e same inconstancy that had created him. The speedy
completion of the prophecy inspired Philip with a just esteem for so
able a counsellor; and Decius appeared to him the only person capable
of restoring peace and discipline to an army whose tumultuous spirit did
not immediately subside after the murder of Marinus. Decius, who long
resisted his own nomination, seems to have insinuated the danger of
presenting a leader of merit to the angry and apprehensive minds of
the soldiers; and his prediction was again confirmed by the event. The
legions of Maesia forced their judge to become their accomplice. They
left him only the alternative of death or the purple. His subsequent
conduct, after that decisive measure, was unavoidable. He conducted, or
followed, his army to the confines of Italy, whither Philip, collecting
all his force to repel the formidable competitor whom he had raised up,
advanced to meet him. The Imperial troops were superior in number;
but the rebels formed an army of veterans, commanded by an able and
experienced leader. Philip was either killed in the battle, or put to
death a few days afterwards at Verona. His son and associate in the
empire was massacred at Rome by the Praetorian guards; and the victorious
Decius, with more favorable circumstances than the ambition of that
age can usually plead, was universally acknowledged by the senate
and provinces. It is reported, that, immediately after his reluctant
acceptance of the title of Augustus, he had assured Philip, by a private
message, of his innocence and loyalty, solemnly protesting, that, on his
arrival on Italy, he would resign the Imperial ornaments, and return to
the condition of an obedient subject. His professions might be sincere;
but in the situation where fortune had placed him, it was scarcely
possible that he could either forgive or be forgiven.

The emperor Decius had employed a few months in the works of peace and
the administration of justice, when he was summoned to the banks of
the Danube by the invasion of the Goths. This is the first considerable
occasion in which history mentions that great people, who afterwards
broke the Roman power, sacked the Capitol, and reigned in Gaul, Spain,
and Italy. So memorable was the part which they acted in the subversion
of the Western empire, that the name of Goths is frequently but
improperly used as a general appellation of rude and warlike barbarism.

In the beginning of the sixth century, and af