perhaps they did not really surpass in war. They made
their foes flee in horror because their swarthy aspect was
fearful, and they had, if I may call it so, a sort of shapeless
lump, not a head, with pin-holes rather than eyes.
Their hardihood is evident in their wild appearance, and
they are beings who are cruel to their children on the
very day they are born. For they cut the cheeks of the
males with a sword, so that before they receive the nourishment
of milk they must learn to endure wounds.
Hence they grow old beardless and their young men are 128
without comeliness, because a face furrowed by the sword
spoils by its scars the natural beauty of a beard. They
are short in stature, quick in bodily movement, alert
horsemen, broad shouldered, ready in the use of bow and
arrow, and have firm-set necks which are ever erect in
pride. Though they live in the form of men, they have
the cruelty of wild beasts.

[Sidenote: FIRST IRRUPTION OF THE HUNS as early as 375]

When the Getae beheld this active race that had invaded 129
many nations, they took fright and consulted with
their king how they might escape from such a foe. Now
although Hermanaric, king of the Goths, was the conqueror
of many tribes, as we have said above, yet while
he was deliberating on this invasion of the Huns, the
treacherous tribe of the Rosomoni, who at that time were
among those who owed him their homage, took this
chance to catch him unawares. For when the king had
given orders that a certain woman of the tribe I have