and in spite of all
their exertions were swept away by the stream.

6. In this way, through the turbulent zeal of violent people, the ruin
of the Roman empire was brought on. This, at all events, is neither
obscure nor uncertain, that the unhappy officers who were intrusted with
the charge of conducting the multitude of the barbarians across the
river, though they repeatedly endeavoured to calculate their numbers, at
last abandoned the attempt as hopeless: and the man who would wish to
ascertain the number might as well (as the most illustrious of
poets[190] says) attempt to count the waves in the African sea, or the
grains of sand tossed about by the zephyr.

7. Let, however, the ancient annals be accredited which record that the
Persian host which was led into Greece, was, while encamped on the
shores of the Hellespont, and making a new and artificial sea,[191]
numbered in battalions at Doriscus; a computation which has been
unanimously regarded by all posterity as fabulous.

8. But after the innumerable multitudes of different nations, diffused
over all our provinces, and spreading themselves over the vast expanse
of our plains, who filled all the champaign country and all the mountain
ranges, are considered, the credibility of the ancient accounts is
confirmed by this modern instance. And first of all Fritigern was
received with Alavivus; and the emperor assigned them a temporary
provision for their immediate support, and ordered lands to be assigned
them to cultivate.

9. At that time the defences of our provinces were much exposed, and the
armies of barbarians spread over them like the lava of Mount Etna. The
imminence of our danger manifestly called for generals already
illustrious for their past achievements in war: but nevertheless, as if
some unpropitious deity had made the selection, the men who were sought
out for the chief military appointments were of tainted character. The
chief among them were Lupicinus and Maximus, the one being Count of
Thrace, the other a leader notoriously wicked--and both men of great
ignorance and rashness.

10. And their treacherous covetousness was the cause of all our
disasters. For (to pass over other matters in which the officers
aforesaid, or others with their unblushing connivance, displayed the
greatest profligacy in their injurious treatment of the foreigners
dwelling in our territory, against whom no crime could be alleged) this
one melancholy and unprecedented piec