way to
terrify their assailants, but the Eruli, shrinking from nothing
whatever, decided to meet the Lombards in battle. And when the two
armies came close to one another, it so happened that the sky above the
Lombards was obscured by a sort of cloud, black and very thick, but
above the Eruli it was exceedingly clear. And judging by this one would
have supposed that the Eruli were entering the conflict to their own
harm; for there ran be no more forbidding portent than this for
barbarians as they go into battle. However, the Eruli gave no heed even
to this, but in absolute disregard of it they advanced against their
enemy with utter contempt, estimating the outcome of war by mere
superiority of numbers. But when the battle came to close quarters, many
of the Eruli perished and Rodolphus himself also perished, and the rest
fled at full speed, forgetting all their courage. And since their enemy
followed them up, the most of them fell on the field of battle and only
a few succeeded in saving themselves.

DATE:
[X]491 A.D.

For this reason the Eruli were no longer able to tarry in their
ancestral homes, but departing from there as quickly as possible they
kept moving forward, traversing the whole country which is beyond the
Ister River, together with their wives and children. But when they
reached a land where the Rogi dwelt of old, a people who had joined the
Gothic host and gone to Italy, they settled in that place. But since
they were pressed by famine, because they were in a barren land, they
removed from there not long afterward, and came to a place close to the
country of the Gepaedes.[190] And at first the Gepaedes permitted them
to dwell there and be neighbours to them, since they came as suppliants.
But afterwards for no good reason the Gepaedes began to practise unholy
deeds upon them. For they violated their women and seized their cattle
and other property, and abstained from no wickedness whatever, and
finally began an unjust attack upon them. And the Eruli, unable to bear
all this any longer, crossed the Ister River and decided to live as
neighbours to the Romans in that region; this was during the reign of
the Emperor Anastasius, who received them with great friendliness and
allowed them to settle where they were. But a short time afterwards
these barbarians gave him offence by their lawless treatment of the
Romans there, and for this reason he sent an army against them. And the
Roman