that could attract, and nothing that could resist, a barbarian conqueror. Conquest of the Bosphorus by the Goths, The banks of the Borysthenes are only sixty miles distant from the narrow entrance" of the peninsula of Crim Tartary, known to the ancients under the name of Chersonesus Taurica." On that inhospitable shore Euripides, embellishing with exquisite art the tales of antiquity, has placed the scene of one of his most affecting tragedies." The bloody sacrifices of Diana, the arrival of Orestes and Pylades, and the triumph of virtue and religion over savage fierceness, serve to represent an historical truth, that the Tauri, the original inhabitants of the peninsula, were in some degree reclaimed from their brutal manners by a gradual intercourse with the Grecian colonies which settled along the maritime coast. The little kingdom of Bosphorus, whose capital was situated on the straits through which the Mæotis communicates itself to the Euxine, was composed of degenerate Greeks and half-civilized barbarians. It subsisted as an independent state from the time of the Peloponnesian war," was at last swallowed up by the ambition of Mithridates," and, with the rest of his dominions, sunk under the weight of the Roman arms. From the reign of Augustus 100 the kings of Bosphorus were the humble, but not useless, allies of the empire. By presents, by arms, and by a slight fortification drawn across the isthmus, they effectually guarded, against the roving plunderers of Sarmatia, the access of a country which, from its peculiar situation and convenient harbors, commanded the Euxine Sea and Asia Minor.101 As long as 08 95 It is about half a league in breadth. Genealogical Hist. of the Tartars, p. 598. 96 M. de Peyssonel, who had been French consul at Caffa, in his Observations sur les Peuples Barbares, qui ont habité les bords du Danube. 97 Euripides in Iphigenia in Tauris. 98 Strabo, I. vii. p. 309. The first kings of Bosphorus were the allies of Athens. Appian in Mithridat. [c. 67]. 99 100 It was reduced by the arms of Agrippa. Orosius, vi. 21. Eutropius, vii. 5. The Romans once advanced within three days' march of the Tanais. Tacit. Annal. xii. 17. 101 See the Toxaris of Lucian, if we credit the sincerity and the virtues of the Scythian, who relates a great war of his nation against the kings of Bosphorus. the sceptre was possessed by a lineal succession of kings, they acquitted themselves of their important charge with vigilance and success. Domestic factions, and the fears or private interest of obscure usurpers who seized on the vacant throne, admitted the Goths into the heart of Bosphorus. With the acquisition of a superfluous waste of fertile soil, the conquerors obtained the command of a naval force sufficient to transwho acquire port their armies to the coast of Asia.10 The ships a naval force. used in the navigation of the Euxine were of a very singular construction. They were slight flat-bottomed barks framed of timber only, without the least mixture of iron, and occasionally covered with a shelving roof on the appearance of a tempest.1o In these floating houses the Goths carelessly trusted themselves to the mercy of an unknown sea, under the conduct of sailors pressed into the service, and whose skill and fidelity were equally suspicious. But the hopes of plunder had banished every idea of danger, and a natural fearlessness of temper supplied in their minds the more rational confidence which is the just result of knowledge and experience. Warriors of such a daring spirit must have often murmured against the cowardice of their guides, who required the strongest assurances of a settled calm before they would venture to embark, and would scarcely ever be tempted to lose sight of the land. Such, at least, is the practice of the modern Turks;' and they are probably not inferior in the art of navigation to the ancient inhabitants of Bosphorus. First naval expedition 105 .104 The fleet of the Goths, leaving the coast of Circassia on the left hand, first appeared before Pityus, the utmost limits of the Roman provinces; a city provided with a convenient port, and fortified with a strong wall. Here they met with a resistance more obstinate than of the Goths. 102 Zosimus, l. i. [c. 31] p. 28. 103 Strabo, l. xi. [p. 495]. Tacit. Hist. iii. 47. They were called Camara. 104 See a very natural picture of the Euxine navigation, in the sixteenth letter of Tournefort. 105 Arrian places the frontier garrison at Dioscurias, or Sebastopolis, forty-four miles to the east of Pityus. The garrison of Phasis consisted in his time of only four hundred foot. See the Periplus of the Euxine [c. 10]. A.1). 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.106 The Goths besiege and take Trebizond. 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, 10 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.1 s.100 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. 111 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.' the Goths. 113 116 115 When the city of Cyzicus withstood the utmost efforts of Mithridates," it was distinguished by wise laws, a naval Retreat of power of two hundred galleys, and three arsenalsof 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 isl and 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. 33. |