nce Rome
was founded, was put to death by the praetorian guards the following year,
and the dignity of Augustus was conferred on Decius.

(M1114) His reign is memorable for a savage persecution of the Christians,
and the victories of the Goths, who, in the preceding reign, had
penetrated to Dacia, and conquered Moesia. The next twenty years were
mournful and disgraceful. The emperor marched against these barbarians in
person, but was defeated by them in Thrace, and lost his life at a place
called Abrutum, A.D. 251. The Goths continued their ravages along the
coasts of the Euxine, and made themselves masters of the Crimea. They then
sailed, with a large fleet, to the northern parts of the Euxine, took
Pityus and Trapezus, attacked the wealthy cities of the Thracian
Bosphorus, conquered Chalcedon, Nicomedia, and Nice, and retreated laden
with spoil. The next year, with five hundred boats, they pursued their
destructive navigation, destroyed Cyzicus, crossed the AEgean, landed at
Athens, plundered Thebes, Argos, Corinth and Sparta, advanced to the
coasts of Epirus, and devastated the whole Illyrian peninsula. In their
ravages they destroyed the famous temple of Ephesus, and, wearied with
plunder, returned through Moesia to their own settlements beyond the
Danube.

(M1115) During this raid, the son of Decius, Hostilianus, reigned in
conjunction with Gallus, one of the generals of Decius, but were put to
death by AEmilianus, governor of Pannonia and Moesia, who had succeeded in
gaining a victory over the new and terrible enemy. He was in turn
overthrown by Valerianus--a nobleman of great distinction, who signalized
himself by considerable military ability, and who associated with himself
in the empire his son, Gallienus, A.D. 253, whose frivolities were an
offset to the virtues of his father. Valerian was taken prisoner by Sapor,
king of Persia, and shortly after died, and the Roman world relapsed under
the sway of his son, and at a time of great calamity, memorable for the
successes of the Goths, and the direst pestilence which had ever visited
the empire. Gallienus--not without accomplishments, but utterly unfit to
govern an empire in the stormy times which witnessed the fierce irruptions
of the Goths--was slain by a conspiracy of his officers, A.D. 268.

(M1116) The empire was now threatened by barbarians, and wasted by
pestilence, and distracted by rebellions and riots. It was on the verge of
ruin; but the ruin was ave