270
Thiudimer and Vidimer sent an embassy to the Emperor
Marcian, because the usual gifts which they received
like a New Year's present from the Emperor, to
preserve the compact of peace, were slow in arriving.
And they found that Theodoric, son of Triarius, a man
of Gothic blood also, but born of another stock, not of
the Amali, was in great favor, together with his followers.
He was allied in friendship with the Romans
and obtained an annual bounty, while they themselves
were merely held in disdain. Thereat they were aroused 271
to frenzy and took up arms. They roved through almost
the whole of Illyricum and laid it waste in their search
for spoil. Then the Emperor quickly changed his mind
and returned to his former state of friendship. He sent
an embassy to give them the past gifts, as well as those
now due, and furthermore promised to give these gifts
in future without any dispute. From the Goths the
Romans received as a hostage of peace Theodoric, the
young child of Thiudimer, whom we have mentioned
above. He had now attained the age of seven years and
was entering upon his eighth. While his father hesitated
about giving him up, his uncle Valamir besought him to
do it, hoping that peace between the Romans and the
Goths might thus be assured. Therefore Theodoric was
given as a hostage by the Goths and brought to the city
of Constantinople to the Emperor Leo and, being a
goodly child, deservedly gained the imperial favor.

[Sidenote: THE GOTHS OVERWHELM THE REMNANT OF THE HUNS]

LIII Now after firm peace was established between 272
Goths and Romans, the Goths found that the possessions
they had received from the Emperor were not sufficient
for them. Furthermore, they were eager to display their
wonted valor, and so began to plunder the neighboring
races round about them, first attacking the Sadagis who
held the interior of Pannonia. When Dintzic, king of the
Huns, a son of Attila, learned this, he gathered to him
the few who still seemed to have remained under his
sway, namely, the Ultzinzures, and Angisciri, the Bittugures
and the Bardores. Coming to Bassiana, a city of
Pannonia, he beleaguered it and began to plunder its territory.
Then the Goths at once abandoned the expedition 273
they had planned against the Sadagis, turned upon the
Huns and drove them so ingloriously from their own
land that those who remained have been in dread of the
arms of the Goths from that time down to the present