apart under their own kings, yet they had been allied to
the Roman state and received annual gifts. And what 90
more? Ostrogotha and his men soon crossed the Danube
and ravaged Moesia and Thrace. Philip sent the senator
Decius against him. And since he could do nothing
against the Getae, he released his own soldiers from military
service and sent them back to private life, as though
it had been by their neglect that the Goths had crossed the
Danube. When, as he supposed, he had thus taken vengeance
on his soldiers, he returned to Philip. But when
the soldiers found themselves expelled from the army
after so many hardships, in their anger they had recourse
to the protection of Ostrogotha, king of the Goths. He 91
received them, was aroused by their words and presently
led out three hundred thousand armed men, having as
allies for this war some of the Taifali and Astringi and
also three thousand of the Carpi, a race of men very ready
to make war and frequently hostile to the Romans. But
in later times when Diocletian and Maximian were Emperors,
the Caesar Galerius Maximianus conquered them
and made them tributary to the Roman Empire. Besides
these tribes, Ostrogotha had Goths and Peucini from the
island of Peucë, which lies in the mouths of the Danube
where they empty into the Sea of Pontus. He placed in
command Argaithus and Guntheric, the noblest leaders 92
of his race. They speedily crossed the Danube, devastated
Moesia a second time and approached Marcianople,
the famed metropolis of that land. Yet after a long siege
they departed, upon receiving money from the inhabitants.