Book 31
2.24
They have a remarkable way of divining the future; for they gather very straight twigs of osier and sort them out at an appointed time with certain secret incantations, and thus clearly learn what impends.Ammianus is too brief to be clear. The twigs were marked with certain signs (notae) from which the predicttions were made; see Hdt. iv. 67; Caesar, B.G. i. 50, 4–5; Tac., Germ. 10.
2.25
They do not know the meaning of slavery, since all are born of noble blood, and moreover they choose as chiefsCf. iudex in § 4, below, and Introd., p. xxvi, note 2. those men who are conspicuous for long experience as warriors. But let us return to what remains of our chosen subject.
3.1
The Huns, then, having overrun the territories of those Halani (bordering on the Greuthungi) to whom usage has given the surname Tanaites, killed and plundered many of them, and joined the survivors to themselves in a treaty of alliance; then in company with these they made the more boldly a sudden inroad into the extensive and rich cantons of Ermenrichus,Called Ermanarich in Jordanes’ Gothic History. a most warlike monarch, dreaded by the neighbouring nations because of his many and varied deeds of valour.
