Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/332

 the Sarma tians. 314 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, tranquillity of the last fourteen years of his reign was ^^^^ • scarcely interrupted by the contemptible insurrection of a camel-driver in the island of Cyprus '", or by the active part which the policy of Constantino engaged him to assume in the wars of the Goths and Sarma- 'tians. Manners of Among the different branches of the human race, the Savmatians form a very remarkable shade; as they seem to unite the manners of the Asiatic barbarians with the figure and complexion of the ancient inhabit- ants of Europe. According to the various accidents of peace and war, of alliance or conquest, the Sarma- tians were sometimes confined to the banks of the Tanais ; and they sometimes spread themselves over the immense plains which lie between the Vistula and the Volga". The care of their numerous flocks and herds, the pursuit of game, and the exercise of war, or rather of rapine, directed the vagrant motions of the Sarmatians. The moveable camps or cities, the ordi- nary residence of their wives and children, consisted only of large waggons drawn by oxen, and covered in the form of tents. The military strength of the nation was composed of cavalry; and the custom of their warriors, to lead in their hand one or two spare horses, enabled them to advance and to retreat with a rapid diligence, which surprised the security, and eluded the pursuit, of a distant enemy °. Their poverty of iron prompted their rude industry to invent a sort of cuirass, which was capable of resisting a sword or javelin, though it was formed only of horses' hoofs, cut into provinces may be collected from Eutropius, the two Victors, and the Vale- sian fragment. ™ Calocerus, the obscure leader of this rebellion, or ratlier tumult, was apprehended and burnt alive in the market-place of Tarsus, by the vigi- lance of Ualmatius. See the elder Victor, the Chronicle of Jerome, and the doubtful traditions of Theophanes and Cedrenus. n Cellarius has collected the opinions of the ancients concerning the European and Asiatic Sarmatia; and M. d'Anville has applied them to modern geography with the skill and accuracy whicii always distinguishes that excellent writer. " Ammian. 1. xvii. c. 12. The Sarmatian horses were castrated, to pre- vent the mischievous accidents which might happen from the noisy and ungovernable passions of the males.