OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

221

As soon as they were delivered from the fears chapof invasion, the Alemanni prepared to chastisethe Roman youth, who presumed to dispute the Battle ofpossession of that country, which they claimedas their own by the right of conquest and of August 'treaties. They employed three days, and asmany nights, in transporting over the Rhine their military powers. The fierce Chnodomar,shaking the ponderous javelin, which he hadvictoriously wielded against the brother ofMagnentius , led the van of the barbarians, andmoderated by his experience the martial ardourwhich his example inspired.' He was followedby six other kings, by ten princes of regal ex-traction, by a long train of high-spirited nobles,and by thirty-five thousand of the bravest war-riors of the tribes of Germany. The confidencederived from the view of their own strength wasincreased by the intelligence which they receiv-ed from a deserter, that the Caesar, with a fee-ble army of thirteen thousand men, occupied apost about one-and-twenty miles from their campof Strasburg. 'With this inadequate force, Ju-lian resolved to seek and to encounter the bar-barian host; and the chance of a general actionwas preferred to the tedious and uncertain ope-ration of separately engaging the dispersed par-ties of the Alemanni . The Romans marchedin close order, and in two columns, the cavalry

* Ammianus (xvi, 12) describes, with his inflated eloquence, the fi-gure and character of Chnodomar. Aiidax et fidens ingenti roborelacertorum, ubi ardor preelii sperabatur immanis, cqno spumante, sub*liraior, erectus injaculum formidandas vastitatis, armorunique nitorcconspicuus: antea strcuuus et miles, et utilis praetcr eicteros due tor*

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