ifice having their heads covered
with tiaras, which we otherwise call _pillei_. But he bade
them call the rest of their race Capillati. This name the 72
Goths accepted and prized highly and they retain it to
this day in their songs.

After the death of Dicineus, they held Comosicus in 73
almost equal honor, because he was not inferior in knowledge.
By reason of his wisdom he was accounted their
priest and king, and he judged the people with the greatest
uprightness.

[Sidenote: DACIA]

XII When he too had departed from human affairs,
Coryllus ascended the throne as king of the Goths and for
forty years ruled his people in Dacia. I mean ancient
Dacia, which the race of the Gepidae now possess. This
country lies across the Danube within sight of Moesia, 74
and is surrounded by a crown of mountains. It has only
two ways of access, one by way of the Boutae and the
other by the Tapae. This Gothia, which our ancestors
called Dacia and now, as I have said, is called Gepidia,
was then bounded on the east by the Roxolani, on the west
by the Iazyges, on the north by the Sarmatians and Basternae
and on the south by the river Danube. The Iazyges
are separated from the Roxolani by the Aluta river only.

[Sidenote: THE DANUBE]

And since mention has been made of the Danube, I 75
think it not out of place to make brief notice of so excellent
a stream. Rising in the fields of the Alamanni, it
receives sixty streams which flow into it here and there
in the twelve hundred miles from its source to its mouths
in the Pontus, resembling a spine inwoven with ribs like
a basket. It is indeed a most vast river. In the language
of the Bessi it is called the Hister, and it has profound
waters in its channel to a depth of quite two hundred feet.
This stream surpasses in size all other rivers, except the
Nile. Let this much suffice for the Danube. But let us
now with the Lord's help return to the subject from which
we have digressed.

[Sidenote: Domitian A.D. 81-96]

[Sidenote: WAR WITH DOMITIAN]

XIII Now after a long time, in the reign of the 76
Emperor Domitian, the Goths, through fear of his avarrice,
broke the truce they had long observed under other
emperors. They laid waste the bank of the Danube, so
long held by the Roman Empire, and slew the soldiers and
their generals. Oppius Sabinus was then in command of
that province, succeeding Agrippa, while Dorpaneus held
command over the Goths. Thereupon the Go