oze, sinking under those who stood, slippery to
such as advanced; their armor heavy, the waters deep; nor could they
wield, in that uneasy situation, their weighty javelins. The barbarians,
on the contrary, were inured to encounter in the bogs, their persons
tall, their spears long, such as could wound at a distance." [46] In this
morass the Roman army, after an ineffectual struggle, was irrecoverably
lost; nor could the body of the emperor ever be found. [47] Such was the
fate of Decius, in the fiftieth year of his age; an accomplished prince,
active in war and affable in peace; [48] who, together with his son,
has deserved to be compared, both in life and death, with the brightest
examples of ancient virtue. [49]

[Footnote 44: Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, tom. iii. p. 598. As
Zosimus and some of his followers mistake the Danube for the Tanais,
they place the field of battle in the plains of Scythia.]

[Footnote 45: Aurelius Victor allows two distinct actions for the
deaths of the two Decii; but I have preferred the account of Jornandes.]

[Footnote 46: I have ventured to copy from Tacitus (Annal. i. 64)
the picture of a similar engagement between a Roman army and a German
tribe.]

[Footnote 47: Jornandes, c. 18. Zosimus, l. i. p. 22, [c. 23.]
Zonaras, l. xii. p. 627. Aurelius Victor.]

[Footnote 48: The Decii were killed before the end of the year two
hundred and fifty-one, since the new princes took possession of the
consulship on the ensuing calends of January.]

[Footnote 49: Hist. August. p. 223, gives them a very honorable place
among the small number of good emperors who reigned between Augustus and
Diocletian.]

This fatal blow humbled, for a very little time, she insolence of the
legions. They appeared to have patiently expected, and submissively
obeyed, the decree of the senate which regulated the succession to the
throne. From a just regard for the memory of Decius, the Imperial title
was conferred on Hostilianus, his only surviving son; but an equal rank,
with more effectual power, was granted to Gallus, whose experience and
ability seemed equal to the great trust of guardian to the young prince
and the distressed empire. [50] The first care of the new emperor was
to deliver the Illyrian provinces from the intolerable weight of the
victorious Goths. He consented to leave in their hands the rich
fruits of their invasion, an immense booty, and what was still more
disgraceful, a great number of