dea of danger,
and a natural fearlessness of temper supplied in their minds the
more rational confidence, which is the just result of knowledge and
experience. Warriors of such a daring spirit must have often murmured
against the cowardice of their guides, who required the strongest
assurances of a settled calm before they would venture to embark; and
would scarcely ever be tempted to lose sight of the land. Such, at
least, is the practice of the modern Turks; and they are probably
not inferior, in the art of navigation, to the ancient inhabitants of
Bosphorus.

The fleet of the Goths, leaving the coast of Circassia on the left hand,
first appeared before Pityus, the utmost limits of the Roman provinces;
a city provided with a convenient port, and fortified with a strong
wall. Here they met with a resistance more obstinate than they had
reason to expect from the feeble garrison of a distant fortress. They
were repulsed; and their disappointment seemed to diminish the terror
of the Gothic name. As long as Successianus, an officer of superior rank
and merit, defended that frontier, all their efforts were ineffectual;
but as soon as he was removed by Valerian to a more honorable but
less important station, they resumed the attack of Pityus; and by
the destruction of that city, obliterated the memory of their former
disgrace.

Circling round the eastern extremity of the Euxine Sea, the navigation
from Pityus to Trebizond is about three hundred miles. The course of the
Goths carried them in sight of the country of Colchis, so famous by the
expedition of the Argonauts; and they even attempted, though without
success, to pillage a rich temple at the mouth of the River Phasis.
Trebizond, celebrated in the retreat of the ten thousand as an ancient
colony of Greeks, derived its wealth and splendor from the magnificence
of the emperor Hadrian, who had constructed an artificial port on a
coast left destitute by nature of secure harbors. The city was large
and populous; a double enclosure of walls seemed to defy the fury of the
Goths, and the usual garrison had been strengthened by a reenforcement
of ten thousand men. But there are not any advantages capable of
supplying the absence of discipline and vigilance. The numerous garrison
of Trebizond, dissolved in riot and luxury, disdained to guard their
impregnable fortifications. The Goths soon discovered the supine
negligence of the besieged, erected a lofty pile of fascines, ascen