ble treatment which they had received
from their new allies. They beheld around them the wealth and plenty of
a fertile province, in the midst of which they suffered the intolerable
hardships of artificial famine. But the means of relief, and even of
revenge, were in their hands; since the rapaciousness of their tyrants
had left to an injured people the possession and the use of arms. The
clamors of a multitude, untaught to disguise their sentiments, announced
the first symptoms of resistance, and alarmed the timid and guilty minds
of Lupicinus and Maximus. Those crafty ministers, who substituted the
cunning of temporary expedients to the wise and salutary counsels of
general policy, attempted to remove the Goths from their dangerous
station on the frontiers of the empire; and to disperse them, in
separate quarters of cantonment, through the interior provinces. As they
were conscious how ill they had deserved the respect, or confidence, of
the Barbarians, they diligently collected, from every side, a military
force, that might urge the tardy and reluctant march of a people, who
had not yet renounced the title, or the duties, of Roman subjects. But
the generals of Valens, while their attention was solely directed to
the discontented Visigoths, imprudently disarmed the ships and the
fortifications which constituted the defence of the Danube. The fatal
oversight was observed, and improved, by Alatheus and Saphrax, who
anxiously watched the favorable moment of escaping from the pursuit
of the Huns. By the help of such rafts and vessels as could be hastily
procured, the leaders of the Ostrogoths transported, without opposition,
their king and their army; and boldly fixed a hostile and independent
camp on the territories of the empire. [70]

[Footnote 69: Decem libras; the word silver must be understood.
Jornandes betrays the passions and prejudices of a Goth. The servile
Geeks, Eunapius and Zosimus, disguise the Roman oppression, and execrate
the perfidy of the Barbarians. Ammianus, a patriot historian, slightly,
and reluctantly, touches on the odious subject. Jerom, who wrote almost
on the spot, is fair, though concise. Per avaritaim aximi ducis, ad
rebellionem fame coacti sunt, (in Chron.) * Note: A new passage from
the history of Eunapius is nearer to the truth. 'It appeared to our
commanders a legitimate source of gain to be bribed by the Barbarians:
Edit. Niebuhr, p. 82.--M.]

[Footnote 70: Ammianus, xxxi. 4, 5.]

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