ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the uses and abuses of barbarians as spectacle, is largely independent from the date of Valentinian's campaign against the Alamanni. On 1 January 370, the Roman senator Quintus Aurelius Symmachus delivered a panegyric in honor of Valentinian I. Moreover, Themistius had been actively involved in negotiations with the barbarians and had accompanied two of Valens' senior generals on a diplomatic mission that ultimately led to the 'fluminal summit' between the barbarian leader Athanaric and Valens. It is tempting to compare the situation and role of both Symmachus and Themistius with that of modern embedded reporters, watching from a safe distance the military exploits of their army and writing for their audiences on the home front. The barbarians were thus incorporated into the Roman Empire, and their way of life was destined to disappear in a region where the Roman presence was so overwhelming.
