tives; and they
urged a very singular claim, that the Gothic generals marching in
arms, and in hostile array, were entitled to the sacred character and
privileges of ambassadors. The decent, but peremptory, refusal of
these extravagant demands, was signified to the Barbarians by Victor,
master-general of the cavalry; who expressed, with force and dignity,
the just complaints of the emperor of the East. The negotiation was
interrupted; and the manly exhortations of Valentinian encouraged his
timid brother to vindicate the insulted majesty of the empire.

The splendor and magnitude of this Gothic war are celebrated by a
contemporary historian: but the events scarcely deserve the attention
of posterity, except as the preliminary steps of the approaching decline
and fall of the empire. Instead of leading the nations of Germany
and Scythia to the banks of the Danube, or even to the gates of
Constantinople, the aged monarch of the Goths resigned to the brave
Athanaric the danger and glory of a defensive war, against an enemy,
who wielded with a feeble hand the powers of a mighty state. A bridge of
boats was established upon the Danube; the presence of Valens animated
his troops; and his ignorance of the art of war was compensated by
personal bravery, and a wise deference to the advice of Victor and
Arintheus, his masters-general of the cavalry and infantry. The
operations of the campaign were conducted by their skill and experience;
but they found it impossible to drive the Visigoths from their strong
posts in the mountains; and the devastation of the plains obliged the
Romans themselves to repass the Danube on the approach of winter. The
incessant rains, which swelled the waters of the river, produced a tacit
suspension of arms, and confined the emperor Valens, during the whole
course of the ensuing summer, to his camp of Marcianopolis. The third
year of the war was more favorable to the Romans, and more pernicious
to the Goths. The interruption of trade deprived the Barbarians of the
objects of luxury, which they already confounded with the necessaries of
life; and the desolation of a very extensive tract of country threatened
them with the horrors of famine. Athanaric was provoked, or compelled,
to risk a battle, which he lost, in the plains; and the pursuit was
rendered more bloody by the cruel precaution of the victorious generals,
who had promised a large reward for the head of every Goth that was
brought into the Imper