Part 66 (1/2)

I.

A.D. 375.

-- 1. In the mean time the swift wheel of Fortune, which continually alternates adversity with prosperity, was giving Bellona the Furies for her allies, and arming her for war; and now transferred our disasters to the East, as many presages and portents foreshowed by undoubted signs.

2. For after many true prophecies uttered by diviners and augurs, dogs were seen to recoil from howling wolves, and the birds of night constantly uttered querulous and mournful cries; and lurid sunrises made the mornings dark. Also, at Antioch, among the tumults and squabbles of the populace, it had come to be a custom for any one who fancied himself ill treated to cry out in a licentious manner, ”May Valens be burnt alive!” And the voices of the criers were constantly heard ordering wood to be carried to warm the baths of Valens, which had been built under the supertendence of the emperor himself.

3. All which circ.u.mstances all but pointed out in express words that the end of the emperor's life was at hand. Besides all these things, the ghost of the king of Armenia, and the miserable shades of those who had lately been put to death in the affair of Theodorus, agitated numbers of people with terrible alarms, appearing to them in their sleep, and shrieking out verses of horrible import.[189]

4. ... and its death indicated an extensive and general calamity arising from public losses and deaths. Last of all, when the ancient walls of Chalcedon were thrown down in order to build a bath at Constantinople, and the stones were torn asunder, on one squared stone which was hidden in the very centre of the walls these Greek verses were found engraved, which gave a full revelation of what was to happen:--

”???' ?p?ta? ??fa? d??se?? ?at? ?st? ???e??

?ep?e?a? st?????ta? e?ste?fa? ?at' ??????

?a? te???? ???t???? p???st???? ?sseta? ???a?

?? t?te ???a f??a p???spe???? ?????p??

?st??? ?a???????? p???? pe????ta s?? a???

?a? S??????? ???se? ????? ?a? ??s?da ?a?a?

?a?????? d' ?p???ta s?? s?? ??p?s? a??????s??

??t??? ?a? ??t? ? t???? ?a? d???? efe?e?.”

TRANSLATION.

”But when young wives and damsels blithe, in dances that delight, Shall glide along the city streets, with garlands gaily bright; And when these walls, with sad regrets, shall fall to raise a bath, Then shall the Huns in mult.i.tude break forth with might and wrath.

By force of arms the barrier-stream of Ister they shall cross, O'er Scythic ground and Moesian lands spreading dismay and loss: They shall Pannonian hors.e.m.e.n brave, and Gallic soldiers slay, And nought but loss of life and breath their course shall ever stay.”

II.

-- 1. The following circ.u.mstances were the original cause of all the destruction and various calamities which the fury of Mars roused up, throwing everything into confusion by his usual ruinous violence: the people called Huns, slightly mentioned in the ancient records, live beyond the Sea of Azov, on the border of the Frozen Ocean, and are a race savage beyond all parallel.

2. At the very moment of their birth the cheeks of their infant children are deeply marked by an iron, in order that the usual vigour of their hair, instead of growing at the proper season, may be withered by the wrinkled scars; and accordingly they grow up without beards, and consequently without any beauty, like eunuchs, though they all have closely-knit and strong limbs, and plump necks; they are of great size, and low legged, so that you might fancy them two-legged beasts, or the stout figures which are hewn out in a rude manner with an axe on the posts at the end of bridges.

3. They are certainly in the shape of men, however uncouth, but are so hardy that they neither require fire nor well-flavoured food, but live on the roots of such herbs as they get in the fields, or on the half-raw flesh of any animal, which they merely warm rapidly by placing it between their own thighs and the backs of their horses.

4. They never shelter themselves under roofed houses, but avoid them as people ordinarily avoid sepulchres as things not fitted for common use.

Nor is there even to be found among them a cabin thatched with reed; but they wander about, roaming over the mountains and the woods and accustom themselves to bear frost and hunger and thirst from their very cradles.

And even when abroad they never enter a house unless under the compulsion of some extreme necessity; nor, indeed, do they think people under roofs as safe as others.

5. They wear linen clothes, or else garments made of the skins of field-mice: nor do they wear a different dress out of doors from that which they wear at home; but after a tunic is once put round their necks, however it becomes worn, it is never taken off or changed till, from long decay, it becomes actually so ragged as to fall to pieces.

6. They cover their heads with round caps, and their s.h.a.ggy legs with the skins of kids; their shoes are not made on any lasts, but are so unshapely as to hinder them from walking with a free gait. And for this reason they are not well suited to infantry battles, but are nearly always on horseback, their horses being ill-shaped, but hardy; and sometimes they even sit upon them like women if they want to do anything more conveniently. There is not a person in the whole nation who cannot remain on his horse day and night. On horseback they buy and sell, they take their meat and drink, and there they recline on the narrow neck of their steed, and yield to sleep so deep as to indulge in every variety of dream.

7. And when any deliberation is to take place on any weighty matter, they all hold their common council on horseback. They are not under the authority of a king, but are contented with the irregular government of their n.o.bles, and under their lead they force their way through all obstacles.