284 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, days afterwards at Verona. His son and associate in • the empire was massacred at Rome by the pretorian guards ; and *the victorious Decius, with more favour- able circumstances than the ambition of that age can usually plead, was universally acknowledged by the senate and provinces. It is reported that, immediately after his reluctant acceptance of the title of Augustus, he had assured Philip, by a private message, of his in- nocence and loyalty, solemnly protesting, that on his arrival in Italy he would resign the imperial ornaments, and return to the condition of an obedient subject. His professions might be sincere. But in the situation where fortune had placed him, it was scarcely possible that he could either forgive or be forgiven^. He marches The emperor Decius had employed a few months in GoThs^. ^ ^^^ works of peace and the administration of justice, A.D. 250. when he was summoned to the banks of the Danube by the invasion of the Goths. This is the first consi- derable occasion in which history mentions that great people, who afterwards broke the Roman power, sacked the capitol, and reigned in Gaul, Spain, and Italy. So memorable was the part which they acted in the subversion of the western empire, that the name of Goths is frequently but improperly used as a general appellation of rude and warhke barbarism. Origin of In the beginning of the sixth century, and after the flTnPscan- conquest of Italy, the Goths, in possession of present dinavia. greatness, very naturally indulged themselves in the prospect of past and of future glory. They wished to preserve the memory of their ancestors, and to transmit to posterity their own achievements. The principal minister of the court of Ravenna, the learned Cassio- dorus, gratified the inclination of the conquerors in a Gothic history, which consisted of twelve books, now reduced to the imperfect abridgement of Jornandes ^. These writers passed with the most artful conciseness c Zosimus, 1. i. p. 20 ; Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 624. edit. Louvre. d See the prefaces of Cassiodorus and Jornandes : it is surprising that the latter should be omitted in the excellent edition published by Grotius, of the Gothic writers.
