314 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, burnt. Some obscure hints are mentioned of a doubt- • ful combat that secured their retreat ^ 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 es- teemed by the modern Turks the most unquestionable instance of rashness and folly *^ Third naval When we are informed that the third fleet, equipped of the by the Goths in the ports of Bosphorus, consisted of Goths. gyg hundred sail of ships *, our ready imagination in- stantly computes and multiplies the formidable arma- ment; 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 They pass them; till a favourable wind springing up the next the Bospho- , . 1 .1 . r. , .,1.1 rus and the ^^^^Yj carriecl them in a tew hours into the placid sea, or Hellespont, 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 JEgean 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
- » Zosimus, 1. i. p. 33.
<= Syncellus tells an unintelligible story of prince Odenathus, who defeated the Goths, and who was killed by prince Odenathus. d Voyages de Chardin, torn. i. p. 45. He sailed with the Turks from Constantinople to CafFa. « Syncellus (p. 382.) speaks of this expedition as undertaken by the Heruli. f Strabo, 1. xi. p. 495.
