The Sarmatians Subdued after Their Slaves Rebelled

As for the Sarmatians, God himself brought them under Constantine’s rule and humbled a nation swollen with barbarian pride, in this way. When the Scythians attacked them, they armed their slaves to drive off the enemy. The slaves first defeated the invaders, and then turned their weapons on their masters and drove them all out of their native land. The banished Sarmatians found that their only hope of safety lay in Constantine’s protection. And he, whose habit it was to save people’s lives, received them all within the borders of the Roman empire. Those fit for service he enrolled in his own army; to the rest he gave land to farm for their own support. So they themselves admitted that their past misfortune had turned out happily for them, since they now enjoyed Roman freedom in place of savage barbarism. In this way God added many different barbarian tribes to the emperor’s dominions. [a]