66 66 weighty javelins. The barbarians, on the contrary, were enured "to encounters in the bogs, their persons tall, their spears long, such as could wound at a distance." 46 In this morass the Roman army, after an ineffectual struggle, was irrecoverably lost; nor could the body of the emperor ever be found.47 Such was the fate of Decius, in the fiftieth year of his age; an accomplished prince, active in war, and affable in peace ;48 who, together with his son, has deserved to be compared, both in life and death, with the brightest examples of ancient virtue.49 of Gallus, A.D. 251, December. This fatal blow humbled, for a very little time, the insolence of Election the legions. They appear to have patiently expected, and submissively obeyed, the decree of the senate which regulated the succession to the throne. From a just regard for the memory of Decius, the Imperial title was conferred on Hostilianus, his only surviving son; but an equal rank, with more effectual power, was granted to Gallus, whose experience and ability seemed equal to the great trust of guardian to the young prince and the distressed empire.50 The first care of the new emperor was to deliver the Illyrian provinces from the intolerable weight of the victorious Goths. He consented to leave in their hands the rich fruits of their invasion, an immense booty, and, what was still more disgraceful, a great number of prisoners of the highest merit and quality. He plentifully supplied their camp with every conveniency that could assuage their angry spirits, or facilitate their so much wished-for departure; and he even promised to pay them annually a large sum of gold, on condition they should never afterwards infest the Roman territories by their incursions.51 A.D. 252. Retreat of the Goths. Gallus pur chases peace In the age of the Scipios, the most opulent kings of the earth, who courted the protection of the victorious commonwealth, were by the pay gratified with such trifling presents as could only derive a ment of an value from the hand that bestowed them; an ivory chair, a coarse garment of purple, an inconsiderable piece of plate, or a quantity of copper coin." After the wealth of nations annual tribute. 52 46 I have ventured to copy from Tacitus (Annal. i. 64) the picture of a similar engagement between a Roman army and a German tribe. 47 Jornandes, c. 18. Zosimus, 1. i. [c. 23] p. 22. Zonaras, 1. xii. [c. 20] p. 627, ed. Paris [p. 589, ed. Bonn]. Aurelius Victor. [Epitome, c. 29.] 48 The Decii were killed before the end of the year two hundred and fifty-one, since the new princes took possession of the consulship on the ensuing calends of January. 49 Hist. August. p. 223 [Vopisc. Aurel. c. 42], gives them a very honourable place among the small number of good emperors who reigned between Augustus and Diocletian. 50 Hæc ubi Patres comperere . decernunt. Victor in Cæsaribus [c. 30]. 51 Zonaras, 1. xii. [c. 21] p. 628 [p. 589, ed. Bonn]. 52 A Sella, a Toga, and a golden Patera of five pounds weight, were accepted with joy and gratitude by the wealthy king of Egypt (Livy, xxvii. 4). Quina millia Eris, luxury; but of its ancient strength nothing remained except the situation, in a little island of the Propontis, connected with the continent of Asia only by two bridges. From the recent sack of Prusa, the Goths advanced within eighteen miles 116 of the city, which they had devoted to destruction; but the ruin of Cyzicus was delayed by a fortunate accident. The season was rainy, and the lake Apolloniates, the reservoir of all the springs of Mount Olympus, rose to an uncommon height. The little river of Rhyndacus, which issues from the lake, swelled into a broad and rapid stream and stopped the progress of the Goths. Their retreat to the maritime city of Heraclea, where the fleet had probably been stationed, was attended by a long train of waggons laden with the spoils of Bithynia, and was marked by the flames of Nice and Nicomedia, which they wantonly burnt.117 Some obscure hints are mentioned of a doubtful combat that secured their retreat.118 But even a complete victory would have been of little moment, as the approach of the autumnal equinox summoned them to hasten their return. To navigate the Euxine before the month of May, or after that of September, is esteemed by the modern Turks the most unquestionable instance of rashness and folly.119 of the When we are informed that the third fleet, equipped by the Goths in the ports of Bosphorus, consisted of five hundred sail of Third navab ships, 120 our ready imagination instantly computes and expedition multiplies the formidable armament; but, as we are assured Goths. by the judicious Strabo 21 that the piratical vessels used by the barbarians of Pontus and the Lesser Scythia were not capable of containing more than twenty-five or thirty men, we may safely affirm that fifteen thousand warriors at the most embarked in this great expedition. Impatient of the limits of the Euxine, they steered their destructive course from the Cimmerian to the Thracian Bosphorus. When they had almost gained the middle of the straits they were suddenly driven back to the entrance of them; till a favourable wind, springing up the next day, carried them They pass in a few hours into the placid sea, or rather lake, of the phorus and Propontis. Their landing on the little island of Cyzicus pont, was attended with the ruin of that ancient and noble city. From 1:6 Pocock's Description of the East, 1. ii. c. 23, 24. 117 Zosimus, 1. i. [c. 35] p. 33. the Bos the Helles 118 Syncellus tells an unintelligible story of Prince Odenathus, who defeated the Goths, and who was killed by Prince Odenathus [p. 382, ed. Paris; vol. i. p. 717, ed. Bonn]. 119 Voyages de Chardin, tom. i. p. 45. He sailed with the Turks from Constantinople to Caffa. 120 Syncellus (p. 382) speaks of this expedition as undertaken by the Heruli. 121 Strabo, 1. xi. p. 495. A.D. 262, thence issuing again through the narrow passage of the Hellespont, they pursued their winding navigation amidst the numerous islands scattered over the Archipelago or the Ægean Sea. The assistance of captives and deserters must have been very necessary to pilot their vessels, and to direct their various incursions, as well on the coast of Greece as on that of Asia. At length the Gothic fleet anchored in the port of Piræus, five miles distant from Athens,122 which had attempted to make some preparations for a vigorous defence. Cleodamus, one of the engineers employed by the emperor's orders to fortify the maritime cities against the Goths, had already begun to repair the ancient walls fallen to decay since the time of Sylla. The efforts of his skill were ineffectual, and the barbarians became masters of the native seat of the muses and the arts. But while the conquerors abandoned themselves to the licence of plunder and intemperance, their fleet, that lay with a slender guard in the harbour of Piræus, was unexpectedly attacked by the brave Dexippus, who, flying with the engineer Cleodamus from the sack of Athens, collected a hasty band of volunteers, peasants as well as soldiers, and in some measure avenged the calamities of his country.1 But this exploit, whatever lustre it might shed on the declining age of Athens, served rather to irritate than to subdue the undaunted spirit of the northern invaders. A general conflagration blazed out at the same time in every district of Greece. Thebes and Argos, Corinth and Sparta, which had formerly waged such memorable wars against each other, were now unable to bring an army into the field, or even to defend their ruined fortifications. The rage of war, both by land and by sea, spread from the eastern point of Sunium to the western coast of Epirus. The Goths had already advanced within sight of Italy, when the approach of such imminent danger awakened the indolent Gallienus from his dream of pleasure. The emperor appeared in arms; and his presence seems to have checked the ardour, and to have divided the strength, of the enemy. Naulobatus, a chief of the Heruli, accepted an honourable capitulation, entered with a large body of his countrymen ravage Greece, and threaten Italy. 122 Plin. Hist. Natur. iv. 7 [11]. 123 123 Hist. August. p. 181. [Pollio, Gallieni, ii. c. 13.] Victor [de Cæsar.], c. 33. Orosius, vii. 42. Zosimus, 1. i. [c. 39] p. 35. Zonaras, 1. xii. [c. 26] p. 635 [ed. Paris; vol. ii. p. 605, ed. Bonn]. Syncellus, p. 382 [vol. i. p. 717, ed. Bonn]. It is not without some attention that we can explain and conciliate their imperfect hints. We can still discover some traces of the partiality of Dexippus in the relation of his own and his countrymen's exploits." According to a new fragment of Dexippus, published by Mai, he had 2000 He took up a strong position in a mountainous and woody district, and kept men. up a harassing warfare. He expresses a hope of being speedily joined by the Imperial fleet. Dexippus in nov. Byzantinorum. Collect. a Niebuhr, pp. 26-28.-M. sions and into the service of Rome, and was invested with the ornaments of the consular dignity, which had never before been profaned Their diviby the hands of a barbarian.124 Great numbers of the retreat. Goths, disgusted with the perils and hardships of a tedious voyage, broke into Masia, with a design of forcing their way over the Danube to their settlements in the Ukraine. The wild attempt would have proved inevitable destruction if the discord of the Roman generals had not opened to the barbarians the means of an escape.' 125 The small remainder of this destroying host returned on board their vessels, and, measuring back their way through the Hellespont and the Bosphorus, ravaged in their passage the shores of Troy, whose fame, immortalised by Homer, will probably survive the memory of the Gothic conquests. As soon as they found themselves in safety within the bason of the Euxine they landed at Anchialus in Thrace, near the foot of Mount Hamus, and, after all their toils, indulged themselves in the use of those pleasant and salutary hot baths. What remained of the voyage was a short and easy navigation.126 was the various fate of this third and greatest of their naval enterprises. It may seem difficult to conceive how the original body of fifteen thousand warriors could sustain the losses and divisions of so bold an adventure. But as their numbers were gradually wasted by the sword, by shipwrecks, and by the influence of a warm climate, they were perpetually renewed by troops of banditti and deserters, who flocked to the standard of plunder, and by a crowd of fugitive slaves, often of German or Sarmatian extraction, who eagerly seized the glorious opportunity of freedom and revenge. In these expeditions the Gothic nation claimed a superior share of honour and danger; but the tribes that fought under the Gothic banners are sometimes distinguished and sometimes confounded in the imperfect histories of that age; and as the barbarian fleets seemed to issue from the mouth of the Tanais, the vague but familiar appellation of Scythians was frequently bestowed on the mixed multitude.127 Such In the general calamities of mankind, the death of an individual, however exalted, the ruin of an edifice, however famous, are Ruin of the passed over with careless inattention. Yet we cannot forget Ephesus. that the temple of Diana at Ephesus, after having risen with increasing temple of 124 Syncellus, p. 382 [vol. i. p. 717, ed. Bonn]. This body of Heruli was for a long time faithful and famous. 125 Claudius, who commanded on the Danube, thought with propriety and acted with spirit. His colleague was jealous of his fame. Hist. August. p. 181. [Treb. Poll. Gallieni II. c. 14]. 126 Jornandes, c. 20. 127 Zosimus and the Greeks (as the author of the Philopatris) give the name of Scythians to those whom Jornandes and the Latin writers constantly represent as Goths. VOL. I. 2 D splendour from seven repeated misfortunes, 128 was finally burnt by the Goths in their third naval invasion. The arts of Greece and the wealth of Asia had conspired to erect that sacred and magnificent structure. It was supported by an hundred and twenty-seven marble columns of the Ionic order; they were the gifts of devout monarchs, and each was sixty feet high. The altar was adorned with the masterly sculptures of Praxiteles, who had, perhaps, selected from the favourite legends of the place the birth of the divine children of Latona, the concealment of Apollo after the slaughter of the Cyclops, and the clemency of Bacchus to the vanquished Amazons.129 Yet the length of the temple of Ephesus was only four hundred and twenty-five feet, about two-thirds of the measure of the church of St. Peter's at Rome.130 In the other dimensions it was still more inferior to that sublime production of modern architecture. The spreading arms of a Christian cross require a much greater breadth than the oblong temples of the Pagans; and the boldest artists of antiquity would have been startled at the proposal of raising in the air a dome of the size and proportions of the Pantheon. The temple of Diana was, however, admired as one of the wonders of the world. Successive empires, the Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman, had revered its sanctity and enriched its splendour.131 But the rude savages of the Baltic were destitute of a taste for the elegant arts, and they despised the ideal terrors of a foreign superstition. the Goths at Athens. 132 Another circumstance is related of these invasions, which might Conduct of deserve our notice were it not justly to be suspected as the fanciful conceit of a recent sophist. We are told that in the sack of Athens the Goths had collected all the libraries, and were on the point of setting fire to this funeral pile of Grecian learning, had not one of their chiefs, of more refined policy than his brethren, dissuaded them from the design, by the profound observation, that as long as the Greeks were addicted to the study of books they would never apply themselves to the exercise of arms.133 The sagacious counsellor (should the truth of the fact be admitted) reasoned like an 128 Hist. Aug. p. 178. [Pollio, Gallieni II. c. 6.] Jornandes, c. 20. 129 Strabo, 1. xiv. p. 640. Vitruvius, 1. i. c. i. præfat. 1. vii. Tacit. Annal. iii. 61. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 14 [§ 21]. 130 The length of St. Peter's is 840 Roman palms; each palm is very little short of nine English inches. See Greaves's Miscellanies, vol. i. p. 233; on the Roman Foot." 131 The policy, however, of the Romans induced them to abridge the extent of the sanctuary or asylum, which by successive privileges had spread itself two stadia round the temple. Strabo, 1. xiv. p. 641. Tacit. Annal. iii. 60, &c. 132 They offered no sacrifices to the Grecian gods. See Epistol. Gregor. Thaumat. 133 Zonaras, 1. xii. [c. 26] p. 635 [p. 605, ed. Bonn]. Such an anecdote was perfectly suited to the taste of Montaigne. He makes use of it in his agreeable Essay on Pedantry, 1. i. c. 24. St. Paul's cathedral is 500 feet. Dallaway on Architecture, p. 203.—M. |