way. And
then the greater part of the population which, because of their want of
necessaries, had deserted Athanaric, resolved to flee and to seek a home
remote from all knowledge of the barbarians; and after a long
deliberation where to fix their abode, they resolved that a retreat into
Thrace was the most suitable for these two reasons: first of all,
because it is a district most fertile in grass; and also because, by the
great breadth of the Danube, it is wholly separated from the barbarians,
who were already exposed to the thunder-bolts of foreign warfare. And
the whole population of the tribe adopted this resolution unanimously.

Accordingly, under the command of their leader Alavivus, they occupied
the bank of the Danube, and having sent ambassadors to Valens, they
humbly entreated to be received by him as his subjects, promising to
live quietly, and to furnish a body of auxiliary troops if any necessity
for such a force should arise.

While these events were passing in foreign countries, a terrible rumor
arose that the tribes of the North were planning new and unprecedented
attacks upon us; and that over the whole region, which extends from the
country of the Marcomanni and Quadi to Pontus, a barbarian host,
composed of different distant nations, which had suddenly been driven by
force from their own country, was now, with all their families,
wandering about in different directions on the banks of the river
Danube.

At first this intelligence was lightly treated by our people, because
they were not in the habit of hearing of any wars in those remote
districts till they were terminated either by victory or by treaty.

But presently, as the belief in these occurrences grew stronger, being
confirmed, too, by the arrival of the foreign ambassadors, who, with
prayers and earnest entreaties, begged that the people thus driven from
their homes and now encamped on the other side of the river might be
kindly received by us, the affair seemed a cause of joy rather than of
fear, according to the skilful flatterers who were always extolling and
exaggerating the good fortune of the Emperor; congratulating him that an
embassy had come from the farthest corners of the earth unexpectedly,
offering him a large body of recruits; and that, by combining the
strength of his own nation with these foreign forces, he would have an
army absolutely invincible; observing further that, by the yearly
payment for military reinforcements