The Goths Cross The Danube

The doom of Rome was at hand. Its empire had extended almost inimitably

to the east and west, had crossed the sea and deeply penetrated the

desert to the south, but had failed in its advances to the north. The

Rhine and the Danube here formed its boundaries. The great forest region

which lay beyond these, with its hosts of blue-eyed and fair-skinned

barbarians, defied the armies of Rome. Here and there the forest was

p netrated, hundreds of thousands of its tenants were slain, yet Rome

failed to subdue its swarming tribes, and simply taught them the

principle of combination and the art of war. Early in the history of

Rome it was taken and burnt by the Gauls. Raids of barbarians across the

border were frequent in its later history. As Rome grew weaker, the

tribes of the north grew bolder and stronger. The armies of the empire

were kept busy in holding the lines of the Rhine and the Danube. At

length Roman weakness and incompetency permitted this barrier to be

broken, and the beginning of the end was at hand. This is the important

event which we have now to describe.



In the year 375 A.D. there existed a great Gothic kingdom in the north,

extending from the Baltic to the Black Sea, under the rule of an able

monarch named Hermanric, who had conquered and combined numerous tribes

into a single nation. On this nation, just as assassination removed the

Gothic conqueror, descended a vast and frightful horde from northern

Asia, the mighty invasion of the Huns, which was to shake to its heart

the empire of Rome.



The Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths) were conquered by this savage horde. The

Visigoths (Western Goths), stricken with mortal fear, hurried to the

Danube and implored the Romans to save them from annihilation. For many

miles along the banks of the river extended the panic-stricken

multitude, with outstretched arms and pathetic lamentations, praying for

permission to cross. If settled on the waste lands of Thrace they would

pledge themselves to be faithful subjects of Rome, to obey its laws and

guard its limits.



Sympathy and pity counselled the emperor to grant the request. Political

considerations bade him refuse. To admit such a host of warlike

barbarians to the empire was full of danger. Finally they were permitted

to cross, under two stringent conditions: they must deliver up their

arms, and they must yield their children, who were to be taken to Asia,

educated, and held as hostages. Such was the first fatal step in the

overthrow of Rome.



The task of crossing was a difficult one. The Danube there was more than

a mile wide, and had been swollen with rains. A large fleet of boats and

vessels was provided, but it took many days and nights to transport the

mighty host, and numbers of them were swept away and drowned by the

rapid current. Probably the whole multitude numbered nearly a million,

of whom two hundred thousand were warriors.



Of the conditions made only one was carried out. The children of the

Goths were removed, and taken to the distant lands chosen for their

residence. But the arms were not given up. The Roman officers were

bribed to let the warriors retain their weapons, and in a short time a

great army of armed barbarians was encamped on the southern bank of the

Danube.



These new subjects of Rome were treated in a way well calculated to

convert them into enemies. The officials of Thrace disobeyed the orders

of the emperor, sold the Goths the meanest food at extravagant prices,

and by their rapacious avarice bitterly irritated them. While this was

going on, the Ostrogoths also appeared on the Danube, and solicited

permission to cross. Valens, the emperor, refused. He was beginning to

fear that he had already too many subjects of that race. But the

discontent of the Visigoths had drawn the soldiers from the stream and

left it unguarded. The Ostrogoths seized vessels and built rafts. They

crossed without opposition. Soon a new and hostile army was encamped

upon the territory of the Roman empire.



The discontent of the Visigoths was not long in breaking into open war.

They had marched to Marcianopolis, seventy miles from the Danube. Here

Lupicinus, one of the governors of Thrace, invited the Gothic chiefs to

a splendid entertainment. Their guards remained under arms at the

entrance to the palace. But the gates of the city were closely guarded,

and the Goths outside were refused the use of a plentiful market, to

which they claimed admission as subjects of Rome.



The citizens treated them with insult and derision. The Goths grew

angry. Words led to blows. A sword was drawn, and the first blood shed

in a long and ruinous war. Lupicinus was told that many of his soldiers

had been slain. Heated with wine, he gave orders that they should be

revenged by the death of the Gothic guards at the palace gates.



The shouts and groans in the street warned Fritigern, the Gothic king,

of his danger. At a word from him his comrades at the banquet drew their

swords, forced their way from the palace and through the streets, and,

mounting their horses, rode with all speed to their camp, and told their

followers what had occurred. Instantly cries of vengeance and warlike

shouts arose, war was resolved upon by the chiefs, the banners of the

host were displayed, and the sound of the trumpets carried afar the

hostile warning.



Lupicinus hastily collected such troops as he could command and advanced

against the barbarians; but the Roman ranks were broken and the legions

slaughtered, while their guilty leader was forced to fly for his life.

"That successful day put an end to the distress of the barbarians and

the security of the Romans," says a Gothic historian.



The imprudence of Valens had introduced a nation of warriors into the

heart of the empire; the venality of the officials had converted them

into enemies; Valens, instead of seeking to remove their causes of

hostility, marched with an army against them. We cannot here describe

the various conflicts that took place. It will suffice to say that other

barbarians crossed the Danube, and that even some of the Huns joined the

army of Fritigern. The borders of the empire were effectually broken,

and the forest myriads swarmed unchecked into the empire.



On August 9, 378, the Emperor Valens, inspired by ambition and moved by

the demands of the ignorant multitude, left the strong walls of

Adrianople and marched to attack the Goths, who were encamped twelve

miles away. The result was fatal. The Romans, exhausted with their

march, suffering from heat and thirst, confused and ill-organized, met

with a complete defeat. The emperor was slain on the field or burnt to

death in a hut to which he had been carried wounded, hundreds of

distinguished officers perished, more than two-thirds of the army were

destroyed, and the darkness of the night only saved the rest. Valens had

been badly punished for his imprudence and the Romans for their

venality.



This signal victory of the Goths was followed by a siege of Adrianople.

But the barbarians knew nothing of the art of attacking stone walls, and

quickly gave up the impossible task. From Adrianople they marched to

Constantinople, but were forced to content themselves with ravaging the

suburbs and gazing, with impotent desire, on the city's distant

splendor. Then, laden with the rich spoils of the suburbs, they marched

southward through Thrace, and spread over the face of a fertile and

cultivated country extending as far as the confines of Italy, their

course being everywhere marked with massacre, conflagration, and rapine,

until some of the fairest regions of the empire were turned almost into

a desert. It may be that the numbers of Romans who perished from this

invasion equalled those of the Goths whom imprudent compassion had

delivered from the Huns.



As regards the children of the Goths, who had been distributed in the

provinces of Asia Minor, there remains a cruel story to tell. Though

given the education and taught the arts of the Romans, they did not

forget their origin, and the suspicion arose that they were plotting to

repeat in Asia the deeds of their fathers in Europe. Julius, who

commanded the troops after the death of Valens, took bloody measures to

prevent any such calamity. The youthful Goths were bidden to assemble,

on a stated day, in the capital cities of their provinces, the hint

being given that they were to receive gifts of land and money. On the

appointed day they were collected unarmed in the Forum of each city, the

surrounding streets being occupied by Roman troops, and the roofs of the

houses covered with archers and slingers. At a fixed hour, in all the

cities, the signal for slaughter was given, and in an hour more not one

of these helpless wards of Rome remained alive. The cruel treachery of

this blood-thirsty act remains almost unparalleled in history.