Book 31
6.5
They approved the counsel of the king, who they knew would be an active participator in the plan, and advancing cautiously they spread over every quarter of Thrace, while their prisoners or those who surrendered to them pointed out the rich villages, especially those in which it was said that abundant supplies of food were to be found. Besides their native self-confidence, they were encouraged especially by this help, that day by day great numbers of their countrymen flocked to them, including those who had been sold some time before by the traders, as well as many other persons, whom those who were half-dead with hunger when they first crossed into the country had bartered for a drink of bad wine or bits of the poorest of bread.
6.6
Besides these there were not a few who were expert in following out veins of gold,There were gold-mines in Thrace and Macedonia; of. Claudian, Panegyr. Theodori, 40 f., quidquid luce procul venae rimata sequaces, abdita pallentis fodit sollertia Bessi (a Thracian people). and who could no longer endure the heavy burden of taxes; these were welcomed with the glad consent of all, and rendered great service to the same, as they wandered through strange places, by pointing out hidden stores of grain, and the secret refuges and hiding-places of the inhabitants.
