Ammianus•RES GESTAE A FINE CORNELI TACITI
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1. Interea et Fortunae volucris rota, adversa prosperis semper alternans, Bellonam furiis in societatem adscitis armabat maestosque transtulit ad orientem eventus, quos adventare praesagiorum fides clara monebat et portentorum.
1. Meanwhile, the winged wheel of Fortune, always alternating adversities with prosperities, armed Bellona, having admitted the Furies into partnership, and carried the mournful events to the East, whose approach the clear credence of presages and portents was forewarning.
2. post multa enim, quae vates auguresque praedixere veridice, resultabant canes ululantibus lupis, et querulum quoddam nocturnae volucres tinniebant et flebile, et squalidi solis exortus hebetabant matutinos diei candores, et Antiochiae per rixas tumultusque vulgares id in consuetudinem venerat, ut quisquis vim se pati existimaret "vivus ardeat Valens" licentius clamitaret, vocesque praeconum audiebantur adsidue mandantium congeri ligna ad Valentini lavacri succensionem, studio ipsius principis conditi.
2. for after many things which the vates and augurs foretold veridically, dogs were answering back to wolves ululating, and the nocturnal birds were tinkling a certain querulous and mournful note, and the squalid risings of the sun were dulling the matutinal brilliances of the day, and at Antioch, through vulgar quarrels and tumults, it had come into a custom that whoever supposed himself to be suffering violence would more licentiously keep shouting "let Valens burn alive," and the voices of the heralds were heard continually, ordering that wood be heaped up for the ignition of Valentinus’s bath, founded by the zeal of the prince himself.
3. quae hunc illi inpendere exitum vitae modo non aperte loquendo monstrabant. super his larvale simulacrum Armeniae regis et miserabiles umbrae paulo ante in negotio Theodori caesorum per quietem stridendo carmina quaedam nimium horrenda multos diris terroribus agitabant.
3. which were pointing out to him that this exit of life was impending, only not by speaking openly. Besides these, a larval phantom-image of the king of Armenia, and the pitiable shades of those a little before cut down in the affair of Theodorus, in sleep, by shrieking, were driving many with dire terrors by certain exceedingly horrendous chants.
4. vaccula gurgulione consecto exanimis visa est iacens, cuius mors publicorum funerum aerumnas indicabat amplas et pervulgatas. denique cum Chalcedonos subverterentur veteres muri, ut apud Constantinopolim aedificaretur lavacrum, ordine resoluto saxorum in quadrato lapide, qui structura latebat in media, hi Graeci versus incisi reperti sunt, futura plene pandentes:
4. a little cow, with the gullet cut, was seen lying exanimate, whose death indicated ample and far-spread hardships of public funerals. finally, when at Chalcedon the ancient walls were being subverted, in order that at Constantinople a bath-house might be built, the order of the stones having been loosed, in a squared stone, which lay hidden in the middle of the structure, these Greek verses, incised, were found, fully opening the things to come:
5. All'hopotan nymphai droserai kata asty choreiei terpomenai strophoontai eustrepheas kat'agyias kai teichos loutroio polystonon essetai alkar, de tote myria phyla polyspereon anthropon Istrou kallirooio poron peraonta syn aichme, kai Skythiken olesei choren kai Mysida gaian, Paionies d'epibanta syn elpisi mainomeneisin autou kai biotoio telos kai deris ephexei.
5. But whenever the dewy nymphs dance through the city, delighting, they wheel with well-turned motions along the streets, and the wall of the bath will be a much-lamented bulwark, then myriad tribes of the many-seeded race of men, crossing the passage of fair-flowing Ister with spear, will lay waste the Scythian land and the Mysian earth; and the Paeonians, having set upon it with frenzied hopes, right there both life’s end and the hide will overtake.
1. Totius autem sementem exitii et cladum originem diversarum, quas Martius furor incendio solito miscendo cuncta concivit, hanc conperimus causam. Hunorum gens monumentis veteribus leviter nota ultra paludes Maeoticas glacialem oceanum accolens, omnem modum feritatis excedit.
1. But the seed of the whole ruin and the origin of diverse disasters, which Martial fury, by its accustomed conflagration mixing all things together, stirred up, we have ascertained to be this cause. The nation of the Huns, lightly known from ancient monuments, dwelling beyond the Maeotic marshes along the glacial Ocean, exceeds every measure of ferocity.
2. ubi quoniam ab ipsis nascendi primitiis infantum ferro sulcantur altius genae, ut pilorum vigor tempestivus emergens conrugatis cicatricibus hebetetur, senescunt imberbes absque ulla venustate, spadonibus similes, conpactis omnes firmisque membris et opimis cervicibus, prodigiosae formae et pavendi, ut bipedes existimes bestias vel quales in conmarginandis pontibus effigiati stipites dolantur incompte.
2. where, since from the very first beginnings of birth the cheeks of infants are furrowed deeper with iron, so that the seasonable vigor of hairs emerging may be blunted by corrugated scars, they grow old beardless, without any comeliness, like eunuchs, all with compact and firm limbs and with well-furnished necks, of prodigious form and to be feared, so that you would think them two-footed beasts, or such as effigiated posts are roughly hewn in the edging-together of bridges.
3. in hominum autem figura licet insuavi ita visi sunt asperi, ut neque igni neque saporatis indigeant cibis sed radicibus herbarum agrestium et semicruda cuiusvis pecoris carne vescantur, quam inter femora sua equorumque terga subsertam fotu calefaciunt brevi.
3. in human figure, though unpleasing, they seemed so harsh that they need neither fire nor saporous foods, but feed on the roots of agrestic herbs and on the half-raw flesh of any livestock, which, slipped between their own thighs and the backs of their horses tucked beneath, they warm by their warmth in a short time.
4. aedificiis nullis umquam tecti sed haec velut ab usu communi discreta sepulcra declinant. nec enim apud eos vel arundine fastigatum reperiri tugurium potest. sed vagi montes peragrantes et silvas, pruinas famem sitimque perferre ab incunabulis adsuescunt.
4. never sheltered by buildings, but they decline these sepulchers as though set apart from common use. For among them not even a hut roofed with reeds can be found. But, wandering, traversing mountains and woods, they grow accustomed from the cradle to endure frosts, hunger, and thirst.
5. indumentis operiuntur linteis vel ex pellibus silvestrium murum consarcinatis, nec alia illis domestica vestis est, alia forensis. sed semel obsoleti coloris tunica collo inserta non ante deponitur aut mutatur quam diuturna carie in pannulos defluxerit defrustata.
5. they are covered with garments of linen or with ones patched together from the skins of wild animals, nor is there for them one domestic garment, another for the forum. but a tunic of a dingy color, once inserted over the neck, is not put off or changed before, by long decay, it has slipped down into little rags, crumbled to bits.
6. galeris incurvis capita tegunt, hirsuta crura coriis muniendis haedinis, eorumque calcei formulis nullis aptati vetant incedere gressibus liberis. qua causa ad pedestres parum adcommodati sunt pugnas, verum equis prope adfixi, duris quidem sed deformibus, et muliebriter isdem non numquam insidentes funguntur muneribus consuetis. ex ipsis quivis in hac natione pernox et perdius emit et vendit, cibumque sumit et potum, et inclinatus cervici angustae iumenti in altum soporem ad usque varietatem effunditur somniorum.
6. they cover their heads with incurved caps, their hirsute shanks with kid-hides for defending, and their shoes, fitted to no lasts, forbid them to advance with free steps. For which cause they are little accommodated to pedestrian combats, but are nearly affixed to horses, sturdy indeed but misshapen, and womanishly, sometimes sitting upon the same, they discharge their accustomed duties. Of these, any one in this nation all night and all day buys and sells, and takes food and drink, and, leaning to the narrow neck of his draught-beast, is poured out into deep sleep even to the variegation of dreams.
7. et deliberatione super rebus proposita seriis, hoc habitu omnes in commune consultant. aguntur autem nulla severitate regali sed tumultuario primatum ductu contenti perrumpunt quicquid inciderit.
7. and, with deliberation over serious matters proposed, in this habit all consult in common. they are governed, moreover, with no regal severity but, content with a tumultuary leadership of the leading men, they break through whatever incident may occur.
8. et pugnant non numquam lacessiti sed ineuntes proelia cuneatim variis vocibus sonantibus torvum. utque ad pernicitatem sunt leves et repentini, ita subito de industria dispersi vigescunt, et inconposita acie cum caede vasta discurrunt, nec invadentes vallum nec castra inimica pilantes prae nimia rapiditate cernuntur.
8. and they fight sometimes when provoked, but when entering battles they advance wedge-wise, with various voices sounding grim. and as to swiftness they are light and sudden, thus suddenly, by design, scattered they grow vigorous, and with an uncomposed battle-line they run about with vast slaughter, neither invading the rampart nor pelting the hostile camps with pila are they perceived, because of excessive rapidity.
9. eoque omnium acerrimos facile dixeris bellatores, quod procul missilibus telis, acutis ossibus pro spiculorum acumine arte mira coagmentatis, et distantia percursa comminus ferro sine sui respectu confligunt, hostisque, dum mucronum noxias observant, contortis laciniis inligant, ut laqueatis resistentium membris equitandi vel gradiendi adimant facultatem.
9. and thus you would easily call them the fiercest of all warriors, because from afar with missile weapons, with sharp bones co-joined by wondrous art in place of spearheads, and, the distances traversed, they fight hand-to-hand with iron without regard for themselves, and they entangle the enemy, while they are watching the noxiousness of the blade-points, with twisted fringes, so that, the limbs of the resisting being noosed, they take away the capacity of riding or walking.
10. nemo apud eos arat nec stivam aliquando contingit. omnes enim sine sedibus fixis, absque lare vel lege aut victu stabili dispalantur, semper fugientium similes, cum carpentis, in quibus habitant: ubi coniuges taetra illis vestimenta contexunt et coeunt cmn maritis et pariunt et ad usque pubertatem nutriunt pueros. nullusque apud eos interrogatus respondere, unde oritur, potest, alibi conceptus, natusque procul, et longius educatus.
10. no one among them plows nor ever touches a plow-handle. For all, without fixed abodes, without hearth or law or stable victual, are scattered, always like those who flee, with wagons in which they dwell: where the wives weave for them foul garments and come together with their husbands and bear children and nourish the boys up to puberty. And no one among them, when asked, can answer whence he originates—conceived elsewhere, born far off, and brought up farther away.
11. per indutias infidi inconstantes ad omnem auram incidentis spei novae perquam mobiles, totum furori incitatissimo tribuentes. inconsultorum animalium ritu, quid honestum inhonestumve sit penitus ignorantes, flexiloqui et obscuri, nullius religionis vel superstitionis reverentia aliquando districti, auri cupidine inmensa flagrantes, adeo permutabiles et irasci faciles ut eodem aliquotiens die a sociis nullo inritante saepe desciscant, itidemque propitientur nemine leniente.
11. during truces, treacherous, inconstant, exceedingly mobile at every breeze of newly-arising hope, giving everything over to most incited fury. In the manner of animals that take no counsel, utterly ignorant of what is honorable or dishonorable, flexiloquent and obscure, at no time constrained by reverence for any religion or superstition, blazing with an immense cupidity for gold, so changeable and easy to grow angry that on the same day, repeatedly, they often defect from their allies with no one provoking, and likewise are propitiated with no one soothing.
12. Hoc expeditum indomitumque hominum genus, externa praedandi aviditate flagrans inmani, per rapinas, finitimorum grassatum et caedes ad usque Halanos pervenit, veteres Massagetas, qui unde sint vel quas incolant terras - quoniam huc res prolapsa est - consentaneum est demonstrare, geographica perplexitate monstrata, quae diu multa indagans acute et varia, tandem repperit veritatis interna.....
12. This unencumbered and untamed race of men, blazing with immense avidity for plundering abroad, through rapines, having made inroads upon and slaughters of their neighbors, came as far as the Alans, the ancient Massagetae, who they are or what lands they inhabit - since the matter has slipped hither - it is consonant to demonstrate, the geographical perplexity having been shown, which, long investigating many things acutely and variously, has at length found the inner things of truth.....
13. Abundans Hister advenarum magnitudine fluenti Sauromatas praetermeat ad usque amnem Tanaim pertinentes, qui Asiam terminat ab Europa. hoc transito in inmensum extentas Scythiae solitudines Halani inhabitant, ex montium appellatione cognominati, paulatimque nationes conterminas crebritate victoriarum adtritas ad gentilitatem sui vocabuli traxerunt, ut Persae.
13. The abounding Hister, flowing with the magnitude of incomers, passes by the Sauromatae reaching all the way to the river Tanais, which bounds Asia from Europe. This crossed, the Alani inhabit the solitudes of Scythia stretched into the immense, surnamed from the appellation of mountains, and little by little they drew the neighboring nations, worn down by the frequency of their victories, into the gentility of their own name, as the Persians.
14. inter hos Nervi mediterranea incolunt loca, vicini verticibus celsis, quos praeruptos geluque torpentes aquilones adstringunt. post quos Vidini sunt et Geloni perquam feri, qui detractis peremptorum hostium cutibus indumenta sibi, equisque tegmina conficiunt bellatoria. Gelonis Agathyrsi conlimitant, interstincti colore caeruleo corpora simul et crines, et humiles quidem minutis atque raris, nobiles vero latis, fucatis et densioribus notis.
14. among these the Nervii inhabit the inland places, neighbors to lofty summits, which, precipitous and numbed with frost, the north winds bind fast. after whom are the Vidini and the Geloni, very fierce, who, with the skins of slain enemies stripped off, fashion garments for themselves, and warlike coverings for their horses. The Agathyrsi border upon the Geloni, their bodies and hair alike interspotted with cerulean color, and the lowly indeed with small and sparse marks, but the nobles with broad, dyed and more crowded marks.
15. post hos Melanchlaenas et Anthropophagos palari accepimus per diversa, humanis corporibus victitantes, quibus ob haec alimenta nefanda desertis finitimi omnes longa petiere terrarum. ideoque plaga omnis orienti aestivo obiecta usque dum venitur ad Seras, inhabitabilis mansit.
15. after these we have learned that the Melanchlaeni and Anthropophagi wander scattered through diverse places, subsisting on human bodies, because of which nefarious aliments all the neighboring peoples, the deserts abandoned, have sought far stretches of lands. and therefore the whole tract exposed to the summer orient, until one comes to the Seres, remained uninhabitable.
16. parte alia prope Amazonum sedes Halani sunt orienti adclines, diffusi per populosas gentes et amplas, Asiaticos vergentes in tractus, quas dilatari ad usque Gangen accepi fluium intersecantem terras Indorum, mareque inundantem australe.
16. in another part, near the seats of the Amazons, are the Alans, leaning toward the east, spread through populous and ample nations, inclining into Asiatic tracts, which I have received to be extended even to the Ganges, a river intersecting the lands of the Indians and inundating the southern sea.
17. Bipertiti per utramque mundi plagam Halani - quorum gentes varias nunc recensere non refert - licet dirempti spatiis longis, per pagos ut Nomades vagantur inmensos, aevi tamen progressu ad unum concessere vocabulum et summatim omnes Halani cognominantur ob mores et modum efferatum vivendi eandemque armaturam.
17. The Alani, bipartite across both quarters of the world - whose various tribes it is not relevant now to recount - though sundered by long spaces, roam through immense districts as Nomads; yet, with the progress of the age, they have agreed to one vocable, and in summary all are cognominated Alani, on account of their mores and a savage mode of living and the same armature.
18. nec enim ulla sunt illisce tuguria aut versandi vomeris cura, sed carne et copia victitant lactis, plaustris supersidentes, quae operimentis curvatis corticum per solitudines conferunt sine fine distentas. cumque ad graminea venerint, in orbiculatam figuram locatis sarracis ferino ritu vescuntur, absumptisque pabulis, velut carpentis civitates inpositas vehunt, maresque supra cum feminis coeunt et nascuntur in his et educantur infantes, et habitacula sunt haec illis perpetua, et quocumque ierint, illic genuinum exi stimant larem.
18. for indeed there are among those people no huts, nor any care for turning the plowshare, but they subsist on flesh and an abundance of milk, sitting atop wagons, which, with curved coverings of bark, they carry through solitudes stretched out without end. And when they have come to grassy places, with the wagons placed in an orbiculate figure, they feed in a beast-like manner; and when the fodders are consumed, they carry, as if cities, set upon wagons; and the males above couple with the females, and in these infants are born and reared; and these dwellings are for them perpetual, and wherever they shall have gone, there they deem their native hearth to be.
19. armenta prae se agentes cum gregibus pascunt, maximeque equini pecoris est eis sollicitior cura. ibi campi semper herbescunt, intersitis pomiferis locis: atque ideo transeuntes quolibet, nec alimentis nec pabulis indigent, quod efficit umectum solum et crebri fluminum praetermeantium cursus.
19. they pasture the herds they drive before them together with their flocks, and especially for equine livestock their care is more solicitous. there the fields are always grassy, with pomiferous places set between: and therefore, passing wherever, they lack neither aliments nor fodder, which the humid soil and the frequent courses of rivers flowing past bring about.
20. omnis igitur aetas et sexus inbellis circa vehicula ipsa versatur, muniisque distringitur mollibus: iuventus vero equitandi usu a prima pueritia coalescens, incedere pedibus existimat vile, et omnes multiplici disciplina prudentes sunt bellatores. unde etiam Persae, qui sunt originitus Scythae, pugnandi sunt peritissimi.
20. therefore every age and the unwarlike sex busies itself around the vehicles themselves, and is occupied with soft duties: but the youth coalescing with the use of equitation from earliest boyhood, esteems it vile to proceed on foot, and all are prudent warriors by manifold discipline. whence also the Persians, who are originally Scythians, are most expert at fighting.
21. Proceri autem Halani paene sunt omnes et pulchri, crinibus mediocriter flavis, oculorum temperata torvitate terribiles et armorum levitate veloces, Hunisque per omnia suppares verum victu mitiores et cultu, latrocinando et venando ad usque Maeotica stagna et Cimmerium Bosporum, itidemque Armenios discurrentes et Mediam.
21. Moreover, almost all the Alans are tall and fair, with hair moderately blond, terrible with a tempered grimness of the eyes and swift through the lightness of their arms, and in all respects equal to the Huns, yet milder in diet and in dress and culture, marauding and hunting as far as the Maeotic marshes and the Cimmerian Bosporus, and likewise ranging among the Armenians and Media.
22. utque hominibus quietis et placidis otium est voluptabile, ita illos pericula iuvant et bella. iudicatur ibi beatus qui in proelio profuderit animam, senescentes enim et fortuitis mortibus mundo digressos ut degeneres et ignavos conviciis atrocibus insectantur, nec quicquam est quod elatius iactent quam homine quolibet occiso, proque exuviis gloriosis interfectorum avulsis capitibus detractas pelles pro phaleris iumentis accommodant bellatoriis.
22. and just as for quiet and placid men leisure is pleasurable, so perils and wars delight them. There he is adjudged blessed who has poured forth his soul in battle; for the aging and those who have departed the world by fortuitous deaths they pursue with atrocious invectives as degenerate and cowardly, nor is there anything that they vaunt more loftily than the slaying of any man whatsoever; and in place of glorious spoils, with the heads of those slain torn off, they fit the skins stripped away, as phalerae, to their war-horses.
23. nec templum apud eos visitur aut delubrum, ne tugurium quidem culmo tectum cerni usquam potest, sed gladius barbarico ritu humi figitur nudus, eumque ut Martem, regionum, quas circumcircant, praesulem verecundius colunt.
23. nor is a temple seen among them nor a shrine; not even a hut roofed with thatch can anywhere be discerned, but a sword, in barbarian rite, is planted naked in the ground, and this, as Mars, the presiding guardian of the regions which they circle around, they worship more reverently.
24. futura miro praesagiunt modo. nam rectiores virgas vimineas colligentes, easque cum incantamentis quibusdam secretis praestituto tempore discernentes, aperte quid portendatur norunt.
24. they presage future things in a wondrous manner. For, gathering straighter wicker rods, and, with certain secret incantations, separating them at a preappointed time, they openly know what is portended.
25. servitus quid sit ignorabant, omnes generoso semine procreati, iudicesque etiam nunc eligunt diuturno bellandi usu spectatos. sed ad reliqua textus propositi revertamur.
25. they were ignorant what servitude is, all begotten of a generous seed, and even now they choose judges proved by long-continued use of warring. But let us return to the remaining parts of the proposed text.
1. Igitur Huni pervasis Halanorum regionibus quos Greuthungis confines Tanaitas consuetudo nominavit, interfectisque multis et spoliatis, reliquos sibi concordandi fide pacta iunxerunt, eisque adiuti confidentius Ermenrichi late patentes et uberes pagos repentino impetu perruperunt, bellicosissimi regis et per multa variaque fortiter facta vicinis nationibus formidati.
1. Therefore the Huns, after the regions of the Alans had been overrun—whom the custom of the Tanaites has named neighbors to the Greuthungi—and with many slain and despoiled, joined the rest to themselves by a pledged faith of concord; and, aided by them, more confidently they burst through, with a sudden onset, the widely spreading and fertile districts of Ermenric, a most warlike king and feared by neighboring nations for many and various deeds bravely done.
2. qui vi subitae procellae perculsus quamvis manere fundatus et stabilis diu conatus est, inpendentium tamen diritatem augente vulgatius fama, magnorum discriminum metum voluntaria morte sedavit.
2. who, struck by the force of a sudden tempest, although he tried for a long time to remain founded and stable, yet, as rumor, more widely broadcast, increased the dreadfulness of the things impending, assuaged the fear of great crises by a voluntary death.
3. cuius post obitum rex Vithimiris creatus restitit aliquantisper Halanis, Hunis aliis fretus, quos mercede sociaverat partibus suis. verum post multas, quas pertulit clades, animam effudit in proelio, vi superatus armorum. cuius parvi filii Viderichi nomine curam susceptam Alatheus tuebatur et Saphrax, duces exerciti et firmitate pectorum noti, qui cum tempore arto praeventi abiecissent fiduciam repugnandi, cautius discedentes ad amnem Danastium pervenerunt, inter Histrum et Borysthenem per camporum ampla spatia diffluentem.
3. after whose death King Vithimiris, having been appointed, withstood the Alans for a little while, relying on other Huns, whom he had associated to his side for pay. But after many disasters which he endured, he poured out his life in battle, overcome by the force of arms. The guardianship of his small son, named Viderich, was safeguarded by Alatheus and Saphrax, leaders experienced and known for firmness of heart, who, when overtaken by a straitness of time, had cast away the confidence of resisting; withdrawing more cautiously, they arrived at the river Danastius, which, between the Hister and the Borysthenes, diffuses through wide stretches of plains.
4. haec ita praeter spem accidisse doctus Athanarichus Theruingorum iudex - in quem, ut ante relatum est, ob auxilia missa Procopio dudum Valens commoverat signa - stare gradu fixo temptabat, surrecturus in vires, si ipse quoque lacesseretur, ut ceteri.
4. having learned that these things had thus happened beyond expectation, Athanarichus, judge of the Thervingi - against whom, as was related before, on account of auxiliaries sent to Procopius, Valens had long before moved the standards - was attempting to stand with fixed footing, about to rise into strength, if he himself too should be provoked, like the rest.
5. castris denique prope Danasti margines ac Greuthungorum vallem longius oportune metatis, Munderichum ducem postea limitis per Arabiam, cum Lagarimano et optimatibus aliis ad usque vicensimmn lapidem misit, hostium speculaturos adventum, ipse aciem nullo turbante interim struens.
5. finally, with the camp opportunely pitched near the margins of the Danastus and, farther off, the valley of the Greuthungi, he sent Munderichus the leader—afterwards of the frontier (limes) through Arabia—together with Lagarimanus and other nobles as far as the 20th milestone, to spy out the coming of the enemy, while he himself meanwhile was drawing up the battle line, no one causing disturbance.
6. verum longe aliter, quam rebatur, evenit. Huni enim, ut sunt in coniectura sagaces, multitudinem esse longius aliquam suspicati, praetermissis quos viderant, in quietem tamquam nullo obstante conpositis, rumpente noctis tenebras luna vado fluminis penetrato, id quod erat potissimum elegerunt, et veriti ne praecursorius index procul agentes absterreat, Athanaricum ipsum ictu petivere veloci.
6. but far otherwise than he supposed, it turned out. For the Huns, as they are sagacious in conjecture, suspecting that there was some multitude farther off, with those whom they had seen composed into quiet, as though with no one opposing, the moon breaking the darkness of night, the ford of the river having been penetrated, chose that which was the chief course, and, fearing lest a precursory messenger might deter those far away by carrying word ahead, they sought Athanaric himself with a swift stroke.
7. eumque stupentem ad impetum primum, amissis quibusdam suorum, coegerunt ad effugia properare montium praeruptorum. qua rei novitate maioreque venturi pavore constrictus, a superciliis Gerasi fluminis ad usque Danubium Taifalorum terras praestringens, muros altius erigebat: hac lorica diligentia celeri consummata, in tuto locandam securitatem suam existimans et salutem.
7. and him, stunned at the first onrush, with certain of his men lost, they compelled to hurry to the refuges of the precipitous mountains. Constricted by the novelty of the affair and by a greater dread of what was to come, from the banks of the river Gerasus as far as the Danube, skirting the lands of the Taifali, he was erecting the walls higher; with this breastwork, the diligence swiftly consummated, he judged that his own security and safety were to be placed in a safe position.
8. dumque efficax opera suscitatur, Huni passibus eum citis urgebant et iam oppresserant adventantes, ni gravati praedarum onere destitissent. Fama tamen late serpente per Gothorum reliquas gentes, quod invisitatum antehac hominum genus modo nivium ut turbo montibus celsis, ex abdito sinu coortum adposita quaeque convellit et corrumpit: populi pars maior, quae Athanaricum attenuata necessariorum penuria deserverat, quaeritabat domicilium remotum ab omni notitia barbarorum, diuque deliberans, quas eligeret sedes, cogitavit Thraciae receptaculum gemina ratione sibi conveniens, quod et caespitis est feracissimi et amplitudine fluentorum Histri distinguitur ab arvis, patentibus iam peregrini fulminibus Martis: hoc quoque idem residui velut mente cogitavere communi.
8. and while effective work is being roused, the Huns were pressing him with swift steps and had now overborne him as they drew near, if they had not, weighed down by the burden of plunder, desisted. Rumor, however, spreading widely through the remaining nations of the Goths, that a kind of men unseen before, like a whirlwind of snows on lofty mountains, arisen from a hidden fold, tears away and corrupts whatever lies adjacent: the greater part of the people, who had deserted Athanaric, attenuated by a scarcity of necessaries, kept seeking a dwelling removed from all notice of barbarians, and, long deliberating what seats to choose, conceived Thrace as a refuge fitting to them by a twin reason, because both it is of most fertile turf and by the amplitude of the streams of the Hister it is distinguished from the fields now lying open to the thunderbolts of a foreign Mars: this same plan also the residue conceived, as if with a common mind.
1. Itaque duce Alavivo ripas occupavere Danubii, missisque oratoribus ad Valentem, suscipi se humili prece poscebant, et quiete victuros se pollicentes et daturos, si res flagitasset, auxilia.
1. And so, with Alavivus as leader, they occupied the banks of the Danube, and, ambassadors having been sent to Valens, they asked to be received with humble supplication, and, promising that they would live quietly, to give auxiliaries, if the situation should demand it.
2. dum aguntur haec in externis, novos maioresque solitis casus versare gentes arctoas, rumores terribiles diffuderunt: per omne, quicquid ad Pontum a Marcomannis praetenditur et Quadis, multitudinem barbaram abditarum nationum vi subita sedibus pulsam circa flumen Histrum vagari cum caritatibus suis disseminantes.
2. while these things were being transacted in external affairs, terrible rumors spread that the northern peoples were stirring up new disasters greater than the customary: spreading that, throughout the whole region that extends toward the Pontus from the Marcomanni and the Quadi, a barbarian multitude of hidden nations, driven by sudden force from their seats, was wandering around the river Hister with their loved ones.
3. quae res aspernanter a nostris inter initia ipsa accepta est hanc ob causam, quod illis tractibus non nisi peracta aut sopita audiri procul agentibus consueverant bella.
3. this affair was received disdainfully by our people at the very outset for this reason: that in those tracts wars were accustomed to be heard, by those operating far away, only when finished or lulled.
4. verum pubescente iam fide gestorum, cui robur adventus gentilium addiderat legatorum, precibus et obtestatione petentium citra flumen suscipi plebem extorrem: negotium laetitiae fuit potius quam timori, eruditis adulatoribus in maius fortunam principis extollentibus, quod ex ultimis terris tot tirocinia trahens ei nec opinanti offerret ut conlatis in unum suis et alienigenis viribus invictum haberet exercitum, et pro militari supplemento, quod provinciatim annuum pendebatur, thesauris accederet auri cumulus magnus.
4. but as the faith in the deeds was now coming of age, to which the advent of gentile legates had added strength, with prayers and solemn adjuration requesting that the exiled populace be received on this side of the river: it was a matter for joy rather than for fear, since learned flatterers were exalting the prince’s fortune to the greater, because, drawing so many recruits from the farthest lands, it would, to him not expecting it, offer that, with his own and alien-born forces gathered into one, he would have an unconquered army, and, in place of the military supplement which was paid annually by province, there would accrue to the treasuries a great heap of gold.
5. hacque spe mittuntur diversi, qui cum vehiculis plebem transferant truculentam. et navabatur opera diligens nequi Romanam rem eversurus relinqueretur, l vel quassatus morbo letali. proinde permissu imperatoris transeundi Danubium copiam colendique adepti Thraciae partes, transfretabantur in dies et noctes, navibus ratibusque et cavatis arborum alveis agminatim inpositi, atque per amnem longe omnium difficillimum imbriumque crebritate tunc auctum ob densitatem nimiam contra ictus aquarum nitentes quidam et natare conati, hausti sunt plures.
5. and with this hope various men are sent, to transfer the truculent populace with vehicles. and diligent effort was plied, lest anyone likely to overturn the Roman commonwealth be left behind, or one shattered by a lethal disease. accordingly, by the emperor’s permission, having obtained the opportunity of crossing the Danube and of cultivating parts of Thrace, they were ferried across through days and nights, set in mass upon ships and rafts and hollowed-out trunks of trees; and through the river, by far the most difficult of all and then increased by the frequency of rains, on account of excessive crowding, some resisting the blows of the waters and attempting to swim, many were swallowed up.
6. Ita turbido instantium studio orbis Romani pernicies ducebatur. illud sane neque obscurum est neque incertum, infaustos transvehendi barbaram plebem ministros, numerum eius conprehendere calculo saepe temptantes, conquievisse frustratos, "quem qui scire velit" ut eminentissimus memorat vates "Libyci velit aequoris idem discere, quam multae zephyro truduntur harenae." reviviscant tandem memoriae veteres, Medicas acies ductantes ad Graeciam: quae ductum Hellesponti occupanteset discidio quodam fabrili maris, litus montanum pede quaesitum exponunt et turmatim apud Doriscum exercitus recensitos, concordante omni posteritate ut fabulosae sunt lectae.
6. Thus, by the turbid zeal of those pressing, the perdition of the Roman orb was being led on. That indeed is neither obscure nor uncertain: that the ill-omened ministers of transferring the barbarian plebs, often attempting to comprehend its number by calculus, gave over, frustrated—“whoever would wish to know that,” as the most eminent bard records, “would wish likewise to learn of the Libyan sea how many sands are driven by the Zephyr.” Let old memories at last revive, leading the Median battle-lines to Greece: which, seizing upon the bridging of the Hellespont and, by a certain workman-made sundering of the sea, expose a mountainous shore sought out by foot, and the armies, in squadrons, reviewed at Doriscus, with all posterity agreeing that they have been read as fabulous.
8. nam postquam innumerae gentium multitudines per provinciascircumfusae, pandentesque se in spatia ampla camporum, regiones omnes et cuncta opplevere montium iuga, fides quoque vetustatis recenti documento firmata est. et primus cum Alavivo suscipitur Fritigernus, quibus et alimenta pro tempore et subigendos agros tribui statuerat imperator.
8. for after innumerable multitudes of peoples, poured around through the provinces and spreading themselves into the wide spaces of the plains, filled all regions and all the ridges of the mountains, the faith of antiquity too was confirmed by a recent document. and first Fritigern is received with Alavivus, to whom the emperor had decreed that both provisions for the time and fields to be brought under cultivation be granted.
9. Per id tempus nostri limitis reseratis obicibus atque, ut Aetnaeas favillas armatorum agmina diffundente barbaria, cum difficiles necessitatum articuli correctores rei militaris poscerent aliquos claritudine gestarum rerum notissimos: quasi laevo quodam numine deligente in unum quaesiti potestatibus praefuere castrensibus homines maculosi: quibus Lupicinus antistabat et Maximus, alter per Thracias comes, dux alter exitiosus, ambo aemulae temeritatis.
9. During that time, the barriers of our frontier having been unbarred and, as the barbarianism, like Aetnaean cinders, was pouring forth bands of armed men, when the difficult junctures of necessity were demanding as correctors of the military establishment some men most noted for the luster of their achievements: as if some sinister numen were doing the choosing, men stained, gathered into one, were set over the camp commands; at their head stood Lupicinus and Maximus—the one Count over the Thracias, the other a ruinous dux—both of emulous temerity.
10. quorum insidiatrix aviditas materia malorum omnium fuit. nam - ut alia omittamus, quae memorati vel certe sinentibus isdem alii perditis rationibus in commeantes peregrinos adhuc innoxios deliquerunt - illud dicetur, quod nec apud sui periculi iudices absolvere ulla poterat venia, triste et inauditum.
10. of whom the insidious greed was the material of all evils. for - to omit other things, which the aforementioned, or at least, with the same men permitting, others by ruinous methods committed against foreign wayfarers still harmless as they came and went - that will be told which no indulgence could absolve even before judges of its own peril, a sad and unheard-of thing.
11. cum traducti barbari victus inopia vexarentur, turpe commercium duces invisissimi agitarunt, et quantos undique insatiabilitas colligere potuit canes, pro singulis dederunt mancipiis, inter quae et filii ducti sunt optimatum.
11. when the barbarians, brought across, were vexed by a lack of victuals, the most hateful commanders carried on a shameful commerce, and as many dogs as insatiability could gather from everywhere, they gave in exchange for single slaves, among whom even the sons of the nobles were led away.
12. Per hos dies interea etiam Vithericus Greuthungorum rex cum Alatheo et Saphrace, quorum arbitrio regebatur, itemque Farnobio propinquans Histri marginibus, ut simili susciperetur humanitate obsecravit imperatorem legatis propere missis.
12. During these days meanwhile also Vithericus, king of the Greuthungi, with Alatheus and Saphrax, at whose judgment he was governed, and likewise Farnobius, approaching the margins of the Hister, beseeched the emperor, legates having been sent hastily, that he might be received with similar humanity.
13. quibus, ut communi rei conducere videbatur, repudiatis, et quid capesserent anxiis, Athanarichus paria pertimescens abscessit, memor, Valentem dudum cum foederaretur concordia despexisse, adfirmantem se religione devinctum, ne calcaret solum aliquando Romanum, hacque causatione principem firmare pacem in medio flumine coegisse. quam simultatem veritus ut adhuc durantem, ad Caucalandensem locum altitudine silvarum inaccessum et montium cum suis omnibus declinavit, Sarmatis inde extrusis.
13. these men, as it seemed to conduce to the common interest, having been repudiated, and while they were anxious about what they should undertake, Athanarich, fearing like terms, withdrew, mindful that Valens had long ago despised him when concord was being federated by treaty, affirming that he was bound by religion not ever to tread Roman soil, and by this causation had compelled the prince to make firm peace in midstream of the river. Fearing that enmity as still enduring, he turned aside with all his own to the Caucalandian place, inaccessible by the loftiness of forests and of mountains, the Sarmatians having been thrust out from there.
1. At vero Theruingi iam dudum transire permissi prope ripas etiam tum vagabantur, duplici inpedimento adstricti, quod ducum dissimulatione perniciosa nec victui congruis sunt adiuti, et tenebantur consulto nefandis nundinandi commerciis.
1. But indeed the Theruingi, long since permitted to cross, were still wandering near the banks, bound by a double impediment, because through the pernicious dissimulation of the leaders they were not aided with victuals congruous for sustenance, and they were held on purpose by nefarious market-day traffickings.
2. quo intellecto ad perfidiam instantium malorum subsidium vertendi mussabant, et Lupicinus, ne iam deficerent pertimescens, eos admotis militibus adigebat ocius proficisci.
2. this understood, they were murmuring to turn the subsidy for the pressing evils into perfidy; and Lupicinus, very much fearing lest they now defect, with soldiers brought up was driving them to set out more swiftly.
3. Id tempus oportunum nancti Greuthungi cum, alibi militibus occupatis, navigia ultro citroque discurrere solita transgressum eorum prohibentia quiescere perspexissent, ratibus transiere male contextis castraque a Fritigerno locavere longissime.
3. Seizing this opportune time, the Greuthungi, when, with the soldiers occupied elsewhere, they had perceived that the boats, accustomed to run to and fro and to prevent their crossing, were lying idle, crossed on rafts ill-woven, and, at Fritigern’s direction, pitched their camp very far away.
4. At ille genuina praevidendi sollertia venturos muniens casus ut et imperiis oboediret et regibus validis iungeretur, incendens segnius, Marcianopolim tarde pervenit itineribus lentis. ubi aliud accessit atrocius, quod arsuras in commune exitium faces furiales accendit.
4. But he, with an innate sagacity of foreseeing, buttressing for the coming calamities so that he might both obey the commands and be joined to mighty kings, spurring on more sluggishly, reached Marcianopolis late by slow marches. There something more atrocious was added, for it kindled the Furial torches that would burn for a common ruin.
5. Alavivo et Fritigerno ad convivium conrogatis, Lupicinus ab oppidi moenibus barbaram plebem opposito milite procul arcebat, introire ad conparanda victui necessaria, ut dicioni nostrae obnoxiam et concordem, per preces adsidue postulantem, ortisque maioribus iurgiis inter ha bitatores et vetitos ad usque necessitatem pugnandi est ventum. efferatique acrius barbari cum necessitudines hostiliter rapi sentirent, spoliarunt interfectam militum manum.
5. With Alavivus and Fritigern summoned to a banquet, Lupicinus, with soldiery set in opposition, was keeping the barbarian plebs far from the walls of the town, preventing them from entering to procure the necessaries for sustenance—though subject to our sway and in concord, assiduously petitioning by prayers—and, greater quarrels having arisen between the inhabitants and those forbidden, it came even to the necessity of fighting. And the barbarians, made more savage, when they perceived their kinsfolk being snatched in hostile fashion, stripped a band of soldiers they had slain.
6. quod accidens idem Lupicinus latenti nuntio doctus dum in nepotali mensa ludicris concrepantibus diu discumbens vino marcebat et somno, futuri coniciens exitum, satellites omnes, qui pro praetorio honoris et tutelae causa duces praestolabantur, occidit.
6. this occurring, the same Lupicinus, informed by a secret message while, at a kinsman’s table, with the amusements clashing noisily, he had long been reclining and was languishing with wine and sleep, conjecturing the outcome of what was to be, killed all the satellites (bodyguards) who, before the praetorium, for the sake of honor and protection, were awaiting the leaders.
7. hocque populus, qui muros obsidebat, dolenter accepto ad vindictam detentorum regum, ut opinabatur, paulatim augescens multa minabatur et saeva. utque erat Fritigernus expediti consilii, veritus ne teneretur obsidis vice cum ceteris, exclamavit, graviore pugnandum exitio, ni ipse ad leniendum vulgus sineretur exire cum sociis, quod arbitratum humanitatis specie ductores suos occisos, in tumultum exarsit. hocque impetrato egressi omnes exceptique cum plausu et gaudiis, ascensis equis evolarunt, moturi incitamenta diversa bellorum.
7. and this, being received painfully by the populace that was besieging the walls, for the vengeance of the detained kings, as was supposed, and gradually augmenting, it was threatening many and savage things. And as Fritigern was of expeditious counsel, fearing lest he be held in the stead of a hostage with the rest, he cried out that a graver destruction must be fought, unless he himself were allowed to go out with his companions to soothe the mob, which, having judged that under the guise of humanity their leaders had been killed, flared up into tumult. And this having been obtained, all went out and, received with applause and rejoicings, mounting their horses they flew off, to set in motion diverse incitements of wars.
8. haec ubi fama rumorum nutrix maligna dispersit, urebatur dimicandi studio Theruingorum natio omnis et inter metuenda multa periculorumque praevia maximorum, vexillis de more sublatis auditisque triste sonantibus classicis iam turmae praedatoriae concursabant, pilando villas et incendendo vastisque cladibus quicquid inveniri poterat permiscentes.
8. when rumor, the malignant nurse of reports, had spread these things, the whole nation of the Tervingi was burning with zeal to fight, and amid many fearsome things and the forerunners of very great perils, with the vexilla raised according to custom and the grim-sounding battle-trumpets having been heard, already predatory squadrons were dashing about, pillaging villas and setting them ablaze, and, with vast ravages, commingling whatever could be found.
9. adversus quos Lupicinus properatione tumultuaria coactis militibus temere magis quam consulte progressus, in nono ab urbe miliario stetit paratus ad decernendum. barbarique hoc contemplato globos inrupere nostromm incauti, et parmas oppositis corporibus inlidendo obvios hastis perforabant et gladiis, furoreque urgente cruento et tribuni et plera que pars armatorum periere signis ereptis praeter ducem infaustum, qui ad id solum intentus, ut confligentibus aliis proriperet ipse semet in fugam, urbem cursu concito petit. post quae hostes armis induti Romanis, nullo vetante per varia grassabantur.
9. Against whom Lupicinus, with soldiers gathered in tumultuary haste, advanced more rashly than advisedly, and at the 9th milestone from the city he stood ready for a decision of arms. And when the barbarians beheld this, they burst into the masses of our incautious men, and by ramming their parmas with bodies set in front they were piercing those who encountered them with spears and swords; and, with bloody frenzy driving them, both the tribunes and the greater part of the armed men perished, the standards having been snatched away, save for the ill-fated leader, who, intent on this one thing only—that, while others fought, he might snatch himself into flight—made for the city at a headlong run. After which the enemies, clad in Roman arms, with no one forbidding them, were ranging through various quarters.
10. Et quoniam ad has partes post multiplices ventum est actus, id lecturos - siqui erunt umquam - obtestamur, nequis a nobis scrupulose gesta vel numerum exigat peremptorum, qui conprehendi nullo genere potuit. sufficiet enim, veritate nullo velata mendacio, ipsas rerum digerere summitates: cum explicandae rerum memoriae ubique debeatur integritas fida.
10. And since after multiple acts it has come to these parts, we adjure those who will read—if there will ever be any—that no one demand from us scrupulously the deeds or the number of the slain, which could by no manner be comprehended. For it will suffice, with truth veiled by no falsehood, to digest the very summits of the matters: since to the memory of events to be unfolded faithful integrity is everywhere owed.
11. negant antiquitatum ignari tantis malorum tenebris offusam aliquando fuisse rem publicam, sed falluntur malorum recentium stupore confixi. namque si superiores vel recens praeteritae revolvantur aetates, tales tamque tristes rerum motus saepe contigisse monstrabunt.
11. those ignorant of antiquities deny that the Republic has ever been overcast by such darkness of evils, but they are deceived, transfixed by the stupor of recent evils. For if earlier ages, or those lately past, are revolved, they will show that such, and so sad, commotions of affairs have often happened.
12. inundarunt Italiam ex abditis oceani partibus Teutones repente cum Cimbris, sed post inflictas rei Romanae clades inmensas, ultimis proeliis per duces amplissimos superati, quid potestas Martia adhibita prudentiae valeat, radicitus extirpati discriminibus didicere supremis.
12. the Teutones suddenly, together with the Cimbri, flooded Italy from the hidden parts of the ocean; but after immense disasters had been inflicted on the Roman commonwealth, overcome in the final battles by most distinguished leaders, they learned, being extirpated root-and-branch in the utmost crises, how much Martial power, when applied to prudence, avails.
13. Marco itidem moderante imperium, unum spirando vesania gentium dissonarum, post bellorum fragores inmensos, post ruinas urbium captarum et direptarum, et pessum + concitas procuratoris interitus partes eorum exiguas reliquisset intactas.
13. likewise, with Marcus moderating the empire, the madness of dissonant nations, breathing as one, after the immense fracas of wars, after the ruins of cities captured and plundered, and driven headlong to ruin by the death of a procurator, would have left only scant portions of them untouched.
14. verum mox post calamitosa dispendia res in integrum sunt restitutae hac gratia, quod nondum solutioris vitae mollitie sobria vetustas infecta nec ambitiosis mensis nec flagitiosis quaestibus inhiabat, sed unanimanti ardore summi et infimi inter se congruentes ad speciosam pro re publica mortem tamquam ad portum aliquem tranquillum properabant et placidum.
14. but soon, after calamitous losses, matters were restored in their entirety for this reason: that sober antiquity, not yet infected by the softness of a looser life, neither gaped after ambitious tables nor after flagitious gains, but with unanimous ardor, the highest and the lowest, agreeing among themselves, hastened to a splendid death for the commonwealth as if to some tranquil and placid harbor.
15. Duobus navium milibus perrupto Bosporo et litoribus Propontidis Scythicarum gentium catervae transgressae ediderunt quidem acerbas terra marique strages; sed amissa suorum parte maxima reverterunt.
15. With two thousand ships, the Bosporus and the shores of the Propontis having been broken through, bands of Scythian peoples, having crossed over, indeed wrought bitter slaughters by land and sea; but, with the greatest part of their own lost, they returned.
16. ceciderunt dimicando cum barbaris imperatores Decii pater et filius. obsessae Pamphyliae civitates, insulae populatae conplures, inflammata Macedonia omnis, diu multitudo Thessalonicam circumsedit itidemque Cyzicum. Anchialos capta et tempore eodem Nicopolis, quam indicium victoriae contra Dacos Traianus condidit imperator.
16. the emperors the Decii, father and son, fell fighting with the barbarians. the cities of Pamphylia were besieged, several islands were laid waste, all Macedonia was set ablaze; for a long time a multitude besieged Thessalonica, and likewise Cyzicus. Anchialos was taken, and at the same time Nicopolis, which Emperor Trajan founded as a sign of victory against the Dacians.
17. post clades acceptas inlatasque multas et saevas excisa est Philippopolis, centum hominum milibus - nisi fingunt annales - intra moenia iugulatis. vagati per Epirum Thessaliamque et omnem Graeciam licentius hostes externi, sed adsumpto in imperium Claudio glorioso ductore et eodem honesta morte praerepto per Aurelianum, acrem virum et severissimum noxarum ultorem, pulsi per longa saecula siluerunt inmobiles, nisi quod postea latrocinales globi vicina cum sui exitio rarius incursabant. verum ea persequar unde deverti.
17. after many savage disasters received and inflicted, Philippopolis was cut down, with a hundred thousand men—unless the annals are feigning—slaughtered within the walls. the foreign enemies roamed more licentiously through Epirus, Thessaly, and all Greece; but when Claudius was taken into the imperium as a glorious leader, and he likewise was snatched away by an honorable death, then through Aurelian, a keen man and the severest avenger of offenses, they were driven back and for long ages fell silent, unmoving, except that afterward brigand bands would more rarely make incursions upon the neighboring parts, to their own ruin. but I will pursue those matters from which I turned aside.
1. Hoc gestorum textu circumlato nuntiis densis Sueridus et Colias, Gothorum optimates, cum populis suis longe ante suscepti et curare apud Hadrianopolim hiberna dispositi, salutem suam ducentes antiquissimam omnium, otiosis animis accidentia cuncta contuebantur.
1. With this web of deeds circulated by dense messengers, Sueridus and Colias, optimates of the Goths, with their peoples—long before taken up and assigned to take care of winter quarters at Hadrianopolis—counting their own safety the most ancient of all concerns, with idle spirits were looking upon all the accidents that happened.
2. verum imperatoris litteris repente perlatis, quibus transire iussi sunt in Hellespontum, viaticum cibos biduique dilationem tribui sibi sine tumore poscebant. quod civitatis magistratus ferens indigne - succensebat enim isdem ob rem suam in suburbanis vastatam - imam plebem omnem cum Fabricensibus, quorum illic ampla est multitudo, productam in eorum armavit exitium, iussisque bellicum canere bucinis, ni abirent ocius, ut statutum est, pericula omnibus minabatur extrema.
2. but when the emperor’s letters were suddenly delivered, by which they were ordered to cross into the Hellespont, they asked, without any arrogance, that a travel-allowance, provisions, and a postponement of two days be granted to them. The city’s magistrate, taking this indignantly—for he was angry with these same men because his property in the suburbs had been ravaged—brought out and armed the entire lowest plebs together with the Fabricenses, of whom there is a large multitude there, for their destruction; and, with the war-trumpets ordered to sound the battle-call, he threatened the utmost dangers to all unless they departed more quickly, as it was decreed.
3. quo malo praeter spem Gothi perculsi et concito quam considerato civium adsultu perterriti steterunt inmobiles, laceratique ad ultimum detestatione atque conviciis et temptati missilium iactibus raris ad defectionem erupere confessam, et caesis plurimis, quos impetus deceperat petulantior, aversisque residuis et telorum varietate confixis, habitu iam Romano cadaveribus spoliatis armati, viso propius Fritigerno iunxerunt semet ut morigeri socii urbemque clausam obsidionalibus aerumnis urgebant. in qua difficultate diutius positi, passim et promiscue ruebant, eminensque aliquorum audacia peribat inulta, multique sagittis et rotatis per fundas lapidibus interibant.
3. by which misfortune, beyond expectation, the Goths, smitten and terrified by an assault of the citizens more impetuous than considered, stood motionless, and, torn at last by detestation and by invectives and tempted by occasional castings of missiles, they burst out into an avowed defection; and, with very many slain, whom a more petulant onset had deceived, and the rest put to flight and transfixed by a variety of missiles, armed now in Roman habit, the corpses having been despoiled, with Fritigern seen nearer they joined themselves to him as compliant allies, and they were pressing the city, shut in by obsidional hardships. in which difficulty, being placed for longer, they were falling everywhere and indiscriminately, and the eminent audacity of some was perishing unavenged, and many were perishing by arrows and by stones whirled through slings.
4. tunc Fritigernus frustra cum tot cladibus conluctari homines ignaros obsidendi contemplans, relicta ibi manu sufficiente abire negotio inperfecto suasit, pacem sibi esse cum parietibus memorans, suadensque ut populandas opimas regiones et uberes absque discrimine ullo, vacuas praesidiis etiam tum adorerentur.
4. then Fritigern, beholding that men ignorant of besieging were struggling in vain with so many disasters, leaving there a sufficient detachment, advised to depart with the business unfinished, remarking that he had peace with walls, and counseling that opulent and fertile regions for plundering, without any distinction, even then empty of garrisons, be assailed.
5. laudato regis consilio, quem cogitatorum norant fore socium efficacem, per Thraciarum latus omne dispersi caute gradiebantur, dediticiis vel captivis vicos uberes ostendentibus, eos praecipue, ubi alimentorum reperiri satias dicebatur, eo maxime adiumento praeter genuinam erecti fiduciam, quod confluebat ad eos in dies ex eadem gente multitudo, dudum a mercatoribus venundati, adiectis plurimis, quos primo transgressu necati inedia, vino exili vel panis frustis mutavere vilissimis.
5. with the king’s counsel lauded, whom they knew would be an efficient ally of their plans, they, scattered, were stepping cautiously along the whole flank of Thrace, with surrendered-ones or captives pointing out rich villages, especially those where a satiety of provisions was said to be found; raised by that aid above and beyond their genuine confidence, because a multitude from the same nation was day by day flowing together to them, long since sold by merchants, with very many added—whom, at the first crossing, hunger killing them, they had bartered for thin wine or for scraps of bread at the cheapest price.
6. quibus accessere sequendarum auri venarum periti non pauci, vectigalium perferre posse non sufficientes sarcinas graves, susceptique libenti consensione cunctorum, magno usui idem fuere ignota peragrantibus loca, conditoria frugum occulta et latebras hominum et receptacula secretiora monstrando.
6. to whom there came in addition not a few experts at following veins of gold, not sufficient to endure the heavy packs of tributes, and, received with the willing consensus of all, these same were of great use to those traversing unknown places, by pointing out hidden storehouses of grain, the lurking-places of men, and more secret refuges.
7. nec quicquam nisi inaccessum et devium praeeuntibus isdem mansit intactum. sine distantia enim aetatis vel sexus caedibus incendiorumque magnitudine cuncta flagrabant, abstractisque ab ipso uberum suctu parvulis et necatis raptae sunt matres et viduatae maritis coniuges ante oculos caesis, et puberes adultique pueri per parentum cadavera tracti sunt.
7. and nothing, save what was inaccessible and out-of-the-way, remained untouched, with those same men going before as guides. for without distinction of age or sex, all things were ablaze with slaughters and the magnitude of conflagrations, and infants, torn away from the very suck of the breasts and slain, their mothers were carried off, and wives were widowed of their husbands, the men cut down before their eyes, and pubescent and adult boys were dragged over the corpses of their parents.
8. senes denique multi, ad satietatem vixisse clamantes, post amissas opes cum speciosis feminis, manibus post terga contortis, defletisque gentilium favillis aedium ducebantur extorres.
8. finally many old men, crying out that they had lived to satiety, after their wealth had been lost, together with beautiful women, their hands twisted behind their backs, and with the ashes of their ancestral houses bewailed, were led away as exiles.
1. Haec ex Thraciis magno maerore accepta Valentem principem in sollicitudines varias distraxerunt. et confestim Victore magistro equitum misso ad Persas, ut super Armeniae statu pro captu rerum conponeret inpendentium, ipse Antiochia protinus egressurus, ut Constantinopolim interim peteret, Profuturum praemisit et Traianum, ambo rectores, anhelantes quidem altius sed inbellis.
1. These things from Thrace, received with great mourning, distracted the emperor Valens into various solicitudes. And forthwith, Victor, Master of Horse, having been sent to the Persians, so that concerning the status of Armenia he might compose, according to the grasp of affairs, what was impending, he himself was about to set out straightway from Antioch, in order meanwhile to make for Constantinople; he sent ahead Profuturus and Trajan, both governors, panting after loftier things indeed, but unwarlike.
2. qui cum ad loca venissent, ubi particulatim perque furta magis et latrocinia multitudo minui deberet hostilis, ad id, quod erat perniciosum, intempestive conversi, legiones ab Armenia ductas opposuere vesanum adhuc spirantibus barbaris, opere quidem Martio saepe recte conpertas sed inpares plebi inmensae, quae celsorum iuga montium occuparat et campos.
2. who, when they had come to places where the hostile multitude ought to be diminished piecemeal and rather by thefts and latrociny, turned untimely to that which was pernicious, and opposed the legions led from Armenia to barbarians still breathing madness—troops indeed often rightly ascertained in Martial work, but unequal to the immense plebs which had occupied the lofty ridges of the mountains and the plains.
3. hi numeri nondum experti quid cum desperatione rabies valeret indomita, trusos hostes ultra Haemi montis abscisos scopulos faucibus impegere praeruptis, ubi barbaros locis inclusos, nusquam reperientes exitum diuturna consumeret fames et opperirentur ipsi Frigeridum ducem, cum Pannonicis et transalpinis auxiliis adventantem, quem petitu Valentis Gratianus ire disposuit in procinctum, laturum suppetias his qui ad ultimum vexabantur exitium.
3. these units, not yet experienced in how much an indomitable rage with desperation could prevail, drove the enemies, thrust beyond the cut-off crags of Mount Haemus, into the precipitous gorges, where long-continued hunger would consume the barbarians, shut in by the places and finding exit nowhere, and they themselves would await Frigeridus the general, advancing with Pannonian and transalpine auxiliaries, whom, at Valens’s petition, Gratian arranged to go into the battle-line, to bring succor to those who were harried to utter destruction.
4. post quem Richomeres a, domesticorum tunc comes, imperatu eiusdem Gratiani motus e Galliis, properavit ad Thracias ductans cohortes aliquas nomine tenus, quarum pars pleraque deserverat - ut iactavere quidam - Merobaudis suasu, veriti ne destitutae adminiculis Galliae vastarentur licenter Rheno perrupto.
4. after whom Richomeres a, then Count of the Domestics, moved from Gaul by the command of that same Gratian, hastened to Thrace, leading some cohorts in name only, the greater part of which had deserted — as some vaunted — by the suasion of Merobaudes, fearing lest the Gauls, destitute of supports, be licentiously ravaged with the Rhine broken through.
5. verum articulorum dolore Frigerido praepedito, vel certe, ut obtrectatores finxere malivoli, morbum causante ne ferventibus proeliis interesset, universos regens ex communi sententia Richomeres Profuturo sociatur et Traiano, tendentibus prope oppidum Salices: unde haut longo spatio separatum vulgus inaestimabile barbarorum ad orbis rotundi figuram multitudine digesta plaustrorum tamquam intramuranis cohibitum spatiis, otio fruebatur et ubertate praedarum.
5. but, Frigeridus being hampered by pain of the joints, or certainly—as malicious detractors feigned—alleging a sickness so that he might not be present in fervent battles, Richomeres, directing all by common counsel, is associated with Profuturus and Traianus, as they were marching near the town of Salices: whence, at no great distance apart, an inestimable horde of barbarians, arranged in the figure of a round orb by a multitude of wagons, as if confined within intramural spaces, was enjoying leisure and the abundance of booty.
6. Praevia igitur spe meliorum Romani duces, si fors copiam attulisset, ausuri aliquid gloriosum, Gothos, quicquid molirentur sagaciter observabant: id scilicet praestruentes ut, si aliorsum castra movissent, quod fecere creberrime, terga ultimorum adorti plures perfoderent confisi magnamque spoliorum averterent partem.
6. Therefore, with a prior hope of better things, the Roman leaders, if chance should have brought opportunity, being about to dare something glorious, were keenly observing the Goths, whatever they were contriving: namely pre-arranging this, that, if they moved the camp elsewhere, which they did very frequently, having assailed the backs of the hindmost they might pierce through many, being confident, and might carry off a great part of the spoils.
7. hoc intellecto hostes vel transfugarum indiciis docti, per quos nilul latebat incognitum, in eodem loco diu manserunt: sed oppositi exercitus metu praestricti aliorumque militum, quos adfuere iam sperabant: tessera data gentili, per diversa prope diffusas accivere vastatorias manus, quae iussis optimatum acceptis statim ut incensi malleoli, ad carraginem - quam ita ipsi appellant - aliti velocitate regressae incentivum audendi maiora popularibus addiderunt.
7. this having been understood, the enemies, either taught by the indications of deserters—through whom nothing unknown lay hidden—remained for a long time in the same place: but constrained by fear of the opposing army and of other soldiers, whom they now supposed had arrived: the watchword having been given to the tribe, they summoned the ravaging bands scattered almost everywhere by different routes, which, having received the orders of the nobles, immediately, like ignited fire-darts, with winged swiftness returned to the carrago—so they themselves call it—and added to their fellow-countrymen an incentive for daring greater things.
8. nihil post haec inter partes praeter indutias laxatum est breves. reversis enim his, quos necessitas evocarat, plebs omnis intra saeptorum ambitum etiam tum contrusa, inmaniter fremens animisque concita truculentis, experiri postrema discrimina, nec principibus gentis, qui aderant, renuentibus, cruditate festinabat. et quoniam haec sole agebantur extremo noxque adventans ad quietem invitos retinebat et maestos, capto per otium cibo, somni manserunt expertes.
8. after these things, nothing was relaxed between the parties except brief truces. for when those whom necessity had summoned returned, all the common folk, even then pressed together within the circuit of the enclosures, monstrously growling and stirred with truculent spirits, were hastening, in bloodthirstiness, to try the last hazards, nor were the chiefs of the nation who were present refusing. and since these things were being transacted at the setting sun, and the approaching night was holding them back, unwilling and downcast, for rest, having taken food during a lull, they remained devoid of sleep.
9. contra Romani his cognitis ipsi quoque exsomnes verebantur hostes et male sanos eorum ductores ut rabidas feras: eventum licet ancipitem ut numero satis inferiores, prosperum tamen ob iustiorem sui causam mentibus exspectantes inpavidis.
9. on the contrary the Romans, with these things known, they too sleepless, were fearing the enemies and their ill-sane leaders like rabid wild beasts: although the outcome was doubtful, as being quite inferior in number, yet they were expecting a prosperous one on account of their more just cause, with fearless minds.
10. Candente itaque protinus die, signo ad arma capienda ex utraque parte per lituos dato, barbari postquam inter eos ex more iuratum est, tumulosos locos adpetere temptaverunt: quo exinde per proclive rotarum modo obvios impetu convolverent acriore. hocque viso ad suos quisque manipulos properans miles, stabili gradu consistens nec vagabatur nec relictis ordinibus procursabat.
10. Therefore, with the day immediately glowing, the signal for taking up arms having been given from both sides through the lituus-trumpets, the barbarians, after an oath had been sworn among them according to custom, tried to seek the hilly places: so that from there, down the declivity, in the manner of wheels, they might convolve upon those in their path with a keener impetus. And this being seen, each soldier, hastening to his own maniples, stood with a steady step, and neither wandered nor, leaving the ranks, rushed forward.
11. ergo ubi utrimque acies cautius incedentes gressu steterunt immobili, torvitate mutua bellatores luminibus se contuebantur obliquis. et Romani quidem voce undique Martia concinentes, a minore solita ad maiorem protolli, quam gentilitate appellant barritum, vires validas erigebant. barbari vero maiorum laudes clamoribus stridebant inconditis, interque varios sermonis dissoni strepitus leviora proelia temptabantur.
11. therefore when on both sides the battle-lines, advancing more cautiously, stood with step unmoving, the warriors with mutual grimness were gazing upon one another with oblique eyes. And the Romans, indeed, chanting together on every side with a Martial voice, a cry accustomed to be raised from the lesser to the greater, which by gentile custom they call the barritus, were rousing their strong powers. But the barbarians were shrieking the praises of their ancestors with unshaped clamors, and amid the various uproars of dissonant speech lighter skirmishes were being attempted.
12. iamque verrutis et missilibus aliis utrimque semet eminus lacessentes ad conferendas coiere minaciter manus, et scutis in testudinum formam coagmentatis pes cum pede conlatus est. barbarique ut reparabiles semper et celeres, ingentes clavas in nostros conicientes ambustas mucronesque acrius resistentium pectoribus inlidentes, sinistrum cornu perrumpunt: quod inclinatum subsidialis robustissimus globus e propinquo latere fortiter excitus haerente iam morte cervicibus sustentavit.
12. and now, provoking each other from afar with verrutes and other missiles on both sides, they came menacingly to join hands for close combat, and, with the shields coagmented into the form of tortoises, foot was set with foot. And the barbarians, as ever easily-recovering and swift, hurling huge fire-scorched clubs against our men and driving the blade-points more sharply into the breasts of those resisting, break through the left wing: which, having been inclined, a most robust subsidial mass, vigorously roused from the near flank, upheld, with death now clinging to their necks.
13. fervente igitur densis caedibus proelio in confertos quisque promptior ruens, ritu grandinis undique volitantibus telis oppetebat et gladiis, et sequebantur equites hinc inde fugientium occipitia lacertis ingentibus praecidentes et terga, itidemque altrinsecus pedites lapsorum, timore impeditorum, secando suffragines.
13. therefore, with the battle fervent with dense slaughters, each readier man rushing into the packed ranks, as missiles were flying everywhere in the manner of hail, met death both by missiles and by swords; and the horsemen followed, on this side and that, cutting off the occiputs and backs of the fleeing with gigantic upper arms, and likewise, on the other side, the foot-soldiers cut the ankles of those who had slipped, hampered by fear.
14. et cum omnia caesorum corporibus opplerentur, iacebant inter eos quidam semianimes, spem vitae inaniter usurpando, alii glande fundis excussa vel harundinibus armatis ferro confixi, quorundam capita per medium frontis et verticis mucrone distincta in utrumque humerum magno cum horrore pendebant.
14. and as all things were being crammed with the bodies of the slain, there lay among them certain men half-alive, vainly usurping the hope of life, others transfixed by leaden bullets shot from slings or by reeds armed with iron, and the heads of some, cleft by a blade through the middle of the brow and crown, with great horror were hanging down upon either shoulder.
15. et pertinaci concertatione nondum lassatae, aequo Marte partes semet altrinsecus adflictabant, nec de rigore genuino quisquam remittebat, dum vires animorum alacritas excitaret. diremit tamen interneciva certamina cedens vespero dies, et cunctis, qua quisque potuit, inconposite discedentibus residui omnes repetunt tentoria tristiores.
15. and, in a pertinacious contest not yet wearied, the sides, on either hand, were dashing themselves one upon the other with Mars equal; nor did anyone remit from his native rigor, while the alacrity of their spirits was rousing their strengths. Yet the day, yielding to evening, broke off the internecine combats, and, as all withdrew in disorder, each as he was able, all the survivors return to their tents the more sorrowful.
16. humatis denique pro locorum et temporis ratione honoratis quibusdam inter defunctos, reliqua peremptorum corpora dirae volucres consumpserunt adsuetae illo tempore cadaveribus pasci, ut indicant nunc usque albentes ossibus campi. constat tamen in numero longe minores Romanos, cum ea copiosa multitudine conluctatos, funerea multa perpessos: non tamen sine deflendis aerumnis exagitasse barbaram plebem.
16. finally, with certain among the dead buried and honored according to the conditions of place and time, the remaining bodies of the slain were consumed by dire birds accustomed at that time to feed on cadavers, as the fields, still now whitening with bones, indicate. It is established, however, that the Romans, far fewer in number, having wrestled with that copious multitude, endured many funerals: yet they harried the barbarian plebs, not without woes to be wept.
1. His casibus proeliorum ita luctuose finitis nostri proximos Marcianopoleos petivere secessus. Gothi intra vehiculorum anfractus sponte sua contrusi numquam exinde per dies septem egredi vel videri sunt ausi, ideoque oportunitatem milites nancti, inmensas alias barbarorum catervas inter Haemimontanas angustias clauserunt aggerum obiectu celsorum, hac spe nimirum ut inter Histrum et solitudines perniciosa hostium multitudo conpacta nullosque reperiens exitus periret inedia, cunctis utilibus ad vivendum in civitates validas conportatis, quarum nullam etiam tum circumsedere conati sunt, haec et similia machinari penitus ignorantes.
1. With the fortunes of the battles thus mournfully ended, our men sought the retreats nearest to Marcianopolis. The Goths, of their own accord jammed within the convolutions of their wagons, did not dare thence for seven days to go out or even to be seen; and therefore, the soldiers, having found the opportunity, shut immense other bands of the barbarians within the Haemimontan narrows by the interposition of lofty aggers (embankments), with this hope, to wit, that between the Hister (Danube) and the solitudes the pernicious multitude of the enemy, compacted and finding no exits, would perish by starvation, all things useful for living having been conveyed into strong cities, of which not even then did they attempt to besiege any, being utterly ignorant how to machinate these things and the like.
2.post quae re petivit Gallias Richomeres ob maiorem proeliorum fremitum, qui sperabatur, inde adminicula perducturus. haec Gratiano quater et Merobaude consulibus agebantur, anno in autumnum vergente.
2.after which Richomeres made again for Gaul, on account of the greater rumble of battles that was expected, to bring reinforcements from there. these things were being transacted, with Gratian consul for the 4th time and Merobaudes, the year verging toward autumn.
3. Inter quae Valens audito lugubri bellorum direptionumque eventu Saturninum, equestris exercitus ad tempus cura commissa, suppetias Traiano ferentem misit et Profuturo.
3. Meanwhile, Valens, on hearing the lugubrious outcome of the wars and of the depredations, sent Saturninus— the care of the cavalry army having been entrusted to him for the time— bringing succor to Traianus, and Profuturus.
4. forteque isdem diebus per Scythiae regiones et Moesiae omnibus, quae poterant mandi, consumptis, feritate urgente pariter et inopia, barbari erumpere molibus magnis ardebant. hocque saepe temptato cum obruerentur vigore nostrorumper asperitates scruposas valide resistentium, adacti necessitate postrema, Hunorum et Halanorum aliquos ad societatem spe praedarum ingentium adsciverunt.
4. and by chance in those same days, throughout the regions of Scythia and all Moesia, with all things that could be eaten consumed, with ferity pressing along with want, the barbarians were burning to erupt with great masses. And, this being often attempted, since they were overwhelmed by the vigor of our men over the craggy stony roughnesses of those stoutly resisting, driven by ultimate necessity, they enrolled some of the Huns and Alans into societas by the hope of immense plunders.
5. Quo cognito Saturninus - iam enim aderat et praetenturas stationesque disponebat agrarias - paulatim conligens suos, digredi parabat consilio non absurdo: ne subita multituclo uti amnis inpulsu undarum obicibus ruptis emissus, convelleret levi negotio cunctos, suspecta loca acutius observantes.
5. On learning this Saturninus — for he was already present and was arranging the praetentures and agrarian stations — gradually gathering his men, was preparing to withdraw with a plan not absurd: lest a sudden multitude, as a river, sent forth when the barriers of the waves are broken, should with little trouble sweep all away, though they were more sharply observing the suspect places.
6. deinde post reseratas angustias abitumque militis tempestivum, incomposite, qua quisque clausorum potuit, nullo vetante turbandis incubuit rebus: et vastabundi omnes per latituclines Thraciae pandebantur impune, ab ipsis tractibus, quos praetermeat Hister, exorsi, ad usque Rhodopen et fretum, quod immensa disterminat maria, rapinis et caedibus sanguineque et incendiis et liberorum corporum corruptelis omnia foedissime permiscentes.
6. then, after the narrow passes had been unbarred and the soldiery's seasonable departure, in disordered fashion, wherever each of those shut in could, with no one forbidding the disturbing of affairs, he fell to it: and, marauding, all were spreading with impunity through the breadths of Thrace, beginning from the very tracts which the Hister passes by, to as far as Rhodope and the strait which divides the immense seas, commingling everything most foully with rapines and slaughters and blood and burnings and defilements of freeborn bodies.
7. tunc erat spectare cum gemitu facta dictu visuque praedira, attonitas metu feminas flagris concrepantibus agitari, fetibus gravidas adhuc immaturis, antequam prodirent in lucem, impia tolerantibus multa: implicatos alios matribus parvulos et puberum audire lamenta puellarumque nobilium, quarum stringebat fera captivitas manus.
7. then it was to behold with a groan deeds dire to say and to see, women thunderstruck with fear being driven by crackling scourges, pregnant with fetuses as yet unripe, before they had come forth into the light, impious things enduring many: little ones entwined with their mothers and to hear the laments of youths and of noble maidens, whose hands savage captivity was binding.
8. post quae adulta virginitas castitasque nuptarum ore abiecto flens ultima ducebatur, mox profanandum pudorem optans morte, licet cruciabili, praevenire. inter quae cum beluae ritu traheretur ingenuus paulo ante dives et liber, de te Fortuna ut inclementi querebatur et caeca, quae eum puncto temporis brevi opibus exutum et dulcedine caritatum domoque extorrem, quam concidisse vidit in cinerem et ruinas, aut lacerandum membratim, aut serviturum sub verberibus et tormentis crudo devovisti victori.
8. after which grown virginity and the chastity of married women, with cast-down face, weeping, were led last, soon wishing to forestall by death, though excruciating, the modesty about to be profaned. amid which, while in the manner of a beast there was being dragged a freeborn man, a little before rich and free, he was complaining of you, Fortune, as inclement and blind—you who in a brief point of time stripped him of wealth and of the sweetness of affections, and made him an exile from his house, which he saw collapse into ash and ruins—and you devoted him either to be torn limb from limb, or to serve under blows and torments a cruel victor.
9. Barbari tamen velut diffractis caveis bestiae per spatiorum amplitudines fusius incitati, oppidum petivere nomine Dibaltum, ubi tribunum Scutariorum Barzimeren inventum cum suis, Cornutisque et aliis peditum numeris castra ponentem adsiliunt, eruditum pulvere militari rectorem.
9. The barbarians, however, like beasts with their cages broken, scattered more widely and spurred through the breadths of the spaces, made for a town named Dibaltum, where, finding Barzimeres, tribune of the Scutarii, with his own men, and the Cornuti and other infantry units, as he was pitching camp, they spring upon him—a commander schooled in the dust of military service.
10. qui confestim, ut adigebat necessitas instantis exitii, iussa canere bellicum tuba, lateribus firmatis, praerupit cum promptis adcinctis ad proelium: fortiterque resistendo pari pugnandi sorte discessisset, ni eum equitum adcursus complurium anhelum circumvenisset et fessum. et ita cecidit interfectis barbarorum non paucis, quorum clades copiarum magnitudo celabat.
10. who immediately, as the necessity of imminent destruction was driving, having ordered the war-signal to be sounded by the trumpet, with the flanks made firm, burst forth with those ready, girded for battle: and by bravely resisting he would have withdrawn with an equal lot of fighting, had not the onrush of several horsemen surrounded him, breathless and weary. And so he fell, with not a few of the barbarians slain, whose disaster the magnitude of their forces concealed.
1. Re in hunc modum peracta, Gothi, quid postea molirentur incerti, quaeritabant Frigeridum, tamquam obicem validun, ubi reperirent, excisuri: et cultiore victu somnoque parumper adsumpto, eum sequebantur ut ferae: docti quod Gratiani monitu reversus in Thracias, et prope Beroeam vallo metato, eventus rerum speculabatur ancipites.
1. The matter having been carried through in this manner, the Goths, uncertain what thereafter they should engineer, kept seeking Frigeridus as though a strong barrier, to excise him wherever they might find him: and, after for a little while having taken on more cultivated fare and sleep, they were following him like wild beasts: having learned that, at Gratian’s monition, he had returned into Thrace, and, near Beroea, with a rampart laid out, he was speculating upon the doubtful outcomes of affairs.
2. et hi quidem ad patrandum propositum discursione rapida maturabant. ille vero regendi conservandique militis non ignarus, id quod cogitatum est suspicatus, vel exploratorum relatione, quos miserat, aperte instructus, per montium celsa silvarumque densitates ad Illyricum redit, erectus prosperitate nimia, quam ei fors obtulit insperata.
2. and these indeed were hastening by rapid discursion to consummate their purpose. he, however, not ignorant of the ruling and conserving of the soldiery, suspecting that which was planned, or openly instructed by the relation of the scouts whom he had sent, through the mountain heights and the densities of the forests returns to Illyricum, uplifted by excessive prosperity which Fortune offered to him unhoped-for.
3. repedando enim congregatosque in cuneos sensim progrediens, Gothorum optimatem Farnobium cum vastatoris globis vagantem licentius occupavit, ducentemque Taifalos nuper in societatem adhibitos: qui, si dignum est dici, nostris ignotarum gentium terrore dispersis, transiere flumen direpturi vacua defensoribus loca.
3. for by retreating and, with his men congregated into wedges, advancing little by little, he overtook and seized Farnobius, a noble of the Goths, roaming more licentiously with bands of devastators, and leading the Taifali, recently admitted into alliance: who, if it is worthy to say, with our men scattered by the terror of unknown nations, crossed the river to plunder places empty of defenders.
4. eorum catervis subito visis certare comminus dux cautissimus parans adortusque nationis utriusque grassatores minantes etiam tum acerba, trucidasset omnes ad unum, ut ne nuntius quidem cladis post appareret, ni cum aliis multis perempto Farnobio, metuendo antehac incensore turbarum, obtestatus prece impensa superstitibus pepercisset, vivosque omnes circa Mutinam Regiumque et Parmam Italica oppida, rura culturos exterminavit.
4. with their bands suddenly seen, the most cautious leader, preparing to contend at close quarters and having assailed the brigands of each nation, who even then were threatening bitter cruelties, would have slaughtered all to a man, so that not even a messenger of the disaster might appear thereafter, had he not, with Farnobius—previously a fearsome inciter of tumults—killed along with many others, spared the survivors upon urgent supplication, and exiled them all alive to cultivate the countryside around Mutina, Regium, and Parma, Italian towns.
5 Taifalorum gentem turpem obscenae vitae flagitiis ita accepimus mersam, ut apud eos nefandi concubitus foedere copulentur maribus puberes, aetatis viriditatem in eorum pollutis usibus consumpturi. porro siqui iam adultus aprum exceperit solus vel interemerit ursum immanem, conluvione liberatur incesti.
5 We have learned that the nation of the Taifali, base, is so sunk in the disgraces of an obscene life, that among them pubescent youths are by a pact joined in nefarious intercourse to males, about to consume the greenness of their age in their polluted uses. moreover, if anyone already adult has single-handedly taken a boar or has slain a monstrous bear, he is freed from the defilement of incest.
1. Haec autumno vergente in hiemem funesti per Thracias turbines converrebant. quae temporum rabies velut cuncta cientibus Furiis ad regiones quoque longinquas progrediens late serpebat.
1. These funereal whirlwinds were converging through the Thracian lands as autumn was bending into winter. This frenzy of the times, as if with all things stirred by the Furies, progressing even to far‑off regions, was spreading widely.
2. et iam Lentiensis Alamannicus populus, tractibus Raetiarum confinis, per fallaces discursus violato foedere dudum concepto, conlimitia nostra temptabat, quae clades hinc exitiale primordium sumpsit.
2. and now the Lentiensian Alamannic people, contiguous to the tracts of the Raetias, through treacherous incursions, the treaty long since concluded having been violated, were testing our borderlands, a disaster which from this point took its deadly beginning.
3. ex hac natione quidam inter principis armigeros militans, poscente negotio reversus in larem, ut erat in loquendo effusior, interrogantes multos quid ageretur in palatio, docet arcessitu Valentis patrui Gratianum orientem versus mox signa moturum, ut duplicatis viribus repellantur plagarum terminalium adcolae, ad Romanorum rerum excidium coniurati.
3. From this nation a certain man, serving among the prince’s arms-bearers, having returned to his hearth because the business was demanding it, as he was more effusive in speaking, informs many who were asking what was being done in the palace, that, at the summons of Valens his uncle, Gratian would soon move the standards toward the East, so that, with forces doubled, the dwellers of the terminal regions, conspired for the destruction of Roman affairs, might be repelled.
4. quibus avide Lentienses acceptis, ipsi quoque haec quasi vicini cernentes, ut sunt veloces et rapidi, conferti in praedatorios globos, Rhenum gelu pervium pruinis Februario mense . .. tendentes prope cum Petulantibus Celtae, non sine sui iactura adflictos graviter adultis viribus averterunt.
4. which things eagerly received by the Lentienses, they too, seeing these matters as neighbors—as they are swift and rapid—packed into raiding clusters, the Rhine made passable by ice and hoarfrosts in the month of February . .. advancing; the Celtae, almost together with the Petulantes, turned them back, grievously battered, once their forces had grown, not without a loss of their own.
5. verum retrocedere coacti Germani, noscentesque exercitus pleramque partem in Illyricum, ut imperatore mox adfuturo, praegressam, exarsere flagrantius: maioraque conceptantes, pagorum omnium incolis in unum conlectis cum quadraginta armatorum milibus vel septuaginta, ut quidam laudes extollendo principis iactarunt, sublati in superbiam nostra confidentius inruperunt.
5. But the Germans, compelled to retreat, and learning that the greater part of the army had gone on ahead into Illyricum, with the emperor soon to be at hand, flared up more hotly: and, conceiving greater designs, with the inhabitants of all the districts gathered into one, with forty thousand armed men—or seventy, as certain men, in extolling the emperor’s praises, have boasted—raised into arrogance they burst more confidently upon our territories.
6. Quibus Gratianus cum formidine magna compertis, revocatis cohortibus, quas praemiserat in Pannonias, convocatisque aliis, quas in Galliis retinuerat dispositio prudens, Nannieno negotium dedit, virtutis sobriae duci: eique Mallobauden iunxit pari potestate conlegam, domesticorum comitem, regemque Francorum, virum bellicosum et fortem.
6. When these things had been learned by Gratian with great fear, the cohorts having been recalled which he had sent ahead into the Pannonias, and others having been summoned which in Gaul a prudent disposition had kept back, he gave the business to Nannienus, a leader of sober virtue; and to him he joined Mallobaudes with equal authority as a colleague, the count of the domestics, and king of the Franks, a warlike and brave man.
7. Nannieno igitur pensante fortunarum versabiles casus ideoque cunctandum esse censente Mallobaudes alta pugnandi cupiditate raptatus, ut consueverat, ire in hostem differendi impatiens angebatur.
7. Therefore, as Nannienus was weighing the variable chances of fortune and thus judging that there should be delay, Mallobaudes, carried away by a lofty desire of fighting, as he was wont, was vexed, impatient of deferring to go against the enemy.
8. proinde horrifico adversum fragore terrente, primum apud Argentariam signo per cornicines dato concurri est coeptum, sagittarum verrutorumque missilium pulsibus crebriores hinc indeque sternebantur.
8. therefore, with a horrific din from the adversary terrifying them, first at Argentaria, when the signal had been given by the horn-blowers, they began to join battle, and by the blows of arrow- and dart-missiles the thicker ranks on this side and that were being laid low.
9. sed in ipso proeliorum ardore infinita hostium multitudine milites visa, vitantesque aperta discrimina, per calles consitas arboribus et angustas, ut quisque potuit, dispersi, paulo postea stetere fidentius: et splendore consimili proculque nitore fulgentes armorum, imperatorii adventus iniecere barbaris metum.
9. but in the very heat of the battles, the soldiers, seeing an infinite multitude of the enemy, and avoiding open perils, along paths planted with trees and narrow, as each could, scattered, a little later stood more confidently: and, gleaming with like splendor and with the far-off sheen of arms, the advent of the emperor cast fear into the barbarians.
10. qui repente versi in terga resistentesque interdum, nequid ultimae rationis omitterent, ita sunt caesi ut ex praedicto numero non plus quam quinque milia, ut aestimabatur, evaderent densitate nemorum tecta, inter complures alios audaces et fortes rege quoque Priario interfecto, exitialium concitore pugnarum.
10. who, suddenly turning their backs and at times resisting, lest they omit anything of the last resort, were cut down in such a way that, from the aforesaid number, no more than five thousand, as it was estimated, escaped, concealed by the density of the groves, with King Priarius also slain among many other bold and brave men, the inciter of deadly battles.
11. Hac laeti successus fiducia Gratianus erectus, iamque ad partes tendens eoas, laevorsus flexo itinere latenter Rheno transito, spe incitatior bona, universam, si id temptanti fors adfuisset, delere statuit malefidam et turbamm avidam gentem.
11. Encouraged by this confidence of success, Gratian, now also tending toward the eastern parts, with his route bent leftwards and the Rhine crossed secretly, more incited by good hope, decided to destroy the entire, faithless and tumult-greedy people, if fortune had stood by him as he attempted it.
12. hocque urgentibus aliis super alios nuntiis cognito, Lentienses aerumnis populi sui ad internecionem paene deleti, et repentino principis adventu defixi, quid capesserent ambigentes, cum neque repugnandi neque agendi aliquid aut moliendi laxamentum possent invenire vel breve, impetu celeri obsessos petiverunt inviis cautibus colles, abruptisque per ambitum rupibus insistentes, rebus caritatibusque suis, quas secum duxerant, omni virium robore propugnabant.
12. and, this learned with other messages pressing one upon another, the Lentienses, almost destroyed to extermination by the miseries of their people, and transfixed by the sudden advent of the princeps, wavering as to what they should undertake, since they could find not even brief leeway either for resisting or for doing anything or for contriving, with swift onset sought hills hemmed in by pathless crags, and, taking their stand upon cliffs broken off all around, they were defending, with all the strength of their forces, their goods and their dear ones, whom they had brought with them.
13. qua difficultate perpensa, velut murorum obicibus opponendi per legiones singulas quingenteni leguntur annati, usu prudenter bellandi comperti. qui ea re animorum aucta fiducia quod versari inter antesignanos visebatur acriter princeps, montes scandere nitebantur, tamquam venaticias praedas, si calcassent editiora, confestim sine certamine ullo rapturi: exorsumque proelium vergente in meridiem die, tenebrae quoque occupavere nocturnae.
13. with this difficulty weighed, as if to be opposed like bulwarks of walls, five hundred apiece were selected through each legion, veterans, proven by the prudent practice of warring. who, their spirits’ confidence increased by this fact, that the prince was seen to be moving keenly among the antesignani, strove to climb the mountains, as though, if they should tread the loftier heights, they would forthwith seize the spoils of the chase without any contest: and the battle was begun with the day inclining toward midday, and nocturnal darkness too overtook them.
14. quippe magno utriusque partis pugnabatur exitio: caedebant cadebantque nostrorum non pauci, simul arma imperatorii comitatus auro colorumque micantia claritudine, iaculatione ponderum densa confringebantur.
14. indeed, there was fighting with great destruction of both parties: they were slaying, and not a few of our men were being slain, while at the same time the arms of the imperial comitatus, gleaming with the brightness of gold and of colors, were being shattered by a dense hurling of heavy missiles.
15. Et enim diu reputante Gratiano cum optimatibus perniciosum apparebat et inritum contra asperitates aggerum prominentium intempestiva contendere pertinacia, multis - ut in tali negotio - variatis sententiis, otioso milite circumvallari placuit barbaros inedia fatigatos, quia locorum iniquitate defenderetur.
15. And indeed, as Gratian for a long time was reconsidering with the Optimates, it appeared pernicious and ineffectual to contend with untimely pertinacity against the asperities of the jutting embankments; with many opinions—just as in such a business—varied, it was resolved to encircle the barbarians with a circumvallation, the soldiery idle, the barbarians wearied by want of food, since they were defended by the unfairness of the terrain.
16. verum cum obstinatione simili renitentes Germani peritique regionum petissent alios montes, his, quos ante insederant, altiores: conversus illuc cmn exercitu imperator, eadem qua antea fortitudine semitas ducentes ad ardua quaeritabat.
16. But, as the Germans, resisting with similar obstinacy and skilled in the regions, had sought other mountains, higher than those which they had previously occupied: the emperor, turning thither with the army, with the same fortitude as before kept seeking footpaths leading to the arduous heights.
17. quem l,entienses intentum iugulis suis omni perseverandi studio contemplantes, post deditionem, quam inpetravere supplici prece, oblata - ut praeceptum est - iuventute valida nostris tirociniis permiscenda, ad genitales terras innoxii ire permissi sunt.
17. The Lentienses, beholding him intent upon their throats with every zeal for persevering, after a surrender which they obtained by suppliant prayer, their vigorous youth offered - as it was prescribed - to be mingled with our recruit-training, were permitted to go unharmed to their native lands.
18. Hanc victoriam oportunam et fructuosam, quae gentes hebetavit occiduas, sempiterni numinis nutu Gratianus incredibile dictu est quo quantoque cum vigore exerta celeritate aliorsum properans expedivit: praeclarae indolis adulescens, facundus et moderatus et bellicosus et clemens, ad aemulationem lectorum progrediens principum, dum etiam tum lanugo genis inserperet speciosa, ni vergens in ludibriosos actus natura, laxantibus proximis semet ad vana studia Caesaris Commodi convertisset, licet hic incruentus.
18. This opportune and fruitful victory, which blunted the occidental peoples, by the nod of the sempiternal divinity Gratian—it's incredible to say with what, and how great, vigor, as he, hastening elsewhere with exerted celerity, expedited it: a youth of excellent natural disposition, eloquent and moderate and bellicose and clement, advancing to the emulation of select princes, while even then a fair down was creeping upon his cheeks, would have been illustrious, if his nature, inclining toward ludicrous acts, with his intimates relaxing him, had not turned himself to the vain studies of the Caesar Commodus—though here bloodless.
19. ut enim ille, quia perimere iaculis plurimas feras spectante consueverat populo, et centum leones in amphitheatrali circulo simul emissos telorum vario genere, nullo geminato vulnere contruncavit, ultra hominem exsultavit, ita hic quoque intra saepta, quae appellant vivaria, sagittarum pulsibus crebris dentatas conficiens bestias: incidentia multa parvi ducebat et seria: eo tempore, quo etiam si imperium Marcus regeret Antoninus, aegre sine collegis similibus et magna sobrietate consiliorum lenire luctuosos rei publicae poterat casus.
19. for just as that man, because he had been accustomed to slay with javelins very many wild beasts with the people looking on, and, with missiles of various kinds, cut down a hundred lions released at once in the amphitheatrical circle, with no wound doubled, he exulted beyond what is human, so this one too, within the enclosures which they call vivaria, finishing off toothed beasts with frequent blows of arrows: he reckoned many incidental matters, and serious ones, as of little account: at a time when even if Marcus Antoninus were governing the imperium, he could scarcely, without colleagues of like kind and without great sobriety in counsels, soothe the mournful misfortunes of the commonwealth.
20. Dispositis igitur, quae pvo temporum captu per Gallias res rationesque poscebant, et punito Scutario proditore, qui festinare principem ad Illyricum barbaris indicarat, Gratianus exinde digressus per castra, quibus Felicis Arboris nomen est per Lauriacum ad opitulandum oppressae parti porrectis itineribus ire tendebat.
20. Therefore, with those things set in order which, to the extent of the times, affairs and measures throughout Gaul were demanding, and with the traitor Scutarius punished, who had made known to the barbarians that the emperor was hastening to Illyricum, Gratian thence departed through the camp which bears the name “Arbor Felix,” by way of Lauriacum, and was making to go, by extended marches, to bring help to the oppressed party.
21. Isdemque diebus Frigerido multa atque utilia pro securitate communi sollertissime cogitanti munireque properanti Succorum angustias, ne discursatores hostes et leves tamquam exaestuantes vi torrentes per septentrionales provincias fusius vagarentur, successor Maurus nomine mittitur comes, venalis ferociae specie et ad cuncta mobilis et incertus, is est quem praeteritorum textu rettulimus, ambigenti super corona capiti inponenda Iuliano Caesari, dum inter eius armigeros militaret, arroganti confidentia torquem obtulisse collo abstractam.
21. And in those same days, as Frigeridus was most skillfully considering many and useful measures for the common security and was hastening to fortify the narrows of the Succi, lest raiders and light foes, like torrents seething with force, should roam more widely through the northern provinces, a successor is sent, a count named Maurus, venal under a show of ferocity and in all things changeable and uncertain—this is he whom we have reported in the weave of earlier matters—to have, to Julian Caesar as he hesitated about the crown to be set upon his head, while he was serving among his armor-bearers, proffered with arrogant confidence a torque taken from his neck.
22. remotusque in ipsa vertigine pereuntium rerum dux cautus et diligens, cum etiam si dudum discessisset in otium, ad procinctum reduci negotiorum magnitudine poscente deberet.
22. and the cautious and diligent leader was removed in the very whirl of perishing affairs, since even if he had long ago withdrawn into leisure, he ought, the magnitude of the affairs demanding it, to be brought back to the battle-line.
1. His forte diebus Valens tandem excitus Antiochia, longitudine viarum emensa venit Constantinopolim, ubi moratus paucissimos dies seditioneque popularium levi pulsatus, Sebastiano paulo ante ab Italia, ut petierat, misso, vigilantiae notae ductori pedestris exercitus cura commissa, quem regebat antea Traianus: ipse ad Melanthiada villam Caesarianam profectus, militem stipendio fovebat et alimentis et blanda crebritate sermonum.
1. In those days, by chance, Valens, at last roused from Antioch, having measured out the length of the roads, came to Constantinople, where, after lingering a very few days and being buffeted by a light sedition of the populace, Sebastian—sent a little before from Italy, as he had requested—, a commander noted for vigilance, was entrusted with the care of the infantry army, which Trajan had previously directed; he himself, having set out to the Caesarian villa Melanthiada, fostered the soldiery with stipend and provisions and with a coaxing frequency of speeches.
2. unde cum itinere edicto per tesseram Nicen venisset, quae statio ita cognominatur: relatione speculatorum didicit refertos opima barbaros praeda a Rhodopeis tractibus prope Hadrianopolim revertisse: qui motu imperatoris cum abundanti milite cognito, popularibus iungere festinant, circa Beroeam et Nicopolim agentibus praesidiis fixis: atque ilico ut oblatae occasionis maturitas postulabat, cum trecentenis militibus per singulos numeros lectis Sebastianus properare dispositus est, conducens rebus publicis aliquid, ut promittebat, acturus.
2. whence, when a march had been proclaimed by the watchword, he had come to Nicen, which station is so surnamed: by the report of the scouts he learned that the barbarians, crammed with rich plunder, had returned from the Rhodopean tracts near Hadrianopolis: who, the movement of the emperor with abundant soldiery having become known, hasten to join their compatriots, with garrisons established and operating around Beroea and Nicopolis: and immediately, as the ripeness of the proffered occasion demanded, with three hundred soldiers chosen from each several unit, Sebastianus was set to make haste, undertaking to do something conducive to the commonwealth, as he promised, to accomplish.
3. qui itineribus celeratis conspectus prope Hadrianopolim, obseratis vi portis iuxta adire prohibebatur: veritis defensoribus ne captus ab hoste veniret et subornatus atque contingeret aliquid in civitatis perniciem, quale per Actum acciderat comitem, quo per fraudem Magnentiacis militibus capto claustra patefacta sunt Alpium Iuliarum.
3. who, with his marches hastened, when seen near Hadrianopolis, was forbidden to approach close by, the gates shut fast by force: since the defenders feared lest he should come captured by the enemy and suborned, and that something might befall to the city's perdition—such as had happened through Actus, the Count, by whose being captured by fraud by the soldiers of Magnentius the barriers of the Julian Alps were laid open.
4. agnitus tamen licet sero Sebastianus et urbem introire permissus, cibo et quiete curatis pro copia, quos ductabat, secuta luce impetu clandestino erupit, vesperaque incedente Gothorum vastatorios cuneos prope flumen Hebrum subito visos paulisper opertus aggeribus et frutectis obscura nocte suspensis passibus inconpositos adgressus est, adeoque prostravit ut praeter paucos, quos morte velocitas exemerat pedum, interirent reliqui omnes, praedamque retraxit innumeram, quam nec civitas cepit nec planities lata camporum.
4. recognized, albeit late, Sebastianus and permitted to enter the city, when those whom he was leading had been cared for with food and rest according to the resources, at the next daybreak he burst out with a clandestine onset; and with evening advancing, when the Goths’ devastatory wedges were suddenly seen near the river Hebrus, after he had for a little while kept covered by embankments and thickets, with steps suspended in the dark night he attacked them unarrayed, and he laid them so low that, except for a few whom the swiftness of their feet had exempted from death, all the rest perished, and he drew back booty without number, which neither the city took in nor the broad plain of the fields.
5. qua causa percitus Fritigernus et extimescens, ne dux, ut saepe audierat, impetrabilis dispersos licenter suorum globos raptuique intentos consumeret, inprovisos adoriens : revocatis omnibus prope Cabylen oppidum cito discessit, ut agentes in regionibus patulis nec inedia nec occultis vexarentur insidiis.
5. For which cause Fritigern, stirred and dreading, lest the duke, as he had often heard, irresistible, by attacking them unawares, should consume the licentiously scattered bands of his men and those intent on rapine : having recalled all, near the town of Cabylen he quickly withdrew, so that, operating in open regions, they might be harassed neither by famine nor by hidden ambushes.
6. Dum haec aguntur in Thraciis, Gratianus docto litteris patruo, qua industria superaverit Alamanos, pedestri itinere, praemissis inpedimentis et sarcinis, ipse cum expeditiore militum manu permeato Danubio, delatus Bononiam, Sirmium introiit, et quadriduum ibi moratus per idem flumen ad Martis castra descendit, febribus intervallatis adflictus: in quo tractu Halanorum impetu repentino temptatus amisit sequentium paucos.
6. While these things are being done in Thrace, Gratian—his uncle having been informed by letters by what resource he had overcome the Alamans—by an overland march, the impedimenta and packs sent ahead, he himself with a more lightly equipped band of soldiers, the Danube having been crossed, borne down to Bononia, entered Sirmium; and having stayed there for four days, he descended along the same river to the Camp of Mars, afflicted by intermittent fevers: in which stretch, assailed by a sudden onset of the Alans, he lost a few of those following.
1. Isdemque diebus exagitatus ratione gemina Valens, quod Lentienses conpererat superatos, quodque Sebastianus subinde scribens facta dictis exaggerabat, e Melanthiade signa commovit, aequiperare facinore quodam egregio adulescentem properans filium fratris, cuius virtutibus urebatur: ducebatque multiplices copias nec contemnendas nec segnes, quippe etiam veteranos isdem iunxerat plurimos, inter quos et honoratiores alii et Traianus recinctus est, paulo ante magister armorum.
1. And in those same days Valens, agitated by a twofold reason—because he had learned that the Lentienses were overcome, and because Sebastianus, writing continually, was exaggerating deeds with words—moved the standards from Melanthiades, hastening to equal by some distinguished exploit the youth, his brother’s son, at whose virtues he burned: and he led manifold forces, neither contemptible nor sluggish, since he had even joined to the same very many veterans, among whom were both other more distinguished men and Traianus, ungirded (deprived of his belt), a little before master of arms.
2. et quoniam exploratione sollicita cognitum est cogitare hostes fortibus praesidiis itinera claudere, per quae commeatus necessarii portabantur, occursum est huic conatui conpetenter, ad retinendas oportunitates angustiarum, quae prope erant, peditibus sagittariis et equitum turma citius missa.
2. and since by diligent exploration it was learned that the enemies were thinking to close the routes with strong garrisons, through which the necessary supplies were being carried, this attempt was competently met, to retain the opportunities of the narrows, which were near at hand, by infantry archers and by a troop of horse dispatched swiftly.
3. triduoque proximo cum barbari gradu incederent leni et metuentes eruptionem per devia, quindecim milibus passuum a civitate discreti stationem peterent Nicen - incertum quo errore - procursatoribus omnem illam multitudinis partem, quam viderant, in numero decem milium esse firmantibus, imperator procaci quodam calore perculsus isdem occurrere festinabat.
3. and on the next third day, as the barbarians were advancing at a gentle pace and, fearing a sally, through byways, separated by fifteen thousand paces from the city, and making for the post at Nicaea — uncertain by what mistake — with the scouts affirming that all that portion of the multitude which they had seen was in the number of ten thousand, the emperor, smitten by a certain rash heat, hastened to meet the same.
4. proinde agmine quadrato incedens prope suburbanum Hadrianopoleos venit, ubi vallo sudibus fossaque firmato, Gratianum inpatienter operiens, Richomerem comitem domesticorum suscepit ab eodem imperatore praemissum cum litteris, ipsum quoque venturum mox indicantibus.
4. accordingly, advancing in a square formation, he came near the suburb of Adrianople, where, with a rampart strengthened with stakes and a ditch, impatiently awaiting Gratian, he received Richomer, Count of the Domestics, sent ahead by that same emperor with letters indicating that he himself also would soon come.
5. quarum textu oratus ut praestolaretur paulisper periculorum participem, neve abruptis discriminibus temere semet committeret solum, adhibitis in consilium potestatibus variis, quid facto opus esset deliberabat.
5. by the text of which he was entreated to wait a little for a participant in the dangers, and not rashly to commit himself alone to abrupt crises; after various potestates had been brought into counsel, he deliberated what needed to be done.
6. et cum Sebastiano auctore quidam protinus eundum ad certamen urgerent, Victor nomine magister equitum, Sarmata sed cunctator et cautus, eadem sentientibus multis imperii socium exspeetari eensebat, ut incrementis exercitus Gallicani adscitis opprimeretur levius tumor barbaricus flammans.
6. and while, with Sebastianus as proposer, certain men were urging that they should go forward at once to the contest, Victor by name, master of horse, a Sarmatian but a delayer and cautious, with many who felt the same, judged that the colleague in the empire ought to be awaited, so that, with adscititious increments from the Gallic army, the flaming barbarian tumor might be crushed more easily.
7. vicit tamen funesta principis destinatio et adulabilis quorundam sententia regiorum, qui, ne paene iam partae victoriae - ut opinabantur - consors fieret Gratianus, properari cursu celeri suadebant.
7. yet the baleful determination of the emperor prevailed, and the adulatory opinion of certain men of the royal household, who, lest Gratian become a partner in a victory almost already won — as they supposed — urged that haste be made at a swift pace.
8. Et dum neeessaria parabantur ad decernendum, Christiani ritus presbyter, ut ipsi appellant, missus a Fritigerno legatus cum aliis humilibus venit ad principis castra, susceptusque leniter eiusdem ductoris obtulit scripta petentis propalam ut sibi suisque, quos extorres patriis laribus rapidi ferarum gentium exegere discursus, habitanda Thracia sola eum pecore omni concederentur et frugibus: hoc impetrato spondentis perpetuam pacem.
8. And while the necessaries were being prepared for deciding the issue, a presbyter of the Christian rite, as they themselves call them, sent as an envoy by Fritigern, came with other humble men to the prince’s camp, and, gently received, he presented the writings of that same leader, requesting openly that to himself and his people, whom the rapid circuits of the wild nations had driven as exiles from their paternal lares, the Thracian soil to be inhabited be granted, with all their livestock and grain: this obtained, pledging perpetual peace.
9. praeter haec idem Christianus ut eonscius arcanorum et fidus, secretas alias eiusdem regis obtulit litteras, qui astu et ludificandi varietate nimium sollers docebat Valentem quasi mox amicus futurus et socius, aliter se popularium saevitiam mollire non posse vel ad condiciones rei Romanae profuturas allicere, nisi subinde armatum isdem iuxta monstraret exercitum et timore imperatorii nominis intentato eos a pernicioso pugnandi revocaret ardore. et legati quidem ut ambigui frustra habiti discesserunt.
9. besides these things, the same Christian, as conscious of the arcana and faithful, offered other secret letters of the same king, who, too skillful in craft and in the variety of deluding, was instructing Valens, as if soon to be a friend and ally, that he could not otherwise soften the savagery of his compatriots or entice them to conditions profitable to the Roman commonwealth, unless from time to time he should display an armed army alongside them and, with the fear of the imperial name brandished, call them back from the pernicious ardor of fighting. And the legates indeed, regarded as ambiguous, departed fruitlessly.
10. Exoriente vero aurora diei, quem quintum Iduum Augustarum numerus ostendit annalis, signa praepropere commoventur, inpedimentis et sarcinis prope Hadrianopoleos muros cum legionum tutela congrua conlocatis. thesauri enim et principalis fortunae insignia cetera cum praefecto et consistorianis ambitu moenium tenebantur.
10. As the dawn of day indeed was rising, which the annalistic reckoning shows as the fifth before the Ides of August (9 August), the standards were moved over-hastily, the impedimenta and packs having been placed near the walls of Hadrianopolis with suitable protection of the legions. For the Treasury and the other insignia of the imperial fortune, along with the Prefect and the Consistorians, were being held within the ambit of the walls.
11. decursis itaque viarum spatiis confragosis cum in medium torridus procederet dies, octava tandem hora hostium carpenta cernuntur, quae ad speciem rotunditatis detornata digestaque exploratorum relatione adfirmabantur. atque, ut mos est, ululante barbara plebe ferum et triste, Romani duces aciem struxere: et anteposito dextro cornu equitum primo, peditatus pars maxima subsidebat.
11. therefore, the rugged stretches of the roads having been traversed, when the day was advancing into its torrid midmost, in the eighth hour at length the enemy’s wagons are seen, which, turned for an appearance of roundness and arranged, were affirmed by the report of the scouts. and, as is the custom with the barbarian crowd ululating, fierce and gloomy, the Roman leaders drew up the battle line: and, with the right wing of the cavalry set in front first, the greatest part of the infantry was in reserve.
12. cornu autem equitum laevum disiectis adhuc per itinera plurimis summa difficultate conductum properabat passibus citis. dumque idem cornu nullo etiam tum interturbante extenditur, horrendo fragore sibilantibus armis pulsuque minaci scutorum territi barbari, quoniam pars eorum cum Alatheo et Saphrace procul agens et accita nondum venerat, oraturos pacem misere legatos.
12. the left wing of the cavalry, however, with very many still scattered along the roads, brought together with the greatest difficulty, was hastening with swift steps. And while that same wing, with no one even then disturbing it, is being extended, at a horrendous crash, with sibilant arms and the menacing beat of shields, the barbarians, terrified, since part of them, acting far off with Alatheus and Saphrax and summoned, had not yet come, sent legates to sue for peace.
13. eorum dum vilitatem despicit imperator, ut firma fierent paciscenda, optimates poscens idoneos mitti: illi de industria cunctabantur ut inter fallaces indutias equites sui redirent, quos adfore iam sperabant: et miles fervore calefactus aestivo, siccis faucibus commarceret relucente amplitudine camporum incendiis, quos lignis nutrimentisque aridis subditis, ut hoc fieret, idem hostes urebant. cui malo aliud quoque accedebat exitiale quod homines et iumenta cruciabat inedia gravis.
13. while the emperor, despising their cheapness, was demanding that suitable optimates be sent, so that the things to be bargained might be made firm: they were delaying on purpose, so that, under deceptive truces, their equites might return, whom they already hoped would be at hand: and the soldiery, heated by the summer fervor, with dry throats was withering, as the breadth of the fields, gleaming, was ablaze with fires, which the same enemies were burning, with wood and dry fuels placed beneath, in order that this be so. To this evil there was also added another deadly thing, that a grievous lack of food was tormenting men and beasts of burden.
14. Inter quae Fritigernus callidus futuri coniector, Martemque pertimescens ancipitem, velut caduceatorem unum e plebe suo misit arbitrio, impetens nobiles quosdam et electos ad se prope diem obsides mitti, inpavidus ipse minas militares laturus et necessaria.
14. Amid these things Fritigern, a crafty conjector of the future, and dreading Mars as two-edged, sent, as it were a caduceator, one man from the common folk at his own discretion, demanding that certain nobles and chosen men be sent to him before long as hostages, he himself, undaunted, being about to bring military menaces and what was necessary.
15. laudato probatoque formidati ducis proposito, tribunus Aequitius, cui tunc erat cura palatii credita, Valentis propinquus, adsentientibus cunctis ire pignoris loco mature disponitur. quo renitente, quia semel captus ab hostibus lapsusque a Dibalto, verebatur eorum inrationabiles motus, Richomeres se sponte obtulit propria, ireque promiserat libens, pulcrum hoc quoque facinus et viro convenire existimans forti: iamque pergebat indicia dignitatis et natalium ....
15. with the plan of the dreaded leader praised and approved, the tribune Aequitius, to whom at that time the care of the palace had been entrusted, a kinsman of Valens, with all assenting, is arranged to go promptly as a pledge. When he resisted—because he had once been captured by the enemy and had suffered a reverse at Dibaltum—he feared their irrational impulses; Richomeres offered himself of his own free will, and gladly had promised to go, thinking that this deed too was noble and befitting a brave man: and now he was proceeding, the insignia of dignity and of birth ....
16. eo ad vallum hostile tendente sagittarii et scutarii, quos Bacurius Hiberus quidam tunc regebat et Cassio, avidius impetu calenti progressi iamque adversis conexi, ut inmature proruperant, ita inerti discessu primordia belli foedarunt.
16. as he was heading to the enemy rampart, the archers and shield-bearers, whom at that time a certain Bacurius the Iberian and Cassio were commanding, having advanced too eagerly with a hot impulse and now engaged with the adversaries, as they had burst forth prematurely, so by a sluggish withdrawal they defiled the beginnings of the war.
17. hocque inpedimento conatus intempestivi et Richomeris alacritas fracta est, nusquam ire permissi, et equitatus Gothorum cum Alatheo reversus et Saphrace, Halanorum manu permixta, ut fulmen prope montes celsos excussus, quoscumque adcursu veloci invenire comminus potuit, incitata caede turbavit.
17. And by this impediment the untimely attempts and the alacrity of Richomer were broken, being permitted to go nowhere, and the cavalry of the Goths, returning with Alatheus and Saphrax, with a band of the Alans intermixed, like a thunderbolt shaken out near lofty mountains, whomever it could find at close quarters by a swift onrush, with slaughter incited, it threw into confusion.
1. Cumque arma ex latere omni concuterentur et tela, lituosque Bellona luctuosos inflaret in clades Romanas solito inmanius furens, cedentes nostri multis interclamantibus restiterunt et proelium flammarum ritu adcrescens terrebat militum animos, confixis quibusdam rotatis ictibus iaculorum et sagittarum.
1. And when arms and missiles were being shaken on every flank, and Bellona, raging more savagely than usual, was blowing the mournful lituus-trumpets to Roman calamities, our men, though giving ground, with many shouting out, stood their ground; and the battle, increasing in the manner of flames, was terrifying the spirits of the soldiers, some being transfixed by the whirled blows of javelins and arrows.
2. deinde conlisae in modum rostratarum navium acies trudentesque se vicissim, undarum specie motibus sunt reciprocis iactitatae. Et quia sinistrum cornu ad usque plaustra ipsa accessit, ultra., siqui tulissent suppetias, processurum: a reliquo equitatu desertum, multitudine hostili urgente sicut ruina aggeris magni oppressum atque deiectum est: steterunt inprotecti pedites, ita concatervatis manipulis ut vix mucronem exerere aut ma,nus reducere quisquam posset. nec iam obiectu pulveris caelum patere potuit ad prospectum, clamoribus resultans horrificis.
2. then the battle-lines, having been dashed together in the manner of rostrate ships and shoving each other by turns, were tossed with reciprocal motions in the likeness of waves. And because the left wing had come up to the wagons themselves, it would have advanced further, if anyone had brought succor; abandoned by the rest of the cavalry, and with the hostile multitude pressing, like the collapse of a great rampart it was overwhelmed and cast down: the foot-soldiers stood unprotected, their maniples so heaped together that scarcely anyone could draw forth a blade or withdraw his hand. nor now, because of the interposition of dust, could the sky lie open to sight, resounding with horrific shouts.
3. verum ubi effusi inmensis agminibus barbari iumenta conterebant et viros, et neque ad receptum confertis ordinibus laxari usquam poterat locus, et evadendi copiam constipatio densior adimebat: nostri quoque ultimo cadendi contemptu occursantes receptis gladiis obtruncabant, et mutuis securium ictibus galeae perfringebantur atque loricae.
3. but when, poured out in immense columns, the barbarians were crushing beasts of burden and men, and nowhere could space be opened for a retreat for the crowded ranks, and the press denser was taking away the means of escaping: our men too, rushing to meet them with the utmost contempt for dying, with their swords drawn, were cutting them down, and by mutual blows of axes helmets and cuirasses were being smashed through.
4. videreque licebat celsum ferocia barbarum, genis stridore constrictis, succiso poplite aut abscisa ferro dextera vel confosso latere inter ipsa quoque mortis confinia minaciter circumferentem oculos truces: ruinaque confligentium mutua humo corporibus stratis campi peremptis impleti sunt, et morientium gemitus profundisque vulneribus transfixorum cum timore audiebantur ingenti.
4. and one could see a barbarian, towering in ferocity with his cheeks tightened with a gnashing, with his hamstring severed or his right hand cut off by steel, or his flank pierced, even within the very confines of death, menacingly casting around truculent eyes: and the mutual ruin of the combatants, with bodies strewn on the soil, filled the fields with the slain, and the groans of the dying and of those transfixed with deep wounds were heard with immense fear.
5. in hoc tanto tamque confusae rei tumultu exhausti labore et periculis pedites cum deinceps neque vires illis neque mentes suppeterent ad consilium, diffractis hastarum plerisque conlisione adsidua, gladiis contenti destrictis in confertas hostium turmas mergebant se, salutis inmemores, circumspectantes ademptum esse omne evadendi suffugium.
5. in this so great and so confused tumult of the affair, the infantry, exhausted by labor and perils, since in succession neither their strengths nor their minds sufficed for counsel, with most of their spears shattered by continual collision, content with drawn swords, were plunging themselves into the crowded troops of the enemy, forgetful of safety, looking around and seeing that every refuge for escaping had been taken away.
6. et quia humus rivis operta sanguineis gressus labiles evertebat, conabantur modis omnibus vitam inpendere non inultam: adeo magno animorum robore oppositi incumbentibus, ut etiam telis quidam propriis interirent. atra denique cruoris facie omnia conturbante et, quocumque se inflexerant oculi, acervis caesorum adgestis, exanimata cadavera sine parsimonia calcabantur.
6. and because the ground, covered with sanguine rivulets, was overturning slippery steps, they tried by all means to expend their life not unavenged: so, with very great strength of spirit opposed to the assailants, that some even perished by their own weapons. black, finally, the aspect of gore throwing everything into confusion, and, wherever the eyes turned themselves, with heaps of the slain piled up, lifeless corpses were trampled without sparing.
7. solque sublimior decurso Leone ad domicilium caelestis Virginis transiens, Romanos magis attenuatis inedia sitique confectos etiam armorum gravantibus sarcinis exurebat. ad ultimum incumbente barbarorum pondere acies inclinatae nostrorum, quod solum postremis malis habuere subsidium, incondite qua quisque poterat, vertuntur in pedes.
7. and the sun, higher aloft, Leo having run its course and passing to the domicile of the celestial Virgin, was scorching the Romans, their strength further attenuated and worn out by hunger and thirst, with the burdens of their arms also weighing them down. at last, with the weight of the barbarians pressing on, the battle-lines of our men, inclined, turned—what alone they had as a relief in their latest ills—disorderly, wherever each one could, to flight on foot.
8. Dumque omnes dispersi per ignotos tramites cedunt, imperator diris pavoribus circumsaeptus paulatimque insiliens funerum moles, ad Lancearios confugit et Mattiarios: qui, dum multitudo tolerabatur hostilis, fixis corporibus steterant inconcussi. eoque viso Traianus exclamat spem omnem absumptam, ni desertus ab armigeris princeps saltim adventicio tegeretur auxilio.
8. And while all, dispersed, yield along unknown by-paths, the emperor, surrounded by dire panics and, little by little, clambering over a mass of corpses, fled for refuge to the Lancearii and the Mattiarii: who, while the hostile multitude was being endured, had stood with their bodies planted, unshaken. And seeing this, Traianus exclaims that all hope is consumed, unless the princeps, deserted by his armor-bearers, should at least be covered by adventitious aid.
9. hocque audito Victor nomine comes Batavos in subsidiis locatos haut procul ad imperatoris praesidium raptim cogere properans cum invenire neminem posset, gradiens retro discessit, parique modo Richomeres periculo semet exemit et Saturninus.
9. and on this being heard, a count named Victor, the Batavians having been placed in the reserves not far off, hastening to muster them swiftly to the emperor’s protection, when he could find no one, stepping back withdrew; and in a like manner Richomeres extricated himself from the peril, and Saturninus.
10. Sequebantur itaque furore ex oculis lucente barbari nostros, iam linquente venarum calore torpentes : quorum aliqui percussoribus cadebant incertis, non nulli ponderibus solis urgentium obruti ictuque suorum aliqui trucidati: nec enim saepe renitentibus cedebatur aut parcebat cedentibus quisquam.
10. Thus the barbarians, with fury shining from their eyes, were following our men, now growing torpid as the heat of their veins was leaving them : of whom some were falling to uncertain assailants, not a few overwhelmed by the mere weight of those pressing upon them, and some butchered by the blow of their own men: for indeed there was often no yielding to those resisting, nor did anyone spare those ceding.
11. super his obstruebant itinera iacentes multi semineces, cruciatus vulnerum conquerentes: cum quibus aggeres quoque equorum constrati cadaveribus campos implerunt. diremit haec numquam pensabilia damna, quae magno rebus stetere Romanis, nullo splendore lunari nox fulgens.
11. on top of this, many lying half-dead were obstructing the routes, complaining of the torments of their wounds: along with whom the aggers too of horses, strewn with cadavers, filled the fields. a night shining with no lunar splendor cut off these losses never to be weighed, which stood at great cost for Roman affairs.
12. Primaque caligine tenebrarum inter gregarios imperator, ut opinari dabatur - neque enim vidisse se quisquam vel praesto fuisse adseveravit - sagitta perniciose saucius ruit, spirituque mox consumpto decessit nec postea repertus est usquam. hostium enim paucis spoliandi gratia mortuos per ea loca diu versatis, nullus fugatorum vel accolarum illuc adire est ausus.
12. And in the first murk of the darkness the emperor among the common soldiers, as it was supposed - for no one asserted that he had seen or had been present - fatally wounded by an arrow, fell, and with his breath soon consumed he died, nor afterwards was he found anywhere. For as a few of the enemy, for the sake of despoiling, had long ranged through those places over the dead, none of the fugitives or the neighbors dared to go thither.
13. simili clade Caesarem accepimus Decium dimicantem cum barbaris acriter, equi lapsu prostratum, quem ferventem retinere non valuit, abiectumque in paludem nec emergere potuisse nec inveniri.
13. by a similar calamity we learned that Caesar Decius, fighting with the barbarians keenly, was prostrated by the slip of his horse, which, in its fervor, he was not able to restrain, and, cast into a marsh, he could neither emerge nor be found.
14. alii dicunt Valentem animam non exhalasse confestim sed cum candidatis et spadonibus paucis prope ad agrestem casam relatum secunda contignatione fabre munitam, dum fovetur manibus imperitis, circumsessum ab hostibus, qui esset ignorantibus, dedecore captivitatis exemptum.
14. others say that Valens did not immediately breathe out his life, but, with the Candidati and a few eunuchs, borne near to a rustic cottage, skillfully fortified with a second story, while he was being tended by unskilled hands, he was surrounded by enemies, who were unaware who he was, removed from the disgrace of captivity.
15. cum enim oppessulatas ianuas perrumpere conati, qui secuti sunt, a parte pensili domus sagittis incesserentur, ne per moras inexpedibiles populandi ammitterent copiam, congestis stipulae fascibus et lignorum, flammaque supposita, aedificium cum hominibus torruerunt.
15. for when, having attempted to burst through the bolted doors, those who had followed were being assailed with arrows from the overhanging part of the house, lest through inextricable delays they should lose the opportunity of plundering, with bundles of straw and of wood heaped up, and fire set beneath, they burned the building with the people.
16. unde quidam de candidatis per fenestram lapsus captusque a barbaris prodidit factum et eos maerore adflixit, magna gloria defraudatos, quod Romanae rei rectorem non cepere superstitem. is ipse iuvenis occulte postea reversus ad nostros haec ita accidisse narravit.
16. Whereupon a certain one of the Candidati, having slipped through a window and, captured by the barbarians, betrayed the fact and afflicted them with sorrow, as defrauded of great glory, because they had not seized alive the rector of the Roman state. That young man himself, later having returned secretly to our people, reported that these things had thus happened.
17. pari clade recuperatis Hispaniis Scipionum alterum cremata turri, in quam confugerat, absumptum incendio hostili conperimus. illud tamen certum est, nec Scipioni, nec Valenti sepulturam, qui supremitatis honor est, contigisse.
17. by an equal calamity, with the Spains recovered, we learned that one of the Scipios, the tower burned in which he had fled for refuge, was consumed by a hostile conflagration. nevertheless, this is certain: that burial, which is the honor of finality, befell neither Scipio nor Valens.
18. In hac multiplici virorum inlustrium clade Traiani mors eminuit et Sebastiani, cum quibus triginta quinque oppetivere tribuni vacantes et numerorum rectores et Valerianus atque Aequitius, quorum alter stabulum, alter curabat palatium. inter hos etiam Promotorum tribunus Potentius cecidit in primaevo aetatis Ilore, bono cuique spectatus, meritis Vrsicini patris magistri quondam armorum suisque commendabilis. constatque vix tertiam evasisse exercitus partem.
18. In this manifold disaster of illustrious men the death of Traianus stood out, and of Sebastianus, with whom thirty-five unassigned tribunes and the commanders of regiments met their end, and Valerianus and Aequitius, of whom the one oversaw the stable, the other the palace. Among these also Potentius, tribune of the Promoti, fell in the prime flower of age, esteemed by every good man, commendable both by the merits of Ursicinus his father, formerly master of the arms, and by his own. And it is agreed that scarcely a third part of the army escaped.
19. nec ulla annalibus praeter Cannensem pugnam ita ad internecionem res legitur gesta, quamquam Romani aliquotiens reflante Fortuna fallaciis lusi bellorum iniquitati cesserunt ad tempus, et certamina multa fabulosae naeniae flevere Graecorum.
19. nor in the annals, except for the Battle of Cannae, is any affair recorded to have been carried to such extermination, although the Romans several times, with Fortune blowing back, beguiled by deceits, yielded for a time to the iniquity of wars; and many contests the fabled dirge of the Greeks has wept.
1. Perit autem hoc exitu Valens quinquagesimo anno contiguus, cum per annos quattuor inperasset et decem parvo minus.
1. However, by this end Valens perished, contiguous to his fiftieth year, since he had held the imperium for a little less than fourteen years.
2. cuius bona multis cognita dicemus et vitia. amicus fidelis et firmus, ultor acer ambitionum, severus militaris et civi]is disciplinae corrector, pervigil semper et anxius, ne propinquitatem quis praetendens altius semet ferret, erga deferendas potestates vel adimendas nimium tardus, provinciarum aequissimus tutor, quarum singulas ut domum propriam custodiebat indemnes, tributorum onera studio quodam molliens singulari, nulla vectigalium admittens augmenta, in adaerandis reliquorum debitis non molestus, furibus et in peculatu deprehensis iudicibus inimicus asper et vehemens.
2. of whose good qualities, known to many, we shall speak, and his vices. a faithful and firm friend, a keen avenger of ambitions, a severe corrector of military and civi]is discipline, ever vigilant and anxious, lest anyone, alleging propinquity, should carry himself too high; in conferring powers or in taking them away, excessively slow; the most equitable guardian of the provinces, each of which he kept unharmed as his own house, softening the burdens of tributes by a certain singular zeal, admitting no augmentations of imposts, not troublesome in rating in money the debts of arrears, an enemy harsh and vehement to thieves and to judges caught in peculation.
3. nec sub alio principe in huius modi negotiis melius secum actum esse meminit oriens. super his omnibus liberalis erat cum moderatione, cuius rei licet abundent exempla, unum tamen sufficiet poni. ut sunt in palatiis non nulli alienarum rerum avidi, siqui caducum vel aliud petisset ex usu, cum magna iustorum iniustorumque distinctione contradictori copia servata, donabat ei, qui petierat, tres vel quattuor alios absentes aliquotiens impetratorum participes iungens: ut castigatius agerent inquieti, lucra, quibus inhiabant, hoc minui commento cernentes.
3. Nor does the Orient remember that under any other prince it was better dealt with in affairs of this kind. Over and above all these things he was liberal with moderation, of which, although examples abound, yet one will suffice to be set down. Since in palaces there are some greedy for others’ goods, if anyone had requested a caducum (escheat) or something else by usage, with a great distinction between the just and the unjust maintained, and the liberty of contradiction preserved, he would grant it to the one who had asked, sometimes adding three or four others absent as co-participants in the things obtained: so that the restless might behave more chastely, seeing the profits at which they gaped diminished by this contrivance.
4. super aedificiis autem, quae per diversas urbes et oppida vel instauravit vel a primis instruxit auspiciis - ne sim longior - taceo, rebus ipsis id apertius monstrare concedens. haec bonis omnibus aemulanda sunt, ut existimo: nunc eius vitia percurramus.
4. But concerning the edifices, which through various cities and towns he either restored or from the first auspices he constructed - lest I be longer - I am silent, conceding the things themselves to demonstrate this more openly. These are to be emulated by all good men, as I reckon: now let us run through his vices.
5. Magnarum opum intemperans adpetitor, laborum inpatiens, duritiamque magis adfectans inmanem in crudelitatem proclivior, subagrestis ingenii, nec bellicis nec liberalibus studiis eruditus: alienis gemitibus libenter emolumenta fructusque conquirens, tuncque magis intolerabilis cum incidentia crimina ad contemptam vel laesam principis amplitudinem trahens in sanguinem saeviebat et dispendia locupletum.
5. An intemperate seeker after great wealth, impatient of labors, and affecting hardness, more inclined to inhuman cruelty, of somewhat rustic disposition, trained in neither military nor liberal studies: willingly collecting emoluments and fruits from others’ groans, and then the more intolerable when, dragging incidental crimes to the contemned or injured majesty of the emperor, he raged to bloodshed and to the losses of the wealthy.
6. illud quoque ferri non poterat quod, cum legibus lites omnes quaestionesque committere videri se vellet, destinatisque velut lectis iudicibus negotia spectanda mandabat, nihil agi contra libidinem suam patiebatur: iniuriosus alias et iracundus et criminantibus sine differentia veri vel falsi facillime patens, quae vitiorum labes etiam in his privatis cotidianisque rationibus inpendio est formidanda.
6. that too could not be borne, that, although he wished to seem to commit all suits and inquiries to the laws, and, with judges appointed as if chosen, he assigned the matters to be considered, he allowed nothing to be done against his own desire: injurious otherwise and irascible, and very readily open to accusers without distinction of true or false, which blot of vices is exceedingly to be feared even in these private and everyday dealings, is to be dreaded.
7. Cessator et piger: nigri coloris, pupula oculi unius obstructa, sed ita, ut non eminus appareret, figura bene conpacta membrorum, staturae nec procerae nec humilis, incurvis cruribus extanteque mediocriter ventre.
7. A loiterer and slothful: of black complexion, the pupil of one eye obstructed, but in such a way that it did not appear from afar, a figure well compacted in the limbs, of stature neither tall nor low, with bowed legs and a belly moderately protruding.
8. Haec super Valente dixisse sufficiet, quae vera esse aequalis nobis memoria plene testatur. illud autem praeteriri non convenit, quod cum oraculo tripodis, quem movisse Patricium docuimus et Hilarium, tres versus illos fatidicos comperisset, quorum ultimus est. en pedioisi Mimantos agaiomenoio Areos ut erat inconsummatus et rudis, inter initia contemnebat, processu vero luctuum maximorum abiecte etiam timidus, eiusdem sortis recordatione Asiae nomen horrebat: ubi Erythraeo oppido superpositum montem Mimanta et Homerum scripsisse et Tullium doctis referentibus audiebat.
8. These things about Valens will suffice to have been said, which our contemporary memory fully attests to be true. but this ought not to be passed over: that when, from the oracle of the tripod, which we have shown Patricius and Hilarius to have set in motion, he had discovered those three fatidical verses, the last of which is. en pedioisi Mimantos agaiomenoio Areos as he was unaccomplished and raw, at the beginning he was scorning it; but with the advance of the greatest griefs, abject and even timid, at the recollection of the same lot he shuddered at the very name of Asia: where he used to hear from learned men that both Homer had written of the mountain Mimas set above the town of Erythrae, and Tullius.
9. denique post interitum eius discessumque hostilem, prope locum, in quo cecidisse existimatus est, inventus dicitur saxeus monumenti suggestus, cui lapis adfixus incisis litteris Graecis, sepultum ibi nobilem quendam Mimanta veterem indicabat.
9. finally, after his death and the hostile departure, near the place in which he was thought to have fallen, there is said to have been found a stone base of a monument, to which a stone was affixed, with Greek letters incised, declaring that a certain noble ancient Mimantas was buried there.
1. Post exitialem pugnam cum iam tenebris nox terras implesset, hi qui superfuere, dextra pars, alii laeva vel quo metus traxerat, ferebantur, quisque proximos quaerens: cum praeter se nihil singuli cernere poterant, occipitiis propriis ferrum arbitrantes haerere. audiebantur tamen, licet longius, heiulatus miserabiles relictorum singultusque morientium et vulneratorum crucibabiles fletus.
1. After the ruinous battle, when night had already filled the lands with darkness, those who survived were carried, some to the right side, others to the left, or wherever fear had drawn them, each seeking his nearest companions: since individually they could discern nothing except themselves, they supposed the steel to be clinging to their own occiputs. Yet there were heard, albeit from farther off, the pitiable ululations of the forsaken, and the sobs of the dying, and the excruciating lamentations of the wounded.
2. Luce vero coeptante victores ut bestiae sanguinis inritamento atrocius efferatae, spei inanis inlecebris agitati, Hadrianopolim agminibus petivere densetis, eam vel cum discriminibus excisuri postremis: docti per proditores et transfugas potestatum culmina maximarum et fortunae principalis insignia thesaurosque Valentis illic ut arduo in munimento conditos.
2. At daybreak indeed, the victors, like beasts made more atrociously savage by the provocation of blood, agitated by the allurements of inane hope, made for Hadrianopolis with their columns thickened, intending to raze it even with ultimate hazards: informed through traitors and deserters that the summits of the greatest powers and the insignia of imperial fortune, and the treasures of Valens, were there as though laid up in a lofty muniment.
3. et ne intervallatis ardor intepesceret moris, hora diei quarta ambitu cincto murorum, infestissime certabatur: oppugnatoribus genuina ferocia ad praeceps exitium festinantibus, contraque defensorum vigore validis viribus incitato.
3. and, lest the ardor grow tepid through intervals, as was their custom, at the fourth hour of the day, with the circuit of the walls encompassed, the fighting was waged most fiercely: the assailants, with native ferocity, hastening to a headlong destruction, and, on the contrary, the vigor of the defenders stirred with strong forces.
4. et quia militum calonumque numerus magnus civitatem cum iumentis introire prohibitus, adfixus parietibus moenium aedibusque continuis, pro loci humilitate fortiter decernebat, superatque rabies inmientium ad usque horam diei nonam, subito pedites nostri trecenti, ex his, qui prope ipsas stetere loricas, conferti in cuneum desciverunt ad barbaros, eosque illi avide raptos confestim - incertum quo consilio - trucidarunt; et ex eo deinceps observatum est, neminem huius modi aliquid vel in desperatione rerum ultima cogitasse.
4. and because a great number of soldiers and camp-servants, prohibited from entering the city with their beasts of burden, fastened to the walls of the ramparts and to the contiguous buildings, were fighting bravely in proportion to the lowness of the place, and the rage of the threatening assailants prevailed up to the ninth hour of the day, suddenly three hundred of our foot-soldiers, from those who stood near the breastworks themselves, packed into a wedge, defected to the barbarians; and they, having greedily seized them, immediately - uncertain with what counsel - butchered them; and from that point thereafter it was observed that no one had thought of anything of this kind, even in the ultimate desperation of affairs.
5. fervente itaque tot malorum congerie, repente cum fragore caelesti imbres nubibus atris effusi dispersere circumfrementium globos, reversique ad vallum dimensum tereti figura plaustrorum, inmanes spiritus latius porrigentes iubebant nostris per minaces litteras, et legatum ... fide retinendae salutis accepta.
5. therefore, with the congeries of so many evils seething, suddenly, with a celestial crash, rains poured out from black clouds scattered the masses of those roaring around, and they returned to the vallum measured out in the rounded figure of the wagons, and, extending their monstrous spirits more broadly, they were ordering our men through menacing letters, and that a legate ... with a pledge for the retaining of safety having been accepted.
6. verum introire non auso, qui missus est, per Christianum quendam portatis scriptis et recitatis, utque decebat contemplatis, parandis operibus dies et nox omnis absumpta. nam intrinsecus silicibus magnis obstrusae sunt portae et moenium intuta firmata, et ad emittenda undique tela vel saxa, tormenta per locos aptata sunt habiles adgestaque prope sufficiens aqua. pridie enim dimicantium quidam siti ad usque ipsa vitae detrimenta vexati sunt.
6. but, as the one who had been sent did not dare to enter, through a certain Christian—once the writings had been carried in and read aloud, and, as was fitting, considered—an entire day and night was spent in preparing the works. For on the inside the gates were blocked with large flints, and the unsafe parts of the walls were strengthened, and, for sending forth missiles or stones from every side, engines were fitted in suitable places, and water in almost sufficient quantity was brought up. For on the previous day some of the combatants had been tormented by thirst even to the very peril of life.
7. Contra Gothi reputantes difficiles Martis eventus, anxiique cum sterni et sauciari cernerent fortiores, et particulatim vires suas convelli, astutum iniere consilium, quod ipsa indicante iustitia publicatum est.
7. On the contrary, the Goths, considering the difficult outcomes of Mars, and anxious as they saw the stronger being laid low and wounded, and their forces being torn apart piecemeal, entered upon a crafty counsel, which, with Justice herself indicating it, was published.
8. partis enim nostrae candidatos aliquos, qui die praeterito ad eos defecerant, pellexere ut simulata fuga velut ad propria remeantes, intra muros suscipi se curarent, ingressique latenter quandam incenderent partem: ut tamquam signo erecto occultius, dum circa exstinguendum incendium distringitur multitudo clausorum, civitas perrumperetur inpropugnata
8. for they seduced some of our side’s Candidati, who on the previous day had defected to them, to contrive that, with a simulated flight as if returning to their own homes, they should see to it that they were received within the walls, and, having entered stealthily, should set some part on fire: so that, as if with a signal raised, more covertly, while the multitude of those shut in is distracted with extinguishing the blaze, the city might be broken into un-defended
9. perrexere, ut statutum est, candidati: cumque prope fossas venissent, manus tendentes orantesque ut Romanos semet admitti poscebant. et recepti, quia nulla erat suscipio quae vetaret, interrogatique super consiliis hostium, variarunt: unde factum est ut cruenta quaestione vexati cervicibus perirent abscisis, quid acturi venerant aperte confessi.
9. they proceeded, as it had been arranged, the candidates; and when they had come near the ditches, stretching out their hands and beseeching, they demanded that they themselves be admitted as Romans. And having been received, because there was no suspicion to forbid it, and questioned about the counsels of the enemy, they prevaricated: whence it came about that, tormented by a bloody inquisition, they perished with their necks cut off, having openly confessed what they had come to do.
10. Omni itaque bellandi apparatu praestructo, adventante vigilia tertia, barbari abolito praeteritorum vulnerum metu, in urbis obseratos aditus multiplicatis ordinibus inundarunt, et obstinatione magnatium maiore, at cum armatis provinciales et palatini ad obruendos eos excitatius exurgebant, et cuiusque modi tela in multitudine tanta vel temere missa cadere sine noxa non poterant.
10. Therefore, with every apparatus of warring pre-constructed, as the third watch was approaching, the barbarians, the fear of past wounds abolished, inundated the city’s barred entrances with ranks multiplied, and, with the obstinacy of the magnates greater, both the provincials and the palatine troops, along with the armed men, were rising up more eagerly to overwhelm them; and missiles of every kind, in so great a multitude even if sent at random, could not fall without noxious harm.
11. animadversum est a nostris isdem telis barbaros uti, quibus, petebantur. ideoque mandatum est ut nervis ferrum hgnumque conectentibus ante iactum incisis emitterentur arcu sagittae, quae volitantes vires integras servabant, infixae vero corporibus nihil vigoris perdebant, aut certe, si cecidissent in vanum, ilico frangebantur.
11. it was observed by our men that the barbarians were using the same missiles with which they were being assailed. and so it was mandated that, the sinews connecting iron and wood having been incised before the shot, arrows be discharged from the bow, which, while flying, kept their entire force; once embedded in bodies, they lost nothing of vigor; or else, if they had fallen in vain, they were immediately broken.
12. dedit autem rebus ita flagrantibus grave momentum casus admodum inopinus. Scorpio genus tormenti, quem Onagrum sermo vulgaris appellat, e regione contra hostium aciem densam locatus, lapidem contorsit ingentem, qui licet humo frustra inlisus est visus, tamen ita eos metu exanimavit, ut stupore spectaculi novi cedentes e medio abire temptarent.
12. moreover, when matters were thus aflame, a very unexpected mishap gave a grave momentum. A Scorpion, a kind of engine, which vulgar speech calls the Onager, having been positioned over against the enemy’s dense battle line, hurled an enormous stone, which, although it seemed to have struck the ground in vain, nevertheless so struck them with fear that, in stupefaction at the new spectacle, yielding, they tried to withdraw from the midst.
13. sed bucinis optimatum monitu occinentibus instauratum est proelium, et pari modo res Romana superior stetit, nullo ferme alio telo vel funditoris amento in cassum excusso. agmina enim praeeuntium ductorum, quos rapiendi Valentis malis lucubrationibus quesiti cupiditas incendebat, secuti ceteri prae se ferebant aequiperasse discrimina potiorum: namque semineces aliqui aut magnis obtriti ponderibus vel confixi iaculis pectora volvebantur, non nulli scalas vehendo ascensumque in muros ex latere omni parantes sub oneribus ipsis obruebantur, contrusis per pronum saxis et columnarum fragmentis et cylindris.
13. but with the buccinas, at the monition of the optimates, sounding, the battle was restored, and in like manner the Roman cause stood superior, with scarcely any other missile or the slinger’s thong hurled in vain. For the ranks of the leaders going before—whom the desire of seizing Valens, contrived by wicked lucubrations, inflamed—being followed by the rest, bore before them that they had equalled the hazards of their betters: for some half-dead, either crushed by great weights or with their breasts pierced by javelins, were rolling about, and not a few, by carrying ladders and preparing an ascent upon the walls from every side, were overwhelmed beneath the loads themselves, as stones, and fragments of columns, and cylinders, thrust down headlong, pressed upon them.
14. nec quemquam furentium cruoris horrenda species ad serum usque diem ab alacritate faciendi fortiter avertebat, hoc incitante quod etiam defensorum plurimos cadere diversis ictibus videntes eminus laetabantur. ita sine requie ulla vel modo pro moenibus et contra moenia ingentibus animis pugnabatur. I
14. nor did the horrendous spectacle of gore turn any of the raging men from an alacrity of doing bravely even to the late hour of the day, this urging them on, that, seeing from afar very many of the defenders fall by diverse blows, they rejoiced. thus without any respite it was being fought, both for the walls and against the walls, with immense spirits. 1
5. et quia nullo ordine iam sed per procursus pugnabatur et globos, quod desperationis erat signum extremae, flexo in vesperam die cligressi omnes rediere ad tentoria tristes, inconsideratae dementiae alter alterum arguentes, quod non, ut suaserat antea Fritigernus, obsiclionales aerumnas ubique declinarunt.
5. and because now it was being fought with no order but by charges and in masses, which was a sign of extreme desperation, with the day bent toward evening, all, having withdrawn, returned to their tents sad, each accusing the other of inconsiderate dementia, because they had not, as Fritigernus had advised before, declined the obsidional hardships everywhere.
1. Conversi post haec per omne tempus noctis, ut aestivae non longum, ad vulnerum curas artesque medendi gentiles, redclita luce in varias consiliorum vias diducebantur, quorsum tenderent ambigentes, multisque dictatis et controversis occupare statuunt Perinthum, exinde quaeque divitiarum referta, docentibus omnia perfugis, etiam domorum nedum urbium interna noscentes. hanc secuti sententiam, quam utilem existimarunt, itineribus lentis, miscentes cuncta populationibus et incendiis, nullo renitente pergebant.
1. Turned after these things, through all the time of the night—as that of summer is not long—to the care of wounds and the national arts of healing, with the light restored they were led off into various paths of counsels, wavering whither they should aim; and with many points dictated and disputed they resolve to seize Perinthus, and from there whatever places stuffed with riches, as the deserters taught everything, knowing even the interiors of houses, not to say of cities. Following this plan, which they judged useful, with slow marches, mingling everything with ravagings and incendings, they proceeded with no one resisting.
2. Obsessi vero apud Hadrianopolim, post eorum abitum perceptum, cum vacare hoste loca proxima conpertae fidei nuntiassent exploratores: egressi media nocte, vitatis aggeribus publicis per nemorosa et devia, pars Philippopolim, exindeque Serdicam, alia ad Macedoniam cum intemeratis opibus, quas habebant, omni studio ad properandum excogitato currebant, velut in regionibus illis repperiendo Valente: quem inter medios certaminum turbines oppetisse, vel certe ad tugurium confugisse, ubi aestimatus est vi periisse flammarum, penitus ignorabant.
2. As for those besieged at Hadrianople, after their departure had been perceived, when the scouts had reported that the neighboring places were free of the enemy and of ascertained fidelity: having gone out at midnight, avoiding the public causeways through wooded and out-of-the-way places, some were running to Philippopolis, and from there to Serdica, others to Macedonia, with their unimpaired resources, which they had, with every expedient for hastening excogitated, they were hurrying, as though to find Valens in those regions: whom they were utterly ignorant to have met death amid the whirlwinds of the combats, or at any rate to have taken refuge in a hut, where he was thought to have perished by the force of the flames.
3. At Gothi Hunis Halanisque permixti nimium bellicosis et fortibus, rerumque asperarum difficultatibus induratis, quos miris praemiorum inlecebris sibi sociarat sollertia Fritigerni, fixis iusta Perinthum castris, ipsam quidem urbem cladium memores pristinarum nec adire nec temptare sunt ausi, agros vero fertiles late distentos et longe ad extremam vastavere penuriam, cultoribus caesis aut captis.
3. But the Goths, mixed with the Huns and the Alans, exceedingly bellicose and strong, and hardened by the difficulties of harsh circumstances, whom the ingenuity of Fritigern had associated to himself by wondrous enticements of rewards, with their camps fixed close to Perinthus, did not dare either to approach or to attempt the city itself, mindful as they were of former disasters; but the fertile fields, widely extended, they laid waste far and wide to extreme penury, the cultivators having been slain or captured.
4. unde Constantinopolim, copiarum cumulis inhiantes amplissimis, formas quadratorum agminum insidiarum metu servantes, ire ocius festinabant, multa in exitium urbis inclitae molituri. quos inferentes sese inmodice obicesque portarum paene pulsantes, hoc casu caeleste reppulit numen.
4. whence to Constantinople, gaping after the amplest heaps of supplies, keeping the forms of squared columns through fear of ambushes, they were hastening to go with all speed, about to contrive many things for the destruction of the famed city. but as they were pushing themselves forward immoderately and almost striking the gate-bars, by this chance a celestial numen repelled them.
5. Saracenorum cuneus - super quorum origine moribusque diversis in locis rettulimus plura - ad furta magis expeditionalium rerum quam ad concursatorias habilis pugnas, recens illuc accersitus, congressurus barbarum globo repente conspecto a civitate fidenter erupit, diuque extento certamine pertinaci, aequis partes discessere momentis.
5. The wedge of the Saracens — about whose origin and customs we have reported more in diverse places — being more apt to thefts of expeditionary goods than to charge-style fights, having been recently summoned thither, when the barbarian mass was suddenly sighted, burst confidently out from the city; and, the contest long drawn out and pertinacious, the sides withdrew on equal terms.
6. sed orientalis turma novo neque ante viso superavit eventu. ex ea enim crinitus quidam, nudus omnia praeter pubem, subraucum et lugubre strepens, educto pugione agmini se medio Gothorurn inservit et interfecti hostis iugulo labra admovit effusumque cruorem exuxit. quo monstroso miraculo barbari territi, postea non ferocientes ex more, cum agendum adpeterent aliquid, sed ambiguis gressibus incedebant.
6. but the Oriental troop prevailed by a novel and never-before-seen outcome. For from it a certain long-haired man, naked in all things except the pubes, sounding somewhat hoarse and lugubrious, with his poniard drawn, hurled himself into the middle of the Goths’ column and brought his lips to the throat of a slain enemy and sucked out the blood that was pouring forth. By this monstrous miracle the barbarians, terrified, thereafter did not grow fierce in their customary way when they aimed to do anything, but advanced with uncertain steps.
7. processu dein audacia fracta, cum murorum ambitum insularumque spatiis inmensis oblongum, et inaccessas pulchritudines urbis et incolentium plebem considerarent inmensam, iuxtaque fretum, quod Pontum disterminat et Aegaeum, disicttis bel lorum officinis, quas parabant, post accepta maiora funera quam inlata, exinde digressi sunt effusorie per arctoas provincias, quas peragravere licenter ad usque radices Alpium Iuliarum, quas Venetas appellabat antiquitas.
7. then, their audacity broken by the course of events, since they considered the circuit of the walls, oblong, prolonged by the immense spaces of the islands, and the inaccessible beauties of the city and the immense populace of the inhabitants, and, close by, the strait which disterminates (separates) the Pontus and the Aegean, their workshops of war, which they were preparing, being cast asunder, after having received greater funerals (losses) than they had inflicted, from there they departed in scattered fashion through the northern (arctic) provinces, which they traversed licentiously up to the very roots of the Julian Alps, which antiquity called the Venetan.
8. His diebus efficacia Iulii magistri militiae trans Taurum enituit salutaris et velox. conperta enim fatorum sorte per Thracias, Gothos antea susceptos, dispersosque per varias civitates et castra, datis tectioribus litteris ad eorum rectores Romanos omnes, quod his temporibus raro contingit, universos tamquam vexillo erecto uno eodemque die mandavit occidi, exspectatione promissi stipendi securos ad suburbana productos. quo consilio prudenti sine strepitu vel mora completo, orientales provinciae discriminibus ereptae sunt magnis.
8. In those days the efficacy of Julius, master of the soldiery, beyond the Taurus, shone forth—salutary and swift. For, the lot of the fates having been ascertained, throughout the Thracian regions, the Goths previously received and dispersed through various cities and camps, by sending more covert letters to all their Roman commanders—a thing which in these times rarely happens—he ordered all, as if with the standard raised, to be slain on one and the same day, having been led out to the suburbs, secure in the expectation of the promised stipend. And when this prudent counsel had been completed without noise or delay, the eastern provinces were snatched from great dangers.
9. Haec ut miles quondam et Graecus, a principatu Caesaris Nervae exorsus ad usque Valentis interitum pro virium explicavi mensura: opus veritatem professum numquam, ut arbitror, sciens silentio ausus corrumpere vel mendacio. scribant reliqua potiores, aetate doctrinisque florentes. quos id, si libuerit, adgressuros, procudere linguas ad maiores moneo stilos.
9. These things I, once a soldier and a Greek, beginning from the principate of Caesar Nerva up to the death of Valens, have set forth according to the measure of my powers: a work that has professed truth, never, as I judge, having dared knowingly to corrupt it by silence or by a lie. let those more capable, flourishing in age and in doctrines, write the rest. whom, if it shall please them to undertake it, I advise to forge their tongues to greater styluses.