Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/314

 ^0 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. Venedi were the first who presented themselves; and ' the flower of their youth, either from choice or com- pulsion, increased the Gothic army. The Bastarnae dwelt on the northern side of the Carpathian moun- tains; the immense tract of land that separated the Bastarnae from the savages of Finland, was possessed, or rather wasted, by the Venedi^: we have some reason to believe, that the first of these nations, which dis- tinguished itself in the Macedonian war*', and was afterwards divided into the formidable tribes of the Peucini, the Borani, the Carpi, etc. derived its origin from the Germans. With better authority, a Sarma- tian extraction may be assigned to the Venedi, who rendered themselves so famous in the middle ages*^. But the confusion of blood and manners on that doubt- ful frontier often perplexed the most accurate ob- Distinction servers'^. As the Goths advanced nearer the Euxine andSarma- ^^^' *^^^y encountered a purer race of Sarmatians ; the tians. Jazyges, the Alani, and the Roxolani : and they were probably the first Germans who saw the mouths of the Borysthenes and of the Tanais. If we enquire into the characteristic marks of the people of Germany and of Sarmatia, we shall discover that those two great por- tions of human kind were principally distinguished by fixed huts or moveable tents, by a close dress or flow- ing garments, by the marriage of one or of several wives, by a military force consisting for the most part either of infantry or cavalry; and, above all, by the use of the Teutonic or of the Sclavonian language ; the last of which has been diffused by conquest, from the confines of Italy to the neighbourhood of Japan. Description The Gotlis were now in possession of the Ukraine, Vj^^ a country of considerable extent and uncommon fer- tility, intersected with navigable rivers, which from either side discharge themselves into the Borysthenes, » Tacit. Germ, c. 46, ^ Cluver. Germ. Antiqua, 1. iii. c. 43. c The Venedi, the Slavi, and the Antes, were the three great tribes of the same people. Jornandes, c. 24. '^ Tacitus most assuredly deserves that title; and even his cautious sus- pense is a proof of his diligent enquiries. ^