circumstances of their transmigration.]

[Footnote 74: An Imperial manufacture of shields, &c., was established
at Hadrianople; and the populace were headed by the Fabricenses, or
workmen. (Vales. ad Ammian. xxxi. 6.)]

[Footnote 75: Pacem sibi esse cum parietibus memorans. Ammian. xxxi. 7.]

[Footnote 76: These mines were in the country of the Bessi, in the ridge
of mountains, the Rhodope, that runs between Philippi and Philippopolis;
two Macedonian cities, which derived their name and origin from the
father of Alexander. From the mines of Thrace he annually received the
value, not the weight, of a thousand talents, (200,000l.,) a revenue
which paid the phalanx, and corrupted the orators of Greece. See Diodor.
Siculus, tom. ii. l. xvi. p. 88, edit. Wesseling. Godefroy's Commentary
on the Theodosian Code, tom. iii. p. 496. Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq.
tom. i. p. 676, 857. D Anville, Geographie Ancienne, tom. i. p. 336.]

[Footnote 77: As those unhappy workmen often ran away, Valens had
enacted severe laws to drag them from their hiding-places. Cod.
Theodosian, l. x. tit xix leg. 5, 7.]

[Footnote 78: See Ammianus, xxxi. 5, 6. The historian of the Gothic war
loses time and space, by an unseasonable recapitulation of the ancient
inroads of the Barbarians.]

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
Ri