X. 92 CHA P. arms of a very different nature, that Gallienus endeavoured to protect Italy from the fury of the Germans. He efpoufed Pipa the daughter of a King of the Marcomanni, a Suevic tribe, which was often confounded with the Alemanni in their wars and conquefts 22. To the father, as the price of his alliance, he granted an ample fettlement in Pannonia. The native charms of unpolished beauty, feem to have fixed the daughter in the affections of the inconftant Emperor, and the bands of policy were more firmly connected by thofe of love. But the haughty prejudice of Rome ftill refused the name of marriage, to the profane mixture of a citizen and a barbarian; and has ftigmatized the German Princefs with the opprobrious title of concubine of Gallienus 93. Inroads of III. We have already traced the emigration of the Goths. the Goths from Scandinavia, or at least from Pruffia, to the mouth of the Boryfthenes, and have followed their victorious arms from the Boryfthenes to the Danube. Under the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus, the frontier of the lastmentioned river was perpetually infefted by the inroads of Germans and Sarmatians; but it was defended by the Romans with more than ufual firmnefs and fuccefs. The provinces that were the feat of war, recruited the armies of Rome with an inexhauftible fupply of hardy foldiers; and more than one of these Illyrian peasants 92 One of the Victors calls him King of the Marcomanni; the other, of the Germans. 93 See Tillemont. Hift, des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 398, &c. X. attained the station, and difplayed the abilities, C HAP of a general. Though flying parties of the barbarians, who inceffantly hovered on the banks of the Danube, penetrated sometimes to the confines of Italy and Macedonia; their progrefs was commonly checked, or their return intercepted, by the Imperial lieutenants 94. But the great ftream of the Gothic hoftilities was diverted into a very different channel. The Goths, in their new fettlement of the Ukraine, foon became masters of the northern coaft of the Euxine: to the fouth of that inland fea, were fituated the foft and wealthy provinces of Afia Minor, which poffeffed all that could attract, and nothing that could refift a barbarian conqueror. The banks of the Boryfthenes are only fixty Conqueft miles diftant from the narrow entrance of the of the Bofphorus by peninfula of Crim Tartary, known to the ancients the Goths; under the name of Cherfonefus Taurica". On that hofpitable fhore, Euripides, embellishing with exquifite art the tales of antiquity, has placed the scene of one of his most affecting tragedies". The bloody facrifices of Diana, the arrival of Oreftes and Pylades, and the triumph of virtue and religion over favage fierceness, ferve 94 See the lives of Claudius, Aurelian, and Probus, in the Auguftan History. 95 It is about half a league in breadth. the Tartars, p. 598. Genealogical Hiftory of 96 M. de Peyffonel, who had been French Conful at Caffa, in his Obfervations fur les Peuples Barbares, qui ont habité les bords du Danube. 97 Euripides in Iphigenia in Taurid. X. CHA P. to reprefent an hiftorical truth, that the Tauri, the original inhabitants of the peninfula, were, in fome degree, reclaimed from their brutal manners, by a gradual intercourfe with the Grecian colonies, which fettled along the maritime coaft. The little kingdom of Bofphorus, whofe capital was fituated on the Straits, through which the Mæotis communicates itself to the Euxine, was compofed of degenerate Greeks, and half civilized barbarians. It fubfifted, as an independent ftate, from the time of the Peloponnefian war 9, was at laft fwallowed up by the ambition of Mithridates, and, with the reft of his dominions, funk under the weight of the Roman arms. From the reign of Auguftus, the kings of Bofphorus were the humble, but not ufelefs, allies of the empire. By presents, by arms, and by a flight fortification drawn acrofs the Ifthmus, they ef fectually guarded against the roving plunderers of Sarmatia, the accefs of a country, which, from its peculiar fituation and convenient harbours, commanded the Euxine fea and Afia Minor 101. As long as the fceptre was poffeffed by a lineal fucceffion of kings, they acquitted themselves of their important charge with vigilance and fuccefs. Domestic factions, and the fears, or private in 99 Strabo, 1. vii. p. 309. allies of Athens. 99 Appian in Mithridat. The first kings of Bosphorus were the 100 It was reduced by the arms of Agrippa. Orofius, vi. 21. Eutropius, vii. 9. The Romans once advanced within three days march of the Tanais. Tacit. Annal. xii. 17. 101 See the Toxaris of Lucian, if we credit the sincerity and the virtues of the Scythian, who relates a great war of his nation against the kings of Bofphorus. tereft, X. val force. tereft, of obfcure ufurpers, who feized on the c HA P. vacant throne, admitted the Goths into the heart of Bofphorus. With the acquifition of a superfluous waste of fertile foil, the conquerors obtained the command of a naval force, fufficient to transport their armies to the coaft of Afia 02. The ships used in the navigation of the Euxine who acwere of a very fingular conftruction. They were quire a naflight flat-bottomed barks framed of timber only, without the leaft mixture of iron, and occafionally covered with a fhelving roof, on the appearance of a tempeft 03. In thefe floating houfes, the Goths carelessly trufted themselves to the mercy of an unknown fea, under the conduct of failors preffed into the fervice, and whofe skill and fidelity were equally fufpicious. But the hopes of plunder had banished every idea of danger, and a natural fearleffnefs of temper fupplied in their minds the more rational confidence, which is the juft refult of knowledge and experience. Warriors of fuch a daring spirit must have often murmured against the cowardice of their guides, who required the strongest affurances of a fettled calm before they would venture to embark; and would fcarcely ever be tempted to lose fight of the land. Such, at least, is the practice of the modern Turks 104; and they are probably not inferior, in the art of navigation, to the ancient inhabitants of Bofphorus. 102 Zofimus, l. i. p. 28. 103 Strabo, 1. xi. Tacit. Hift. iii. 47.-They were called Camara. 104 See a very natural picture of the Euxine navigation, in the xvith letter of Tournefort. СНАР. The fleet of the Goths, leaving the coast of X. Circaffia on the left hand, first appeared before Firft naval Pityus, the utmoft limits of the Roman proexpedition vinces; a city provided with a convenient port, of the Goths. The Goths befiege and take Trebizond. and fortified with a strong wall. Here they met with a refiftance more obftinate than they had reafon to expect from the feeble garrifon of a diftant fortrefs. They were repulsed; and their difappointment feemed to diminish the terror of the Gothic name. As long as Succeffianus, an officer of fuperior rank and merit, defended that frontier, all their efforts were ineffectual; but as foon as he was removed by Valerian to a more honourable but lefs important station, they refumed the attack of Pityus; and, by the deftruction of that city, obliterated the memory of their former difgrace 106. Circling round the eastern extremity of the Euxine fea, the navigation from Pityus to Tre bizond is about three hundred miles 107. The courfe of the Goths carried them in fight of the country of Colchis, fo famous by the expedition of the Argonauts; and they even attempted, though without fuccefs, to pillage a rich temple at the mouth of the river Phafis. Trebizond, celebrated in the retreat of the ten thousand as an ancient colony of Greeks 109 15 Arrian places the frontier garrison at polis, forty four miles to the east of Pityus. derived its wealth Diofcurias, or Sebafto- confifted in his time of only four hundred foot. See the Periplus of the Euxine. 1.6 Zofimus, l. i. p. 30. 17 Arrian (in Periplo Maris Euxin. p. 130.) calls the distance 2610 ftadia. 108 Xenophon. Anabafis, l. iv. p. 348. Edit. Hutchinson. and |