million of extraordinary subjects could be supplied only by constant
and skilful diligence, and might continually be interrupted by mistake
or accident. The insolence, or the indignation, of the Goths, if they
conceived themselves to be the objects either of fear or of contempt,
might urge them to the most desperate extremities; and the fortune of
the state seemed to depend on the prudence, as well as the integrity,
of the generals of Valens. At this important crisis, the military
government of Thrace was exercised by Lupicinus and Maximus, in whose
venal minds the slightest hope of private emolument outweighed every
consideration of public advantage; and whose guilt was only alleviated
by their incapacity of discerning the pernicious effects of their rash
and criminal administration. Instead of obeying the orders of their
sovereign, and satisfying, with decent liberality, the demands of the
Goths, they levied an ungenerous and oppressive tax on the wants of the
hungry Barbarians. The vilest food was sold at an extravagant price;
and, in the room of wholesome and substantial provisions, the markets
were filled with the flesh of dogs, and of unclean animals, who had died
of disease. To obtain the valuable acquisition of a pound of bread,
the Goths resigned the possession of an expensive, though serviceable,
slave; and a small quantity of meat was greedily purchased with ten
pounds of a precious, but useless metal, when their property was
exhausted, they continued this necessary traffic by the sale of their
sons and daughters; and notwithstanding the love of freedom, which
animated every Gothic breast, they submitted to the humiliating maxim,
that it was better for their children to be maintained in a servile
condition, than to perish in a state of wretched and helpless
independence. The most lively resentment is excited by the tyranny of
pretended benefactors, who sternly exact the debt of gratitude which
they have cancelled by subsequent injuries: a spirit of discontent
insensibly arose in the camp of the Barbarians, who pleaded, without
success, the merit of their patient and dutiful behavior; and loudly
complained of the inhospitable treatment which they had received from
their new allies. They beheld around them the wealth and plenty of a
fertile province, in the midst of which they suffered the intolerable
hardships of artificial famine. But the means of relief, and even of
revenge, were in their hands; since the rap