success; and seriously alleged, that the king of
Armenia, who was a skilful magician, had transformed himself and his
followers, and passed before their eyes under a borrowed shape. After
his return to his native kingdom, Para still continued to profess
himself the friend and ally of the Romans: but the Romans had injured
him too deeply ever to forgive, and the secret sentence of his death was
signed in the council of Valens. The execution of the bloody deed was
committed to the subtle prudence of Count Trajan; and he had the merit
of insinuating himself into the confidence of the credulous prince,
that he might find an opportunity of stabbing him to the heart Para was
invited to a Roman banquet, which had been prepared with all the pomp
and sensuality of the East; the hall resounded with cheerful music, and
the company was already heated with wine; when the count retired for an
instant, drew his sword, and gave the signal of the murder. A robust and
desperate Barbarian instantly rushed on the king of Armenia; and though
he bravely defended his life with the first weapon that chance offered
to his hand, the table of the Imperial general was stained with the
royal blood of a guest, and an ally. Such were the weak and wicked
maxims of the Roman administration, that, to attain a doubtful object
of political interest the laws of nations, and the sacred rights of
hospitality were inhumanly violated in the face of the world.

V. During a peaceful interval of thirty years, the Romans secured their
frontiers, and the Goths extended their dominions. The victories of the
great Hermanric, king of the Ostrogoths, and the most noble of the race
of the Amali, have been compared, by the enthusiasm of his countrymen,
to the exploits of Alexander; with this singular, and almost incredible,
difference, that the martial spirit of the Gothic hero, instead of being
supported by the vigor of youth, was displayed with glory and success in
the extreme period of human life, between the age of fourscore and
one hundred and ten years. The independent tribes were persuaded, or
compelled, to acknowledge the king of the Ostrogoths as the sovereign of
the Gothic nation: the chiefs of the Visigoths, or Thervingi, renounced
the royal title, and assumed the more humble appellation of Judges; and,
among those judges, Athanaric, Fritigern, and Alavivus, were the most
illustrious, by their personal merit, as well as by their vicinity
to the Roman provinces.