, they
pitch their wagons in a circle, and live like a herd of beasts, eating
up all the forage--carrying, as it were, their cities with them in their
wagons. In them the husbands sleep with their wives--in them their
children are born and brought up; these wagons, in short, are their
perpetual habitation, and, wherever they fix them, that place they look
upon as their home.
They drive before them their flocks and herds to their pasturage; and
about all other cattle, they are especially careful of their horses. The
fields in that country are always green, and are interspersed with
patches of fruit-trees, so that, wherever they go, there is no dearth
either of food for themselves or fodder for their cattle. And this is
caused by the moisture of the soil and the number of the rivers which
flow through these districts.
All their old people, and especially all the weaker sex, keep close to
the wagons and occupy themselves in the lighter employments. But the
young men, who from their earliest childhood are trained to the use of
the horses, think it beneath them to walk. They are also all trained by
careful discipline of various sorts to become skilful warriors. And this
is the reason why the Persians, who are originally of Scythian
extraction, are very skilful in war.
Nearly all the Alani are men of great stature and beauty. Their hair is
somewhat yellow, their eyes are terribly fierce; the lightness of their
armor renders them rapid in their movements, and they are in every
respect equal to the Huns, only more civilized in their food and their
manner of life. They plunder and hunt as far as the Sea of Azov and the
Cimmerian Bosporus, ravaging also Armenia and Media.
And as ease is a delightful thing to men of a quiet and placid
disposition, so danger and war are a pleasure to the Alani, and among
them that man is called happy who has lost his life in battle; for those
who grow old, or who go out of the world from accidental sicknesses,
they pursue with bitter reproaches as degenerate and cowardly. Nor is
there anything of which they boast with more pride than of having killed
a man; and the most glorious spoils they esteem the scalps which they
have torn from the heads of those whom they have slain, which they put
as trappings and ornaments on their war horses.
Nor is there any temple or shrine seen in their country, nor even any
cabin thatched with straw, their only idea of religion being to plunge a
naked sword into the ground with barbaric ceremonies, and they worship
that with great respect, as Mars, the presiding deity of the regions
over which they wander.
They presage the future in a most remarkable manner, for they collect a
number of great twigs of osier, then with certain secret incantations
they separate them from one another on particular days; and from them
they learn clearly what is about to happen.
They have no idea of slavery, inasmuch as they themselves are all born
of noble families; and those whom even now they appoint to be judges are
always men of proved experience and skill in war. But now let us return
to the subject which we proposed to ourselves.
The Huns, after having traversed the territories of the Alani, and
especially of that tribe of them who border on the Gruthungi, and who
are called Tanaitæ, and having slain many of them and acquired much
plunder they made a treaty of friendship and alliance with those who
remained. And when they had united them to themselves, with increased
boldness they made a sudden incursion into the extensive and fertile
districts of Ermenrichus, a very warlike prince, and one whom his
numerous gallant actions of every kind had rendered formidable to all
the neighboring nations.
He was astonished at the violence of this sudden tempest, and although,
like a prince whose power was well established, he long attempted to
hold his ground, he was at last overpowered by a dread of the evils
impending over his country, which were exaggerated by common report,
till he terminated his fear of great danger by a voluntary death.
After his death Vithimiris was made king. He for some time maintained a
resistance to the Alani, relying on the aid of other tribes of the Huns
whom by large promises of pay he had won over to his party; but, after
having suffered many losses, he was defeated by superior numbers and
slain in battle. He left an infant son named Viderichus, of whom
Alatheus and Saphrax undertook the guardianship, both generals of great
experience and proved courage. And when they, yielding to the
difficulties of the crisis, had given up all hope of being able to make
an effectual resistance, they retired with caution till they came to the
river Dniester, which lies between the Danube and the Dnieper, and flows
through a vast extent of country.
When Athanaric, the chief magistrate of the Thuringians, had become
informed of those unexpected occurrences, he prepared to maintain his
ground, with a resolution to rise up in strength should he be assailed
as the others had been.
At last he pitched his camp at a distance in a very favorable spot near
the banks of the Dniester and the valleys of the Gruthungi, and sent
Muderic, who afterward became duke of the Arabian frontier, with
Lagarimanus and others of the nobles, with orders to advance for twenty
miles, to reconnoitre the approach of the enemy; while in the mean time
he himself, without delay, marshalled his troops in line of battle.
However, things turned out in a manner very contrary to his
expectations. For the Huns--being very sagacious in
conjectures--suspecting that there must be a considerable
multitude farther off, contrived to pass beyond those they had
seen, and arranged themselves to take their rest where there was
nothing at hand to disturb them; and then, when the moon
dispelled the darkness of night, they forded the river, which was
the best plan which presented itself, and fearing lest the
pickets at the outposts might give the alarm to the distant camp,
they made all possible speed and advanced with the hope of
surprising Athanaric himself.
He was stupefied at the suddenness of their onset, and, after losing
many of his men, was compelled to flee for refuge to the precipitous
mountains in the neighborhood, where, being wholly bewildered with the
strangeness of this occurrence, and the fear of greater evils to come,
he began to fortify with lofty walls all the territory between the banks
of the River Pruth and the Danube, where it passes through the land of
the Taifali; and he completed this line of fortification with great
diligence, thinking that by this step he should secure his own personal
safety.
While this important work was going on, the Huns kept pressing on his
traces with great speed, and they would have overtaken and destroyed him
if they had not been forced to abandon the pursuit from being impeded by
the great quantity of their booty. In the mean time a report spread
extensively through the other nations of the Goths, that a race of men,
hitherto unknown, had suddenly descended like a whirlwind from the lofty
mountains, as if they had risen from some secret recess of the earth,
and were ravaging and destroying everything which came in their way. And
then the greater part of the population which, because of their want of
necessaries, had deserted Athanaric, resolved to flee and to seek a home
remote from all knowledge of the barbarians; and after a long
deliberation where to fix their abode, they resolved that a retreat into
Thrace was the most suitable for these two reasons: first of all,
because it is a district most fertile in grass; and also because, by the
great breadth of the Danube, it is wholly separated from the barbarians,
who were already exposed to the thunder-bolts of foreign warfare. And
the whole population of the tribe adopted this resolution unanimously.
Accordingly, under the command of their leader Alavivus, they occupied
the bank of the Danube, and having sent ambassadors to Valens, they
humbly entreated to be received by him as his subjects, promising to
live quietly, and to furnish a body of auxiliary troops if any necessity
for such a force should arise.
While these events were passing in foreign countries, a terrible rumor
arose that the tribes of the North were planning new and unprecedented
attacks upon us; and that over the whole region, which extends from the
country of the Marcomanni and Quadi to Pontus, a barbarian host,
composed of different distant nations, which had suddenly been driven by
force from their own country, was now, with all their families,
wandering about in different directions on the banks of the river
Danube.
At first this intelligence was lightly treated by our people, because
they were not in the habit of hearing of any wars in those remote
districts till they were terminated either by victory or by treaty.
But presently, as the belief in these occurrences grew stronger, being
confirmed, too, by the arrival of the foreign ambassadors, who, with
prayers and earnest entreaties, begged that the people thus driven from
their homes and now encamped on the other side of the river might be
kindly received by us, the affair seemed a cause of joy rather than of
fear, according to the skilful flatterers who were always extolling and
exaggerating the good fortune of the Emperor; congratulating him that an
embassy had come from the farthest corners of the earth unexpectedly,
offering him a large body of recruits; and that, by combining the
strength of his own nation with these foreign forces, he would have an
army absolutely invincible; observing further that, by the yearly
payment for military reinforcements which came in every year from the
provinces, a vast treasure of gold might be accumulated in his coffers.
Full of this hope, he sent forth several officers to bring this
ferocious people and their wagons into our territory. And such great
pains were taken to gratify this nation which was destined to overthrow
the Empire of Rome, that not one was left behind, not even of those who
were stricken with mortal disease. Moreover, having obtained permission
of the Emperor to cross the Danube and to cultivate some districts in
Thrace, they crossed the stream day and night, without ceasing,
embarking in troops on board ships and rafts, and canoes made of the
hollow trunks of trees, in which enterprise, as the Danube is the most
difficult of all rivers to navigate, and was at that time swollen with
continual rains, a great many were drowned, who, because they were too
numerous for the vessels, tried to swim across, and in spite of all
their exertions were swept away by the stream.
In this way, through the turbulent zeal of violent people, the ruin of
the Roman Empire was brought on. This, at all events, is neither obscure
nor uncertain that the unhappy officers who were intrusted with the
charge of conducting the multitude of the barbarians across the river,
though they repeatedly endeavored to calculate their numbers, at last
abandoned the attempt as hopeless; and the man who would wish to
ascertain the number might as well--as the most illustrious of poets
says--attempt to count the waves in the African Sea, or the grains of
sand tossed about by the zephyrs.
Let, however, the ancient annals be accredited which record that the
Persian host which was led into Greece was, while encamped on the shores
of the Hellespont, and making a new and artificial sea, numbered in
battalions at Doriscus; a computation which has been unanimously
regarded by all posterity as fabulous.
But after the innumerable multitudes of different nations, diffused over
all our provinces and spreading themselves over the vast expanses of our
plains, who filled all the champaign country and all the mountain
ranges, are considered, the credibility of the ancient accounts is
confirmed by this modern instance. And first of all Tritigernus was
received with Alavivus, and the Emperor assigned them a temporary
provision for their immediate support, and ordered lands to be assigned
them to cultivate.
At that time the defences of our provinces were much exposed, and the
armies of barbarians spread over them like the lava of Mount Ætna. The
imminence of our danger manifestly called for generals already
illustrious for their past achievements in war; but nevertheless, as if
some unpropitious deity had made the selection, the men who were sought
out for the chief military appointments were of tainted character. The
chief among them were Lupicinus and Maximus, the one being count of
Thrace, the other a leader notoriously wicked--and both men of great
ignorance and rashness.
And their treacherous covetousness was the cause of all our disasters.
For--to pass over other matters in which the officers aforesaid, or
others with their unblushing connivance, displayed the greatest
profligacy in their injurious treatment of the foreigners dwelling in
our territory, against whom no crime could be alleged--this one
melancholy and unprecedented piece of conduct--which, even if they were
to choose their own judges, must appear wholly unpardonable--must be
mentioned:
When the barbarians who had been conducted across the river were in
great distress from want of provisions, those detested generals
conceived the idea of a most disgraceful traffic; and having collected
hounds from all quarters with the most unsatiable rapacity, they
exchanged them for an equal number of slaves, among whom were several
sons of men of noble birth.
About this time also, Vitheric, the King of the Gruthungi, with Alatheus
and Saphrax, by whose influence he was mainly guided, and also with
Farnobius, approached the bank of the Danube and sent envoys to the
Emperor to entreat that he also might be received with the same kindness
that Alavivus and Fritigern had experienced.
But when, as seemed best for the interests of the State, these
ambassadors had been rejected, and were in great anxiety what they
should do, Athanaric, fearing similar treatment, departed, recollecting
that long ago, when he was discussing a treaty with Valens, he had
treated that Emperor with contempt in affirming that he was bound by a
religious obligation never to set his foot on the Roman territory; and
that, by this excuse, he had compelled the Emperor to conclude a peace
in the middle of the war. And he, fearing that the grudge which Valens
bore him for this conduct was still lasting, withdrew with all his
forces to Caucalandes, a place which, from the height of its mountains
and the thickness of its woods, is completely inaccessible; and from
which he had lately driven out the Sarmatians.
FINAL DIVISION OF ROMAN EMPIRE: THE DISRUPTIVE INTRIGUES
A.D. 395
J. B. BURY
When Theodosius I, surnamed "the Great," was elevated to power as
ruler of the East, that part of the empire was distracted in
consequence of wars with the Visigoths who, flying from the Huns,
had been granted a refuge in the Roman provinces of Moesia and
Thrace. Ill-treatment by the Romans drove the Visigoths to revolt,
and Valens, then Emperor of the East, set out with an army to
punish them. In the battle of Adrianople, August 9, 378, the Roman
army was defeated, and in the retreat Valens was killed. The
Visigoths pressed on, ravaging the country even to the foot of the
walls of Constantinople, and the doom of the empire seemed to be at
hand.
At this juncture Gratian--Emperor of the West, who also upon the
death of Valens succeeded him as ruler of the East--sent for
Theodosius, then a Roman general living in retirement in Spain,
made him his colleague in the East, and placed him, A.D., 379 at
the head of an army for the suppression of the Gothic outbreaks.
Theodosius enabled his soldiers to regain their lost confidence by
waging a successful _guerilla_ war with the marauding Goths; but
having thus shown his mastery over their straggling bands, he did
not undertake to drive them out from Roman territory, but weakened
them by causing them to quarrel among themselves; then, showing
himself as their friend, he gave them lands and settled them within
definite limits. To the Visigoths, or West Goths, he gave Thrace,
and to the Ostrogoths, or East Goths, who had also now poured into
the Roman provinces, he assigned Pannonia.