10. And since, after recounting various other exploits, we have now come to this portion of our subject, we call upon our readers (if we shall ever have any) not to expect a minute detail of everything that took place, or of the number of the slain, which indeed it would be utterly impossible to give. It will be sufficient to abstain from concealing any part of the truth by a lie, and to give the general outline of what took place: since a faithful honesty of narration is always proper if one would hand events down to the recollection of posterity.
11. Those who are ignorant of antiquity declare that the republic was never so overwhelmed with the darkness of adverse fortune; but they are deceived in consequence of the stupor into which they are thrown by these calamities, which are still fresh in their memory. For if the events of former ages, or even of those immediately preceding our own times are considered, it will be plain that such melancholy events have often happened, of which I will bring to mind several instances.
12. The Teutones and the Cimbri came suddenly from the remote shores of the ocean, and overran Italy; but, after having inflicted enormous disasters on the Roman republic, they were at last overcome by our illustrious generals, and being wholly vanquished, learnt by their ultimate destruction what martial valour, combined with skill, can effect.
13. Again, in the reign of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the insane fury of a number of different nations combined together, after fearful wars ... would have left but a small part of them.
14. But, soon after these calamitous losses, the state was re-established in all its former strength and prosperity; because the soberness of our ancestry had not yet become infected with the luxury and softness of a more effeminate way of life, and had not learnt to indulge in splendid banquets, or the criminal acquisition of riches. But both the highest classes and the lowest living in harmony, and imbued with one unanimous spirit, eagerly embraced a glorious death in the cause of the republic as a tranquil and quiet haven.
15. The great multitudes of the Scythian nations, having burst through the Bosphorus, and made their way to the shores of the Sea of Azov with 2000 ships, inflicted fearful losses on us by land and sea; but also lost a great portion of their own men, and so at last returned to their own country.
16. Those great generals, the Decii, father and son, fell fighting against the barbarians. The cities of Pamphylia were besieged, many islands were laid waste; Macedon was ravaged with fire and sword. An enormous host for a long time blockaded Thessalonica and Cyzicus. Arabia also was taken; and so at the same time was Nicopolis, which had been built by the Emperor Trajan as a monument of his victory over the Dacians.
17. After many fearful losses had been both sustained and inflicted Philippopolis was destroyed, and, unless our annals speak falsely, 100,000 men were slaughtered within its walls. Foreign enemies roved unrestrained over Epirus, and Thessaly, and the whole of Greece; but after that glorious general Claudius had been taken as a colleague in the empire (though again lost to us by an honourable death), the enemy was routed by Aurelian, an untiring leader, and a severe avenger of injuries; and after that they remained quiet for a long time without attempting anything, except that some bands of robbers now and then ranged the districts in their own neighbourhood, always, however, to their own injury. And now I will return to the main history from which I have digressed.
VI.
§ 1. When this series of occurrences had been made generally known by frequent messengers, Sueridus and Colias, two nobles of the Goths, who had some time before been friendly received with their people, and had been sent to Hadrianople to pass the winter in that city, thinking their own safety the most important of all objects, looked on all the events which were taking place with great indifference.