Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/337

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 313 of the booty; for the Goths had learned sufficient po- CHAP, licy to reward the traitor whom they detested. Nice, ^' Prusa, Apaemaea, Cius, cities that had sometimes ri- valled, or imitated, the splendour of Nicomedia, were involved in the same calamity, which, in a few weeks, raged without control through the whole province of Bithynia. Three hundred years of peace, enjoyed by the soft inhabitants of Asia, had abolished the ex- ercise of arms, and removed the apprehension of dan- ger. The ancient walls were suffered to moulder away; and all the revenue of the most opulent cities was reserved for the construction of baths, temples, and theatres When the city of Cyzicus withstood the utmost effort Retreat of of Mithridates y, it was distinguished by wise laws, a ^^^ <Joths. naval power of two hundred galleys, and three arsenals; of arms, of miUtary engines, and of corn ^. It was still the seat of wealth and luxury ; but of its ancient strength, nothing remained except the situation, in a little island of the Propontis, connected with the con- tinent of Asia only by two bridges. From the recent sack of Prusa, the Goths advanced within eighteen miles ^ of the city, which they had, devoted to destruc- tion; but the ruin of Cyzicus was delayed by a for- tunate accident. The season was rainy, and the lake Apolloniates, the reservoir of all the springs of mount Olympus, rose to an uncommon height. The littk river of Rhyndacus, which issues from the lake, swelled into a broad and rapid stream, and stopped the pro- gress of the Goths. Their retreat to the maritime city of Heraclea, where the fleet had probably been sta- tioned, was attended by a long train of waggons, laden with the spoils of Bithynia, and was marked by the flames of Nice and Nicomedia, which they wantonly " Zosimus, 1. i, p. 32, 33. y He besieged the place with four hundred galleys, one hundred and fifty thousand foot, and a numerous cavalry. See Plutarch, in Lucul. j Ap- pian in Mithridat. ; Cicero pro Lege Manilia, c. 8.
 * Strabo, 1. xii. p. 573.
 * Pocock's Description of the East, 1. ii. c. 23, 24.