rds and
fruitful fields, between the rapid Marsyas and the winding Maeander,
[23] were consumed with fire; the decayed walls of the cities crumbled
into dust, at the first stroke of an enemy; the trembling inhabitants
escaped from a bloody massacre to the shores of the Hellespont; and
a considerable part of Asia Minor was desolated by the rebellion of
Tribigild. His rapid progress was checked by the resistance of the
peasants of Pamphylia; and the Ostrogoths, attacked in a narrow pass,
between the city of Selgae, [24] a deep morass, and the craggy cliffs of
Mount Taurus, were defeated with the loss of their bravest troops. But
the spirit of their chief was not daunted by misfortune; and his army
was continually recruited by swarms of Barbarians and outlaws, who
were desirous of exercising the profession of robbery, under the more
honorable names of war and conquest. The rumors of the success of
Tribigild might for some time be suppressed by fear, or disguised by
flattery; yet they gradually alarmed both the court and the capital.
Every misfortune was exaggerated in dark and doubtful hints; and the
future designs of the rebels became the subject of anxious conjecture.
Whenever Tribigild advanced into the inland country, the Romans were
inclined to suppose that he meditated the passage of Mount Taurus, and
the invasion of Syria. If he descended towards the sea, they imputed,
and perhaps suggested, to the Gothic chief, the more dangerous project
of arming a fleet in the harbors of Ionia, and of extending his
depredations along the maritime coast, from the mouth of the Nile to
the port of Constantinople. The approach of danger, and the obstinacy of
Tribigild, who refused all terms of accommodation, compelled Eutropius
to summon a council of war. [25] After claiming for himself the
privilege of a veteran soldier, the eunuch intrusted the guard of Thrace
and the Hellespont to Gainas the Goth, and the command of the
Asiatic army to his favorite, Leo; two generals, who differently, but
effectually, promoted the cause of the rebels. Leo, [26] who, from the
bulk of his body, and the dulness of his mind, was surnamed the Ajax of
the East, had deserted his original trade of a woolcomber, to exercise,
with much less skill and success, the military profession; and his
uncertain operations were capriciously framed and executed, with
an ignorance of real difficulties, and a timorous neglect of every
favorable opportunity. The rashness o