Res Gestae

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 skins[*](This 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

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, B.G. i. 50, 4–5; Tac., Germ. 10.)

They do not know the meaning of slavery, since all are born of noble blood, and moreover they choose as chiefs[*](Cf. 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.