Theoderic, together with 148,000 warriors on both sides, were slain in this tremendous fight, which alone saved Europe from Tartar savagery.
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Chinese annals of this year record a Comet seen in the northern constellation of Ophiuchus in October. This year marks the beginning of the tremendous migration of peoples, which started in Mongolia and Tartary, and crossing the Volga gradually overflowed all the known world, like a huge human deluge.
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The appearance of a Comet this year (identified by Hind with Halley’s) was followed by a bloody rebellion of the ancient Britons against the Romans, and by another rebellion against Rome by the Egyptians. These patriotic uprisings of the people were suppressed with fire and sword and both countries ran with blood.
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The Chinese catalogue of Ma-tuan-lin records a Comet with a path exactly analogous with the orbit of Halley’s Comet computed for that year by Hind. In the Chinese record the Comet is described as “pointed and bright.” Its coming was connected with the death of Emperor Ween-te directly afterward, and the Civil Wars between various claimants to the throne of the Celestial Empire, which then rent China asunder.
Dion Cassius, the Roman historian, describes the Comet of this year as “a very fearful star with a tail stretching from the West towards the East.”
The Roman augurs explained the Comet as a portent of the bloody death of Emperor Macrinus of Rome, who was murdered by his own soldiers on the night after the disappearance of the Comet.
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