his rear, as soon as the scarcity of forage
should oblige him to remove his camp, he recalled to their standard his
predatory detachments, which covered the adjacent country. As soon as
they descried the flaming beacons, they obeyed, with incredible speed,
the signal of their leader: the camp was filled with the martial crowd
of Barbarians; their impatient clamors demanded the battle, and their
tumultuous zeal was approved and animated by the spirit of their chiefs.
The evening was already far advanced; and the two armies prepared
themselves for the approaching combat, which was deferred only till the
dawn of day. While the trumpets sounded to arms, the undaunted courage
of the Goths was confirmed by the mutual obligation of a solemn oath;
and as they advanced to meet the enemy, the rude songs, which celebrated
the glory of their forefathers, were mingled with their fierce and
dissonant outcries, and opposed to the artificial harmony of the Roman
shout. Some military skill was displayed by Fritigern to gain the
advantage of a commanding eminence; but the bloody conflict, which began
and ended with the light, was maintained on either side, by the personal
and obstinate efforts of strength, valor, and agility. The legions of
Armenia supported their fame in arms; but they were oppressed by the
irresistible weight of the hostile multitude the left wing of the Romans
was thrown into disorder and the field was strewed with their mangled
carcasses. This partial defeat was balanced, however, by partial
success; and when the two armies, at a late hour of the evening,
retreated to their respective camps, neither of them could claim the
honors, or the effects, of a decisive victory. The real loss was more
severely felt by the Romans, in proportion to the smallness of their
numbers; but the Goths were so deeply confounded and dismayed by this
vigorous, and perhaps unexpected, resistance, that they remained seven
days within the circle of their fortifications. Such funeral rites, as
the circumstances of time and place would admit, were piously discharged
to some officers of distinguished rank; but the indiscriminate vulgar
was left unburied on the plain. Their flesh was greedily devoured by
the birds of prey, who in that age enjoyed very frequent and delicious
feasts; and several years afterwards the white and naked bones, which
covered the wide extent of the fields, presented to the eyes of Ammianus
a dreadful monument of the battle