of the empire. [143]

[Footnote 140: The concise account of the reign and conquests of
Hermanric seems to be one of the valuable fragments which Jornandes (c
28) borrowed from the Gothic histories of Ablavius, or Cassiodorus.]

[Footnote 141: M. d. Buat. (Hist. des Peuples de l'Europe, tom. vi.
p. 311-329) investigates, with more industry than success, the nations
subdued by the arms of Hermanric. He denies the existence of the
Vasinobroncoe, on account of the immoderate length of their name.
Yet the French envoy to Ratisbon, or Dresden, must have traversed the
country of the Mediomatrici.]

[Footnote 142: The edition of Grotius (Jornandes, p. 642) exhibits
the name of Aestri. But reason and the Ambrosian MS. have restored
the Aestii, whose manners and situation are expressed by the pencil of
Tacitus, (Germania, c. 45.)]

[Footnote 143: Ammianus (xxxi. 3) observes, in general terms,
Ermenrichi.... nobilissimi Regis, et per multa variaque fortiter facta,
vicinigentibus formidati, &c.]

The Goths had contracted an hereditary attachment for the Imperial house
of Constantine, of whose power and liberality they had received so many
signal proofs. They respected the public peace; and if a hostile band
sometimes presumed to pass the Roman limit, their irregular conduct was
candidly ascribed to the ungovernable spirit of the Barbarian youth.
Their contempt for two new and obscure princes, who had been raised to
the throne by a popular election, inspired the Goths with bolder hopes;
and, while they agitated some design of marching their confederate force
under the national standard, [144] they were easily tempted to embrace
the party of Procopius; and to foment, by their dangerous aid, the civil
discord of the Romans. The public treaty might stipulate no more than
ten thousand auxiliaries; but the design was so zealously adopted by the
chiefs of the Visigoths, that the army which passed the Danube amounted
to the number of thirty thousand men. [145] They marched with the proud
confidence, that their invincible valor would decide the fate of the
Roman empire; and the provinces of Thrace groaned under the weight
of the Barbarians, who displayed the insolence of masters and the
licentiousness of enemies. But the intemperance which gratified their
appetites, retarded their progress; and before the Goths could receive
any certain intelligence of the defeat and death of Procopius, they
perceived, by the hostile state of the count