Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/340

 316 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. Heruli, accepted an honourable capitulation, entered ^' with a large body of his countrymen into the service of Rome, and was invested with the ornaments of the consular dignity, which had never before been pro- faned by the hands of a barbarian Great numbers of the Goths, disgusted with the perils and hardships of a tedious voyage, broke into Maesia, with a design 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 Ro- man generals had not opened to the barbarians the means of an escape ^. 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 pro- bably survive the memory of the Gothic conquests. As soon as they found themselves in safety within the bason of the Euxine, they landed at Anchialus in Thrace, near the foot of mount Hgemus ; 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 ^ 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 in- fluence of a warm climate, they were perpetually re- newed by troops of banditti and deserters, who flocked to the standard of plunder, and by a crowd of fugitive slaves, often of German or Sarmatian extraction, who eagerly seized the glorious opportunity of freedom and revenge. In these expeditions, the Gothic nation » Syncellus, p. 382. This body of Heruli was for a long time faithful and famous. '' Claudius, who commanded ou the Danube, thought with propriety and acted with spirit. His colleague was jealous of his fame. Hist. August, p. 181. ^ Jornandes, c. 20.