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[11] The emperor's letters were gladly received for two reasons: first, because the Burgundians know that they are descendants of the Romans from ancient times; 1 and then, since they frequently quarrelled with the Alamanni about salt-pits 2 and boundaries. 3 They therefore sent their choicest troops, which, before our soldiers were gathered together, advanced as far as the banks of the Rhine; and while the emperor was still occupied with the building of fortifications, they caused the very greatest alarm to our people.

1 Possibly from the Romans whom Drusus, and later Tiberius, left behind on the Elbe and elsewhere to defend the frontier.

2 This was a frequent cause of war; cf. Tac., Ann. xiii. 57; Strabo, vii. 5, 11 (C. 318); and for these salt-pits, John of Salisbury, Epist. 196.

3 Cf. xviii. 2, 15.

Ammianus Marcellinus. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935-1940.

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