Res Gestae

They approved the counsel of the king, who they knew would be an active participator in the plan, and advancing cautiously they spread over every quarter of Thrace, while their prisoners or those who surrendered to them pointed out the rich villages, especially those in which it was said that abundant supplies of food were to be found. Besides their native self-confidence, they were encouraged especially by this help, that day by day great numbers of their countrymen flocked to them, including those who had been sold some time before by the traders, as well as many other persons, whom those who were half-dead with hunger when they first crossed into the country had bartered for a drink of bad wine or bits of the poorest of bread.

Besides these there were not a few who were expert in following out veins of gold,[*](There were gold-mines in Thrace and Macedonia; of. Claudian, Panegyr. Theodori, 40 f., quidquid luce procul venae rimata sequaces, abdita pallentis fodit sollertia Bessi (a Thracian people).) and who could no longer endure the heavy burden of taxes; these were welcomed with the glad consent of all, and rendered great service to the same, as they wandered through strange places, by pointing out hidden stores of grain, and the secret refuges and hiding-places of the inhabitants.

With such guides nothing that was not

Finally many aged men, crying that they had lived long enough after losing their possessions and their beautiful women, were led into exile with their arms pinioned behind their backs, and weeping over the glowing ashes of their ancestral homes.

This news, received from Thrace with great sorrow, distracted the emperor Valens with manifold cares. He quickly sent Victor, commander of the cavalry, to Persia, that he might, in view of great impending dangers, arrange about the status of Armenia[*](I.e., to have an understanding with the King, before withdrawing troops from Armenia.) ; he himself, planning to leave Antioch at once and go to Constantinople in the meantime, sent on in advance Profuturus and Trajanus, both generals who had high aspirations, but were unfit for war.

When these men had come to places where it was more fitting in small divisions to diminish the enemy’s numbers by stealthy and guerilla warfare, they turned to the ruinous and untimely plan of opposing to the barbarians, who were still breathing out madness, the legions brought from Armenia; these had indeed often given a good