History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 1Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 1
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
frontier often perplexed the most accurate observers. As the
Goths advanced near the Euxine Sea, they encountered a purer race
of Sarmatians, the Jazyges, the Alani, and the Roxolani; and they
were probably the first Germans who saw the mouths of the
Borysthenes, and of the Tanais. If we inquire into the
characteristic marks of the people of Germany and of Sarmatia, we
shall discover that those two great portions of human kind were
principally distinguished by fixed huts or movable tents, by a
close dress or flowing garments, by the marriage of one or of
several wives, by a military force, consisting, for the most
part, either of infantry or cavalry; and above all, by the use of
the Teutonic, or of the Sclavonian language; the last of which
has been diffused by conquest, from the confines of Italy to the
neighborhood of Japan.
Chapter X: Emperors Decius, Gallus, Æmilianus, Valerian And
Gallienus.—Part II.
The Goths were now in possession of the Ukraine, a country of
considerable extent and uncommon fertility, intersected with
navigable rivers, which, from either side, discharge themselves
into the Borysthenes; and interspersed with large and lofty
forests of oaks. The plenty of game and fish, the innumerable
bee-hives deposited in the hollow of old trees, and in the
cavities of rocks, and forming, even in that rude age, a valuable
branch of commerce, the size of the cattle, the temperature of
the air, the aptness of the soil for every species of grain, and
the luxuriancy of the vegetation, all displayed the liberality of
Nature, and tempted the industry of man. But the Goths withstood
all these temptations, and still adhered to a life of idleness,
of poverty, and of rapine.
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