OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

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the Gothic power, they seem to have chosen a chap

1 • ^ . • XVIII.

king from that nation, and from the illustrious ....._’..

race of the Astingi r who had formerly dwelt onthe shores of the northern ocean/

This motive of enmity must have inflamed the The Go-subjects of contention, which perpetually ariseon the confines of warlike and independent na-tions. The Vandal princes were stimulated byfear and revenge ; the Gothic kings aspired toextend their dominion from the Euxine to thefrontiers of Germany ; and the waters of theMaros, a small river which falls into the Teyss,were stained with the blood of the contendingbarbarians. After some experience of the su-perior strength and number of their adversaries,the Sarmatians implored the protection of theRoman monarch, who beheld with pleasure thediscord of the nations, but who was justlyalarmed by the progress of the Gothic arms.

As soon as Constantine had declared himselfin favour of the weaker party, the haughty Ar-aric, king of the Goths , instead of expecting theattack of the legions, boldly passed the Danube ,and spread terror and devastation through theprovince of Maesia. To oppose the inroad ofthis destroying host, the aged emperor took thefield in person ; but on this occasion either hisconduct or his fortune betrayed the glory whichhe had acquired in so many foreign and domes-

y This hypothesis of a Vandal king reigning over Sarniatian subjects,seems necessary to reconcile the Goth Jornandes witli the Greek andLatin historians of Constantine. It may be observed that Isidore, wholived in Spain under the dominion of the Goths , gives them for ene-mies, not the Vandals, but the Sarmatians. See Id* Chronicle in Gro-tius, p. 709.