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THE DECLINE AND FALL
scattered devastation over the province of Maesia, whilst the main body of the army, consisting of seventy thousand Germans and Sarmatians, a force equal to the most daring achievements, required the presence of the Roman monarch, and the exertion of his military power.
Various events of the Gothic war, A.D. 250Decius found the Goths engaged before Nicopolis, on the Jatrus, one of the many monuments of Trajan's victories.[1] On his approach they raised the siege, but with a design only of marching away to a conquest of greater importance, the siege of Philippopolis, a city of Thrace, founded by the father of Alexander, near the foot of Mount Hæmus.[2] Decius followed them through a difficult countiy, and by forced marches; but, when he imagined himself at a considerable distance from the rear of the Goths, Cniva turned with rapid fury on his pursuers. The camp of the Romans 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 Philippopolis, destitute of succour, was taken by storm. A hundred thousand persons are reported to have been massacred in the sack of that great city.[3] Many prisoners of consequence became a valuable accession to the spoil; and Priscus, a brother of the late emperor Philip, blushed not to assume the purple under the protection of the barbarous enemies of Rome.[4] The time, however, consumed in that tedious siege, enabled Decius to revive the courage, restore the discipline, and recruit the numbers of his troops. He intercepted several parties of Carpi, and other Germans, who were hastening to share the victory of their countrymen,[5] intrusted the passes of the mountains to officers of approved valour and fidelity,[6] repaired and strengthened the fortifications of the Danube, and exerted his utmost vigilance to- ↑ The place is still called Nicop. The little stream [Iantra], on whose banks it stood, falls into the Danube. D'Anville Géographie Ancienne, torn. i. p. 307.
- ↑ Stephan. Byzant. de Urbibus, p. 740. Wesseling Itinerar. p. 136. Zonaras, by an odd mistake, ascribes the foundation of Philippopolis to the immediate predecessor of Decius.
- ↑ Ammian. xxxi. 5. [A fragment of Dexippus, first edited by Müller (F. H. G. iii. p. 678, fr. 20), gives a long description of an ineffectual siege of Philippopolis by the Goths. Miiller concludes that there were two sieges, the first unsuccessful, before the defeat and death of Decius, the second successful, after that disaster. This is supported by the words of Ammianus, xxxi. 5.]
- ↑ Aurel. Victor [Cæsar.] c. 29. [Dexippus, frags. 19, 20; Zos. i. 19.]
- ↑ Victoriæ Carpicæ, on some medals of Decius, insinuate these advantages.
- ↑ Claudius (who afterwards reigned with so much glory) was posted in the pass of Thermopylæ with 200 Dardanians, 100 heavy and 160 light horse, 60 Cretan archers, and 1000 well-armed recruits. See an original letter from the emperor to his officers in the Augustan History, p. 200 [xxv. 16].
