OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. ^7 ooze, sinking under those who stood, shppery to such CHAP, as advanced ; their armour heavy, the waters deep ; ^' nor could thfiy wield in that uneasy situation their weighty javelins. The barbarians, on the contrary, were enured to encounters in the bogs, their persons tall, their spears long, such as could wound at a dis- tance^." In this morass the Roman army, after an ineffectual struggle, was irrecoverably lost; nor could the body of the emperor ever be found ^. Such was the fate of Decius, in the fiftieth year of his age ; an accomplished prince, active in war, and affable in peace ^; who, together with his son, has deserved to be compared, both in life and death, with the brightest examples of ancient virtue ^ This fatal blow humbled, for a very little time, the Election of insolence of the legions. They appear to have pa- a^d"251 tiently expected, and submissively obeyed the decree December. of the senate which regulated the succession to the throne. From a just regard for the memory of De- cius, the imperial title was conferred on Hostilianus, his only surviving son ; but an equal rank, with more effectual power, was granted to Gallus, whose expe- rience and ability seemed equal to the great trust of guardian to the young prince and the distressed em- pire ^, The first care of the new emperor was to de- liver the Illyrian provinces from the intolerable weight of the victorious Goths. He consented to leave in A. D. 252. their hands the rich fruits of their invasion, an immense booty, and, what was still more disgraceful, a great number of prisoners of the highest merit and quality. He plentifully supphed their camp with every conve- Retreat of niency that could assuage their angry spirits, or facili- *^® ^0^^^' ^ I have ventured to copy from Tacitus (Annal. i. 64.) the picture of a similar engagement between a Roman army and a German tribe. a Jornaudes, c. 18 j Zosimus, 1. i. p. 22 j Zonaras, 1. xii. p. 627 j Aure- lius Victor. ^
- > The Decii were killed before the end of the year 251, since the new
princes took possession of the consulship on the ensuing calends of January. <^ Hist. August, p. 223, gives them a very honourable place among the small number of good emperors who reigned between Augustus and Diocletian. '• Haec ubi patres comperere decernunt. Victor in Caesaribus.
