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OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 127 banquets. But the policy of Theodosius derived more solid benefit from the death, than he could have expected from the most faithfril services, of his ally. The funeral of Athanaric was performed Avith solemn rites in the capital of the East ; a stately monument was erected to his memory ; and his whole army, won by the liberal courtesy and decent grief of Theo- dosius, enlisted under the standard of the Roman empire.i^s The submission of so great a body of the Visigoths was produc- tive of the most salutary consequences ; and the mixed influence of force, of reason, and of corruption became every day more powerful and more extensive. Each independent chieftain hastened to obtain a separate treaty, from the apprehension that an obstinate delay might expose him, alone and unprotected, to the revenge, or justice, of the conqueror. The general, or rather the final, capitulation of the Goths may be dated four years, one month, and twenty-five days, after the defeat and ^^■^'^^ death of the emperor Valens.^^^ The provinces of the Danube had been already relieved from ^™at°o'f the the oppressive weight of the Gruthungi, or Ostrogoths, by the o^stJ^^'tj,^ voluntary retreat of Alatheus and Saphrax ; whose restless spirit f^- f^^^^ had prompted them to seek new scenes of rapine and glory. Their destructive course was pointed towards the West ; but we must be satisfied with a ver'y obscure and imperfect knowledge of their various adventures. The Ostrogoths impelled several of the German tribes on the provinces of Gaul ; concluded, and soon violated, a treaty with the emperor Gratian ; advanced ^^^^'^ ** into the unknown countries of the North ; and, after an interval ^p*- ^^■ of more than four years, returned, with accumulated force, to the banks of the Lower Danube. Their troops were recruited with the fiercest warriors of Germany and Scythia ; and the soldiers, or at least the historians, of the empire no longer recognized the name and countenances of their former enemies. ^^*^ The general, who commanded the military and naval powers of the Thracian frontier, soon perceived that his superiority would be disadvantageous to the public service ; and that the Barbarians, awed by the presence of his fleet and i28jomandes, c. xxviii. p. 650. Even Zosimus (1. iv. p. 246 [34]) is compelled to approve the generosity of Theodosius, so honourable to himself, and so bene- ficial to the public. i29The short, but authentic, hints in the FasH of Idatius (Chron. Scaliger, p. 52) are stained with contemporary passion. The fourteenth oration of Themistius is a compliment to Peace, and the consul Saturninus (a.d. 383). [Cp. Seeck, Hermes, xi. p. 67.] '^'Mvoi TO {leg. Ti] S/cveiKbc n-ao-iv ayviaarov. ZosimUS.l. iv. p. 252 [38].