A.D. 258, 259. they had reason to expect from the feeble garrison of a distant fortress. They were repulsed; and their disappointment seemed to diminish the terror of the Gothic name. As long as Successianus, an officer of superior rank and merit, defended that frontier, all their efforts were ineffectual; but as soon as he was removed by Valerian to a more honorable but less important station, they resumed the attack of Pityus; and, by the destruction of that city, obliterated the memory of their former disgrace.10 The Goths besiege and take Trebizond. 109 108 Circling round the eastern extremity of the Euxine Sea, the navigation from Pityus to Trebizond is about three hundred miles.107 The course of the Goths carried them in sight of the country of Colchis, so famous by the expedition of the Argonauts; and they even attempted, though without success, to pillage a rich temple at the mouth of the river Phasis. Trebizond, celebrated in the retreat of the Ten Thousand as an ancient colony of Greeks, derived its wealth and splendor from the munificence of the Emperor Hadrian, who had constructed an artificial port on a coast left destitute by nature of secure harbors. The city was large and populous; a double enclosure of walls seemed to defy the fury of the Goths, and the usual garrison had been strengthened by a re-enforcement of ten thousand men. But there are not any advantages capable of supplying the absence of discipline and vigilance. The numerous garrison of Trebizond, dissolved in riot and luxury, disdained to guard their impregnable fortifications. The Goths soon discovered the supine negligence of the besieged, erected a lofty pile of fascines, ascended the walls in the silence of the night, and entered the defenceless city, sword in hand. A general massacre of the people ensued, whilst the affrighted soldiers escaped through the opposite gates of the town. The most holy temples and the most splendid edi 106 Zosimus, l. i. [c. 32, 33] p. 30. 107 Arrian (in Periplo Maris Euxini [c. 27, 28], p. 130) calls the distance 2610 stadia. 108 Xenophon, Anabasis, 1. iv. [c. 8, 22] p. 348, edit. Hutchinson. 109 Arrian, p. 129. The general observation is Tournefort's. fices were involved in a common destruction. The booty that fell into the hands of the Goths was immense: the wealth of the adjacent countries had been deposited in Trebizond as in a secure place of refuge. The number of captives was incredible, as the victorious barbarians ranged without opposition through the extensive province of Pontus." The rich spoils of Trebizond filled a great fleet of ships that had been found in the port. The robust youth of the sea-coast were chained to the oar; and the Goths, satisfied with the success of their first naval expedition, returned in triumph to their new establishments in the kingdom of Bosphorus." The second the Goths. The second expedition of the Goths was undertaken with greater powers of men and ships; but they steered a different course, and, disdaining the exhausted provinces expedition of of Pontus, followed the western coast of the Euxine, passed before the wide mouths of the Borysthenes, the Dniester, and the Danube, and, increasing their fleet by the capture of a great number of fishing-barks, they approached the narrow outlet through which the Euxine Sea pours its waters into the Mediterranean, and divides the continents of Europe and Asia. The garrison of Chalcedon was encamped near the Temple of Jupiter Urius, on a promontory that commanded the entrance of the strait; and so inconsiderable were the dreaded invasions of the barbarians, that this body of troops surpassed in number the Gothic army. But it was in numbers alone that they surpassed it. They deserted with precipitation their advantagethe cities of ous post, and abandoned the town of Chalcedon, most plentifully stored with arms and money, to the discretion of the conquerors. Whilst they hesitated whether they should prefer the sea or land, Europe or Asia, for the scene of their hostilities, a perfidious fugitive pointed out Nicomedia, once the capital of the kings of Bithynia, as a rich and easy conquest. He guided the march, which was only sixty miles from the camp of Chalcedon," directed the They plunder Bithynia. 110 See an epistle of Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop of Neo-Cæsarea, quoted by Mascou, v. 37. 111 Zosimus, l. i. [c. 33] p. 32, 33. 112 Itiner. Hierosolym. p. 572. Wesseling. resistless attack, and partook of the booty; for the Goths had learned sufficient policy to reward the traitor whom they detested. Nice, Prusa, Apamæa, Cius, cities that had sometimes rivalled or imitated the splendor of Nicomedia, were involved in the same calamity, which in a few weeks raged without control through the whole province of Bithynia. Three hundred years of peace, enjoyed by the soft inhabitants of Asia, had abolished the exercise of arms, and removed the apprehension of danger. The ancient walls were suffered to moulder away, and all the revenue of the most opulent cities was reserved for the construction of baths, temples, and theatres." Retreat of 116 When the city of Cyzicus withstood the utmost efforts of Mithridates," it was distinguished by wise laws, a naval power of two hundred galleys, and three arsenalsthe Goths. of arms, of military engines, and of corn." It was still the seat of wealth and 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 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 wagons laden with the spoils of Bithynia, and was marked by the flames of Nice and Nicomedia, which they wantonly burned." Some obscure hints are mentioned of a 113 Zosimus, l. i. [c. 35] p. 32, 33. 114 He besieged the place with 400 alry. See Plutarch in Lucul. [c. 9]. Lege Maniliâ, c. 8. galleys, 150,000 foot, and a numerous cavAppian in Mithridat. [c. 72]. Cicero pro 115 Strabo, 1. xii. p. 575. 116 Pocock's Description of the East, 1. ii. ch. 23, 24. 117 Zosimus, l. i. [c. 35] p. 83. 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 Third naval expedition of the Goths. 121 When we are informed that the third fleet, equipped by the Goths in the ports of Bosphorus, consisted of five hundred sail of ships,120 our ready imagination instantly computes and multiplies the formidable armament; but, as we are assured by the judicious Strabo 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 favorable wind, springing up the next day, carried them in a few hours into the and the Hel- placid sea, or rather lake, of the Propontis. Their landing on the little island of Cyzicus was attended with the ruin of that ancient and noble city. From 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 Egean 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. They pass the lespont, 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 Con stantinople to Caffa. 120 Syncellus (p. 382) speaks of this expedition as undertaken by the Heruli. 191 Strabo, 1. xi. p. 495. A.D. 262. At length the Gothic fleet anchored in the port of Piræus, five miles distant from Athens," which had at tempted 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 license of plunder and intemperance, their fleet, that lay with a slender guard in the harbor 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." ravage Greece, and threaten Italy. 123 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 122 Plin. Hist. Nat. iv. 7 [11]. 123 Hist. August. p. 181. [Pollio, Gallieni, ii. c. 13.] Victor [de Cæsar.], c. 23. Orosius, vii. 42. Zosimus, l. i. [c. 39] p. 35. Zonaras, l. xii. [c. 26] p. 635 [edit. Paris; vol. ii. p. 605, edit. Bonn]. Syncellus, p. 382 [vol. i. p. 717, edit. 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.a men. a 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 up a harassing warfare. He expresses a hope of being speedily joined by the imperial fleet. Dexippus in nov. Byzantinorum. Collect. a Niebuhr, p. 26-28.-M. |