The Origin and Deeds of the Goths | Page 6

single horse. Of course if anyone in our city says that
the Goths had an origin different from that I have related, let him object.
For myself, I prefer to believe what I have read, rather than put trust in
old wives' tales.
To return, then, to my subject. The aforesaid race of 39 which I speak is
known to have had Filimer as king while they remained in their first
home in Scythia near Maeotis. In their second home, that is in the
countries of Dacia, Thrace and Moesia, Zalmoxes reigned, whom many
writers of annals mention as a man of remarkable learning in
philosophy. Yet even before this they had a learned man Zeuta, and
after him Dicineus; and the third was Zalmoxes of whom I have made
mention above. Nor did they lack teachers of wisdom. Wherefore the
Goths have 40 ever been wiser than other barbarians and were nearly
like the Greeks, as Dio relates, who wrote their history and annals with
a Greek pen. He says that those of noble birth among them, from whom
their kings and priests were appointed, were called first Tarabostesei
and then Pilleati. Moreover so highly were the Getae praised that Mars,
whom the fables of poets call the god of war, was reputed to have been
born among them. Hence Virgil says:
"Father Gradivus rules the Getic fields." 41
Now Mars has always been worshipped by the Goths with cruel rites,
and captives were slain as his victims. They thought that he who is the
lord of war ought to be appeased by the shedding of human blood. To
him they devoted the first share of the spoil, and in his honor arms
stripped from the foe were suspended from trees. And they had more
than all other races a deep spirit of religion, since the worship of this
god seemed to be really bestowed upon their ancestor.

In their third dwelling place, which was above the Sea 42 of Pontus,
they had now become more civilized and, as I have said before, were
more learned. Then the people were divided under ruling families. The
Visigoths served the family of the Balthi and the Ostrogoths served the
renowned Amali. They were the first race of men to 43 string the bow
with cords, as Lucan, who is more of a historian than a poet, affirms:
"They string Armenian bows with Getic cords."
[Sidenote: THE RIVER DON]
[Sidenote: THE DNIEPER]
In earliest times they sang of the deeds of their ancestors in strains of
song accompanied by the cithara; chanting of Eterpamara, Hanala,
Fritigern, Vidigoia and others whose fame among them is great; such
heroes as admiring antiquity scarce proclaims its own to be. Then, 44
as the story goes, Vesosis waged a war disastrous to himself against the
Scythians, whom ancient tradition asserts to have been the husbands of
the Amazons. Concerning these female warriors Orosius speaks in
convincing language. Thus we can clearly prove that Vesosis then
fought with the Goths, since we know surely that he waged war with
the husbands of the Amazons. They dwelt at that time along a bend of
Lake Maeotis, from the river Borysthenes, which the natives call the
Danaper, to the stream of the Tanais. By the Tanais I mean the 45 river
which flows down from the Rhipaeian mountains and rushes with so
swift a current that when the neighboring streams or Lake Maeotis and
the Bosphorus are frozen fast, it is the only river that is kept warm by
the rugged mountains and is never solidified by the Scythian cold. It is
also famous as the boundary of Asia and Europe. For the other Tanais
is the one which rises in the mountains of the Chrinni and flows into
the Caspian Sea. The Danaper begins in a great marsh and issues 46
from it as from its mother. It is sweet and fit to drink as far as half-way
down its course. It also produces fish of a fine flavor and without bones,
having only cartilage as the frame-work of their bodies. But as it
approaches the Pontus it receives a little spring called Exampaeus, so
very bitter that although the river is navigable for the length of a forty
days' voyage, it is so altered by the water of this scanty stream as to

become tainted and unlike itself, and flows thus tainted into the sea
between the Greek towns of Callipidae and Hypanis. At its mouth there
is an island named Achilles. Between these two rivers is a vast land
filled with forests and treacherous swamps.
[Sidenote: DEFEAT OF VESOSIS (SESOSTRIS)]
VI This was the region where the Goths dwelt when 47 Vesosis, king
of the Egyptians, made war upon them. Their king at that time was
Tanausis. In