Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/316

 292 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, gress. The relaxed discipline of the Roman troops ^' betrayed the most important posts, where they were stationed; and the fear of deserved punishment induced great numbers of them to enHst under the Gothic standard. The various multitude of barbarians ap- peared, at length, under the walls of Marcianopolis, a city built by Trajan in honour of his sister, and at that time the capital of the second Maesia ^ The in- habitants consented to ransom their lives and property by the payment of a large sum of money ; and the in- vaders retreated back into their deserts, animated ra- ther than satisfied with the first success of their arms against an opulent but feeble country. Intelligence was soon transmitted to the emperor Decius, that Cniva king of the Goths had passed the Danube a second time, with more considerable forces ; that his numerous detachments 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 Decius found the Goths engaged before Nicopolis, events of q^j ^|jg Jatrus, ouc of the many monuments of Trajan's the Gothic. . ', . , . . 1 , . , war. Victories ^. On his approach they raised the siege, but A. D. 250. ^j^jj ^ 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 Haemus Decius followed them through a difficult country, and by forced marches; but when he imagined himself at a considerable dis- f In the sixteenth chapter of Jornandes, instead of secundo MaBsiam, we may venture to substitute secundam, the second Maesia, of which Marciano- polis was certainly the capital. See Hierocles de Provinciis, and Wesseling ad locum, p. 636. Itinerar. It is surprising how this palpable error of the scribe could escape the judicious correction of Grotius. s The place is still called Nicop. The little stream on whose banks it stood falls into the Danube. D'Anville, Geographic Ancienne, torn. i. p. 307. h 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.