X. CHAP. of forcing their way over the Danube to their settle. ments 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 escape125. 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 Hæmus; 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 126. 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 crowd of fu gitive 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 honour 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 barba rian 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. 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. 126 Jornandes, c. 20. 127 Zosimus and the Greeks (as the author of the Philopatris) give the name of Scythians to whom those Jornandes, and the Latin writers, constantly represent as Goths. X. Ephesus. In the general calamities of mankind, the death of CHAP. an individual, however exalted, the ruin of an edifice, however famous, are passed over with careless inat- Ruin of tention. Yet we cannot forget that the temple of Diana the temat Ephesus, after having risen with increasing splen-ple of dour from seven repeated misfortunes 128, was finally burnt 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 an 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 favourite 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 Amazons29. 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 Rome130. In the other dimensions, it 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 splendour13. But the rude savages of the Baltic were Jornandes, c. 20. 128 Hist. August. p. 178. 129 Strabo, 1. xiv. p. 640. Vitruvius, 1. i. c. 1. præfat. 1. vii. Tacit. Annal. iii. 61. Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 14. 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. 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, &c. CHAP. destitute of a taste for the elegant arts, and they despised the ideal terrors of a foreign superstition 132. X. Conduct of the Athens. Another circumstance is related of these invasions, which might deserve our notice, were it not justly to Goths at 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. Conquest nia by the IV. The new sovereigns of Persia, Artaxerxes and of Arme- his son Sapor, had triumphed (as we have already Fersians. seen) over the house of Arsaces. Of the many princes of that ancient race, Chosroes, king of Armenia, had alone preserved both his life and his independence. He defended himself by the natural strength of his country; by the perpetual resort of fugitives and malecontents; 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 favour 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 132 They offered no sacrifices to the Grecian gods. See Epist. Gregor. Thaumat. 133 Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 635. Such an anecdote was perfectly suited to the taste of Montaigne. He makes use of it in his agreeable Essay on Pe dantry, 1. i. c. 24. X. the fidelity of a servant, and Armenia continued above CHAP. twenty-seven years a reluctant province of the great monarchy of Persia134. 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. marches ken pri The loss of an important frontier, the ruin of a faith- Valerian ful and natural ally, and the rapid success of Sapor's into the ambition, affected Rome with a deep sense of the insult East. 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 Persian mon- Is defeatarch near the walls of Edessa, was vanquished and ed and tataken prisoner by Sapor. The particulars of this great soner by event are darkly and imperfectly represented; yet, by Sapor the glimmering light which is afforded us, we may dis- Persia. king of cover a long series of imprudence, of error, and of de- A. D. 260. served misfortune on the side of the Roman emperor. He reposed an implicit confidence in Macrianus, his Prætorian præfecti35. That worthless minister rendered his master formidable only to the oppressed subjects, and contemptible to the enemies of Rome136. By his weak or wicked counsels, the Imperial army was betrayed into a situation, where valour and military skill were equally unavailing137. The vigorous attempt of the Romans to cut their way through the Persian host was repulsed with great slaughters; and Sapor, 134 Moses Chorenensis, 1. ii. c. 71, 73, 74. Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 628. 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. 135 Hist. August. p. 191. As Macrianus was an enemy to the Christians, they charged him with being a magician. 136 Zosimus, 1. i. p. 33. 138 Victor. in Cæsar. Eutropius, ix. 7. 137 Hist. August. p. 174. X. 7 CHAP. who encompassed the camp with superior numbers, patiently waited till the increasing rage of famine and pestilence had ensured his victory. The licentious murmurs of the legions soon accused Valerian as the cause of their calamities; their seditious clamours 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 arms139. 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 fugitive of Antioch, stained with every vice, was chosen to dishonour the Roman purple; and the will of the Persian victor could not fail of being ratified by the acclamations, however reluctant, of the captive army140. Sapor Syria, Ci cia. The Imperial slave was eager to secure the favour overruns of his master by an act of treason to his native country. licia, and He conducted Sapor over the Euphrates, and by the Cappado- way of Chalcis to the metropolis of the East. So rapid were the motions of the Persian cavalry that, if we may credit a very judicious historian14, the city of Antioch was surprised when the idle multitude was fondly gazing on the amusements of the theatre. The splendid buildings of Antioch, private as well as public, were either pillaged or destroyed; and the numerous inhabitants were put to the sword, or led away 139 Zosimus, 1. i. p. 33. Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 630. Peter Patricius in the Excerpta Legat. p. 29. 140 Hist. August. p. 185. The reign of Cyriades appears in that collction prior to the death of Valerian; but I have preferred a probable series of events to the doubtful chronology of a most inaccurate writer. 141 The sack of Antioch, anticipated by some historians, is assigned, by the decisive testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus, to the reign of Galic nus, xxiii. 5. |