Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/134

 114 THE DECLINE AND FALL iitg.em. king himself fought and fell in the foremost ranks of the battle. ^'""'^ His attendants presented him with the fleetest horses of the Imperial stable, that would soon have carried him beyond the pursuit of the enemy. They vainly pressed him to reserve his important life for the future service of the republic. He still declared that he was unworthy to survive so many of the bravest and most faithful of his subjects; and the monarch was nobly buried under a mountain of the slain. Let none, therefore, presume to ascribe the victory of the Barbarians to the fear, the weakness, or the imprudence, of the Roman troops. The chiefs and the soldiers were animated by the virtue of their ancestors, whom they equalled in discipline and the arts of war. Their generous emulation was supported by the love of glory, which prompted them to contend at the same time with heat and thirst, with fire and the sword ; and cheerfully to embrace an honourable death as their refuge against flight and infamy. The indignation of the gods has been the only cause of the success of our enemies." The truth of history may disclaim some parts of this panegyric, which cannot strictly be reconcded with the character of Valens or the circumstances of the battle ; but the fairest commendation is due to the eloquence, and still more to the generosity, of the sophist of Antioch.^'' The Goths be- The pvide of the Goths was elated by this memorable victory ; siege^Hadria. j^^^ ^^^.^ ^^^^^.j^^ ^^.^^ disappointed bv the mortifying discovery that the richest part of the Imperial spoil had been withm the walls of Hadrianople. They hastened to possess the reward of their valour ; but they were encountered by the remains of a vanquished army with an intrepid resolution, which was the effect of their despair and the only hope of their safety. The Avails of the city and the ramparts of the adjacent camp were lined with military engines, that threw stones of an enormous weight; and astonished the ignorant Barbarians by the noise and velocity, still more than by the real effects, of the dis- charge. The soldiers, the citizens, the provincials, the domestics of the palace, were united in the danger and in the defence ; the ftirious assault of the Goths was repulsed ; their secret arts of treachery and treason were discovered ; and, after an obstinate conflict of many hours, they retired to their tents ; convinced, by experience, that it would be tar more advisable to observe the treaty which their sagacious leader had tacitly stipulated with the fortifications of great and populous cities. 97 Libanius de ulciscend. Julian. Nece, c. 3. in Fabricius, Bibliot. Grasc. torn, vii. p. 146-148.