Magnus Book III

Magnus' History of the Goths

## Book III

### Chapter 1

In the meantime, in this third book, with the attack of the Goths residing in Farther Scythia, we ask what they did after the Trojan wars, whether, lest they, being sluggish in cowardice, allow the glory of their ancestors, and that excellent praise, which the Scythians once subjugated, and put to flight the Egyptians, and who had conquered the Asians, did they allow it to be erased? By no means, they say, had we lived degenerate in the glory of our parents, but had turned our whole endeavor so far, that no world could ever erase the glorious memory of our deeds. But after many centuries under the most powerful queen **Thamyrus**, we destroyed the most powerful Cyrus. Then we turned to flight Darius and Xerxes, the chief monarchs of all Asia. We have assumed friendship and alliance with Philip, King of Macedonia. We have also admitted his son Alexander the Great to our alliance. For there had been an innate ardor for war among us, but the desire of the best of the best virtues had thrived no less in us; they have surrendered. And thus we think that we have by no means spent in vain both the time of war and of peace, when we should with great care and diligence embrace wisdom in peace, and military discipline in war. By these honorable and distinguished exercises we have incited terror upon the enemy, and have procured for us lasting peace and tranquility, until that most powerful Cyrus, king of the Persians (as we have begun to say), after having conquered far and wide, recalled peoples and nations, to recall their own lands and subdued nations, by our arms and our ancestors that he had always been a provocation, and that he could not have been safe in the principality, though most magnificent and unconquerable, unless he first destroyed us in security, then private life, from our fathers' homes. But when he was pondering these things, and recounting his purpose to the counsels of his wise men, it seemed that our nation was not safe enough, on account of many formidable victories, to attack in an open war, but to be assailed by stratagems, which could not be overcome by valor.

### Chapter 2

Ambassadors, therefore, are sent by Cyrus (as Herodotus testifies) to demand our Queen Thamyris, a most powerful and most prudent woman, to marry Cyrus. Here some bravery will rise up, asserting that Herodotus and Pompey Trogus, and Justin his epitomist, assert that Thamyris was queen of the Scythians: but on the contrary, there are three most learned men, Dion the Greek, Ablabius, and Jordanes, who testify that the inhabitants of Scythia were of the first origin of the Goths. Moreover, Josephus XI, Book of Antiquities, 1 states that Cyrus led out his army against the Massagetas, and that his life was private. But Strabo in Book XI calls the Massagetas the Eastern Goths. For this reason it will be possible for me to find fault with Herodotus and his followers for the ignorance of the Gothic, just as Manethon, the Egyptian, justly criticizes Herodotus for erring in the affairs of the Egyptians (as Josephus in Book I Against Appion). Nor do I think that we must fight so obstinately about the change of names, which is wont to happen frequently, and sometimes for a reason. For, just as the Italians do not cease to be Italians, because the Greeks call them Barbarians, Franks, or (as Cato writes to his son) Spurii, and more than any other opicians, so we do not cease to be Goths, although we are called by the unskilled writers, or well-wishers, Scythians. But leaving these, and returning to Thamyris, I consider that she considered it by the sagacious design of her own sages, that the embassy of Cyrus was insidious, by which the enslavement of the Goths was not sought for his marriage, but for his subjects; and therefore the ambassadors immediately prohibited Cyrus from entering the kingdom. Who, since this deceit did not proceed, thought that he ought to walk another way. For in order that he might avenge that slight injury, which he wished to be most most atrocious, he drew out the whole strength of his empire, and placing his camp at the river Araxes, began to join with bridges over the banks of the river, and then to pass his forces through them.

### Chapter 3

Cyrus being engaged in that work, the Queen, by her envoy, orders him to take heed lest by making war upon others, fate or destruction hastens to him himself. A sufficiently broad and extensive empire, which fortune had permitted him, he governs in such a way that he does not molest the neighboring lands, nor attack them inconsiderately, mindful of the unstable fortune, which does not always cherish those whom he exalts. But if he strives to persevere in his resolve, and prefers all things, than the peace and friendship of the Goths, he may decide to construct bridges with immense labor; or, if he prefers to permit a free crossing to the Goths, let him return to his own country on the same route. On this condition, reported by Cyrus to the wise men of the Persians, the opinions of all have agreed, that a secure transmission should be granted to Thamyrus and her army. When questioned, Croesus, formerly king of the Lydians, and now a prisoner of Cyrus, utters a different opinion from other sages: "Since, O King, the immortal gods wanted me to be your captive, I propose my plans better to you, my lord, not to the enemy as they once did. If you were immortal, and you would rule an immortal army, our plans would be in vain, secure in immortality. But if you and you are mortal, you ought to provide that the fortune of mortal affairs can someday be turned against you. Wherefore, if an enemy, admitted into your kingdom, surpassed you (as the gods avert,) and, by some chance, had driven you to flight, you would endanger the whole kingdom: for the enemy will not cease to pursue the victory, which he sees to himself smile with such a remarkable favor. But if (as I rather wish) they shall flee when conquered by you, you shall obtain nothing by following them: all these things will succeed more fortunate for you when fighting on the enemy's ground. And if he has rendered you inferior against the enemy by misfortune, you will have your kingdom as a safe and untouched refuge: but by persecuting the fugitives themselves, you will easily subjugate their whole kingdom; for I take the conjecture that all will succeed for you happily, if, having advanced one day's journey on the other side of the river, you should order the camp to be posted, which in all things necessary for human food should display abundance and luxury. There leave in the guard a crowd of sutlers, camp hands, and other cowardly men, by whose loss you lead the least: unless the opinion be deceived, the enemy of the North will be at hand, and as soon as the guards of the camp have been cut down, they will pour themselves over the wine and the banquet: nor shall they put an end to their intoxication, until, having been buried in sleep and wine, they shall be rendered utterly unfit for arms. Then your soldiers will be at hand, and will undertake an easy and bloodless victory over them."

### Chapter 4

Cyrus, on hearing the advice of Croesus, to whom all his wise men had previously consented, changed it with more speed than success. Returning to the Queen as it had been determined, after a three-day journey, she granted Cyrus the freest opportunity of setting aside his forces during the whole of the same period. As he was persuaded by Croesus, after a day's march, he placed a camp more suited to delicacies than wars, and, having spurred on his return to the banks of the river Araxes, took care to receive it. Three days after the truce, the Queen sends forth her son Spargapisis, whom she had ordered a third of her army to obey, to watch the enemy's camp. And when he saw that the camp was unfolded in magnificent and royal splendor, thinking that the king was there, he exhorted his comrades to remember that they were very brave men, and, bringing back their country with all their strength and courage, they break into the enemy's camp. Having said these things, he is said to be the first of all against the enemy, not unlike a raging lion; in which, while he had sent himself and his fellow soldiers after the victory, by means of wine and entertainment, and, having eagerly taken a drink, he hastens to lighten the sweats of the warlike men; then, from the advent of Cyrus, he is subjugated with all his forces, as Croesus had foretold: of whose forces many were slain, many taken captive, and even some spared by flight, and returned to the Queen. From whom, after she had learned the order of things unhappily, by sending a flag of truce, she ordered that such things should be brought back to Cyrus: "Do not flatter yourself, or congratulate yourself, Cyrus, that you have conquered little men of manly valor; they have succumbed to your vices rather than to you. Send back to me my son, whom fortune permits for you a captive, if it please you, to pay off with equal kindness. But whether you do it or not, prepare yourself for battle: remember that you are in an enemy's land, and have business with those men, who have learned to conquer by strength, not by deceit.

### Chapter 5

Cyrus being astonished at this courageous embassy of the Queen, he ordered her son to be freed from the bonds; who soon after restored liberty to him, converted to his own extreme destruction. For, being moved by the shame of his captivity, because he thought himself unworthy of his mother's sight, he thrust the sword into his belly with his own hands, prefacing, that he had been overcome by delights, who had learned how to overcome brave men. Which bravery being made, although Cyrus considered, that he had undertaken the business of a dangerous war against the most courageous of men, but at the same time animated by his modesty, he led out of the camp two hundred thousand of the Persians and Medes against the Queen. But she, as if on account of the death of her son, and, at the sight of so great a panic, had been astonished, by the pretense of flight, that she drew back herself to the interior parts of the kingdom, which were very timely indeed, but less suited to the enemy. Which Cyrus pursued with a brave mind rather than a prudent one, came to an ambuscade prepared before him: in which, with his entire population, he was so destroyed, that there was not even a messenger left to report the defeat he had received to the Persians. The historian Metasthenes of the Persians testifies that this was a six-year war. Then the Queen ordered the body of Cyrus to be searched out among so many innumerable corpses, and that the head had been brought to her sight, to be stripped but his head was cut off, and immersed in a bottle full of the blood of the Persians, an unforgettable reproach was added: "O Cyrus, insatiable with human blood, drink the blood which you have urged." In this place, what else would I have more right to say, than that such a sanguinary thing existed worthy of such funerals? For there is no more equitable law, than that savage men should be punished with a bloody death. Having secured this victory, the Goths (as says Jordanes) gained a rich booty, for the first time saw silken tents; under whose equipment they discovered that the Persian procession was no less secure. Then Thamyris, enriched with so great a triumph and such great spoils, received herself in that part of Moesia (which now has its name changed from the great Scythia), where she built a magnificent city of Thamyria in her name, near a bridge on the Moesian shore. But what things she did afterwards, because Jordanes is silent, I am compelled to remain silent also: and in the mean time I will proceed to the mansions of the Cimmerians, to inspect the battle of Anthinus and Darius.