ded only
to stimulate their native fierceness by the desire of revenge. They
listened, with eager attention, to the complaints of their captive
children, who had suffered the most cruel indignities from the lustful
or angry passions of their masters, and the same cruelties, the same
indignities, were severely retaliated on the sons and daughters of the
Romans.

The imprudence of Valens and his ministers had introduced into the heart
of the empire a nation of enemies; but the Visigoths might even yet have
been reconciled, by the manly confession of past errors, and the sincere
performance of former engagements. These healing and temperate measures
seemed to concur with the timorous disposition of the sovereign of
the East: but, on this occasion alone, Valens was brave; and his
unseasonable bravery was fatal to himself and to his subjects. He
declared his intention of marching from Antioch to Constantinople, to
subdue this dangerous rebellion; and, as he was not ignorant of the
difficulties of the enterprise, he solicited the assistance of his
nephew, the emperor Gratian, who commanded all the forces of the West.
The veteran troops were hastily recalled from the defence of Armenia;
that important frontier was abandoned to the discretion of Sapor;
and the immediate conduct of the Gothic war was intrusted, during
the absence of Valens, to his lieutenants Trajan and Profuturus, two
generals who indulged themselves in a very false and favorable opinion
of their own abilities. On their arrival in Thrace, they were joined by
Richomer, count of the domestics; and the auxiliaries of the West, that
marched under his banner, were composed of the Gallic legions, reduced
indeed, by a spirit of desertion, to the vain appearances of strength
and numbers. In a council of war, which was influenced by pride,
rather than by reason, it was resolved to seek, and to encounter, the
Barbarians, who lay encamped in the spacious and fertile meadows,
near the most southern of the six mouths of the Danube. Their camp was
surrounded by the usual fortification of wagons; and the Barbarians,
secure within the vast circle of the enclosure, enjoyed the fruits of
their valor, and the spoils of the province. In the midst of riotous
intemperance, the watchful Fritigern observed the motions, and
penetrated the designs, of the Romans. He perceived, that the numbers
of the enemy were continually increasing: and, as he understood their
intention of attacking