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NOT long after the barbarians had entered into a friendly alliance
with one another, they were again vanquished by other barbarians,
their neighbors, called the Huns; and being driven out of their own
country, they fled into the territory of the Romans, offering to be
subject to the emperor, and to execute whatever he should command
them. When Valens was made acquainted with this, not having the
least presentiment of the consequences, he ordered that the suppliants
should be received with kindness; in this one instance alone showing
himself compassionate. He therefore assigned them certain parts of
Thrace for their habitation, deeming himself peculiarly fortunate in
this matter: for he calculated that in future he should possess a ready
and well-equipped army against all assailants; and hoped that the
barbarians would be a more formidable guard to the frontiers of the
empire even than the Romans themselves. For this reason he in the
future neglected to recruit his army by Roman levies; and despising
those veterans who had bravely straggled and subdued his enemies in
former wars, he put a pecuniary value on the militia which the
inhabitants of the provinces, village by village, had been accustomed
to furnish, ordering the collectors of his tribute to demand eighty
pieces of gold for every soldier, although he had never before
lightened the public burdens. This change was the origin of many
disasters to the Roman empire subsequently.
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