e field of battle, or
in the cruel abuse of victory. He painted in the most lively colors the
exhausted state of the treasury, the desolation of the provinces,
the disgrace of the Roman name, and the insolent triumph of rapacious
barbarians. It was against those barbarians, he declared, that he
intended to point the first effort of their arms. Tetricus might reign
for a while over the West, and even Zenobia might preserve the dominion
of the East. [10] These usurpers were his personal adversaries; nor
could he think of indulging any private resentment till he had saved
an empire, whose impending ruin would, unless it was timely prevented,
crush both the army and the people.

[Footnote 10: Zonaras on this occasion mentions Posthumus but the
registers of the senate (Hist. August. p. 203) prove that Tetricus was
already emperor of the western provinces.]

The various nations of Germany and Sarmatia, who fought under the Gothic
standard, had already collected an armament more formidable than any
which had yet issued from the Euxine. On the banks of the Niester,
one of the great rivers that discharge themselves into that sea, they
constructed a fleet of two thousand, or even of six thousand vessels;
[11] numbers which, however incredible they may seem, would have been
insufficient to transport their pretended army of three hundred and
twenty thousand barbarians. Whatever might be the real strength of the
Goths, the vigor and success of the expedition were not adequate to the
greatness of the preparations. In their passage through the Bosphorus,
the unskilful pilots were overpowered by the violence of the current;
and while the multitude of their ships were crowded in a narrow
channel, many were dashed against each other, or against the shore. The
barbarians made several descents on the coasts both of Europe and Asia;
but the open country was already plundered, and they were repulsed with
shame and loss from the fortified cities which they assaulted. A spirit
of discouragement and division arose in the fleet, and some of their
chiefs sailed away towards the islands of Crete and Cyprus; but the main
body, pursuing a more steady course, anchored at length near the foot of
Mount Athos, and assaulted the city of Thessalonica, the wealthy capital
of all the Macedonian provinces. Their attacks, in which they displayed
a fierce but artless bravery, were soon interrupted by the rapid
approach of Claudius, hastening to a scene of act