own; and through Roumelia, and through the Alps, a long and dangerous
journey, went Dietrich and his Goths, with their wives and children,
and all they had, packed on waggons; living on their flocks and
herds, grinding their corn in hand-mills, and hunting as they went,
for seven hundred miles of march; fighting as they went with Bulgars
and Sarmatians, who had swarmed into the waste marches of Hungary and
Carniola, once populous, cultivated, and full of noble cities;
fighting a desperate battle with the Gepidae, up to their knees in a
morass; till over the passes of the Julian Alps, where icicles hung
upon their beards, and their clothes cracked with frost, they poured
into the Venetian plains. It was a daring deed; and needed a spirit
like Dietrich's to carry it through.

Odoacer awaited him near the ruins of Aquileia. On the morning of
the fight, as he was arming, Dietrich asked his noble mother to bring
him some specially fine mantle, which she had embroidered for him,
and put it over his armour, 'that all men may see how he goes gayer
into the fight than ever he did into feast. For this day she shall
see whether she have brought a man-child into the world, or no.'

And in front of Verona (where the plain was long white with human
bones), he beat Odoacer, and after a short and sharp campaign, drove
him to Ravenna. But there, Roman fortifications, and Roman
artillery, stopped, as usual, the Goth; and Odoacer fulfilled his
name so well, and stood so stout, that he could only be reduced by
famine; and at last surrendered on terms, difficult now to discover.

Gibbon says, that there was a regular compact that they should enjoy
equal authority, and refers to Procopius: but Procopius only says,
that they should live together peaceably 'in that city.' Be that as