Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/317

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 293 tance from the rear of the Goths, Cniva turned with CHAP, rapid fury on his pursuers. The camp of the Ro- mans was surprised and pillaged ; and, for the first time, their emperor fled in disorder before a troop of half armed barbarians. After a long resistance, Phi- lippopolis, destitute of succour, was taken by storm. An hundred thousand persons are reported to have been massacred in the sack of that great city Many prisoners of consequence became a valuable accession to the spoil; and Priscus, a brother of the late em- peror Phili|), blushed not to assume the purple under the protection of the barbarous enemies of Rome ^. The time, however, consumed in that tedious siege, enabled Decius to revive the courage, restore the dis- cipline, and recruit the numbers of his troops. He intercepted several parties of Carpi, and other Ger- mans, who were hastening to share the victory of their countrymen ^, intrusted the passes of the mountains to officers of approved valour and fidelity "", repaired and strengthened the fortifications of the Danube, and ex- erted his utmost vigilance to oppose either the progress or the retreat of the Goths. Encouraged by the re- turn of fortune, he anxiously waited for an opportunity to retrieve, by a great and decisive blow, his own glory, and that of the Roman arms ". At the same time when Decius was strusfflinff with Decius re- the violence of the tempest, his mind, calm and deli- ^j^^^ ^Jj-® berate amidst the tumult of war, investigated the more censor in general causes that, since the age of the Antonines, ofVaTeHan had so impetuously urged' the decline of the Roman greatness. He soon discovered that it was impossible ' Ammian. xxxi. 5. ^ Aurel. Victor, e. 29. ' Victorias Carpice, on somemedalsof Decius, insinuate these advantages. "* Claudius (who afterwards reigned with so much glory) was posted in the pass of Thermopylai with two hundred Dardanians, one hundred heavy and one hundred and sixty light horse, sixty Cretan archers, and one thou-' sand well armed recruits. See an original letter from the emperor to his officer in the Augustan History, p. 200. ^ Jornandes, c. 16 — 18 ; Zosimus, 1. i. p. 22. In the general account of this war, it is easy to discover the opposite prejudices of the Gothic and the Grecian writer. In carelessness alone they are alike.