In Greek vase painting Gaia was depicted as a buxom, matronly woman rising from the earth, inseparable from her native element. In mosaic art, she appears as a full-figured woman, reclining on the earth, often clothed in green, and sometimes accompanied by troops of Karpoi (Carpi, Fruits) and Horai (Horae, Seasons).
Eon Altar full crack [torrent Full]
Orphica, Theogonies Fragment 57 (from Athenogoras) : "Khronos (Chronos, Time) , , , [also called] Herakles (Heracles) generated a huge egg, which, being filled full, by the force of its engenderer was broken in two from friction. Its crown became Ouranos (Heaven), and what had sunk downwards, Gaia (Gaea, Earth). There also came forth an incorporeal god [Phanes or the primordialEros]."
Hesiod, Theogony 617 ff : "But when first their father [Ouranos (Uranus)] was vexed in his heart with [the Hekatonkheires (Hecatoncheires)] Obriareus and Kottos (Cottus) and Gyes, he bound them in cruel bonds . . . and he made them live beneath the wide-pathed earth, where they were afflicted, being set to dwell under the ground, at the end of the earth, at its great borders, in bitter anguish for a long time and with great grief at heart. But [Zeus and his brothers] brought them up again to the light at Gaia's (Gaea's) advising. For she herself recounted all things to the gods fully, how that with these they would gain victory."
The text of the translation presented here was scannedfrom a printed copy of Mierow's book and checked carefully for errors(a few misprints in that book have been corrected as well). Thishypertext version has been designed for the use of students ofAncient History at the University of Calgary. I have included the(Roman) chapter and (arabic) section numbers to facilitate specificcitation (or to find a specific reference; these numbers may be foundin Mierow's translation as well, though the section numbers are inhis margins) and have added internal links for purposes ofnavigation.
XXI (110) After these events, the Goths hadalready returned home when they were summoned at the request of theEmperor Maximian to aid the Romans against the Parthians. They foughtfor him faithfully, serving as auxiliaries. But after Caesar Maximianby their aid had routed Narseus, king of the Persians, the grandsonof Sapor the Great, taking as spoil all his possessions, togetherwith his wives and his sons, and when Diocletian had conqueredAchilles in Alexandria and Maximianus Herculius had broken theQuinquegentiani in Africa, thus winning peace for the empire, theybegan rather to neglect the Goths.
(129) When the Getae beheld this active race that had invaded manynations, they took fright and consulted with their king how theymight escape from such a foe. Now although Hermanaric, king of theGoths, was the conqueror of many tribes, as we have said above, yetwhile he was deliberating on this invasion of the Huns, thetreacherous tribe of the Rosomoni, who at that time were among thosewho owed him their homage, took this chance to catch him unawares.For when the king had given orders that a certain woman of the tribeI have mentioned, Sunilda by name, should be bound to wild horses andtorn apart by driving them at full speed in opposite directions (forhe was roused to fury by her husband's treachery to him), herbrothers Sarus and Ammius came to avenge their sister's death andplunged a sword into Hermanaric's side. Enfeebled by this blow, hedragged out a miserable existence in bodily weakness. (130) Balamber,king of the Huns, took advantage of his ill health to move an armyinto the country of the Ostrogoths, from whom the Visigoths hadalready separated because of some dispute. Meanwhile Hermanaric, whowas unable to endure either the pain of his wound or the inroads ofthe Huns, died full of days at the great age of one hundred and tenyears. The fact of his death enabled the Huns to prevail over thoseGoths who, as we have said, dwelt in the East and were calledOstrogoths.
XXVI (134) Soon famine and want came upon them, asoften happens to a people not yet well settled in a country. Theirprinces and the leaders who ruled them in place of kings, that isFritigern, Alatheus and Safrac, began to lament the plight of theirarmy and begged Lupicinus and Maximus, the Roman commanders, to opena market. But to what will not the "cursed lust for gold" compel mento assent? The generals, swayed by avarice, sold them at a high pricenot only the flesh of sheep and oxen, but even the carcasses of dogsand unclean animals, so that a slave would be bartered for a loaf ofbread or ten pounds of meat. (135) When their goods and chattelsfailed, the greedy trader demanded their sons in return for thenecessities of life. And the parents consented even to this, in orderto provide for the safety of their children, arguing that it wasbetter to lose liberty than life; and indeed it is better that one besold, if he will be mercifully fed, than that he should be kept freeonly to die.
(148) This city lies amid the streams of the Po between swamps andthe sea, and is accessible only on one side. Its ancient inhabitants,as our ancestors relate, were called Ainetoi, that is,"Laudable". Situated in a corner of the Roman Empire above the IonianSea, it is hemmed in like an island by a flood of rushing waters.(149) On the east it has the sea, and one who sails straight to itfrom the region of Corcyra and those parts of Hellas sweeps with hisoars along the right hand coast, first touching Epirus, thenDalmatia, Liburnia and Histria and at last the Venetian Isles. But onthe west it has swamps through which a sort of door has been left bya very narrow entrance. To the north is an arm of the Po, called theFossa Asconis. (150) On the south likewise is the Po itself, whichthey call the King of the rivers of Italy; and it has also the nameEridanus. This river was turned aside by the Emperor Augustus into avery broad canal which flows through the midst of the city with aseventh part of its stream, affording a pleasant harbor at its mouth.Men believed in ancient times, as Dio relates, that it would hold afleet of two hundred and fifty vessels in its safe anchorage. (151)Fabius says that this, which was once a harbor, now displays itselflike a spacious garden full of trees; but from them hang not sailsbut apples. The city itself boasts of three names and is happilyplaced in its threefold location. I mean to say the first is calledRavenna and the most distant part Classis; while midway between thecity and the sea is Caesarea, full of luxury. The sand of the beachis fine and suited for riding.
(154) When they had gone away without doing any harm in Italy,Stilicho, the Patrician and father-in-law of the EmperorHonorius,--for the Emperor had married both his daughters, Maria andThermantia, in succession, but God called both from this world intheir virgin purity--this Stilicho, I say, treacherously hurried toPollentia, a city in the Cottian Alps. There he fell upon theunsuspecting Goths in battle, to the ruin of all Italy and his owndisgrace. (155) When the Goths suddenly beheld him, at first theywere terrified. Soon regaining their courage and arousing each otherby brave shouting, as is their custom, they turned to flight theentire army of Stilicho and almost exterminated it. Then forsakingthe journey they had undertaken, the Goths with hearts full of ragereturned again to Liguria whence they had set out. When they hadplundered and spoiled it, they also laid waste AemiIia, and thenhastened toward the city of Rome along the Flaminian Way, which runsbetween Picenum and Tuscia, taking as booty whatever they found oneither hand. (156) When they finally entered Rome, by Alaric'sexpress command they merely sacked it and did not set the city onfire, as wild peoples usually do, nor did they permit serious damageto be done to the holy places. Thence they departed to bring likeruin upon Campania and Lucania, and then came to Bruttii. Here theyremained a long time and planned to go to Sicily and thence to thecountries of Africa.
XLVII (244) But firstlet us return to that order from which we have digressed and tell howEurich, king of the Visigoths, beheld the tottering of the RomanEmpire and reduced Arelate and Massilia to his own sway. Gaiseric,king of the Vandals, enticed him by gifts to do these things, to theend that he himself might forestall the plots which Leo and Zeno hadcontrived against him. Therefore he stirred the Ostrogoths to laywaste the Eastern Empire and the Visigoths the Western, so that whilehis foes were battling in both empires, he might himself reignpeacefully in Africa. Eurich perceived this with gladness and, as healready held all of Spain and Gaul by his own right, proceeded tosubdue the Burgundians also. In the nineteenth year of his reign hewas deprived of his life at Arelate, where he then dwelt. (245) Hewas succeeded by his own son Alaric, the ninth in succession from thefamous Alaric the Great to receive the kingdom of the Visigoths. Foreven as it happened to the line of the Augusti, as we have statedabove, so too it appears in the line of the Alarici, that kingdomsoften come to an end in kings who bear the same name as those at thebeginning. Meanwhile let us leave this subject, and weave togetherthe whole story of the origin of the Goths, as we promised.
(250) And later, after the death of Vinitharius, Hunimund ruledthem, the son of Hermanaric, a mighty king of yore; a man fierce inwar and of famous personal beauty, who afterwards fought successfullyagainst the race of the Suavi. And when he died, his son Thorismudsucceeded him, in the very bloom of youth. In the second year of hisrule he moved an army against the Gepidae and won a great victoryover them, but is said to have been killed by falling from his horse.(251) When he was dead, the Ostrogoths mourned for him so deeply thatfor forty years no other king succeeded in his place, and during allthis time they had ever on their lips the tale of his memory. Now astime went on, Valamir grew to man's estate. He was the son ofThorismud's cousin Vandalarius. For his son Beremud, as we have saidbefore, at last grew to despise the race of the Ostrogoths because ofthe overlordship of the Huns, and so had followed the tribe of theVisigoths to the western country, and it was from him Veteric wasdescended. Veteric also had a son Eutharic, who married Amalasuentha,the daughter of Theodoric, thus uniting again the stock of the Amaliwhich had divided long ago. Eutharic begat Athalaric andMathesuentha. But since Athalaric died in the years of his boyhood,Mathesuentha was taken to Constantinople by her second husband,namely Germanus, a cousin of the Emperor Justinian, and bore aposthumous son, whom she named Germanus. 2ff7e9595c
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