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I must now relate an event well worthy of being recorded, which
happened about this time. There is a barbarous nation dwelling beyond
the Rhine, denominated Burgundians; they lead a peaceful life; for
being almost all artisans, they support themselves by the exercise of
their trades. The Hurts, by making continual irruptions on this
people, devastated their country, and often destroyed great numbers of
them. In this perplexity, therefore, the Burgundians resolved to
have recourse not to any human being, but to commit themselves to the
protection of some god: and having seriously considered that the God
of the Romans mightily defended those that feared him, they all with
common consent embraced the faith of Christ. Going therefore to one
of the cities of Gaul, they requested the bishop to grant them
Christian baptism: who ordering them to fast seven days, and having
meanwhile instructed them in the elementary principles of the faith, on
the eighth day baptized and dismissed them. Accordingly becoming
confident thenceforth, they marched against their invaders; nor were
they disappointed in their hope. For the king of the Huns, Uptar by
name, having died in the night from the effects of a surfeit, the
Burgundians attacked that people then without a commander-in-chief;
and although they were few in numbers and their opponents very many,
they obtained a complete victory; for the Burgundians were altogether
but three thousand men, and destroyed no less than ten thousand of the
enemy. From that period this nation became zealously attached to the
Christian religion. About the same time Barbas bishop of the Arians
died, on the 24th of June, under the thirteenth consulate of
Theodosius, and the third of Valentinian, and Sabbatius was
constituted his successor. Enough has been said of these matters.
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