preparations for the passage and
subsistence of a great people, till a proper and sufficient territory
could be allotted for their future residence. The liberality of
the emperor was accompanied, however, with two harsh and rigorous
conditions, which prudence might justify on the side of the Romans; but
which distress alone could extort from the indignant Goths. Before they
passed the Danube, they were required to deliver their arms: and it was
insisted, that their children should be taken from them, and dispersed
through the provinces of Asia; where they might be civilized by the
arts of education, and serve as hostages to secure the fidelity of their
parents.

During the suspense of a doubtful and distant negotiation, the impatient
Goths made some rash attempts to pass the Danube, without the permission
of the government, whose protection they had implored. Their motions
were strictly observed by the vigilance of the troops which were
stationed along the river and their foremost detachments were defeated
with considerable slaughter; yet such were the timid councils of the
reign of Valens, that the brave officers who had served their country
in the execution of their duty, were punished by the loss of their
employments, and narrowly escaped the loss of their heads. The Imperial
mandate was at length received for transporting over the Danube the
whole body of the Gothic nation; but the execution of this order was a
task of labor and difficulty. The stream of the Danube, which in those
parts is above a mile broad, had been swelled by incessant rains; and in
this tumultuous passage, many were swept away, and drowned, by the rapid
violence of the current. A large fleet of vessels, of boats, and of
canoes, was provided; many days and nights they passed and repassed with
indefatigable toil; and the most strenuous diligence was exerted by
the officers of Valens, that not a single Barbarian, of those who were
reserved to subvert the foundations of Rome, should be left on the
opposite shore. It was thought expedient that an accurate account
should be taken of their numbers; but the persons who were employed soon
desisted, with amazement and dismay, from the prosecution of the endless
and impracticable task: and the principal historian of the age most
seriously affirms, that the prodigious armies of Darius and Xerxes,
which had so long been considered as the fables of vain and credulous
antiquity, were now justified, in the eye