hich he was preparing to
construct between the mountains, the Pruth, and the Danube, would have
secured the extensive and fertile territory that bears the modern name
of Walachia, from the destructive inroads of the Huns. But the hopes
and measures of the Judge of the Visigoths was soon disappointed, by the
trembling impatience of his dismayed countrymen; who were persuaded by
their fears, that the interposition of the Danube was the only barrier
that could save them from the rapid pursuit, and invincible valor, of
the Barbarians of Scythia. Under the command of Fritigern and Alavivus,
the body of the nation hastily advanced to the banks of the great river,
and implored the protection of the Roman emperor of the East. Athanaric
himself, still anxious to avoid the guilt of perjury, retired, with a
band of faithful followers, into the mountainous country of Caucaland;
which appears to have been guarded, and almost concealed, by the
impenetrable forests of Transylvania. *

Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.--Part III.

After Valens had terminated the Gothic war with some appearance of glory
and success, he made a progress through his dominions of Asia, and at
length fixed his residence in the capital of Syria. The five years which
he spent at Antioch was employed to watch, from a secure distance, the
hostile designs of the Persian monarch; to check the depredations of
the Saracens and Isaurians; to enforce, by arguments more prevalent than
those of reason and eloquence, the belief of the Arian theology; and
to satisfy his anxious suspicions by the promiscuous execution of the
innocent and the guilty. But the attention of the emperor was most
seriously engaged, by the important intelligence which he received from
the civil and military officers who were intrusted with the defence of
the Danube. He was informed, that the North was agitated by a furious
tempest; that the irruption of the Huns, an unknown and monstrous race
of savages, had subverted the power of the Goths; and that the suppliant
multitudes of that warlike nation, whose pride was now humbled in the
dust, covered a space of many miles along the banks of the river. With
outstretched arms, and pathetic lamentations, they loudly deplored their
past misfortunes and their present danger; acknowledged that their only
hope of safety was in the clemency of the Roman government; and most
solemnly protested, that if the gracious liberality of the emperor would
permi