Kitap 31
1.4
A heifer was found lying lifeless with its windpipe cut, and its death was an indication of great and widespread sorrow from funerals of the people. Finally, when the old walls of Chalcedon were torn down,Because of the conduct of the inhabitants at the time of the uprising of Procopius; cf. Socr., Eccl. Hist. iv. 8, and xxvi. 8, 2. in order that a bathConstantinianae thermae, Socrates, iv. 8. might be built at Constantinople, and the rows of stones were taken apart, there was found on a squared block hidden in the midst of the structure of the wall an inscription containing the following Greek verses, clearly revealing what was to happen:
1.5
When gaily through the city’s festal streets Shall whirl soft maidens in a happy dance, When mournfully a wall shall guard a bath, Then countless hordes of men spread far and wide With warlike arms shall cross clear Istrus’ stream To ravage Scythia’s fields and Mysia’s land. But mad with hope when they Pannonia raid, There battle and life’s end their course shall check.
2.1
However, the seed and origin of all the ruin and various disasters that the wrath of Mars aroused, putting in turmoil all places with unwonted fires, we have found to be this. The people of the Huns,Cf. Zos. iv. 20; Sozom. vi. 37; Agathias, 5, 11 ff. but little known from ancient records, dwelling beyond the Maeotic Sea near the ice-bound ocean, exceed every degree of savagery.
