The Origin and Deeds of the Goths, The United Goths

JORDANES

THE ORIGIN AND DEEDS OF THE GOTHS

551 AD

translated by Charles C. Mierow

Princeton University Press, 1915

The United Goths

Now from this island of Scandza, as from a hive of races or a womb of nations,
the Goths are said to have come forth long ago under their king, Berig by name.
As soon as they disembarked from their ships and set foot on the land, they straightway
gave their name to the place. And even to-day it is said to be called Gothiscandza.

Soon they moved from here to the abodes of the Ulmerugi, who then dwelt on
the shores of Ocean, where they pitched camp, joined battle with them and drove
them from their homes. Then they subdued their neighbors, the Vandals, and thus
added to their victories. But when the number of the people increased greatly
and Filimer, son of Gadaric, reigned as king–about the fifth since Berig–he
decided that the army of the Goths with their families should move from that region.

In search of suitable homes and pleasant places they came to the land of Scythia,
called Oium in that tongue. Here they were delighted with the great richness of
the country, and it is said that when half the army had been brought over, the
bridge whereby they had crossed the river fell in utter ruin, nor could anyone
thereafter pass to or fro. For the place is said to be surrounded by quaking bogs
and an encircling abyss, so that by this double obstacle nature has made it inaccessible.
And even to-day one may hear in that neighborhood the lowing of cattle and may
find traces of men, if we are to believe the stories of travellers, although we
must grant that they hear these things from afar.

This part of the Goths, which is said to have crossed the river and entered
with Filimer into the country of Oium, came into possession of the desired land,
and there they soon came upon the race of the Spali, joined battle with them and
won the victory. Thence the victors hastened to the farthest part of Scythia,
which is near the sea of Pontus; for so the story is generally told in their early
songs, in almost historic fashion. Ablabius also, a famous chronicler of the Gothic
race, confirms this in his most trustworthy account.

Some of the ancient writers also agree with the tale. Among these we may mention
Josephus, a most reliable relator of annals, who everywhere follows the rule of
truth and unravels from the beginning the origin of causes;–but why he has omitted
the beginnings of the race of the Goths, of which I have spoken, I do not know.
He barely mentions Magog of that stock, and says they were Scythians by race and
were called so by name.

Before we enter on our history, we must describe the boundaries of this land,
as it lies.

Now Scythia borders on the land of Germany as far as the source of the river
Ister and the expanse of the Morsian Swamp. It reaches even to the rivers Tyra,
Danaster and Vagosola, and the great Danaper, extending to the Taurus range–not
the mountains in Asia but our own, that is, the Scythian Taurus–all the way to
Lake Maeotis. Beyond Lake Maeotis it spreads on the other side of the straits
of Bosphorus to the Caucasus Mountains and the river Araxes. Then it bends back
to the left behind the Caspian Sea, which comes from the north-eastern ocean in
the most distant parts of Asia, and so is formed like a mushroom, at first narrow
and then broad and round in shape. It extends as far as the Huns, Albani and Seres.

This land, I say,–namely, Scythia, stretching far and spreading wide,–has
on the east the Seres, a race that dwelt at the very beginning of their history
on the shore of the Caspian Sea. On the west are the Germans and the river Vistula;
on the arctic side, namely the north, it is surrounded by Ocean; on the south
by Persis, Albania, Hiberia, Pontus and the farthest channel of the Ister, which
is called the Danube all the way from mouth to source.

But in that region where Scythia touches the Pontic coast it is dotted with
towns of no mean fame:–Borysthenis, Olbia, Callipolis, Cherson, Theodosia, Careon,
Myrmicion and Trapezus. These towns the wild Scythian tribes allowed the Greeks
to build to afford them means of trade. In the midst of Scythia is the place that
separates Asia and Europe, I mean the Rhipaeian mountains, from which the mighty
Tanais flows. This river enters Maeotis, a marsh having a circuit of one hundred
and forty-four miles and never subsiding to a depth of less than eight fathoms.

In the land of Scythia to the westward dwells, first of all, the race of the
Gepidae, surrounded by great and famous rivers. For the Tisia flows through it
on the north and northwest, and on the southwest is the great Danube. On the east
it is cut by the Flutausis, a swiftly eddying stream that sweeps whirling into
the Ister’s waters.

Within these rivers lies Dacia, encircled by the lofty Alps as by a crown.
Near their left ridge, which inclines toward the north, and beginning at the source
of the Vistula, the populous race of the Venethi dwell, occupying a great expanse
of land. Though their names are now dispersed amid various clans and places, yet
they are chiefly called Sclaveni and Antes.

The abode of the Sclaveni extends from the city of Noviodunum and the lake
called Mursianus to the Danaster, and northward as far as the Vistula. They have
swamps and forests for their cities. The Antes, who are the bravest of these peoples
dwelling in the curve of the sea of Pontus, spread from the Danaster to the Danaper,
rivers that are many days’ journey apart.

But on the shore of Ocean, where the floods of the river Vistula empty from
three mouths, the Vidivarii dwell, a people gathered out of various tribes. Beyond
them the Aesti, a subject race, likewise hold the shore of Ocean. To the south
dwell the Acatziri, a very brave tribe ignorant of agriculture, who subsist on
their flocks and by hunting.

Farther away and above the Sea of Pontus are the abodes of the Bulgares, well
known from the wrongs done to them by reason of our oppression. From this region
the Huns, like a fruitful root of bravest races, sprouted into two hordes of people.
Some of these are called Altziagiri, others Sabiri; and they have different dwelling
places. The Altziagiri are near Cherson, where the avaricious traders bring in
the goods of Asia. In summer they range the plains, their broad domains, wherever
the pasturage for their cattle invites them, and betake themselves in winter beyond
the Sea of Pontus. Now the Hunuguri are known to us from the fact that they trade
in marten skins. But they have been cowed by their bolder neighbors.

We read that on their first migration the Goths dwelt in the land of Scythia
near Lake Maeotis. On the second migration they went to Moesia, Thrace and Dacia,
and after their third they dwelt again in Scythia, above the Sea of Pontus. Nor
do we find anywhere in their written records legends which tell of their subjection
to slavery in Britain or in some other island, or of their redemption by a certain
man at the cost of a single horse. Of course if anyone in our city says that the
Goths had an origin different from that I have related, let him object. For myself,
I prefer to believe what I have read, rather than put trust in old wives’ tales.

To return, then, to my subject. The aforesaid race of which I speak is known
to have had Filimer as king while they remained in their first home in Scythia
near Maeotis. In their second home, that is in the countries of Dacia, Thrace
and Moesia, Zalmoxes reigned, whom many writers of annals mention as a man of
remarkable learning in philosophy. Yet even before this they had a learned man
Zeuta, and after him Dicineus; and the third was Zalmoxes of whom I have made
mention above. Nor did they lack teachers of wisdom.

Wherefore the Goths have ever been wiser than other barbarians and were nearly
like the Greeks, as Dio relates, who wrote their history and annals with a Greek
pen. He says that those of noble birth among them, from whom their kings and priests
were appointed, were called first Tarabostesei and then Pilleati. Moreover so
highly were the Getae praised that Mars, whom the fables of poets call the god
of war, was reputed to have been born among them. Hence Virgil says:

“Father Gradivus rules the Getic fields.”

Now Mars has always been worshipped by the Goths with cruel rites, and captives
were slain as his victims. They thought that he who is the lord of war ought to
be appeased by the shedding of human blood. To him they devoted the first share
of the spoil, and in his honor arms stripped from the foe were suspended from
trees. And they had more than all other races a deep spirit of religion, since
the worship of this god seemed to be really bestowed upon their ancestor.

In their third dwelling place, which was above the Sea of Pontus, they had
now become more civilized and, as I have said before, were more learned. Then
the people were divided under ruling families. The Visigoths served the family
of the Balthi and the Ostrogoths served the renowned Amali.

They were the first race of men to string the bow with cords, as Lucan, who
is more of a historian than a poet, affirms:

“They string Armenian bows with Getic cords.”

In earliest times they sang of the deeds of their ancestors in strains of song
accompanied by the cithara; chanting of Eterpamara, Hanala, Fritigern, Vidigoia
and others whose fame among them is great; such heroes as admiring antiquity scarce
proclaims its own to be.

Then, as the story goes, Vesosis waged a war disastrous to himself against
the Scythians, whom ancient tradition asserts to have been the husbands of the
Amazons. Concerning these female warriors Orosius speaks in convincing language.
Thus we can clearly prove that Vesosis then fought with the Goths, since we know
surely that he waged war with the husbands of the Amazons. They dwelt at that
time along a bend of Lake Maeotis, from the river Borysthenes, which the natives
call the Danaper, to the stream of the Tanais.

By the Tanais I mean the river which flows down from the Rhipaeian mountains
and rushes with so swift a current that when the neighboring streams or Lake Maeotis
and the Bosphorus are frozen fast, it is the only river that is kept warm by the
rugged mountains and is never solidified by the Scythian cold. It is also famous
as the boundary of Asia and Europe. For the other Tanais is the one which rises
in the mountains of the Chrinni and flows into the Caspian Sea.

The Danaper begins in a great marsh and issues from it as from its mother.
It is sweet and fit to drink as far as half-way down its course. It also produces
fish of a fine flavor and without bones, having only cartilage as the frame-work
of their bodies. But as it approaches the Pontus it receives a little spring called
Exampaeus, so very bitter that although the river is navigable for the length
of a forty days’ voyage, it is so altered by the water of this scanty stream as
to become tainted and unlike itself, and flows thus tainted into the sea between
the Greek towns of Callipidae and Hypanis. At its mouth there is an island named
Achilles. Between these two rivers is a vast land filled with forests and treacherous
swamps.

This was the region where the Goths dwelt when Vesosis, king of the Egyptians,
made war upon them. Their king at that time was Tanausis. In a battle at the river
Phasis (whence come the birds called pheasants, which are found in abundance at
the banquets of the great all over the world) Tanausis, king of the Goths, met
Vesosis, king of the Egyptians, and there inflicted a severe defeat upon him,
pursuing him even to Egypt. Had he not been restrained by the waters of the impassable
Nile and the fortifications which Vesosis had long ago ordered to be made against
the raids of the Ethiopians, he would have slain him in his own land. But finding
he had no power to injure him there, he returned and conquered almost all Asia
and made it subject and tributary to Sornus, king of the Medes, who was then his
dear friend. At that time some of his victorious army, seeing that the subdued
provinces were rich and fruitful, deserted their companies and of their own accord
remained in various parts of Asia.

From their name or race Pompeius Trogus says the stock of the Parthians had
its origin. Hence even to-day in the Scythian tongue they are called Parthi, that
is, Deserters. And in consequence of their descent they are archers–almost alone
among all the nations of Asia–and are very valiant warriors. Now in regard to
the name, though I have said they were called Parthi because they were deserters,
some have traced the derivation of the word otherwise, saying that they were called
Parthi because they fled from their kinsmen. Now when Tanausis, king of the Goths,
was dead, his people worshipped him as one of their gods.

After his death, while the army under his successors was engaged in an expedition
in other parts, a neighboring tribe attempted to carry off women of the Goths
as booty. But they made a brave resistance, as they had been taught to do by their
husbands, and routed in disgrace the enemy who had come upon them. When they had
won this victory, they were inspired with greater daring. Mutually encouraging
each other, they took up arms and chose two of the bolder, Lampeto and Marpesia,
to act as their leaders.

While they were in command, they cast lots both for the defense of their own
country and the devastation of other lands. So Lampeto remained to guard their
native land and Marpesia took a company of women and led this novel army into
Asia. After conquering various tribes in war and making others their allies by
treaties, she came to the Caucasus. There she remained for some time and gave
the place the name Rock of Marpesia, of which also Virgil makes mention:

“Like to hard flint or the Marpesian Cliff.”

It was here Alexander the Great afterwards built gates and named them the Caspian
Gates, which now the tribe of the Lazi guard as a Roman fortification.

Here, then, the Amazons remained for some time and were much strengthened.
Then they departed and crossed the river Halys, which flows near the city of Gangra,
and with equal success subdued Armenia, Syria, Cilicia, Galatia, Pisidia and all
the places of Asia. Then they turned to Ionia and Aeolia, and made provinces of
them after their surrender. Here they ruled for some time and even founded cities
and camps bearing their name. At Ephesus also they built a very costly and beautiful
temple for Diana, because of her delight in archery and the chase–arts to which
they were themselves devoted.

Then these Scythian-born women, who had by such a chance gained control over
the kingdoms of Asia, held them for almost a hundred years, and at last came back
to their own kinsfolk in the Marpesian rocks I have mentioned above, namely the
Caucasus mountains.

Inasmuch as I have twice mentioned this mountain-range, I think it not out
of place to describe its extent and situation, for, as is well known, it encompasses
a great part of the earth with its continuous chain.

Beginning at the Indian Ocean, where it faces the south it is warm, giving
off vapor in the sun; where it lies open to the north it is exposed to chill winds
and frost. Then bending back into Syria with a curving turn, it not only sends
forth many other streams, but pours from its plenteous breasts into the Vasianensian
region the Euphrates and the Tigris, navigable rivers famed for their unfailing
springs. These rivers surround the land of the Syrians and cause it to be called
Mesopotamia, as it truly is. Their waters empty into the bosom of the Red Sea.

Then turning back to the north, the range I have spoken of passes with great
bends through the Scythian lands. There it sends forth very famous rivers into
the Caspian Sea–the Araxes, the Cyrus and the Cambyses. It goes on in continuous
range even to the Rhipaeian mountains. Thence it descends from the north toward
the Pontic Sea, furnishing a boundary to the Scythian tribes by its ridge, and
even touches the waters of the Ister with its clustered hills. Being cut by this
river, it divides, and in Scythia is named Taurus also.

Such then is the great range, almost the mightiest of mountain chains, rearing
aloft its summits and by its natural conformation supplying men with impregnable
strongholds. Here and there it divides where the ridge breaks apart and leaves
a deep gap, thus forming now the Caspian Gates, and again the Armenian or the
Cilician, or of whatever name the place may be. Yet they are barely passable for
a wagon, for both sides are sharp and steep as well as very high. The range has
different names among various peoples. The Indian calls it Imaus and in another
part Paropamisus. The Parthian calls it first Choatras and afterward Niphates;
the Syrian and Armenian call it Taurus; the Scythian names it Caucasus and Rhipaeus,
and at its end calls it Taurus. Many other tribes have given names to the range.
Now that we have devoted a few words to describing its extent, let us return to
the subject of the Amazons.

Fearing their race would fail, they sought marriage with neighboring tribes.
They appointed a day for meeting once in every year, so that when they should
return to the same place on that day in the following year each mother might give
over to the father whatever male child she had borne, but should herself keep
and train for warfare whatever children of the female sex were born. Or else,
as some maintain, they exposed the males, destroying the life of the ill-fated
child with a hate like that of a stepmother. Among them childbearing was detested,
though everywhere else it is desired.

The terror of their cruelty was increased by common rumor; for what hope, pray,
would there be for a captive, when it was considered wrong to spare even a son?
Hercules, they say, fought against them and overcame Menalippe, yet more by guile
than by valor. Theseus moreover, took Hippolyte captive, and of her he begat Hippolytus.
And in later times the Amazons had a queen named Penthesilea, famed in the tales
of the Trojan war. These women are said to have kept their power even to the time
of Alexander the Great.

But say not “Why does a story which deals with the men of the Goths have so
much to say of their women?” Hear, then, the tale of the famous and glorious valor
of the men. Now Dio, the historian and diligent investigator of ancient times,
who gave to his work the title “Getica” (and the Getae we have proved in a previous
passage to be Goths, on the testimony of Orosius Paulus)–this Dio, I say, makes
mention of a later king of theirs named Telefus. Let no one say that this name
is quite foreign to the Gothic tongue, and let no one who is ignorant cavil at
the fact that the tribes of men make use of many names, even as the Romans borrow
from the Macedonians, the Greeks from the Romans, the Sarmatians from the Germans,
and the Goths frequently from the Huns.

This Telefus, then, a son of Hercules by Auge, and the husband of a sister
of Priam, was of towering stature and terrible strength. He matched his father’s
valor by virtues of his own and also recalled the traits of Hercules by his likeness
in appearance. Our ancestors called his kingdom Moesia. This province has on the
east the mouths of the Danube, on the south Macedonia, on the west Histria and
on the north the Danube.

Now this king we have mentioned carried on wars with the Greeks, and in their
course he slew in battle Thesander, the leader of Greece. But while he was making
a hostile attack upon Ajax and was pursuing Ulysses, his horse became entangled
in some vines and fell. He himself was thrown and wounded in the thigh by a javelin
of Achilles, so that for a long time he could not be healed. Yet, despite his
wound, he drove the Greeks from his land. Now when Telefus died, his son Eurypylus
succeeded to the throne, being a son of the sister of Priam, king of the Phrygians.
For love of Cassandra he sought to take part in the Trojan war, that he might
come to the help of her parents and his own father-in-law; but soon after his
arrival he was killed.

Then Cyrus, king of the Persians, after a long interval of almost exactly six
hundred and thirty years (as Pompeius Trogus relates), waged an unsuccessful war
against Tomyris, Queen of the Getae. Elated by his victories in Asia, he strove
to conquer the Getae, whose queen, as I have said, was Tomyris. Though she could
have stopped the approach of Cyrus at the river Araxes, yet she permitted him
to cross, preferring to overcome him in battle rather than to thwart him by advantage
of position. And so she did.

As Cyrus approached, fortune at first so favored the Parthians that they slew
the son of Tomyris and most of the army. But when the battle was renewed, the
Getae and their queen defeated, conquered and overwhelmed the Parthians and took
rich plunder from them. There for the first time the race of the Goths saw silken
tents. After achieving this victory and winning so much booty from her enemies,
Queen Tomyris crossed over into that part of Moesia which is now called Lesser
Scythia–a name borrowed from great Scythia,–and built on the Moesian shore of
Pontus the city of Tomi, named after herself.

Afterwards Darius, king of the Persians, the son of Hystaspes, demanded in
marriage the daughter of Antyrus, king of the Goths, asking for her hand and at
the same time making threats in case they did not fulfil his wish. The Goths spurned
this alliance and brought his embassy to naught. Inflamed with anger because his
offer had been rejected, he led an army of seven hundred thousand armed men against
them and sought to avenge his wounded feelings by inflicting a public injury.
Crossing on boats covered with boards and joined like a bridge almost the whole
way from Chalcedon to Byzantium, he started for Thrace and Moesia. Later he built
a bridge over the Danube in like manner, but he was wearied by two brief months
of effort and lost eight thousand armed men among the Tapae. Then, fearing the
bridge over the Danube would be seized by his foes, he marched back to Thrace
in swift retreat, believing the land of Moesia would not be safe for even a short
sojourn there.

After his death, his son Xerxes planned to avenge his father’s wrongs and so
proceeded to undertake a war against the Goths with seven hundred thousand of
his own men and three hundred thousand armed auxiliaries, twelve hundred ships
of war and three thousand transports. But he did not venture to try them in battle,
being overawed by their unyielding animosity. So he returned with his force just
as he had come, and without fighting a single battle.

Then Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, made alliance with the Goths
and took to wife Medopa, the daughter of King Gudila, so that he might render
the kingdom of Macedon more secure by the help of this marriage. It was at this
time, as the historian Dio relates, that Philip, suffering from need of money,
determined to lead out his forces and sack Odessus, a city of Moesia, which was
then subject to the Goths by reason of the neighboring city of Tomi. Thereupon
those priests of the Goths that are called the Holy Men suddenly opened the gates
of Odessus and came forth to meet them. They bore harps and were clad in snowy
robes, and chanted in suppliant strains to the gods of their fathers that they
might be propitious and repel the Macedonians. When the Macedonians saw them coming
with such confidence to meet them, they were astonished and, so to speak, the
armed were terrified by the unarmed. Straightway they broke the line they had
formed for battle and not only refrained from destroying the city, but even gave
back those whom they had captured outside by right of war. Then they made a truce
and returned to their own country.

After a long time Sitalces, a famous leader of the Goths, remembering this
treacherous attempt, gathered a hundred and fifty thousand men and made war upon
the Athenians, fighting against Perdiccas, King of Macedon. This Perdiccas had
been left by Alexander as his successor to rule Athens by hereditary right, when
he drank his destruction at Babylon through the treachery of an attendant. The
Goths engaged in a great battle with him and proved themselves to be the stronger.
Thus in return for the wrong which the Macedonians had long before committed in
Moesia, the Goths overran Greece and laid waste the whole of Macedonia.

Then when Buruista was king of the Goths, Dicineus came to Gothia at the time
when Sulla ruled the Romans. Buruista received Dicineus and gave him almost royal
power. It was by his advice the Goths ravaged the lands of the Germans, which
the Franks now possess.

Then came Caesar, the first of all the Romans to assume imperial power and
to subdue almost the whole world, who conquered all kingdoms and even seized islands
lying beyond our world, reposing in the bosom of Ocean. He made tributary to the
Romans those that knew not the Roman name even by hearsay, and yet was unable
to prevail against the Goths, despite his frequent attempts. Soon Gaius Tiberius
reigned as third emperor of the Romans, and yet the Goths continued in their kingdom
unharmed.

Their safety, their advantage, their one hope lay in this, that whatever their
counsellor Dicineus advised should by all means be done; and they judged it expedient
that they should labor for its accomplishment. And when he saw that their minds
were obedient to him in all things and that they had natural ability, he taught
them almost the whole of philosophy, for he was a skilled master of this subject.
Thus by teaching them ethics he restrained their barbarous customs; by imparting
a knowledge of physics he made them live naturally under laws of their own, which
they possess in written form to this day and call belagines. He taught them logic
and made them skilled in reasoning beyond all other races; he showed them practical
knowledge and so persuaded them to abound in good works. By demonstrating theoretical
knowledge he urged them to contemplate the twelve signs and the courses of the
planets passing through them, and the whole of astronomy. He told them how the
disc of the moon gains increase or suffers loss, and showed them how much the
fiery globe of the sun exceeds in size our earthly planet. He explained the names
of the three hundred and forty-six stars and told through what signs in the arching
vault of the heavens they glide swiftly from their rising to their setting.

Think, I pray you, what pleasure it was for these brave men, when for a little
space they had leisure from warfare, to be instructed in the teachings of philosophy!
You might have seen one scanning the position of the heavens and another investigating
the nature of plants and bushes. Here stood one who studied the waxing and waning
of the moon, while still another regarded the labors of the sun and observed how
those bodies which were hastening to go toward the east are whirled around and
borne back to the west by the rotation of the heavens. When they had learned the
reason, they were at rest.

These and various other matters Dicineus taught the Goths in his wisdom and
gained marvellous repute among them, so that he ruled not only the common men
but their kings. He chose from among them those that were at that time of noblest
birth and superior wisdom and taught them theology, bidding them worship certain
divinities and holy places. He gave the name of Pilleati to the priests he ordained,
I suppose because they offered sacrifice having their heads covered with tiaras,
which we otherwise call pillei.

But he bade them call the rest of their race Capillati. This name the Goths
accepted and prized highly, and they retain it to this day in their songs.

After the death of Dicineus, they held Comosicus in almost equal honor, because
he was not inferior in knowledge. By reason of his wisdom he was accounted their
priest and king, and he judged the people with the greatest uprightness.

When he too had departed from human affairs, Coryllus ascended the throne as
king of the Goths and for forty years ruled his people in Dacia. I mean ancient
Dacia, which the race of the Gepidae now possess.

This country lies across the Danube within sight of Moesia, and is surrounded
by a crown of mountains. It has only two ways of access, one by way of the Boutae
and the other by the Tapae. This Gothia, which our ancestors called Dacia and
now, as I have said, is called Gepidia, was then bounded on the east by the Roxolani,
on the west by the Iazyges, on the north by the Sarmatians and Basternae and on
the south by the river Danube. The Iazyges are separated from the Roxolani by
the Aluta river only.

And since mention has been made of the Danube, I think it not out of place
to make brief notice of so excellent a stream. Rising in the fields of the Alamanni,
it receives sixty streams which flow into it here and there in the twelve hundred
miles from its source to its mouths in the Pontus, resembling a spine inwoven
with ribs like a basket. It is indeed a most vast river. In the language of the
Bessi it is called the Hister, and it has profound waters in its channel to a
depth of quite two hundred feet. This stream surpasses in size all other rivers,
except the Nile. Let this much suffice for the Danube. But let us now with the
Lord’s help return to the subject from which we have digressed.

Now after a long time, in the reign of the Emperor Domitian, the Goths, through
fear of his avarice, broke the truce they had long observed under other emperors.
They laid waste the bank of the Danube, so long held by the Roman Empire, and
slew the soldiers and their generals. Oppius Sabinus was then in command of that
province, succeeding Agrippa, while Dorpaneus held command over the Goths. Thereupon
the Goths made war and conquered the Romans, cut off the head of Oppius Sabinus,
and invaded and boldly plundered many castles and cities belonging to the Emperor.

In this plight of his countrymen Domitian hastened with all his might to Illyricum,
bringing with him the troops of almost the entire empire. He sent Fuscus before
him as his general with picked soldiers. Then joining boats together like a bridge,
he made his soldiers cross the river Danube above the army of Dorpaneus.

But the Goths were on the alert. They took up arms and presently overwhelmed
the Romans in the first encounter. They slew Fuscus, the commander, and plundered
the soldiers’ camp of its treasure. And because of the great victory they had
won in this region, they thereafter called their leaders, by whose good fortune
they seemed to have conquered, not mere men, but demigods, that is Ansis. Their
genealogy I shall run through briefly, telling the lineage of each and the beginning
and the end of this line. And do thou, O reader, hear me without repining; for
I speak truly.

Now the first of these heroes, as they themselves relate in their legends,
was Gapt, who begat Hulmul. And Hulmul begat Augis; and Augis begat him who was
called Amal, from whom the name of the Amali comes. This Amal begat Hisarnis.
Hisarnis moreover begat Ostrogotha, and Ostrogotha begat Hunuil, and Hunuil likewise
begat Athal. Athal begat Achiulf and Oduulf. Now Achiulf begat Ansila and Ediulf,
Vultuulf and Hermanaric. And Vultuulf begat Valaravans and Valaravans begat Vinitharius.
Vinitharius moreover begat Vandalarius;

Vandalarius begat Thiudimer and Valamir and Vidimer; and Thiudimer begat Theodoric.
Theodoric begat Amalasuentha; Amalasuentha bore Athalaric and Mathesuentha to
her husband Eutharic, whose race was thus joined to hers in kinship.

For the aforesaid Hermanaric, the son of Achiulf, begat Hunimund, and Hunimund
begat Thorismud. Now Thorismud begat Beremud, Beremud begat Veteric, and Veteric
likewise begat Eutharic, who married Amalasuentha and begat Athalaric and Mathesuentha.
Athalaric died in the years of his childhood, and Mathesuentha married Vitiges,
to whom she bore no child. Both of them were taken together by Belisarius to Constantinople.
When Vitiges passed from human affairs, Germanus the patrician, a cousin of the
Emperor Justinian, took Mathesuentha in marriage and made her a Patrician Ordinary.
And of her he begat a son, also called Germanus. But upon the death of Germanus,
she determined to remain a widow. Now how and in what wise the kingdom of the
Amali was overthrown we shall keep to tell in its proper place, if the Lord help
us.