This race of untamed men, without encumbrances, aflame with an inhuman desire for plundering others’ property, made their violent way amid the rapine and slaughter of the neighbouring peoples as far as the Halani, once known as the Massagetae. And since we have come to this point, it is in place to tell of the origin and dwelling-place of this people also, and to point out the confused opinions of geographers, who after many different attempts to deal with the subject have at last come upon the core of the truth.The passage is fragmentary and the exact meaning is uncertain. Only the general sense can be given.

The Hister,The Danube. filled to overflowing by a great number of tributaries, flows past the Sauromatians, and these extend as far as the river Tanais,The Don. which separates Asia from Europe. On the other side of this riverThe Hister (Danube). the Halani, so called from the mountain range of the same name,Alanos (῎ἄλανος). inhabit the measureless wastes of Scythia; and by repeated victories they gradually wore down the peoples whom they met and like the Persians incorporated them under their own national name.

Among these the NerviiCf. xxii. 8, 40; these are the Neuri of Herodotus (iv. 105). inhabit the interior of the country near the lofty, precipitous peaks nipped by the north winds and benumbed with ice and snow. Behind these are the VidiniThe Budini of Herodotus, iv. 108–9. and the Geloni, exceedingly savage races, who strip the skins from their slain enemies to make clothing for themselves and coverings for their horses in war.See Mela, ii. 1, 14. On the frontier of the Geloni are the Agathyrsi, who checker their bodies and dye their hair with a blue colourThis detail is not mentioned by Herodotus (iv. 101). —the common people with a few small marks, but the nobles with more and broader spots of dye.Cf. Pliny, iv. 80; Mela, ii. 1, 10.

Beyond these are the MelanchlaenaeAccording to Herodotus, iv. 107, they get their name from their black clothing. and the Anthropophagi, who according to report lead a nomadic life and feed upon human flesh; and because of this abominable food they are left to themselves and all their former neighbours have moved to distant parts of the earth. And so the entire north-easternOriens aestivus, north-east (Pliny, xvii. 105), so called because the sun rises in that quarter in summer. Hibernus oriens for south-east also occurs, and occidens aestivus for north-west (Columella, i. 6, 2); o. h.,, Livy, xliv. 46, 5. Cf. Gesner, , s.v. aequinoctialis oriens. tract, until one comes to the Seres,Chinese of Central and E. Asia (see xxiii. 6, 64). The Seres and the Ganges are not mentioned by Herodotus, nor the Halani except perhaps as Massagetae (i. 204). has remained uninhabitable.

In another part of the country, near the abodes of the Amazons, the Halani mount to the eastward, divided into populous and extensive nations; these reach as far as Asia, and, as I have heard, stretch all the way to the river Ganges, which flows through the territories of India and empties into the southern ocean.

Thus the Halani (whose various peoples it is unnecessary now to enumerate) are divided between the twoI.e., Europe and Asia, in which Africa was often included. parts of the earth, but although widely separated from each other and roaming over vast tracts, as Nomads do, yet in the course of time they have united under one name, and are, for short, all called Halani because of the similarity in their customs, their savage mode of life, and their weapons.

For they have no huts and care nothing for using the plowshare, but they live upon flesh and an abundance of milk, and dwell in wagons, which they cover with rounded canopies of bark and drive over the boundless wastes. And when they come to a place rich in grass, they place their carts in a circle and feed like wild beasts. As soon as the fodder is used up, they place their cities, as we might call them, on the wagons and so convey them: in the wagons the males have intercourse with the women, and in the wagons their babes are born and reared; wagons form their permanent dwellings, and wherever they come, that place they look upon as their natural home.

Driving their plow-cattle before them, they pasture them with their flocks, and they give particular attention to breeding horses. In that land the fields are always green, and here and there are places set thick with fruit trees. Hence, wherever they go, they lack neither food for themselves nor fodder for their cattle, because of the moist soil and the numerous courses of rivers that flow hard by them.

Therefore, all those who through age or sex are unfit for war remain close by the wagons and are occupied in light tasks; but the young men grow up in the habit of riding from their earliest boyhood and regard it as contemptible to go on foot; and by various forms of training they are all skilled warriors. From the same causes the PersiansThat is, the Parthians; for their Scythian origin, cf. Q. Curtius, vi. 2, 11, etc. also, who are Scythians by origin, are highly expert in fighting.

Moreover, almost all the Halani are tall and handsome, their hair inclines to blond, by the ferocity of their glance they inspire dread, subdued though it is. They are light and active in the use of arms. In all respects they are somewhat like the Huns, but in their manner of life and their habits they are less savage. In their plundering and hunting expeditions they roam here and there as far as the Maeotic Sea and the Cimmerian Bosporus, and also to Armenia and Media.

Just as quiet and peaceful men find pleasure in rest, so the Halani delight in danger and warfare. There the man is judged happy who has sacrificed his life in battle, while those who grow old and depart from the world by a natural death they assail with bitter reproaches, as degenerate and cowardly; and there is nothing in which they take more pride than in killing any man whatever: as glorious spoils of the slain they tear off their heads, then strip off their skinsThis seems to be the meaning with the punctuation of the text, based on the clausulae. The skins are com. monly understood to be those of the head (i.e. scalps), but apparently wrongly; cf. 2, 14, above, of the Vidini and Geloni. and hang them upon their war-horses as trappings.

No temple or sacred place is to be seen in their country, not even a hut thatched with straw can be discerned anywhere, but after the manner of barbarians a naked sword is fixed in the ground and they reverently worship it as their god of war, the presiding deity of those lands over which they range.Since the leader of the dance of the Salian priests of Mars was called praesul, the term is appropriate here. On this custom see Mela, ii. 1, 15; cf. Justinus, xliii. 3, ab origine rerum pro dis immortalibus hastas coluere, Herodotus, iv. 62; and xvii. 12, 21 above (of the Quadi).

They have a remarkable way of divining the future; for they gather very straight twigs of osier and sort them out at an appointed time with certain secret incantations, and thus clearly learn what impends.Ammianus is too brief to be clear. The twigs were marked with certain signs (notae) from which the predicttions were made; see Hdt. iv. 67; Caesar, i. 50, 4–5; Tac., 10.

They do not know the meaning of slavery, since all are born of noble blood, and moreover they choose as chiefsCf. iudex in § 4, below, and Introd., p. xxvi, note 2. those men who are conspicuous for long experience as warriors. But let us return to what remains of our chosen subject.

The Huns, then, having overrun the territories of those Halani (bordering on the Greuthungi) to whom usage has given the surname Tanaites, killed and plundered many of them, and joined the survivors to themselves in a treaty of alliance; then in company with these they made the more boldly a sudden inroad into the extensive and rich cantons of Ermenrichus,Called Ermanarich in Jordanes’ a most warlike monarch, dreaded by the neighbouring nations because of his many and varied deeds of valour.

He was struck with consternation at the violence of this sudden storm; for a long time he did his best to maintain a firm and continued stand, but since rumour gave wide currency toFor vulgatius, cf. xv. 3, 6; xvii. 4, 9. and exaggerated the horror of the impending dangers, he put an end to his fear of these great perils by a voluntary death.

After his demise Vithimiris was made king and resisted the Halani for a time, relying on other Huns, whom he had paid to take his side. But after many defeats which he sustained, he was overcome by force of arms and died in battle. In the name of his little son, Viderichus, the management of affairs was undertaken by Alatheus and Saphrax, experienced generals known for their courage; but since the stress of circumstances compelled them to abandon confidence in resistance, they cautiously retreated until they came to the river Danastius,Also called the Tyras, to-day the Dniester. which flows through the wide extent of plain between the Hister and the Borysthenes.To-day the Dnieper.

On learning of these unexpected events, Athanarichus, the chief of the Theruingi (against whom, as has been told before,Cf. xxvii. 5, 6. because of aid which he had sent to Procopius, Valens had recently taken the field) attempted to stand his ground, and if he too should be attacked like the rest, was ready to put forth all his strength.

Accordingly, he established his camp near the banks of the Danastius, conveniently at some distance from the stockade of the Greuthungi, and sent Munderichus, afterwards in charge of the frontier throughout Arabia, with Lagarimanus and some other men of high rank, to a distance of twenty miles in advance, to observe the advance of the enemy, while he himself in the meantime, disturbed by no one, was preparing his army for battle.

But the result was far other than he expected. For the Huns, who are shrewd in arriving at conclusions, suspecting that there was some large force farther off, disregarded the troops which they had seen, and who had disposed themselves to rest, as if there was nothing to disturb them; then, when the moon broke into the darkness of night, they chose what seemed to be the best course, crossed the river by a ford, and fearing lest some informer should get ahead of them and frighten off the enemy who were at a distance, they made a swift attack on Athanaricus himself.