title "Getica" (and the Getae we have proved in a previous
passage to be Goths, on the testimony of Orosius
Paulus)--this Dio, I say, makes mention of a later king
of theirs named Telefus. Let no one say that this name
is quite foreign to the Gothic tongue, and let no one who
is ignorant cavil at the fact that the tribes of men make
use of many names, even as the Romans borrow from the
Macedonians, the Greeks from the Romans, the Sarmatians
from the Germans, and the Goths frequently from
the Huns. This Telefus, then, a son of Hercules by     59
Auge, and the husband of a sister of Priam, was of
towering stature and terrible strength. He matched his
father's valor by virtues of his own and also recalled the
traits of Hercules by his likeness in appearance. Our
ancestors called his kingdom Moesia. This province has
on the east the mouths of the Danube, on the south
Macedonia, on the west Histria and on the north the
Danube. Now this king we have mentioned carried on     60
wars with the Greeks, and in their course he slew in battle
Thesander, the leader of Greece. But while he was making
a hostile attack upon Ajax and was pursuing Ulysses,
his horse became entangled in some vines and fell. He
himself was thrown and wounded in the thigh by a javelin
of Achilles, so that for a long time he could not be healed.
Yet, despite his wound, he drove the Greeks from his
land. Now when Telefus died, his son Eurypylus succeeded
to the throne, being a son of the sister of Priam,
king of the Phrygians. For love of Cassandra he sought
to take part in the Trojan war, that he might come to the
help of her parents and his own father-in-law; but soon
after his arrival he was killed.

[Sidenote: Cyrus the Great B.C. 559-529]

[Sidenote: QUEEN TOMYRIS AND CYRUS B.C. 529]

X Then Cyrus, king of the Persians, after a long     61
interval of almost exactly six hundred and thirty years
(as Pompeius Trogus relates), waged an unsuccessful
war against Tomyris, Queen of the Getae. Elated by his
victories in Asia, he strove to conquer the Getae, whose
queen, as I have said, was Tomyris. Though she could
have stopped the approach of Cyrus at the river Araxes,
yet she permitted him to cross, preferring to overcome
him in battle rather than to thwart him by advantage of     62
position. And so she did. As Cyrus approached, fortune
at first so favored the Parthians that they slew the son
of Tomyris and most of the army. But when the battle
was renewed, the Getae and their queen defeated, conquered
and overwhelmed the Parthians and took rich
plunder from them. There for the first time the race of
the Goths saw silken tents. After achieving this victory
and winning so much booty from her enemies, Queen
Tomyris crossed over into that part of Moesia which is
now called Lesser Scythia--a name borrowed from great
Scythia,--and built on the Moesian shore of Pontus the
city of Tomi, named after herself.

[Sidenote: DARIUS B.C. 521-485]

[Sidenote: DARIUS REPELLED]

Afterwards Darius, king of the Persians, the son of     63
Hystaspes, demanded in marriage the daughter of Antyrus,
king of the Goths, asking for her hand and at the
same time making threats in case they did not fulfil his
wish. The Goths spurned this alliance and brought his
embassy to naught. Inflamed with anger because his
offer had been rejected, he led an army of seven hundred
thousand armed men against them and sought to avenge
his wounded feelings by inflicting a public injury. Crossing
on boats covered with boards and joined like a bridge
almost the whole way from Chalcedon to Byzantium, he
started for Thrace and Moesia. Later he built a bridge
over the Danube in like manner, but he was wearied by
two brief months of effort and lost eight thousand armed
men among the Tapae. Then, fearing the bridge over the
Danube would be seized by his foes, he marched back to
Thrace in swift retreat, believing the land of Moesia
would not be safe for even a short sojourn there.

[Sidenote: Xerxes B.C. 485-465]

After his death, his son Xerxes planned to avenge his     64
father's wrongs and so proceeded to undertake a war
against the Goths with seven hundred thousand of his
own men and three hundred thousand armed auxiliaries,
twelve hundred ships of war and three thousand transports.
But he did not venture to try them in battle, being
overawed by their unyielding animosity. So he returned
with his force just as he had come, and without righting
a single battle.

[Sidenote: Philip of Macedon B.C. 359-336]

[Sidenote: SIEGE OF ODESSUS]

Then Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, made     65
alliance with the Goths and took to wife Medopa, the
daughter of King Gudila, so that he might render the
kingdom of Macedon more secure by the help of this
marriage. It was at this time, as the historian Dio relates,
that Philip, suffering from need of money, determined
to lead out his forces and sack Odessus, a city of
Moesia, which was then subject to the Goths by reason of
the neighboring city of Tomi. Thereupon those priests
of the Goths that are called the Holy Men suddenly
opened the gates of Odessus and came forth to meet them.
They bore harps and were clad in snowy robes, and
chanted in suppliant strains to the gods of their fathers
that they might be propitious and repel the Macedonians.
When the Macedonians saw them coming with such confidence
to meet them, they were astonished and, so to
speak, the armed were terrified by the unarmed. Straight-way
they broke the line they had formed for battle and
not only refrained from destroying the city, but even
gave back those whom they had captured outside by right
of war. Then they made a truce and returned to their
own country.

After a long time Sitalces, a famous leader of the     66
Goths, remembering this treacherous attempt, gathered a
hundred and fifty thousand men and made war upon the
Athenians, fighting against Perdiccas, King of Macedon.
This Perdiccas had been left by Alexander as his successor
to rule Athens by hereditary right, when he drank his
destruction at Babylon through the treachery of an attendant.
The Goths engaged in a great battle with him
and proved themselves to be the stronger. Thus in return
for the wrong which the Macedonians had long before
committed in Moesia, the Goths overran Greece and laid
waste the whole of Macedonia.

[Sidenote: Sulla's Dictatorship B.C. 82-79]

[Sidenote: THE WISE RULE OF DICINEUS]

[Sidenote: Caesar's Dictatorship B.C. 49-44]

[Sidenote: Tiberius A.D. 14-37]

XI Then when Buruista was king of the Goths,     67
Dicineus came to Gothia at the time when Sulla ruled the
Romans. Buruista received Dicineus and gave him almost
royal power. It was by his advice the Goths ravaged
the lands of the Germans, which the Franks now possess.     68
Then came Caesar, the first of all the Romans to assume
imperial power and to subdue almost the whole world,
who conquered all kingdoms and even seized islands lying
beyond our world, reposing in the bosom of Ocean. He
made tributary to the Romans those that knew not the
Roman name even by hearsay, and yet was unable to prevail
against the Goths, despite his frequent attempts.
Soon Gaius Tiberius reigned as third emperor of the
Romans, and yet the Goths continued in their kingdom
unharmed. Their safety, their advantage, their one hope     69
lay in this, that whatever their counsellor Dicineus advised
should by all means be done; and they judged it
expedient that they should labor for its accomplishment.
And when he saw that their minds were obedient to him
in all things and that they had natural ability, he taught
them almost the whole of philosophy, for he was a skilled
master of this subject. Thus by teaching them ethics he
restrained their barbarous customs; by imparting a knowledge
of physics he made them live naturally under laws
of their own, which they possess in written form to this
day and call _belagines_. He taught them logic and made
them skilled in reasoning beyond all other races; he
showed them practical knowledge and so persuaded them
to abound in good works. By demonstrating theoretical
knowledge he urged them to contemplate the twelve signs
and the courses of the planets passing through them, and
the whole of astronomy. He told them how the disc of
the moon gains increase or suffers loss, and showed them
how much the fiery globe of the sun exceeds in size our
earthly planet. He explained the names of the three hundred
and forty-six stars and told through what signs in
the arching vault of the heavens they glide swiftly from
their rising to their setting. Think, I pray you, what     70
pleasure it was for these brave men, when for a little
space they had leisure from warfare, to be instructed in
the teachings of philosophy! You might have seen one
scanning the position of the heavens and another investigating
the nature of plants and bushes. Here stood one
who studied the waxing and waning of the moon, while
still another regarded the labors of the sun and observed
how those bodies which were hastening to go toward the
east are whirled around and borne back to the west by
the rotation of the heavens. When they had learned the     71
reason, they were at rest. These and various other matters
Dicineus taught the Goths in his wisdom and gained
marvellous repute among them, so that he ruled not only
the common men but their kings. He chose from among
them those that were at that time of noblest birth and
superior wisdom and taught them theology, bidding them
worship certain divinities and holy places. He gave the
name of Pilleati to the priests he ordained, I suppose
because they offered sacrifice having their heads covered
with tiaras, which we otherwise call _pillei_. But he bade
them call the rest of their race Capillati. This name the     72
Goths accepted and prized highly and they retain it to
this day in their songs.

After the death of Dicineus, they held Comosicus in     73
almost equal honor, because he was not inferior in knowledge.
By reason of his wisdom he was accounted their
priest and king, and he judged the people with the greatest
uprightness.

[Sidenote: DACIA]

XII When he too had departed from human affairs,
Coryllus ascended the throne as king of the Goths and for
forty years ruled his people in Dacia. I mean ancient
Dacia, which the race of the Gepidae now possess. This
country lies across the Danube within sight of Moesia,     74
and is surrounded by a crown of mountains. It has only
two ways of access, one by way of the Boutae and the
other by the Tapae. This Gothia, which our ancestors
called Dacia and now, as I have said, is called Gepidia,
was then bounded on the east by the Roxolani, on the west
by the Iazyges, on the north by the Sarmatians and Basternae
and on the south by the river Danube. The Iazyges
are separated from the Roxolani by the Aluta river only.

[Sidenote: THE DANUBE]

And since mention has been made of the Danube, I     75
think it not out of place to make brief notice of so excellent
a stream. Rising in the fields of the Alamanni, it
receives sixty streams which flow into it here and there
in the twelve hundred miles from its source to its mouths
in the Pontus, resembling a spine inwoven with ribs like
a basket. It is indeed a most vast river. In the language
of the Bessi it is called the Hister, and it has profound
waters in its channel to a depth of quite two hundred feet.
This stream surpasses in size all other rivers, except the
Nile. Let this much suffice for the Danube. But let us
now with the Lord's help return to the subject from which
we have digressed.

[Sidenote: Domitian A.D. 81-96]

[Sidenote: WAR WITH DOMITIAN]

XIII Now after a long time, in the reign of the     76
Emperor Domitian, the Goths, through fear of his avarrice,
broke the truce they had long observed under other
emperors. They laid waste the bank of the Danube, so
long held by the Roman Empire, and slew the soldiers and
their generals. Oppius Sabinus was then in command of
that province, succeeding Agrippa, while Dorpaneus held
command over the Goths. Thereupon the Goths made
war and conquered the Romans, cut off the head of
Oppius Sabinus, and invaded and boldly plundered many
castles and cities belonging to the Emperor. In this plight     77
of his countrymen Domitian hastened with all his might
to Illyricum, bringing with him the troops of almost
the entire empire. He sent Fuscus before him as his
general with picked soldiers. Then joining boats together
like a bridge, he made his soldiers cross the river
Danube above the army of Dorpaneus. But the Goths     78
were on the alert. They took up arms and presently overwhelmed
the Romans in the first encounter. They slew
Fuscus, the commander, and plundered the soldiers' camp
of its treasure. And because of the great victory they
had won in this region, they thereafter called their leaders,
by whose good fortune they seemed to have conquered,
not mere men, but demigods, that is Ansis. Their
genealogy I shall run through briefly, telling the lineage
of each and the beginning and the end of this line. And
do thou, O reader, hear me without repining; for I speak
truly.

[Sidenote: GENEALOGY OF THE ANSIS OR AMALI]

XIV Now the first of these heroes, as they themselves     79
relate in their legends, was Gapt, who begat
Hulmul. And Hulmul begat Augis; and Augis begat
him who was called Amal, from whom the name of the
Amali comes. This Amal begat Hisarnis. Hisarnis
moreover begat Ostrogotha, and Ostrogotha begat Hunuil,
and Hunuil likewise begat Athal. Athal begat
Achiulf and Oduulf. Now Achiulf begat Ansila and
Ediulf, Vultuulf and Hermanaric. And Vultuulf begat
Valaravans and Valaravans begat Vinitharius. Vinitharius
moreover begat Vandalarius; Vandalarius begat     80
Thiudimer and Valamir and Vidimer; and Thiudimer
begat Theodoric. Theodoric begat Amalasuentha; Amalasuentha
bore Athalaric and Mathesuentha to her husband
Eutharic, whose race was thus joined to hers in
kinship. For the aforesaid Hermanaric, the son of     81
Achiulf, begat Hunimund, and Hunimund begat Thorismud.
Now Thorismud begat Beremud, Beremud begat
Veteric, and Veteric likewise begat Eutharic, who married
Amalasuentha and begat Athalaric and Mathesuentha.
Athalaric died in the years of his childhood, and
Mathesuentha married Vitiges, to whom she bore no
child. Both of them were taken together by Belisarius to
Constantinople. When Vitiges passed from human affairs,
Germanus the patrician, a cousin of the Emperor
Justinian, took Mathesuentha in marriage and made her
a Patrician Ordinary. And of her he begat a son, also
called Germanus. But upon the death of Germanus, she
determined to remain a widow. Now how and in what
wise the kingdom of the Amali was overthrown we shall
keep to tell in its proper place, if the Lord help us.

But let us now return to the point whence we made our     82
digression and tell how the stock of this people of whom
I speak reached the end of its course. Now Ablabius the
historian relates that in Scythia, where we have said that
they were dwelling above an arm of the Pontic Sea, part
of them who held the eastern region and whose king was
Ostrogotha, were called Ostrogoths, that is, eastern
Goths, either from his name or from the place. But the
rest were called Visigoths, that is, the Goths of the western
country.

[Sidenote: MAXIMINUS, THE GOTH WHO BECAME A ROMAN EMPEROR]

[Sidenote: Septimius Severus A.D. 193-211]

[Sidenote: Antoninus Caracalla A.D. 198-217]

[Sidenote: Macrinus A.D. 217-218]

[Sidenote: Antoninus Elagabalus A.D. 218-222]

[Sidenote: Alexander A.D. 222-235]

[Sidenote: Maximinus A.D. 235-238]

[Sidenote: Pupienus A.D. 238]

XV As already said, they crossed the Danube and     83
dwelt a little while in Moesia and Thrace. From the
remnant of these came Maximinus, the Emperor succeeding
Alexander the son of Mama. For Symmachus relates
it thus in the fifth book of his history, saying that
upon the death of Caesar Alexander, Maximinus was
made Emperor by the army; a man born in Thrace of
most humble parentage, his father being a Goth named
Micca, and his mother a woman of the Alani called
Ababa. He reigned three years and lost alike his empire
and his life while making war on the Christians. Now     84
after his first years spent in rustic life, he had come from
his flocks to military service in the reign of the Emperor
Severus and at the time when he was celebrating his
son's birthday. It happened that the Emperor was giving
military games. When Maximinus saw this, although he
was a semi-barbarian youth, he besought the Emperor in
his native tongue to give him permission to wrestle with     85
the trained soldiers for the prizes offered. Severus marvelling
much at his great size--for his stature, it is said,
was more than eight feet,--bade him contend in wrestling
with the camp followers, in order that no injury might
befall his soldiers at the hands of this wild fellow. Thereupon
Maximinus threw sixteen attendants with so great
ease that he conquered them one by one without taking
any rest by pausing between the bouts. So then, when
he had won the prizes, it was ordered that he should be
sent into the army and should take his first campaign with
the cavalry. On the third day after this, when the Emperor
went out to the field, he saw him coursing about
in barbarian fashion and bade a tribune restrain him and
teach him Roman discipline. But when he understood
it was the Emperor who was speaking about him, he came     86
forward and began to run ahead of him as he rode. Then
the Emperor spurred on his horse to a slow trot and
wheeled in many a circle hither and thither with various
turns, until he was weary. And then he said to him "Are
you willing to wrestle now after your running, my little
Thracian?" "As much as you like, O Emperor," he
answered. So Severus leaped from his horse and ordered
the freshest soldiers to wrestle with him. But he threw
to the ground seven very powerful youths, even as before,
taking no breathing space between the bouts. So he alone
was given prizes of silver and a golden necklace by Caesar.
Then he was bidden to serve in the body guard of
the Emperor. After this he was an officer under Antoninus     87
Caracalla, often increasing his fame by his deeds,
and rose to many military grades and finally to the centurionship
as the reward of his active service. Yet afterwards,
when Macrinus became Emperor, he refused military
service for almost three years, and though he held
the office of tribune, he never came into the presence of
Macrinus, thinking his rule shameful because he had won
it by committing a crime. Then he returned to Eliogabalus,     88
believing him to be the son of Antoninus, and
entered upon his tribuneship. After his reign, he fought
with marvellous success against the Parthians, under
Alexander the son of Mama. When he was slain in an
uprising of the soldiers at Mogontiacum, Maximinus
himself was made Emperor by a vote of the army, without
a decree of the senate. But he marred all his good
deeds by persecuting the Christians in accordance with
an evil vow and, being slain by Pupienus at Aquileia, left
the kingdom to Philip. These matters we have borrowed
from the history of Symmachus for this our little book,
in order to show that the race of which we speak attained
to the very highest station in the Roman Empire. But
our subject requires us to return in due order to the point
whence we digressed.

[Sidenote: KING OSTROGOTHA WARS WITH PHILIP]

[Sidenote: Philip pater A.D. 244-249 "The Arabian"]

[Sidenote: Philip filius A.D. 247-249]

XVI Now the Gothic race gained great fame in the     89
region where they were then dwelling, that is in the
Scythian land on the shore of Pontus, holding undisputed
sway over great stretches of country, many arms of the
sea and many river courses. By their strong right arm
the Vandals were often laid low, the Marcomanni held
their footing by paying tribute and the princes of the
Quadi were reduced to slavery. Now when the aforesaid
Philip--who, with his son Philip, was the only Christian
emperor before Constantine--ruled over the Romans, in
the second year of his reign Rome completed its one
thousandth year. He withheld from the Goths the tribute
due them; whereupon they were naturally enraged and
instead of friends became his foes. For though they dwelt
apart under their own kings, yet they had been allied to
the Roman state and received annual gifts. And what     90
more? Ostrogotha and his men soon crossed the Danube
and ravaged Moesia and Thrace. Philip sent the senator
Decius against him. And since he could do nothing
against the Getae, he released his own soldiers from military
service and sent them back to private life, as though
it had been by their neglect that the Goths had crossed the
Danube. When, as he supposed, he had thus taken vengeance
on his soldiers, he returned to Philip. But when
the soldiers found themselves expelled from the army
after so many hardships, in their anger they had recourse
to the protection of Ostrogotha, king of the Goths. He     91
received them, was aroused by their words and presently
led out three hundred thousand armed men, having as
allies for this war some of the Taifali and Astringi and
also three thousand of the Carpi, a race of men very ready
to make war and frequently hostile to the Romans. But
in later times when Diocletian and Maximian were Emperors,
the Caesar Galerius Maximianus conquered them
and made them tributary to the Roman Empire. Besides
these tribes, Ostrogotha had Goths and Peucini from the
island of Peucë, which lies in the mouths of the Danube
where they empty into the Sea of Pontus. He placed in
command Argaithus and Guntheric, the noblest leaders     92
of his race. They speedily crossed the Danube, devastated
Moesia a second time and approached Marcianople,
the famed metropolis of that land. Yet after a long siege
they departed, upon receiving money from the inhabitants.

[Sidenote: MARCIANOPLE]

[Sidenote: THE GEPIDAE AND THEIR DEFEAT BY OSTROGOTHA]

Now since we have mentioned Marcianople, we may     93
briefly relate a few matters in connection with its founding.
They say that the Emperor Trajan built this city
for the following reason. While his sister's daughter
Marcia was bathing in the stream called Potamus--a
river of great clearness and purity that rises in the midst
of the city--she wished to draw some water from it and
by chance dropped into its depths the golden pitcher she
was carrying. Yet though very heavy from its weight
of metal, it emerged from the waves a long time afterwards.
It surely is not a usual thing for an empty vessel
to sink; much less that, when once swallowed up, it should
be cast up by the waves and float again. Trajan marvelled
at hearing this and believed there was some divinity
in the stream. So he built a city and called it Marcianople
after the name of his sister.

XVII From this city, then, as we were saying, the     94
Getae returned after a long siege to their own land, enriched
by the ransom they had received. Now the race
of the Gepidae was moved with envy when they saw them
laden with booty and so suddenly victorious everywhere,
and made war on their kinsmen. Should you ask how
the Getae and Gepidae are kinsmen, I can tell you in a
few words. You surely remember that in the beginning
I said the Goths went forth from the bosom of the island
of Scandza with Berig, their king, sailing in only three
ships toward the hither shore of Ocean, namely to
Gothiscandza. One of these three ships proved to be     95
slower than the others, as is usually the case, and thus is
said to have given the tribe their name, for in their
language _gepanta_ means slow. Hence it came to pass
that gradually and by corruption the name Gepidae was
coined for them by way of reproach. For undoubtedly
they too trace their origin from the stock of the Goths,
but because, as I have said, _gepanta_ means something
slow and stolid, the word Gepidae arose as a gratuitous
name of reproach. I do not believe this is very far
wrong, for they are slow of thought and too sluggish for
quick movement of their bodies.

These Gepidae were then smitten by envy while they     96
dwelt in the province of Spesis on an island surrounded
by the shallow waters of the Vistula. This island they
called, in the speech of their fathers, Gepedoios; but it is
now inhabited by the race of the Vividarii, since the
Gepidae themselves have moved to better lands. The
Vividarii are gathered from various races into this one
asylum, if I may call it so, and thus they form a nation.
So then, as we were saying, Fastida, king of the Gepidae,     97
stirred up his quiet people to enlarge their boundaries by
war. He overwhelmed the Burgundians, almost annihilating
them, and conquered a number of other races also.
He unjustly provoked the Goths, being the first to break
the bonds of kinship by unseemly strife. He was greatly
puffed up with vain glory, but in seeking to acquire new
lands for his growing nation, he only reduced the numbers
of his own countrymen. For he sent ambassadors     98
to Ostrogotha, to whose rule Ostrogoths and Visigoths
alike, that is, the two peoples of the same tribe, were still
subject. Complaining that he was hemmed in by rugged
mountains and dense forests, he demanded one of two
things,--that Ostrogotha should either prepare for war
or give up part of his lands to them. Then Ostrogotha,     99
king of the Goths, who was a man of firm mind, answered
the ambassadors that he did indeed dread such a
war and that it would be a grievous and infamous thing
to join battle with their kin,--but he would not give up
his lands. And why say more? The Gepidae hastened
to take arms and Ostrogotha likewise moved his forces
against them, lest he should seem a coward. They met
at the town of Galtis, near which the river Auha flows
and there both sides fought with great valor; indeed the
similarity of their arms and of their manner of fighting
turned them against their own men. But the better cause
and their natural alertness aided the Goths. Finally night     100
put an end to the battle as a part of the Gepidae were
giving way. Then Fastida, king of the Gepidae, left the
field of slaughter and hastened to his own land, as much
humiliated with shame and disgrace as formerly he had
been elated with pride. The Goths returned victorious,
content with the retreat of the Gepidae, and dwelt in
peace and happiness in their own land so long as Ostrogotha
was their leader.

[Sidenote: KING CNIVA AT WAR WITH DECIUS]

[Sidenote: Decius A.D. 249-251]

[Sidenote: Capture of Philippopolis A.D. 250]

[Sidenote: Death of Decius at Abrittus A.D. 251]

XVIII After his death, Cniva divided the army into     101
two parts and sent some to waste Moesia, knowing that it
was undefended through the neglect of the emperors.
He himself with seventy thousand men hastened to
Euscia, that is, Novae. When driven from this place by
the general Gallus, he approached Nicopolis, a very famous
town situated near the Iatrus river. This city
Trajan built when he conquered the Sarmatians and
named it the City of Victory. When the Emperor Decius
drew near, Cniva at last withdrew to the regions of
Haemus, which were not far distant. Thence he hastened
to Philippopolis, with his forces in good array. When     102
the Emperor Decius learned of his departure, he was
eager to bring relief to his own city and, crossing Mount
Haemus, came to Beroa. While he was resting his horses
and his weary army in that place, all at once Cniva and
his Goths fell upon him like a thunderbolt. He cut the
Roman army to pieces and drove the Emperor, with a
few who had succeeded in escaping, across the Alps again
to Euscia in Moesia, where Gallus was then stationed
with a large force of soldiers as guardian of the frontier.
Collecting an army from this region as well as from
Oescus, he prepared for the conflict of the coming war.
But Cniva took Philippopolis after a long siege and then,     103
laden with spoil, allied himself to Priscus, the commander
in the city, to fight against Decius. In the battle that
followed they quickly pierced the son of Decius with an
arrow and cruelly slew him. The father saw this, and
although he is said to have exclaimed, to cheer the hearts
of his soldiers: "Let no one mourn; the death of one
soldier is not a great loss to the republic", he was yet
unable to endure it, because of his love for his son. So
he rode against the foe, demanding either death or vengeance,
and when he came to Abrittus, a city of Moesia,
he was himself cut off by the Goths and slain, thus making
an end of his dominion and of his life. This place
is to-day called the Altar of Decius, because he there
offered strange sacrifices to idols before the battle.

(THE GOTHS IN THE TIME OF GALLUS, VOLUSIANUS AND AEMILIANUS)

[Sidenote: Gallus A.D. 251-253]

[Sidenote: Volusianus A.D. 252-253]

[Sidenote: Aemilianus A.D. 253]

[Sidenote: The Plague A.D. 252-267]

[Sidenote: Gallienus A.D. 253-268]

XIX Then upon the death of Decius, Gallus and     104
Volusianus succeeded to the Roman Empire. At this
time a destructive plague, almost like death itself, such
as we suffered nine years ago, blighted the face of the
whole earth and especially devastated Alexandria and all
the land of Egypt. The historian Dionysius gives a
mournful account of it and Cyprian, our own bishop and
venerable martyr in Christ, also describes it in his book
entitled "On Mortality". At this time the Goths frequently
ravaged Moesia, through the neglect of the Emperors.
When a certain Aemilianus saw that they were     105
free to do this, and that they could not be dislodged by
anyone without great cost to the republic, he thought that
he too might be able to achieve fame and fortune. So he
seized the rule in Moesia and, taking all the soldiers he
could gather, began to plunder cities and people. In the
next few months, while an armed host was being gathered
against him, he wrought no small harm to the state.
Yet he died almost at the beginning of his evil attempt,
thus losing at once his life and the power he coveted.
Now though Gallus and Volusianus, the Emperors we     106
have mentioned, departed this life after remaining in
power for barely two years, yet during this space of two
years which they spent on earth they reigned amid universal
peace and favor. Only one thing was laid to their
charge, namely the great plague. But this was an accusation
made by ignorant slanderers, whose custom it is
to wound the lives of others with their malicious bite.
Soon after they came to power they made a treaty with
the race of the Goths. When both rulers were dead, it
was no long time before Gallienus usurped the throne.

[Sidenote: THE GOTHS PLUNDER ASIA MINOR A.D. 262 or 263]

XX While he was given over to luxurious living of     107
every sort, Respa, Veduc and Thuruar, leaders of the
Goths, took ship and sailed across the strait of the Hellespont
to Asia. There they laid waste many populous
cities and set fire to the renowned temple of Diana at
Ephesus, which, as we said before, the Amazons built.
Being driven from the neighborhood of Bithynia, they
destroyed Chalcedon, which Cornelius Avitus afterwards
restored to some extent. Yet even to-day, though it is
happily situated near the royal city, it still shows some
traces of its ruin as a witness to posterity. After their     108
success, the Goths recrossed the strait of the Hellespont,
laden with booty and spoil, and returned along the same
route by which they had entered the lands of Asia, sacking
Troy and Ilium on the way. These cities, which had
scarce recovered a little from the famous war with Agamemnon,
were thus destroyed anew by the hostile sword.
After the Goths had thus devastated Asia, Thrace next
felt their ferocity. For they went thither and presently
attacked Anchiali, a city at the foot of Haemus and not
far from the sea. Sardanapalus, king of the Parthians,
had built this city long ago between an inlet of the sea
and the base of Haemus. There they are said to have     109
stayed for many days, enjoying the baths of the hot
springs which are situated about twelve miles from the
city of Anchiali. There they gush from the depths of
their fiery source, and among the innumerable hot springs
of the world they are esteemed as specially famous and
efficacious for their healing virtues.

(THE TIMES OF DIOCLETIAN)

[Sidenote: Diocletian 284-305]

[Sidenote: Masimian 284-305]

XXI After these events, the Goths had already returned     110
home when they were summoned at the request
of the Emperor Maximian to aid the Romans against the
Parthians. They fought for him faithfully, serving as
auxiliaries. But after Caesar Maximian by their aid had
routed Narseus, king of the Persians, the grandson of
Sapor the Great, taking as spoil all his possessions, together
with his wives and his sons, and when Diocletian
had conquered Achilles in Alexandria and Maximianus
Herculius had broken the Quinquegentiani in Africa, thus
winning peace for the empire, they began rather to neglect
the Goths.

[Sidenote: Constantine I 306-337]

[Sidenote: Licinius 307-323]

Now it had long been a hard matter for the Roman     111
army to fight against any nations whatsoever without
them. This is evident from the way in which the Goths
were so frequently called upon. Thus they were summoned
by Constantine to bear arms against his kinsman
Licinius. Later, when he was vanquished and shut up
Thessalonica and deprived of his power, they slew him
with the sword of Constantine the victor. In like manner     112
it was the aid of the Goths that enabled him to build the
famous city that is named after him, the rival of Rome,
inasmuch as they entered into a truce with the Emperor
and furnished him forty thousand men to aid him against
various peoples. This body of men, namely, the Allies,
and the service they rendered in war are still spoken of in
the land to this day. Now at that time they prospered
under the rule of their kings Ariaric and Aoric. Upon
their death Geberich appeared as successor to the throne,
a man renowned for his valor and noble birth.

[Sidenote: GEBERICH CONQUERS THE VANDALS 336]

XXII For he was the son of Hilderith, who was the     113
son of Ovida, who was the son of Nidada; and by his
illustrious deeds he equalled the glory of his race. Soon
he sought to enlarge his country's narrow bounds at the
expense of the race of the Vandals and Visimar, their
king. This Visimar was of the stock of the Asdingi,
which is eminent among them and indicates a most warlike
descent, as Dexippus the historian relates. He states
furthermore that by reason of the great extent of their
country they could scarcely come from Ocean to our frontier
in a year's time. At that time they dwelt in the land
where the Gepidae now live, near the rivers Marisia,
Miliare, Gilpil and the Grisia, which exceeds in size all
previously mentioned. They then had on the east the     114
Goths, on the west the Marcomanni, on the north the
Hermunduli and on the south the Hister, which is also
called the Danube. At the time when the Vandals were
dwelling in this region, war was begun against them by
Geberich, king of the Goths, on the shore of the river
Marisia which I have mentioned. Here the battle raged