X.

§ 1. After the last honours had been paid to the emperor, and his body had been prepared for burial, in order to be sent to Constantinople to be there entombed among the remains of former emperors, the campaign which was in preparation was suspended, and people began to be anxious as to what part would be taken by the Gallic cohorts, who were not always steady in loyalty to the lawful emperor, but looked upon themselves as the disposers of power, and were regarded by others as very likely to venture on some new enterprise at so favourable a moment. This circumstance also was likely to aid any attempt that might be made at a revolution, that Gratian, who knew nothing of what had taken place, was still at Treves, where his father, when about to set out on his own expedition, had desired him to wait.

2. While affairs were in this state of uncertainty, and when every one shared the same fears, looking on themselves as all in the same boat, and sure to be partners in danger, if danger should arise, at last it was decided by the advice of the principal nobles to take up the bridge which had been necessarily made when they meditated invading the territories of the enemy, in order that, in compliance with the commands given by Valentinian while alive, Merobaudes might be at once summoned to the camp.

3. He, being a man of great cunning and penetration, divined what had happened (perhaps indeed he had been informed of it by the messenger who brought him his summons), and suspecting that the Gallic troops were likely to break the existing concord, he pretended that a token which had been agreed upon had been sent to him that he was to return with the messenger to watch the banks of the Rhine; since the fury of the barbarians was again menacing hostilities, and (in compliance with a secret injunction which he received, at the same time) he removed to a distance. Sebastian also as yet was ignorant of the death of the emperor; and he being an orderly and quietly disposed man, but very popular among the soldiers, required on that account to be strictly watched.

4. Accordingly when Merobaudes had returned, the chief men took careful counsel as to what was to be done; and at last it was arranged that the child Valentinian, the son of the deceased emperor, at that time a boy of four years old, should be associated in the imperial power. He was at present a hundred miles off, living with his mother, Justina, in a small town called Murocincta.

5. This decision was ratified by the unanimous consent of all parties; and Cerealis, his uncle, was sent with speed to Murocincta, where he placed the royal child on a litter, and so conducted him to the camp. On the sixth day after his father's death, he was declared lawful emperor, and saluted as Augustus with the usual solemnities.

6. And although at the time many persons thought that Gratian would be indignant that any one else had been appointed emperor without his permission, yet afterwards, when all fear and anxiety was removed, they lived in greater security, because he, wise and kindhearted man as he was, loved his young relative with exceeding affection, and brought him up with great care.

[183] No one has succeeded in explaining this word. Some editors wish to read Suræ, explaining that as "men picked out for their great strength," by a reference to Juvenal, xvi. 14--Grandes magna adsubsellia Suræ. Wagner proposes to read Scurræ, a name sometimes given to the guards in this age.

[184] As at Athens, where the orators were only allowed to speak as long as an hour-glass, filled with water, was running down.

[185] All these men are spoken of by Horace as distinguished lawyers in his time.

[186] See Cicero, de Oratore iii. 60.

[187] The Speech of Cicero pro Coelio Cluentio.

[188] The celebrated speech of Demosthenes, more usually known as that of De Coronâ.

## BOOK XXXI.

ARGUMENT.

I. Omens announcing the death of the Emperor Valens, and a disaster to be inflicted by the Gauls.--II. A description of the abodes and customs of the Huns, the Alani, and other tribes, natives of Asiatic Scythia.--III. The Huns, either by arms or by treaties, unite the Alani on the Don to themselves; invade the Goths, and drive them from their country.--IV. The chief division of the Goths, surnamed the Thuringians, having been expelled from their homes, by permission of Valens are conducted by the Romans into Thrace, on condition of promising obedience and a supply of auxiliary troops. The Gruthungi also, who form the other division of the Goths, secretly cross the Danube by a bridge of boats.--V. The Thuringians being in great distress from hunger and the want of supplies, under the command of their generals Alavivus and Fritigern, revolt from Valens, and defeat Lupicinus and his army.--VI. Why Sueridus and Colias, nobles of the Gothic nation, after having been received in a friendly manner, revolted; and after slaying the people of Hadrianopolis, united themselves to Fritigern, and then turned to ravage Thrace.--VII. Profuturus, Trajan, and Richomeres fought a drawn battle against the Goths.--VIII. The Goths being hemmed in among the defiles at the bottom of the Balkan, after the Romans by returning had let them escape, invaded Thrace, plundering, massacring, ravishing, and burning, and slay Barzimeres, the tribune of the Scutarii.--IX. Frigeridus, Gratian's general, routs Farnobius at the head of a large body of Goths and Taifalæ; sparing the rest, and giving them some lands around the Po.--X. The Lentiensian Alemanni are defeated in battle by the generals of the emperor Gratian, and their king Priamis is slain. Afterwards, having yielded and furnished Gratian with a body of recruits, they are allowed to return to their own country.--XI. Sebastian surprises the Goths at Beræa as they are returning home loaded with plunder, and defeats them with great slaughter; a few saved themselves by flight. Gratian hastens to his uncle Valens, to carry him aid against the Goths.--XII. Valens, before the arrival of Gratian resolves to fight the Goths.--XIII. All the Goths unite together, that is to say, the Thuringians, under their king Fritigern. The Gruthungi, under their dukes Alatheus and Salaces, encounter the Romans in a pitched battle, rout their cavalry, and then falling on the infantry when deprived of the support of their horse, and huddled together in a dense body, they defeat them with enormous loss, and put them to flight. Valens is slain, but his body cannot be found.--XIV. The virtues and vices of Valens.--XV. The victorious Goths besiege Hadrianopolis, where Valens had left his treasures and his insignia of imperial rank, with the prefect and the members of his council; but after trying every means to take the city, without success, they at last retire.--XVI. The Goths, having by bribes won over the forces of the Huns and of the Alani to join them, make an attack upon Constantinople without success. The device by which Julius, the commander of the forces beyond Mount Taurus, delivered the eastern provinces from the Goths.