Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/79

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 59 the progress of an aspiring power, which threatened the liberty of the North and the peace of the empire. ^^^ The Goths had contracted an hereditary attachment for the The cause of Imperial house of Constantine, of whose power and liberality war. a.d. 366 they had received so many signal proofs. They respected the public peace ; and, if an hostile band sometimes presumed to pass the Roman limit, their irregular conduct was candidly ascribed to the ungovei-nable spirit of the Barbarian youth. Their contempt for two new and obscure princes, who had been raised to the throne by a popular election, inspired the Goths with bolder hopes ; and, while they agitated some design of marching their confederate force under the national standard,^^° they were easily tempted to embrace the party of Procopius, and to foment, by their dangerous aid, the civil discord of the Romans. The public treaty might stipulate no more than ten thousand auxiliaries ; but the design Avas so zealously adopted by the chiefs of the Visigoths that the army which passed the Danube amounted to the number of thirty thousand men.^^^ They marched with the proud confidence that their invincible valour would decide the fate of the Roman empire ; and the provinces of Thrace groaned vmder the weight of the Barbarians, who displayed the insolence of masters and the licentiousness of enemies. But the intemperance which gratified their appetites retarded their progress ; and, before the Goths could receive any certain intelligence of the defeat and death of Procopius, they perceived, by the hostile state of the country, that the civil and military powers were resumed by his successful rival. A chain of posts and fortifications, skilfiilly disposed by Valens, or the generals of Valens, resisted their march, prevented their retreat, and intercepted their subsistence. The fierceness of the Barbarians was tamed and suspended by hunger ; they indig- nantly threw down their ai'ms at the feet of the conqueror, who offered them food and chains ; the numerous captives were distributed in all the cities of the East ; and the provincials, who were soon familiarized with their savage appearance, ven- tured, by degrees, to measure their own strength with these i^^Ammianus xxxi. 3) observes, in general terms : Ermenrichi . . . nobilissimi Regis, et, per multa variaque fortiter facta, vicinis gentibus formidati, &c. 150 Valens . . . docetur relationibus Ducum, gentem Gothorum, e9. tempestate intactam ideoque saevissimam conspirantem in unum, ad pervadendam parari collimitia Thraciarum. Ammian. xxvi. 6. 151 M. de Buat (Hist, des Peuples de I'Europe, torn. vi. p. 332) has curiously ascertained the real number of these auxiliaries. The 3000 of Ammianus, and the 10,000 of Zosimus, were only the first divisions of the Gotliic army.