The defence of the Danubian frontier against the scarcely remittent barbarian raids was very inefficiently maintained, at least during the latter years of Justinian's reign. Hence the safety of life and property in Thrace and Illyricum was in continual jeopardy. In 549 the Slavs were first emboldened to cross the river, when a horde of three thousand rushed headlong against the Roman forces, whom they utterly routed, though considerably more numerous than themselves. They then pursued their course, devastating the country mercilessly, until they arrived at Toperus, a town of sixty thousand inhabitants, and the most important seaport of Thrace. By a ruse they enticed the garrison to make a sally, and, having massacred them, soon captured the town by means of scaling ladders. The whole adult male population, amounting to fifteen thousand, was slaughtered, and the women and children were reduced to servitude. The Slavs then returned to their own abodes, leaving their track littered with the unburied corpses of their victims, whom it was their custom to kill by transfixing them to the ground by means of stakes driven through their bodies.[1]
- [Footnote: but all asleep. One of the ascending party slipped and made a racket
with his shield, which roused the guards, who snatched up torches and gazed in every direction. But the Romans stood stock still, and escaped notice in the dark. The sentinels returned to their slumbers, and were at once attacked and slain. The Romans then rioted through the town, set fire to the houses, which were of wood; massacred women who scurried around; even a lady of rank, jewelled and elegantly dressed, who stepped out with a torch, was received with lance thrusts in the abdomen; children were flung into the air and transfixed by being caught on the points of pikes; until all seemed to be exterminated. The Byzantines then rested carelessly, as assured of safety, but the enemy collected from another quarter and, observing their fewness, killed nearly all by an unforseen attack; Agathias, iv, 15 et seq.]*
- ↑ Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iii, 38. It was about this time, after the
