History of the Wars, Books III and IV | Page 2

over the
Ionian Gulf, which extends about eight hundred stades from Dryous.
For the passage across the gulf[9] amounts to a journey of not less than
four days. Such, then, was the size of the Roman empire in the ancient
times.
And there fell to him who held the power in the West the most of Libya,
extending ninety days' journey--for such is the distance from Gadira to
the boundaries of Tripolis in Libya; and in Europe he received as his
portion territory extending seventy-five days' journey--for such is the
distance from the northern[10] of the Pillars of Heracles to the Ionian
Gulf.[11] And one might add also the distance around the gulf. And the
emperor of the East received territory extending one hundred and
twenty days' journey, from the boundaries of Cyrene in Libya as far as
Epidamnus, which lies on the Ionian Gulf and is called at the present
time Dyrrachium, as well as that portion of the country about the
Euxine Sea which, as previously stated, is subject to the Romans. Now
one day's journey extends two hundred and ten stades,[12] or as far as
from Athens to Megara. Thus, then, the Roman emperors divided either
continent between them. And among the islands Britain, which is
outside the Pillars of Heracles and by far the largest of all islands, was
counted, as is natural, with the West; and inside the Pillars, Ebusa,[13]
which lies in the Mediterranean in what we may call the Propontis, just
inside the opening where the ocean enters, about seven days' journey
from the opening, and two others near it, Majorica and Minorica, as

they are called by the natives, were also assigned to the Western empire.
And each of the islands in the Sea itself fell to the share of that one of
the two emperors within whose boundaries it happened to lie.
II
Now while Honorius was holding the imperial power in the West,
barbarians took possession of his land; and I shall tell who they were
and in what manner they did so. [395-423 A.D.] There were many
Gothic nations in earlier times, just as also at the present, but the
greatest and most important of all are the Goths, Vandals, Visigoths,
and Gepaedes. In ancient times, however, they were named Sauromatae
and Melanchlaeni;[14] and there were some too who called these
nations Getic. All these, while they are distinguished from one another
by their names, as has been said, do not differ in anything else at all.
For they all have white bodies and fair hair, and are tall and handsome
to look upon, and they use the same laws and practise a common
religion. For they are all of the Arian faith, and have one language
called Gothic; and, as it seems to me, they all came originally from one
tribe, and were distinguished later by the names of those who led each
group. This people used to dwell above the Ister River from of old.
Later on the Gepaedes got possession of the country about
Singidunum[15] and Sirmium,[16] on both sides of the Ister River,
where they have remained settled even down to my time.
But the Visigoths, separating from the others, removed from there and
at first entered into an alliance with the Emperor Arcadius, but at a later
time (for faith with the Romans cannot dwell in barbarians), under the
leadership of Alaric, they became hostile to both emperors, and,
beginning with Thrace, treated all Europe as an enemy's land. Now the
Emperor Honorius had before this time been sitting in Rome, with
never a thought of war in his mind, but glad, I think, if men allowed
him to remain quiet in his palace. But when word was brought that the
barbarians with a great army were not far off, but somewhere among
the Taulantii,[17] he abandoned the palace and fled in disorderly
fashion to Ravenna, a strong city lying just about at the end of the
Ionian Gulf, while some say that he brought in the barbarians himself,

because an uprising had been started against him among his subjects;
but this does not seem to me trustworthy, as far, at least, as one can
judge of the character of the man. And the barbarians, finding that they
had no hostile force to encounter them, became the most cruel of all
men. For they destroyed all the cities which they captured, especially
those south of the Ionian Gulf, so completely that nothing has been left
to my time to know them by, unless, indeed, it might be one tower or
one gate or some such thing which chanced to remain. And they killed
all the people, as many as came in their way, both old and young alike,
sparing neither women nor children. Wherefore even up