Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/374

 350 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, of the cavalry'^. The first objects of their avarice were L__ a few cities of the Rhastian frontier ; but their hopes soon rising with success, the rapid march of the Ale- manni traced a Hne of devastation from the Danube to the Po^ A.D.270. The emperor was almost at the same time informed September. ^^ ^j^^ irruption, and of the retreat, of the barbarians. Collecting an active body of troops, he marched with silence and celerity along the skirts of the Hercynian forest; and the Alemanni, laden with the spoils of Italy, arrived at the Danube, without suspecting, that on the opposite bank, and in an advantageous post, a Roman army lay concealed and prepared to intercept their return. Aurelian indulged the fatal security of the barbarians, and permitted about half their forces to pass the river without disturbance and without pre- caution. Their situation and astonishment gave him an easy victory; his skilful conduct improved the ad- vantage. Disposing the legions in a semicircular form, he advanced the two horns of the crescent across the Danube, and wheeling them on a sudden towards the centre, enclosed the rear of the German host. The dismayed barbarians, on whatsoever side they cast their eyes, beheld with despair, a wasted country, a deep and rapid stream, a victorious and implacable enemy. Reduced to this distressed condition, the Alemanni no longer disdained to sue for peace. Aurelian re- ceived their ambassadors at the head of his camp, and with every circumstance of martial pomp that could display the greatness and discipline of Rome. The legions stood to their arms in well ordered ranks and awful silence. The principal commanders, distin- guished by the ensigns of their rank, appeared on horseback on either side of the imperial throne. Be- hind the throne, the consecrated images of the em- d We may remark, as an instance of bad taste, that Dexippus applies to the light infantry of the Alemanni the technical terras proper only to the Grecian phalanx. « In Dexippus, we at present read Rhodanus : M, de Valois very judi- ciously alters the word to Eridanus.