o succeeded in repelling the attacks
of the Persians.

In the West Valentinian had been succeeded by his sons Gratian and
Valentinian II. The brave Theodosius, meanwhile, whose valor had
preserved the peace of the nation, was executed by order of Gratian, and
soon after the Huns appeared upon the Danube. These savages are thought
to have entered Europe from Tartary. Their faces were artificially
flattened and their beards plucked out. They left the cultivation of
their fields to the women or slaves, and devoted their lives to warfare.
A wandering race, they built no cities nor houses, and never slept
beneath a roof. They lived upon horseback. The Huns first attacked their
fellow-barbarians, the Ostrogoths, and made a fearful carnage, putting
all the women and children to death.

The Gothic nation now begged permission from the Romans to cross the
Danube, and settle within the Roman territory. Their request was
granted, upon condition that they should surrender all their arms; but
this condition was imperfectly fulfilled. The celebrated Bishop Ulphilas
about this time converted the Goths to Arianism, invented a Gothic
alphabet, and infused among the Goths a hatred for the Catholic faith,
which served to increase their zeal in all their future conflicts with
the Romans. Ill-treated by the Roman commissioners who had been sent by
the Emperor Valens to superintend their settlement, the Goths marched
against Constantinople. Valens wrote to Gratian for aid, and the latter,
although his own dominions were harassed by the Germans, marched to the
aid of his uncle, but died at Sirmium. Valens encountered Fritigern, the
Gothic leader, near Adrianople, in A.D. 378, and was defeated and slain.
Nearly the whole of the Roman army was destroyed upon this fatal field.

Gratian now chose as his colleague Theodosius, the son of the former
brave commander of that name, and Theodosius for a time restored the
Roman empire. He defeated the Goths, won their affections by his
clemency, and induced them to protect the frontiers of the Danube.
Gratian was defeated and put to death, A.D. 383, by a usurper, Maximus,
who also deprived Valentinian II. of his province of Italy. Theodosius,
however, defeated the usurper in A.D. 388, and generously restored
Valentinian to his throne. Valentinian was murdered by a Frank,
Arbogastes, in A.D. 392, but Theodosius marched against him, and
defeated and destroyed the rebels Arbogastes and Eugenius, A.D. 394.