f Count Gratian, a general who had arisen from
obscurity in Pannonia, to the command of Africa and Britain.

(M1155) Valentinian was forty-four years of age when he began to reign,
A.D. 364, a man of noble character and person, and in a month associated
his brother Flavius Valens with him in the government of the empire.
Valentinian kept the West, and conferred the East on Valens. Thus was the
empire again formally divided, and was not reunited until the reign of
Theodosius. Valentinian chose the post of danger, rather than of pleasure
and luxury, for the West was now invaded by various tribes of the Germanic
race. The Alemanni were powerful on the Rhine; the Saxons were invading
Britain; the Burgundians were commencing their ravages in Gaul; and the
Goths were preparing for another inroad. The emperor, whose seat of power
was Milan, was engaged in perpetual, but indecisive conflicts. He reigned
with vigor, and repressed the barbarians. He bestowed the title of
Augustus on his son Gratian, and died in a storm of wrath by the bursting
of a blood-vessel, while reviling the ambassadors of the Quadi, A.D. 375.

(M1156) The emperor Valens, at Constantinople, was exposed to no less
dangers, without the force to meet them. The great nation of the Goths,
who had been at peace with the empire for a generation, resumed their
hostilities upon the Danube. Hermanneric, the first historic name among
these fierce people, had won a series of brilliant victories over other
barbarians, after he was eighty years of age. His dominions extended from
the Danube to the Baltic, and embraced the greater part of Germany and
Scythia.

(M1157) But the Goths were invaded by a fierce race of barbarians, more
savage than themselves, from the banks of the Don, called Scythians, or
Huns, of Sclavonic origin. Pressed by this new enemy, they sought shelter
in the Roman territory. Instead of receiving them as allies, the emperor
treated them as enemies. Hostages from the flower of their youth were
scattered through the cities of Asia Minor, while the corrupt governors of
Thrace annoyed them by insults and grievances. The aged Hermanneric,
exasperated by misfortune, made preparations for a general war, while
Sarmatians, Alans, and Huns united with them. After three indecisive
campaigns, the emperor Valens advanced to attack their camp near
Hadrianople, defended by Fritagern. Under the walls of this city was
fought the most bloody and disastrous battle whi