Page:Constantinople by Brodribb.djvu/73

 to have resembled that of Cannæ, and its end was far more disastrous. Valens and his staff perished in a cottage in which they had taken refuge and which the enemy fired. Two-thirds of his army were slain. The Goths were now in undisturbed possession of the entire country south of the Danube.

It was fortunate for the empire that it contained several strongly fortified cities. This indeed was its preservation. In this respect the East was better able to resist the tide of barbaric invasion than the West. The Goths were brave warriors and even good soldiers, but they had no idea of conducting a siege, and their fierce assault on Adrianople was repelled by the skill and resolution of the defenders. They could not face the volleys of missiles poured on them from the engines on the city walls, and they soon gave up the attempt in despair. From Adrianople they moved on to the capital itself, and were able to plunder its suburbs, made up of the homes of its rich citizens. But the city itself could easily defy them, and they had, in Gibbon's words, merely the satisfaction "of gazing with hopeless desire on its inaccessible beauties." One remarkable incident occurred. Goths and Saracens came into collision; a body of the latter serving in the Roman army under Valens, having sallied out, attacked the besiegers with even more than barbarian ferocity. The Arab cavalry on this occasion overmatched that of the Goths, an omen this of the future Saracenic triumphs. Soon the mighty host retired from the impregnable walls of Constantinople, and dispersed itself throughout the wilder parts of Thrace.