rest where there was nothing at hand to disturb them; and
then, when the moon dispelled the darkness of night, they forded the
river, which was the best plan that presented itself, and fearing lest
the piquets at the outposts might give the alarm to the distant camp,
they made all possible speed and advanced with the hope of surprising
Athanaric himself.

7. He was stupefied at the suddenness of their onset, and after losing
many of his men, was compelled to flee for refuge to the precipitous
mountains in the neighbourhood, where, being wholly bewildered with the
strangeness of this occurrence, and the fear of greater evils to come,
he began to fortify with lofty walls all the territory between the banks
of the river Pruth and the Danube, where it passes through the lands of
the Taifali, and he completed this line of fortification with great
diligence, thinking that by this step he should secure his own personal
safety.

8. While this important work was going on, the Huns kept pressing on his
traces with great speed, and they would have overtaken and destroyed him
if they had not been forced to abandon the pursuit from being impeded by
the great quantity of their booty. In the mean time a report spread
extensively through the other nations of the Goths, that a race of men,
hitherto unknown, had suddenly descended like a whirlwind from the lofty
mountains, as if they had risen from some secret recess of the earth,
and were ravaging and destroying everything which came in their way. And
then the greater part of the population which, because of their want of
necessaries had deserted Athanaric, resolved to flee and to seek a home
remote from all knowledge of the barbarians; and after a long
deliberation where to fix their abode, they resolved that a retreat into
Thrace was the most suitable for these two reasons: first of all,
because it is a district most fertile in grass; and also because, by the
great breadth of the Danube, it is wholly separated from the barbarians,
who were already exposed to the thunderbolts of foreign warfare. And the
whole population of the tribe adopted this resolution unanimously.

IV.

A.D. 376.

Sec. 1. Accordingly, under the command of their leader Alavivus, they
occupied the banks of the Danube; and having sent ambassadors to Valens,
they humbly entreated to be received by him as his subjects, promising
to live quietly, and to furnish a body of auxiliary troops if any
necessity for suc