struggled to force their way in the unequal conflict, their right flank
was overwhelmed by the irresistible attack of a fleet of galleys, which
were urged down the stream by the united impulse of oars and of the
tide. The weight and velocity of those ships of war broke, and sunk, and
dispersed, the rude and feeble canoes of the Barbarians; their valor
was ineffectual; and Alatheus, the king, or general, of the Ostrogoths,
perished with his bravest troops, either by the sword of the Romans, or
in the waves of the Danube. The last division of this unfortunate fleet
might regain the opposite shore; but the distress and disorder of the
multitude rendered them alike incapable, either of action or counsel;
and they soon implored the clemency of the victorious enemy. On this
occasion, as well as on many others, it is a difficult task to reconcile
the passions and prejudices of the writers of the age of Theodosius. The
partial and malignant historian, who misrepresents every action of his
reign, affirms, that the emperor did not appear in the field of battle
till the Barbarians had been vanquished by the valor and conduct of his
lieutenant Promotus. [126] The flattering poet, who celebrated, in the
court of Honorius, the glory of the father and of the son, ascribes the
victory to the personal prowess of Theodosius; and almost insinuates,
that the king of the Ostrogoths was slain by the hand of the emperor.
[127] The truth of history might perhaps be found in a just medium
between these extreme and contradictory assertions.

[Footnote 124: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 252.]

[Footnote 125: I am justified, by reason and example, in applying this
Indian name to the the Barbarians, the single trees hollowed into the
shape of a boat. Zosimus, l. iv. p. 253. Ausi Danubium quondam tranare
Gruthungi In lintres fregere nemus: ter mille ruebant Per fluvium plenae
cuneis immanibus alni. Claudian, in iv. Cols. Hon. 623.]

[Footnote 126: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 252--255. He too frequently betrays
his poverty of judgment by disgracing the most serious narratives with
trifling and incredible circumstances.]

[Footnote 127:--Odothaei Regis opima Retulit--Ver. 632. The opima were
the spoils which a Roman general could only win from the king, or
general, of the enemy, whom he had slain with his own hands: and no more
than three such examples are celebrated in the victorious ages of Rome.]

The original treaty which fixed the settlement of the Goths, ascer