he countrymen of free blood had attacked us, they also,
forgetful of their former condition, thinking to take advantage of a
favourable opportunity, burst through the Roman frontier, in this
wickedness alone agreeing with their masters and enemies.

2. But on deliberation we determined that their offence also should be
punished with more moderation than its greatness deserved; and that
vengeance should limit itself to removing them to a distance where they
could no longer harass our territories. The consciousness of a long
series of crimes made them fearful of danger.

3. And therefore, suspecting that the weight of war was about to fall
upon them, they were prepared, as exigency might require, to resort to
stratagem, arms, or entreaties. But at the first sight of our army they
became as it were panic-stricken; and being reduced to despair, they
begged their lives, offering a yearly tribute, and a body of their
chosen youths for our army, and promising perpetual obedience. But they
were prepared to refuse if they were ordered to emigrate (as they showed
by their gestures and countenances), trusting to the strength of the
place where, after they had expelled their masters, they had fixed their
abode.

4. For the Parthiscus[86] waters this land, proceeding with oblique
windings till it falls into the Danube. But while it flows unmixed, it
passes through a vast extent of country, which, near its junction with
the Danube, it narrows into a very small corner, so that over on the
side of the Danube those who live in that district are protected from
the attack of the Romans, and on the side of the Parthiscus they are
secured from any irruptions of the barbarians. Since along its course
the greater part of the ground is frequently under water from the
floods, and always swampy and full of osiers, so as to be quite
impassable to strangers; and besides the mainland there is an island
close to the mouth of the river, which the stream itself seems to have
separated into its present state.

5. Accordingly, at the desire of the emperor, they came with native
arrogance to our bank of the river, not, as the result showed, with the
intention of obeying his commands, but that they might not seem alarmed
at the presence of his soldiers. And there they stood, stubbornly
showing that they had come bent on resistance.

6. And as the emperor had foreseen that this might happen, he secretly
divided his army into several squadrons, and by