either overcome or
created at the will of the emperor.

18. There were formerly many natives of this kingdom, of high birth and
great power, but a secret conspiracy armed their slaves against them;
and as among barbarians all right consists in might, they, as they were
equal to their masters in ferocity, and superior in number, completely
overcame them.

19. And these native chiefs, losing all their wisdom in their fear, fled
to the Victohali,[84] whose settlements were at a great distance,
thinking it better in the choice of evils to become subject to their
protectors than slaves to their own slaves. But afterwards, when they
had obtained pardon from us, and had been received as faithful allies,
they deplored their hard fate, and invoked our direct protection. Moved
by the undeserved hardship of their lot, the emperor, when they were
assembled before him, addressed them with kind words in the presence of
his army, and commanded them for the future to own no master but himself
and the Roman generals.

20. And that the restoration of their liberty might carry with it
additional dignity, he made Zizais their king, a man, as the event
proved, deserving the rewards of eminent fortune, and faithful. After
these glorious transactions, none of the Sarmatians were allowed to
depart till all our prisoners had returned, as we had before insisted.

21. When these matters had been concluded in the territories of the
barbarians, the camp was moved to Szoeni,[85] that there also the
emperor might, by subjugation or slaughter, terminate the war with the
Quadi, who were keeping that district in a state of agitation. Their
prince Vitrodorus, the son of king Viduarius, and Agilimundus, an
inferior chieftain, with the other nobles and judges who governed the
different tribes, as soon as they saw the imperial army in the bosom of
their kingdom and of their native land, threw themselves at the feet of
the soldiers, and having obtained pardon, promised obedience; and gave
their children as hostages for the performance of the conditions imposed
upon them; and drawing their swords, which they worship as deities, they
swore to remain faithful.

XIII.

Sec. 1. These matters then, as has been related, having been thus
successfully terminated, the public interests required that the army
should at once march against the Limigantes, the revolted slaves of the
Sarmatians, who had perpetrated many atrocities with impunity. For, as
soon as t