h a force should arise.

2. While these events were passing in foreign countries, a terrible
rumour arose that the tribes of the north were planning new and
unprecedented attacks upon us: and that over the whole region which
extends from the country of the Marcomanni and Quadi to Pontus, a
barbarian host composed of different distant nations, which had suddenly
been driven by force from their own country, was now, with all their
families, wandering about in different directions on the banks of the
river Danube.

3. At first this intelligence was lightly treated by our people, because
they were not in the habit of hearing of any wars in those remote
districts till they were terminated either by victory or by treaty.

4. But presently, as the belief in these occurrences grew stronger,
being confirmed, too, by the arrival of the foreign ambassadors, who,
with prayers and earnest entreaties, begged that the people thus driven
from their homes and now encamped on the other side of the river, might
be kindly received by us, the affair seemed a cause of joy rather than
of fear, according to the skilful flatterers who were always extolling
and exaggerating the good fortune of the emperor; congratulating him
that an embassy had come from the furthest corners of the earth
unexpectedly, offering him a large body of recruits; and that, by
combining the strength of his own nation with these foreign forces, he
would have an army absolutely invincible; observing further that, by the
yearly payment for military reinforcements which came in every year from
the provinces, a vast treasure of gold might be accumulated in his
coffers.

5. Full of this hope he sent forth several officers to bring this
ferocious people and their waggons into our territory. And such great
pains were taken to gratify this nation which was destined to overthrow
the empire of Rome, that not one was left behind, not even of those who
were stricken with mortal disease. Moreover, having obtained permission
of the emperor to cross the Danube and to cultivate some districts in
Thrace, they crossed the stream day and night, without ceasing,
embarking in troops on board ships and rafts, and canoes made of the
hollow trunks of trees, in which enterprise, as the Danube is the most
difficult of all rivers to navigate, and was at that time swollen with
continual rains, a great many were drowned, who, because they were too
numerous for the vessels, tried to swim across,