commander of the forces beyond Mount
Taurus, delivered the eastern provinces from the Goths.

I.

A.D. 375.

Sec. 1. In the mean time the swift wheel of Fortune, which continually
alternates adversity with prosperity, was giving Bellona the Furies for
her allies, and arming her for war; and now transferred our disasters to
the East, as many presages and portents foreshowed by undoubted signs.

2. For after many true prophecies uttered by diviners and augurs, dogs
were seen to recoil from howling wolves, and the birds of night
constantly uttered querulous and mournful cries; and lurid sunrises made
the mornings dark. Also, at Antioch, among the tumults and squabbles of
the populace, it had come to be a custom for any one who fancied himself
ill treated to cry out in a licentious manner, "May Valens be burnt
alive!" And the voices of the criers were constantly heard ordering wood
to be carried to warm the baths of Valens, which had been built under
the supertendence of the emperor himself.

3. All which circumstances all but pointed out in express words that the
end of the emperor's life was at hand. Besides all these things, the
ghost of the king of Armenia, and the miserable shades of those who had
lately been put to death in the affair of Theodorus, agitated numbers of
people with terrible alarms, appearing to them in their sleep, and
shrieking out verses of horrible import.[189]

4. ... and its death indicated an extensive and general calamity arising
from public losses and deaths. Last of all, when the ancient walls of
Chalcedon were thrown down in order to build a bath at Constantinople,
and the stones were torn asunder, on one squared stone which was hidden
in the very centre of the walls these Greek verses were found engraved,
which gave a full revelation of what was to happen:--

+"All hopotan nymphai drosere kata astu choreie
Terpomenai strepsontai eusteeiphas kat' aguias
Kai teichos loutroio polustonon essetai alkai
De tote myria phyla polyspereon anthropon
Istrou kallirooio poron peraonta syn aichme
Kai Skythiken olesei choren kai Musida gaian
Paionies d' epibanta syn syn elpisi mainomenesin
Autou kai bioto o telos kai deris ephexei."+

TRANSLATION.

"But when young wives and damsels blithe, in dances that delight,
Shall glide along the city streets, with garlands gaily bright;
And when these walls, with sad regrets, shall fall to raise a bath,
Then shall the Huns