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they raise carelessly at home, "but the dog is a creature well-disposed to those who feed it and most mindful of a kindness. So these things are done by the shepherds for this very reason, that the dogs might at some time repel their attacks when wolves come, standing as assistants and saviors to the little sheep. And I think that this happens in all the world. 8.19.13 For no one of all men has seen dogs plotting against a flock nor wolves ever defending it, but it is as if nature established this law, legislating for dogs and sheep and wolves. 8.19.14 And I think that even in your kingdom, where for the most part there is an abundance of all things, and perhaps even of impossibilities, 8.19.15 no variation of these things ever occurs. Or at least show my ambassadors how we might learn something unusual on the threshold of old age; but if these things are by nature fixed everywhere, it is not good for you to entertain the race of the Kutrigurs, I think, bringing in a troubled neighborhood, and those whom you could not bear when they were beyond your borders, 8.19.16 you have now made native. For they themselves will not long after show their own character towards the Romans, and apart from this, no enemy will fail to destroy the Roman empire, in the hope that, if defeated, he will be better off with you, nor will any friend be left to the Romans, who might be an obstacle to those who overrun your land, for fear that, whenever he wins the greatest prizes from fortune, he might see the vanquished faring more splendidly than himself among you, if indeed we have our dwelling in a deserted and otherwise barren land, while the Kutrigurs have the power to eat grain and get drunk on wine 8.19.17 and choose every delicacy. And they certainly have a share of baths, too, and the wanderers wear gold and do not lack fine and embroidered garments, gilded with gold. 8.19.18 And yet the Kutrigurs previously enslaved countless multitudes of Romans and carried them off to their own land. 8.19.19 For whom it was no side-task for those accursed men to inflict all servile treatment, but also to lay on the lash for no offense and perhaps it was easy to put them to death, and whatever else character and power allows a barbarian master. 8.19.20 But we, by our own toils and dangers reaching to life itself, having freed them from the fate that then held them, returned them to their parents, they having become the hard-won spoils of war for us. 8.19.21 For which we have both received opposite rewards from you, if indeed we still suffer our ancestral evils, while they, who through our valor escaped their own enslavement, are allotted an equal share of their land." 8.19.22 So much said the ambassadors of the Utigurs. The emperor, after having greatly soothed them and consoled them with a multitude of gifts, sent them away not long after. So it came to pass that these things happened in this way. 8.20.1 And at this time for the nation of the Varni and the island soldiers, who dwell on the island called Brittia, a war and battle occurred 8.20.2 from a cause such as this. The Varni are settled beyond the Ister river, and they extend as far as the northern Ocean and the Rhine river, which separates both them and the Franks 8.20.3 and the other nations which are settled there. All these, who in ancient times lived on both sides of the Rhine river, each had their own particular name, of which one nation is called Germani, but they were all called Germans in common. 8.20.4 But the island of Brittia lies in this Ocean, not far from the coast, but about two hundred stades opposite the mouths of the Rhine, for the most part, and it is between Britain and the island of Thule. 8.20.5 Since Britain lies towards the setting sun opposite the farthest parts of Spain, being distant from the mainland by no less than about four thousand stades, while Brittia is behind Gaul, that is, the parts turned towards the Ocean, clearly to the north of Spain and Britain.

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ἀπημελημένως οἴκοι ἐκτρέφουσιν, «εὔγνωμον δὲ τοῖς σιτίζουσι ζῷον ὁ κύων καὶ τὰ ἐς «χάριν μνημονικώτατον. πράσσεται οὖν ταῦτα τοῖς «ποιμέσι τούτου δὴ ἕνεκα, τοῦ τῶν λύκων ἐπιόντων «ποτὲ διακρούεσθαι τὰς ἐκείνων ἐφόδους τοὺς κύνας «παραστάτας τε καὶ σωτῆρας τοῖς προβατίοις καθιστα»μένους. καὶ ταῦτα ἐν γῇ τῇ πάσῃ γίνεσθαι οἴομαι. 8.19.13 «τεθέαται γὰρ τῶν πάντων οὐδεὶς οὔτε ποίμνῃ κύνας «ἐπιβουλεύσαντας οὔτε λύκους ἀμυνομένους αὐτῆς «πώποτε, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ τινὰ τοῦτον ἡ φύσις θεσμὸν «κυσί τε καὶ προβάτοις καὶ λύκοις νομοθετήσασα ἔθετο. 8.19.14 «οἶμαι δὲ κἀν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τῇ σῇ, οὗ δὴ πραγμάτων «ἐκ τοῦ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἁπάντων, τάχα δέ που καὶ τῶν «ἀμηχάνων περιουσίαν ξυμβαίνει εἶναι, παράλλαξιν 8.19.15 «τούτων τινὰ οὐδαμῆ γίγνεσθαι. ἢ γοῦν τοῖς πρέσ»βεσι τοῖς ἐμοῖς δείξατε ὅπως ἄν τι καὶ τῶν οὐκ εἰω»θότων ἐπὶ γήραος οὐδῷ μάθοιμεν· εἰ δὲ ἀραρότως «ταῦτα πανταχῆ πέφυκεν, οὐ καλόν σοί ἐστι Κουτρι»γούρων τὸ γένος ξεναγεῖσθαι, οἶμαι, τεθολωμένον «ἐπαγαγομένῳ γειτόνημα, καὶ οὓς ὄντας ὑπερορίους 8.19.16 «οὐκ ἤνεγκας, τανῦν ἐνδήμους πεποιημένῳ. αὐτοί τε «γὰρ τρόπον ἐς Ῥωμαίους τὸν οἰκεῖον ἐνδείξονται οὐ «πολλῷ ὕστερον, καὶ τούτου χωρὶς οὔτε πολέμιος ἐπι»λείψει διαφθείρων τὴν Ῥωμαίων ἀρχὴν, ἐλπίδι τοῦ «ἡσσηθεὶς ἀμείνων ἔσεσθαι παρὰ σοὶ, οὔτε φίλος «περιέσται Ῥωμαίοις, ἐμπόδιός ποτε τοῖς καταθέουσι «γῆν τὴν ὑμετέραν ἐσόμενος, δέει τοῦ μὴ, ἐπειδὰν «φέρηται παρὰ τῆς τύχης τὰ κράτιστα, τοὺς ἡσσημέ»νους ἐπιδεῖν ἐπιφανέστερον αὑτοῦ παρ' ὑμῖν πράσ»σοντας, εἴ γε ἡμεῖς μὲν ἐν χώρᾳ ἐρήμῳ τε καὶ ἄλλως «ἀγόνῳ τὰ διαιτητήρια ἔχομεν, τοῖς δὲ Κουτριγούροις «σιτωνεῖν τε καὶ τοῖς οἰνῶσι κατακραιπαλᾶν ἐν ἐξου8.19.17 «σίᾳ ἐστὶ καὶ παροψίδας αἱρεῖσθαι πάσας. πάντως «δέ πη καὶ βαλανείων αὐτοῖς μέτεστι, καὶ χρυσοφο»ροῦσιν οἱ πλανῆται καὶ ἱματίων οὐκ ἀμοιροῦσι λεπτῶν «τε καὶ πεποικιλμένων καὶ καταληλειμμένων χρυσῷ. 8.19.18 «καίτοι Κουτρίγουροι μὲν Ῥωμαίων ἀνάριθμα πλήθη «ἐξηνδραποδικότες τὰ πρότερα μετήνεγκαν ἐς γῆν τὴν 8.19.19 «σφετέραν. οἷς δὴ τὰ ἀνδραποδώδη πάντα ἐπέχειν «οὐ πάρεργον τοῖς καταράτοις ἐγίνετο, ἀλλὰ καὶ «μάστιγας οὐχ ἡμαρτηκόσιν ἐντεῖναι καὶ θανατοῦν «ἴσως πρόχειρον ἦν, καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα δεσπότῃ βαρβά8.19.20 «ρῳ ὅ τε τρόπος καὶ ἡ ἐξουσία ἐφίησιν. ἡμεῖς δὲ «πόνοις τε ἡμετέροις καὶ κινδύνοις ἐς ψυχὴν φέρουσι «τύχης αὐτοὺς ἀπαλλάξαντες τῆς τότε κρατούσης τοῖς «γειναμένοις ἀπέδομεν, διαπονήματα ἡμῖν τοῦ πολέμου 8.19.21 «γεγενημένους. ὧν δὴ τὰς ἀμοιβὰς πρὸς ὑμῶν ἀπ' «ἐναντίας ἑκάτεροι κεκομίσμεθα, εἴ γε ἡμεῖς μὲν ἀπο»λαύομεν ἔτι τῶν πατρίων κακῶν, οἱ δὲ τοῖς δι' «ἀρετὴν ἡμετέραν ἀποφυγοῦσι τὴν αὐτῶν δούλωσιν «χώρας τῆς ἐκείνων ἰσομοιροῦντες διαλαγχάνουσι.» 8.19.22 τοσαῦτα μὲν Οὐτιγούρων οἱ πρέσβεις εἶπον. βασιλεὺς δὲ αὐτοὺς πολλὰ τιθασσεύσας καὶ δώρων πλήθει παρηγορήσας οὐκ ἐς μακρὰν ἀπεπέμψατο. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν τῇδε ξυνηνέχθη γενέσθαι. 8.20.1 Κατὰ δὲ τὸν χρόνον τοῦτον τῷ τε Οὐάρνων ἔθνει καὶ στρατιώταις νησιώταις, οἳ δὴ ἐν νήσῳ τῇ Βριττίᾳ καλουμένῃ ᾤκηνται, πόλεμος καὶ μάχη ἐγένετο 8.20.2 ἐξ αἰτίας τοιᾶσδε. Οὔαρνοι μὲν ὑπὲρ Ἴστρον ποταμὸν ἵδρυνται, διήκουσι δὲ ἄχρι ἐς Ὠκεανὸν τὸν ἀρκτῷον καὶ ποταμὸν Ῥῆνον, ὅσπερ αὐτούς τε διορίζει καὶ Φράγγους 8.20.3 καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἔθνη, ἃ ταύτῃ ἵδρυνται. οὗτοι ἅπαντες, ὅσοι τὸ παλαιὸν ἀμφὶ Ῥῆνον ἑκατέρωθεν ποταμὸν ᾤκηντο, ἰδίου μέν τινος ὀνόματος ἕκαστοι μετελάγχανον, ὧν δὴ ἔθνος ἓν Γερμανοὶ ὀνομάζονται, ἐπὶ κοινῆς δὲ Γερ8.20.4 μανοὶ ἐκαλοῦντο ἅπαντες. Βριττία δὲ ἡ νῆσος ἐπὶ τούτου μὲν Ὠκεανοῦ κεῖται, τῆς ἠϊόνος οὐ πολλῷ ἄποθεν, ἀλλ' ὅσον ἀπὸ σταδίων διακοσίων καταντικρὺ τῶν τοῦ Ῥήνου ἐκβολῶν μάλιστα, Βρεττανίας δὲ καὶ 8.20.5 Θούλης τῆς νήσου μεταξύ ἐστιν. ἐπεὶ Βρεττανία μὲν πρὸς δύοντά που κεῖται ἥλιον κατὰ τῆς Ἱσπανῶν τὰ ἔσχατα χώρας, ἀμφὶ σταδίους οὐχ ἧσσον ἢ ἐς τετρακισχιλίους τῆς ἠπείρου διέχουσα, Βριττία δὲ ἐς τῆς Γαλλίας τὰ ὄπισθεν, ἃ δὴ πρὸς Ὠκεανὸν τετραμμένα, Ἱσπανίας δηλονότι καὶ Βρεττανίας πρὸς βορρᾶν ἄνεμον.