sold, if he
will be mercifully fed, than that he should be kept free
only to die.

[Sidenote: TREACHERY OF THE ROMANS]

Now it came to pass in that troublous time that Lupicinus,
the Roman general, invited Fritigern, a chieftain
of the Goths, to a feast and, as the event revealed,
devised a plot against him. But Fritigern, thinking 136
evil came to the feast with a few followers. While
he was dining in the praetorium he heard the dying
cries of his ill-fated men, for, by order of the general,
the soldiers were slaying his companions who were shut
up in another part of the house. The loud cries of the
dying fell upon ears already suspicious, and Fritigern at
once perceived the treacherous trick. He drew his sword
and with great courage dashed quickly from the banqueting-hall,
rescued his men from their threatening doom
and incited them to slay the Romans. Thus these valiant 137
men gained the chance they had longed for--to be free to
die in battle rather than to perish of hunger--and immediately
took arms to kill the generals Lupicinus and
Maximus. Thus that day put an end to the famine of the
Goths and the safety of the Romans, for the Goths no
longer as strangers and pilgrims, but as citizens and lords,
began to rule the inhabitants and to hold in their own
right all the northern country as far as the Danube.

[Sidenote: EMPEROR VALENS DEFEATED AND SLAIN A.D. 378]

When the Emperor Valens heard of this at Antioch, 138
he made ready an army at once and set out for the country
of Thrace. Here a grievous battle took place and the
Goths prevailed. The Emperor himself was wounded and
fled to a farm near Hadrianople. The Goths, not knowing
that an emperor lay hidden in so poor a hut, set fire
to it (as is customary in dealing with a cruel foe), and
thus he was cremated in royal splendor. Plainly it was
a direct judgment of God that he should be burned with
fire by the very men whom he had perfidiously led astray
when they sought the true faith, turning them aside from
the flame of love into the fire of hell. From this time the
Visigoths, in consequence of their glorious victory, possessed
Thrace and Dacia Ripensis as if it were their native
land.

[Sidenote: Gratian 367-383]

[Sidenote: HOSTILE RELATIONS WITH ROME ENDED BY A TRUCE]

[Sidenote: Theodosius 379-305]

XXVII Now in the place of Valens, his uncle, the 139
Emperor Gratian established Theodosius the Spaniard in
the Eastern Empire. M