Palus, whose broad waters, girdled by fen and treacherous
morass, made the onward march of the invaders a task of almost desperate
danger. But the Ostrogoths could not now retreat; famine and pestilence
lay behind them on their road; they must go forward, and with a
reluctant heart Theodoric gave the signal for the battle.

[Footnote 52: Ennodius, Bishop of Pavia, whose Panegyric on Theodoric,
spoken about 506, is our chief authority for this part of the history.]

It seemed at first as if that battle would be lost, and as if the name
and fame of the Ostrogothic people would be swallowed up in the morasses
of the reedy Hiulca. Already the van of the army, floundering in the
soft mud, and with only their wicker shields to oppose to the deadly
shower of the Gepid arrows, were like to fall back in confusion. Then
Theodoric, having called for a cup of wine, and drunk to the fortunes of
his people, in a few spirited words called to his soldiers to follow his
standard--the standard of a king who would carve out the way to victory.
Perchance he may have discerned some part of the plain where the road
went over solid ground, and if that were beset by foes, at any rate the
Gepid was less terrible than the morass. So it was that he charged
triumphantly through the hostile ranks, and, being followed by his eager
warriors, achieved a signal victory. The Gepidae were soon wandering over
the plain, a broken and dispirited force. Multitudes of them were slain
before the descent of night saved the remaining fugitives, and so large
a number of the Gepid store-waggons fell into the hands of the
Ostrogoths that throughout the host one voice of rejoicing arose that
Traustila had been willing to fight. So had a little Gothic blood bought
food more than they could ever have afforded money to purchase.

Thus, through foes and famine, hardships of the winter and hardships of
the summer, the nation-army held on its way, and at length (as has been
already said) in the month of August (489) the last of the waggons
descended from the highlands, which are an outpost of the Julian Alps,
and the Ostrogoths were encamped on the plains of Italy. Odovacar, who
apparently had allowed them to accomplish the passage of the Alps
unmolested, stood ready to meet them on the banks of the Isonzo, the
river which flows near the ruins of the great city of Aquileia. He had a
large army, the kernel of which would doubtless be those mercenaries who
had raised him o