he enemies, and might soon become the conquerors
of the Roman empire. Their rude and insolent behavior expressed their
contempt of the citizens and provincials, whom they insulted with
impunity. [133] To the zeal and valor of the Barbarians Theodosius
was indebted for the success of his arms: but their assistance was
precarious; and they were sometimes seduced, by a treacherous and
inconstant disposition, to abandon his standard, at the moment when
their service was the most essential. During the civil war against
Maximus, a great number of Gothic deserters retired into the morasses
of Macedonia, wasted the adjacent provinces, and obliged the intrepid
monarch to expose his person, and exert his power, to suppress the
rising flame of rebellion. [134] The public apprehensions were fortified
by the strong suspicion, that these tumults were not the effect of
accidental passion, but the result of deep and premeditated design. It
was generally believed, that the Goths had signed the treaty of
peace with a hostile and insidious spirit; and that their chiefs had
previously bound themselves, by a solemn and secret oath, never to
keep faith with the Romans; to maintain the fairest show of loyalty and
friendship, and to watch the favorable moment of rapine, of conquest,
and of revenge. But as the minds of the Barbarians were not insensible
to the power of gratitude, several of the Gothic leaders sincerely
devoted themselves to the service of the empire, or, at least, of the
emperor; the whole nation was insensibly divided into two opposite
factions, and much sophistry was employed in conversation and dispute,
to compare the obligations of their first, and second, engagements. The
Goths, who considered themselves as the friends of peace, of justice,
and of Rome, were directed by the authority of Fravitta, a valiant and
honorable youth, distinguished above the rest of his countrymen by the
politeness of his manners, the liberality of his sentiments, and the
mild virtues of social life. But the more numerous faction adhered to
the fierce and faithless Priulf, [134a] who inflamed the passions,
and asserted the independence, of his warlike followers. On one of the
solemn festivals, when the chiefs of both parties were invited to the
Imperial table, they were insensibly heated by wine, till they forgot
the usual restraints of discretion and respect, and betrayed, in the
presence of Theodosius, the fatal secret of their domestic disputes.