information given them by their prisoners, they learnt
that he had retired to the most remote part of Valeria, they hastened
thither by forced marches, gnashing their teeth, and determined on his
death, because they believed that it was through his means their
innocent king had been circumvented.

13. And as they were hastening onwards with impetuous and vengeful
speed, they were met by two legions, the Pannonian and the Moesian,
both of approved valour, who, if they had acted in harmony, must
unquestionably have come off victorious. But while they were hastening
onward to attack the barbarians separately, a quarrel arose between them
on the subject of their honour and dignity, which impeded all their
operations.

14. And when intelligence of this dissension reached the Sarmatians, who
are a most sagacious people, they, without waiting for any regular
signal of battle, attacked the Moesians first; and while the soldiers,
being surprised and in disorder, were slowly making ready their arms,
many of them were killed; on which the barbarians with increased
confidence attacked the Pannonians, and broke their line also; and when
the line of battle was once disordered, they redoubled their efforts,
and would have destroyed almost all of them, if some had not saved
themselves from the danger of death by a precipitate flight.

15. Amid these calamitous inflictions of adverse fortune, Theodosius the
younger, Duke of Moesia, then in the first bloom of youth, but
afterwards a prince of the highest reputation, in many encounters
defeated and vanquished the Free Sarmatians (so called to distinguish
them from their rebellious slaves), who had invaded our frontier on the
other side, till he exhausted them by his repeated victories; and with
such vigour did he crush the assembled crowds combined to resist his
arms, that he glutted the very birds and beasts with the blood of the
vast numbers justly slain.

16. Those who remained having lost all their pride and spirit, fearing
lest a general of such evident promptitude and courage should rout or
destroy these invading battalions on the very edge of his frontier, or
lay ambuscades for them in the recesses of the woods, made from time to
time many vain attempts to escape, and at last, discarding all
confidence in battle, they begged indulgence and pardon for their past
hostility. And being thoroughly subdued, they did nothing for some time
contrary to the treaty of peace, being more e