Burgundians and the Alemanni. The inconstancy of a wise prince may,
perhaps, be explained by some alteration of circumstances; and perhaps
it was the original design of Valentinian to intimidate, rather than to
destroy; as the balance of power would have been equally overturned by
the extirpation of either of the German nations. Among the princes of
the Alemanni, Macrianus, who, with a Roman name, had assumed the arts of
a soldier and a statesman, deserved his hatred and esteem. The emperor
himself, with a light and unencumbered band, condescended to pass the
Rhine, marched fifty miles into the country, and would infallibly have
seized the object of his pursuit, if his judicious measures had not
been defeated by the impatience of the troops. Macrianus was afterwards
admitted to the honor of a personal conference with the emperor; and
the favors which he received, fixed him, till the hour of his death, a
steady and sincere friend of the republic. [100]

[Footnote 95a: According to the general opinion, the Burgundians formed
a Gothic o Vandalic tribe, who, from the banks of the Lower Vistula,
made incursions, on one side towards Transylvania, on the other towards
the centre of Germany. All that remains of the Burgundian language is
Gothic. * * * Nothing in their customs indicates a different origin.
Malte Brun, Geog. tom. i. p. 396. (edit. 1831.)--M.]

[Footnote 96: Bellicosos et pubis immensae viribus affluentes; et ideo
metuendos finitimis universis. Ammian. xxviii. 5.]

[Footnote 97: I am always apt to suspect historians and travellers of
improving extraordinary facts into general laws. Ammianus ascribes a
similar custom to Egypt; and the Chinese have imputed it to the Ta-tsin,
or Roman empire, (De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. part. 79.)]

[Footnote 98: Salinarum finiumque causa Alemannis saepe jurgabant.
Ammian xxviii. 5. Possibly they disputed the possession of the Sala,
a river which produced salt, and which had been the object of ancient
contention. Tacit. Annal. xiii. 57, and Lipsius ad loc.]

[Footnote 99: Jam inde temporibus priscis sobolem se esse Romanam
Burgundii sciunt: and the vague tradition gradually assumed a more
regular form, (Oros. l. vii. c. 32.) It is annihilated by the decisive
authority of Pliny, who composed the History of Drusus, and served in
Germany, (Plin. Secund. Epist. iii. 5,) within sixty years after the
death of that hero. Germanorum genera quinque; Vindili, quorum pars
Burgun