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 104 THE DECLINE AND FALL by reason, it was resolved to seek and to encounter the Bar- barians, who lay encamped in the spacious and fertile meadows near the most southern of the six mouths of the Danube.^^ Their camp was surrounded by the usual fortification of waggons;^' and the Barbarians, secure within the vast circle of the inclosure, enjoyed the fruits of their valour and the spoils of the province. In the midst of riotous intemperance, the watchful Fritigern observed the motions, and penetrated the designs, of the Romans, He perceived that the numbers of the enemy were continually increasing ; and, as he under- stood their intention of attacking his rear as soon as the scarcity of forage should oblige him to remove his camp, he recalled to their standard his predatory detachments which covered the adjacent country. As soon as they descried the flaming beacons,*^ they obeyed, with incredible speed, the signal of their leader ; the camp was filled with the martial crowd of Barbarians ; their impatient clamours demanded the battle, and their tumultuous zeal was approved and animated by the spirit of their chiefs. The evening was already far advanced ; and the two armies prepared themselves for the approaching combat, which was deferred only till the da^vn of day. While the trumpets sounded to arms, the undaunted [Battle of Ad cQurage of the Goths was confirmed by the mutual obligation 37*7]"'' ■ of a solemn oath ; and, as they advanced to meet the enemy, the rude songs, which celebrated the glory of their forefathers, were mingled with their fierce and dissonant outcries, and opposed to the artificial hai-mony of the Roman shout. Some military skill was displayed by Fritigern to gain the advantage of a commanding eminence ; but the bloody conflict, which began and ended with the light, was maintained, on either side, by the personal and obstinate efforts of strength, valour, and agility. The legions of Armenia supported their fame in 81 The Itinerary of Antoninus (p. 226, 227, edit. Wesseling) marks the situation of this place about sixty miles north of Tomi, Ovid's exile : and the name of Salices (the willows) expresses the nature of the soil. [The Romans " succeeded in clearing first the Rhodopc country, and then the line of the Balkans, of the Gothic army " (Hodgkin, i. 261).] 82 This circle of waggons, the Carrago, was the usual fortification of the Barbarians (Vegetius de Re Militari, 1. iii. c. 10. Valesius ad Ammian. xxxi. 7). The practice and the name were presers'ed by their descendants, as late as the fifteenth century. The Charroy, which surrounded the Ost, is a word familiar to the readers of Froissard or Comines. 83 Statim ut accensi malleoli [if'.']. I have used the literal sense of real torches or beacons : but I almost suspect that it is only one of those turgid metaphors, those false ornaments, that purpetuiilly disfigme the style of Aiiuuianus.