torious Goths.

The favorable instant was improved by the activity of Claudius. He
revived the courage of his troops, restored their ranks, and pressed the
barbarians on every side. Fifty thousand men are reported to have been
slain in the battle of Naissus. Several large bodies of barbarians,
covering their retreat with a movable fortification of wagons, retired,
or rather escaped, from the field of slaughter.

II. We may presume that some insurmountable difficulty, the fatigue,
perhaps, or the disobedience, of the conquerors, prevented Claudius from
completing in one day the destruction of the Goths. The war was diffused
over the province of Maesia, Thrace, and Macedonia, and its operations
drawn out into a variety of marches, surprises, and tumultuary
engagements, as well by sea as by land. When the Romans suffered any
loss, it was commonly occasioned by their own cowardice or rashness; but
the superior talents of the emperor, his perfect knowledge of the
country, and his judicious choice of measures as well as officers,
assured on most occasions the success of his arms. The immense booty,
the fruit of so many victories, consisted for the greater part of cattle
and slaves. A select body of the Gothic youth was received among the
Imperial troops; the remainder was sold into servitude; and so
considerable was the number of female captives, that every soldier
obtained to his share two or three women. A circumstance from which we
may conclude, that the invaders entertained some designs of settlement
as well as of plunder; since even in a naval expedition, they were
accompanied by their families.

III. The loss of their fleet, which was either taken or sunk, had
intercepted the retreat of the Goths. A vast circle of Roman posts,
distributed with skill, supported with firmness, and gradually closing
towards a common centre, forced the barbarians into the most
inaccessible parts of Mount Haemus, where they found a safe refuge, but
a very scanty subsistence. During the course of a rigorous winter in
which they were besieged by the emperor's troops, famine and pestilence,
desertion and the sword, continually diminished the imprisoned
multitude. On the return of spring, nothing appeared in arms except a
hardy and desperate band, the remnant of that mighty host which had
embarked at the mouth of the Niester.

[Footnote 13: Hist. August. in Claud. Aurelian. et Prob. Zosimus, l.
i. p. 38-42. Zonaras, l. xii. p. 638. Aurel. Vi