[43] But the Goths soon embraced a more generous resolution: to descend the hill, to dismiss their horses, and to die in arms, and in the possession of freedom.

The king marched at their head, bearing in his right hand a lance, and an ample buckler in his left: with the one he struck dead the foremost of the assailants; with the other he received the weapons which every hand was ambitious to aim against his life.

After a combat of many hours, his left arm was fatigued by the weight of twelve javelins which hung from his shield.

Without moving from his ground, or suspending his blows, the hero called aloud on his attendants for a fresh buckler; but in the moment while his side was uncovered, it was pierced by a mortal dart.

He fell; and his head, exalted on a spear, proclaimed to the nations that the Gothic kingdom was no more.