ded
the walls in the silence of the night, and entered the defenceless
city sword in hand. A general massacre of the people ensued, whilst the
affrighted soldiers escaped through the opposite gates of the town. The
most holy temples, and the most splendid edifices, were involved in a
common destruction. The booty that fell into the hands of the Goths
was immense: the wealth of the adjacent countries had been deposited in
Trebizond, as in a secure place of refuge. The number of captives was
incredible, as the victorious barbarians ranged without opposition
through the extensive province of Pontus. The rich spoils of Trebizond
filled a great fleet of ships that had been found in the port. The
robust youth of the sea-coast were chained to the oar; and the Goths,
satisfied with the success of their first naval expedition, returned in
triumph to their new establishment in the kingdom of Bosphorus.

The second expedition of the Goths was undertaken with greater powers of
men and ships; but they steered a different course, and, disdaining the
exhausted provinces of Pontus, followed the western coast of the Euxine,
passed before the wide mouths of the Borysthenes, the Niester, and the
Danube, and increasing their fleet by the capture of a great number
of fishing barks, they approached the narrow outlet through which the
Euxine Sea pours its waters into the Mediterranean, and divides the
continents of Europe and Asia. The garrison of Chalcedon was encamped
near the temple of Jupiter Urius, on a promontory that commanded the
entrance of the Strait; and so inconsiderable were the dreaded invasions
of the barbarians that this body of troops surpassed in number the
Gothic army. But it was in numbers alone that they surpassed it. They
deserted with precipitation their advantageous post, and abandoned the
town of Chalcedon, most plentifully stored with arms and money, to the
discretion of the conquerors. Whilst they hesitated whether they
should prefer the sea or land Europe or Asia, for the scene of their
hostilities, a perfidious fugitive pointed out Nicomedia, * once the
capital of the kings of Bithynia, as a rich and easy conquest. He
guided the march which was only sixty miles from the camp of Chalcedon,
directed the resistless attack, and partook of the booty; for the Goths
had learned sufficient policy to reward the traitor whom they detested.
Nice, Prusa, Apamaea, Cius, cities that had sometimes rivalled, or
imitated, the sple