Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/81

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 61 conducted by their skill and experience ; but they found it impossible to drive the Visigoths from their strong posts in the mountains : and the devastation of the plains obliged the Romans themselves to repass the Danube on the approach of winter. The incessant rains, which swelled the waters of the river, produced a tacit suspension of arms, and confined the emperor Valens, during the whole course of the ensuing summer, to his camp of Marcianopolis. The third year of the war was more favourable to the Romans and more pernicious to the Goths. The interruption of trade deprived the Bar- barians of the objects of luxury which they already confounded with the necessaries of life ; and the desolation of a very extensive tract of country threatened them with the horrors of famine. Athanaric was provoked, or compelled, to risk a battle, which he lost, in the plains; and the pursuit was rendered more bloody by the cruel precaution of the victorious generals, who had promised a large reward for the head of every Goth that was brought into the Imperial camp. The submission of the Barbarians appeased the resentment of Valens and his council ; the emperor listened with satisfaction to the flattering and eloquent remonstrance of the senate of Constantinople, which assumed, for the first time, a share in the public deliberations ; and the same generals, Victor and Arintheus, who had suc- cessfully directed the conduct of the war, were empowered to regulate the conditions of peace. The freedom of trade, which the Goths had hitherto enjoyed, was restricted to two cities on the Danube; the rashness of their leaders was severely punished by the suppression of their pensions and subsidies; and the exception, which was stipulated in favour of Athanaric alone, was more advantageous than honourable to the Judge of the Visigoths. Athanaric, who, on this occasion, appears to have consulted his private interest, without expecting the orders of his sovereign, supported his own dignity, and that of his tribe, in the personal interview which was proposed by the ministers of Valens. He persisted in his declaration that it was impos- sible for him, without incurring the guilt of perjury, ever to set his foot on the territory of the empire ; and it is more than probable that his regard for the sanctity of an oath was con- firmed by the recent and fatal examples of Roman treachery. The Danube, which separated the dominions of the two in- dependent nations, was chosen for the scene of the conference. The Emperor of the East and the Judge of the Visigoths, ac- companied by an equal number of armed followers, advanced