levity of barbarians, the services which they had so lately
received, and the dangers which still threatened their safety. Their
inroads on the territory of the empire provoked the indignation of
Constantine to leave them to their fate; and he no longer opposed the
ambition of Geberic, a renowned warrior, who had recently ascended the
Gothic throne. Wisumar, the Vandal king, whilst alone, and unassisted,
he defended his dominions with undaunted courage, was vanquished and
slain in a decisive battle, which swept away the flower of the Sarmatian
youth. * The remainder of the nation embraced the desperate expedient
of arming their slaves, a hardy race of hunters and herdsmen, by whose
tumultuary aid they revenged their defeat, and expelled the invader
from their confines. But they soon discovered that they had exchanged
a foreign for a domestic enemy, more dangerous and more implacable.
Enraged by their former servitude, elated by their present glory, the
slaves, under the name of Limigantes, claimed and usurped the possession
of the country which they had saved. Their masters, unable to withstand
the ungoverned fury of the populace, preferred the hardships of exile to
the tyranny of their servants. Some of the fugitive Sarmatians solicited
a less ignominious dependence, under the hostile standard of the Goths.
A more numerous band retired beyond the Carpathian Mountains, among
the Quadi, their German allies, and were easily admitted to share a
superfluous waste of uncultivated land. But the far greater part of the
distressed nation turned their eyes towards the fruitful provinces of
Rome. Imploring the protection and forgiveness of the emperor, they
solemnly promised, as subjects in peace, and as soldiers in war, the
most inviolable fidelity to the empire which should graciously receive
them into its bosom. According to the maxims adopted by Probus and his
successors, the offers of this barbarian colony were eagerly accepted;
and a competent portion of lands in the provinces of Pannonia, Thrace,
Macedonia, and Italy, were immediately assigned for the habitation and
subsistence of three hundred thousand Sarmatians.

By chastising the pride of the Goths, and by accepting the homage of a
suppliant nation, Constantine asserted the majesty of the Roman empire;
and the ambassadors of AEthiopia, Persia, and the most remote countries
of India, congratulated the peace and prosperity of his government. If
he reckoned, among the fav