History of Animal Plagues. 29 



Alanos, Alani in Gothos, Gotbi in Taifalos et Sarmatos insur- 

 rexerunt. Nos quoque in Illyrico — exules patrice, Gothorum 

 exilia fecerunt et nondum est finis. Quae omnium esset fames 

 lues pariter hominum caeteriqne pecoris, ut etiam nos qui bellum 

 non pertulimus, debellatis tamen pares fecerit pestilential ^ 



From the course pursncd by the epizootyand its deadliness, 

 we have every reason to beheve that it was the veritable ' Cattle 

 Placjue/ so called, of our own days. In a curious poem, entitled 

 ' De Mortibus Boum/ written by Sanctus Severus/ one of the 

 earliest Christian poets, and a native of Aquitania, who lived in 

 the 4th century, its progress and fatality are particularly dwelt 

 upon, and for the first time we have mention made of Hungary 

 as the birth-place of plagues — a country which for centuries after- 

 wards was to bear this unenviable reputation. The poem is in 

 the form of an eclogue, in which three shepherds are introduced. 

 One of these, Buculus, is lamenting his Ijad fortune in having 

 lost all his cattle, while the others try to console him in offerinti; 

 their sympathy. In this lament we are enlightened as to the 

 origin, symptoms, and most efficacious treatment of the malady, 

 the sign of the cross being the one certain preventive recom- 

 mended. The disease appears to have travelled from Hungary, 

 through Austria, to Dalmatia. By Brabant it obtained access 

 to the Low Countries, Flanders, Picardy, and so on to the other 

 provinces of France. 



A.D. 381. 'i'heodosius being emperor, Constantinople 

 suflTered much by an earthquake. Fifty-seven of its late-built 

 towers on the walls were thrown down. It lasted by fits for 

 six months, demolished many fair churches and fortresses, and 

 expelled the citizens from their houses to the fields. It raged 

 also by sea, swallowed uj) many ships and several fine islands, 



These earthquakes were followed by a great famine, and 



the air was so infected that many thousands of people perished byi 

 the contagion, with multitudes of cattle.^ 



Vegetius Kcnatus, whose writings we will notice more par- 

 ticularly hereafter, was a skilful agriculturist and hippiatrist, was 



' Commentar. in Luc. Lib. ix. 21. 



* Magna IJiljliothcca Octcrum I'atrum, per M. de la Bit^no, p. 334. 



' Clark. Exanipl. 



