om their native
seats. The loose subordination, and extensive possessions, of the Huns
and the Alani, delayed the conquests, and distracted the councils, of
that victorious people. Several of the hords were allured by the liberal
promises of Fritigern; and the rapid cavalry of Scythia added weight and
energy to the steady and strenuous efforts of the Gothic infantry.
The Sarmatians, who could never forgive the successor of Valentinian,
enjoyed and increased the general confusion; and a seasonable irruption
of the Alemanni, into the provinces of Gaul, engaged the attention, and
diverted the forces, of the emperor of the West. [85]

[Footnote 83: Ammian. xxxi. 8.]

[Footnote 83a: The Taifalae, who at this period inhabited the country
which now forms the principality of Wallachia, were, in my opinion, the
last remains of the great and powerful nation of the Dacians, (Daci or
Dahae.) which has given its name to these regions, over which they had
ruled so long. The Taifalae passed with the Goths into the territory of
the empire. A great number of them entered the Roman service, and were
quartered in different provinces. They are mentioned in the Notitia
Imperii. There was a considerable body in the country of the Pictavi,
now Poithou. They long retained their manners and language, and caused
the name of the Theofalgicus pagus to be given to the district they
inhabited. Two places in the department of La Vendee, Tiffanges and La
Tiffardiere, still preserve evident traces of this denomination. St.
Martin, iv. 118.--M.]

[Footnote 84: Hanc Taifalorum gentem turpem, et obscenae vitae flagitiis
ita accipimus mersam; ut apud eos nefandi concubitus foedere copulentur
mares puberes, aetatis viriditatem in eorum pollutis usibus consumpturi.
Porro, siqui jam adultus aprum exceperit solus, vel interemit ursum
immanem, colluvione liberatur incesti. Ammian. xxxi. 9. ----Among the
Greeks, likewise, more especially among the Cretans, the holy bands of
friendship were confirmed, and sullied, by unnatural love.]

[Footnote 85: Ammian. xxxi. 8, 9. Jerom (tom. i. p. 26) enumerates the
nations and marks a calamitous period of twenty years. This epistle to
Heliodorus was composed in the year 397, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles tom
xii. p. 645.)]

Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.--Part IV.

One of the most dangerous inconveniences of the introduction of the
Barbarians into the army and the palace, was sensibly felt in their
correspondenc