simpliciter orare_. This peace was ratified by mutual hostages; _Ætius_ was
sent hostage to _Alaric_; and _Alaric_ continued a free Prince in the seats
now granted to him.

When _Alaric_ took up arms, the nations beyond the _Danube_ began to be in
motion; and the next winter, between A.C. 395 and 396, a great body of
_Hunns_, _Alans_, _Ostrogoths_, _Gepides_, and other northern nations, came
over the frozen _Danube_, being invited by _Rufinus_: when their brethren,
who had obtained seats within the Empire, took up arms also. _Jerome_ calls
this great multitude, _Hunns_, _Alans_, _Vandals_, _Goths_, _Sarmatians_,
_Quades_, and _Marcomans_; and saith, that they invaded all places between
_Constantinople_ and the _Julian Alps_, wasting _Scythia_, _Thrace_,
_Macedon_, _Dardania_, _Dacia_, _Thessaly_, _Achaia_, _Epirus_, _Dalmatia_,
and all _Pannonia_. The _Suevians_ also invaded _Rhætia_: for when _Alaric_
ravaged _Pannonia_, the _Romans_ were defending _Rhætia_; which gave
_Alaric_ an opportunity of invading _Italy_, as _Claudian_ thus mentions.

_Non nisi perfidiâ nacti penetrabile tempus,_
_Irrupere Getæ, nostras dum Rhætia vires_
_Occupat, atque alio desudant Marte cohortes_.

And when _Alaric_ went from those parts into _Italy_, some other barbarous
nations invaded _Noricum_ and _Vindelicia_, as the same Poet _Claudian_
thus writes:

----_Jam foedera gentes_
_Exuerant, Latiique auditâ clade feroces_
_Vendelicos saltus & Norica rura tenebant._

This was in the years 402 and 403. And among these nations I reckon the