Their divisions and 125 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 ardor and to have divided the strength of the enemy. Naulobatus, a chief of the Heruli, accepted an honorable capitulation, entered with a large body of his countrymen into the service of Rome, and was invested with the ornaments of the consular dignity, which had never before been profaned by the hands of a barbarian. Great numbers of the Goths, disgusted with the perils retreat. and hardships of a tedious voyage, broke into Mæsia, 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. 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, immortalized by Homer, will probably survive the memory of the Gothic conquests. As soon as they found themselves in safety within the basin 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.120 Such 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 124 Syncellus, p. 382 [vol. i. p. 717, edit. 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. 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 honor 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 Ruin of the 128 In the general calamities of mankind, the death of an individual, however exalted, the ruin of an edifice, however famous, are passed over with careless inattention. Yet we cannot forget that the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, after having risen with increasing splendor from seven repeated misfortunes,' was finally burned 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 a 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 favorite 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.120 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 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. 128 Hist. August. p. 178. [Pollio, Gallieni II. c. 6.] Jornandes, c. 20. 129 Strabo, l. xiv. p. 640. Vitruvius, 1. i. c. i. præfat. l. vii. 61. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 14 [§ 21]. Tacit. Annal. iii. 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.a a St. Paul's Cathedral is 500 feet. Dallaway on Architecture, p. 203.-M. 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 splendor." 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." Conduct of the Goths at Athens. 132 Another circumstance is related of these invasions, which might 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. The sagacious counsellor (should the truth of the fact be admitted) reasoned like an ignorant barbarian. In the most polite and powerful nations genius of every kind has displayed itself about the same period; and the age of science has generally been the age of military virtue and success. 133 IV. The new sovereigns of Persia, Artaxerxes and his son Sapor, had triumphed (as we have already seen) over the House of Arsaces. Of the many princes of that ancient race, 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, etc. 132 They offered no sacrifices to the Thaumat. Grecian gods. See Epistol. Gregor. 183 Zonaras, l. xii. [c. 26] p. 635 [p. 605, edit. 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. ch. 24. Conquest of the Persians. A.D. 198. Chosroes, King of Armenia, had alone preserved both his life. and his independence. He defended himself by Armenia by the natural strength of his country; by the perpetual resort of fugitives and malcontents; by the alliance of the Romans; and, above all, by his own courage. Invincible in arms during a thirty years' war, he was at length assassinated by the emissaries of Sapor, king of Persia. The patriotic satraps of Armenia, who asserted the freedom and dignity of the crown, implored the protection of Rome in favor of Tiridates, the lawful heir. But the son of Chosroes was an infant, the allies were at a distance, and the Persian monarch advanced towards the frontier at the head of an irresistible force. Young Tiridates, the future hope of his country, was saved by the fidelity of a servant, and Armenia continued above twenty-seven years a reluctant province of the great monarchy of Persia. Elated with this easy conquest, and presuming on the distresses or the degeneracy of the Romans, Sapor obliged the strong garrisons of Carrhæ and Nisibis to surrender, and spread devastation and terror on either side of the Euphrates. The loss of an important frontier, the ruin of a faithful and natural ally, and the rapid success of Sapor's ambition, af Valerian marches into the East. fected Rome with a deep sense of the insult as well as of the danger. Valerian flattered himself that the vigilance of his lieutenants would sufficiently provide for the safety of the Rhine and of the Danube; but he resolved, notwithstanding his advanced age, to march in person to the defence of the Euphrates. During his progress through Asia Minor the naval enterprises of the Goths were suspended, and the afflicted province enjoyed a transient and fallacious calm. He passed the Euphrates, encountered the 134 Moses Chorenensis, l. ii. c. 71, 73, 74. Zonaras, l. xii. [c. 21] p. 628 [p. 590, ed. Bonn]. The authentic relation of the Armenian historian serves to rectify the confused account of the Greek. The latter talks of the children of Tiridates, who at that time was himself an infant. [Compare St. Martin, Mémoires sur l'Arménie, i. p. 301.-M. a Nisibis, according to Persian authors, was taken by a miracle: the wall fell, in compliance with the prayers of the army. Malcolm's Persia, i. 76. —M. Is defeated and taken prisoner by Sapor, king of Persia. A.D. 260. Persian monarch near the walls of Edessa, was vanquished, and taken prisoner by Sapor. The particulars of this great event are darkly and imperfectly represented; yet, by the glimmering light which is afforded us, we may discover a long series of imprudence, of error, and of deserved misfortunes on the side of the Roman emperor. He reposed an implicit confidence in Macrianus, his Prætorian præfect." That worthless minister rendered his master formidable only to the oppressed subjects, and contemptible to the enemies, of Rome. By his weak or wicked counsels the imperial army was betrayed into a situation where valor and military skill were equally unavailing." The vigorous attempt of the Romans to cut their way through the Persian host was repulsed with great slaughter; and Sapor, who encompassed the camp with superior numbers, patiently waited till the increasing rage of famine and pestilence had insured his victory. The licentious murmurs of the legions soon accused Valerian as the cause of their calamities; their seditious clamors demanded an instant capitulation. An immense sum of gold was offered to purchase the permission of a disgraceful retreat. But the Persian, conscious of his superiority, refused the money with disdain; and, detaining the deputies, advanced in order of battle to the foot of the Roman rampart, and insisted on a personal conference with the emperor. Valerian was reduced to the necessity of intrusting his life and dignity to the faith of an enemy. The interview ended as it was natural to expect. The emperor was made a prisoner, and his astonished troops laid down their arms." In such a moment of triumph the pride and policy of Sapor prompted him to fill the vacant throne with a successor entirely dependent on his pleasure. Cyriades, an obscure fugi 139 135 Hist. August. p. 191. [Pollio, xxx. Tyranni, de Macriano, 11.] As Macrianus was an enemy to the Christians, they charged him with being a magician. 136 Zosimus, l. i. [c. 36] p. 33. 187 Hist. August. p. 174. [Pollio, Valerian, c. 32.] 138 Victor in Cæsar. [c. 32]. Eutropius, ix. 6. 139 Zosimus, l. i. [c. 36] p. 33. Peter Patricius, in the Excerpta Zonaras, 1. xii. [c. 23] p. 630 [p. 593, ed. Bonn] Legat. p. 29 [p. 128, ed. Bonn]. |