to any terms of
accommodation. The high-spirited barbarians preferred death to slavery.
An obscure town of Maesia, called Forum Terebronii, was the scene of the
battle. The Gothic army was drawn up in three lines, and either from
choice or accident, the front of the third line was covered by a morass.
In the beginning of the action, the son of Decius, a youth of the
fairest hopes, and already associated to the honors of the purple, was
slain by an arrow, in the sight of his afflicted father; who, summoning
all his fortitude, admonished the dismayed troops, that the loss of a
single soldier was of little importance to the republic. The conflict
was terrible; it was the combat of despair against grief and rage. The
first line of the Goths at length gave way in disorder; the second,
advancing to sustain it, shared its fate; and the third only remained
entire, prepared to dispute the passage of the morass, which was
imprudently attempted by the presumption of the enemy. "Here the fortune
of the day turned, and all things became adverse to the Romans; the
place deep with ooze, 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." In this morass
the Roman army, after an ineffectual struggle, was irrecoverably lost;
nor could the body of the emperor ever be found. Such was the fate of
Decius, in the fiftieth year of his age; an accomplished prince, active
in war and affable in peace; who, together with his son, has deserved
to be compared, both in life and death, with the brightest examples of
ancient virtue.

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. 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 i