404

CHAP.

X.

THE DECLINE AND PALL

town of Massia, called Forum Terebronii,* wasthe scene of the battle. The Gothic army wasdrawn up in three lines, and, either from choiceor accident, the front of the third line was co-vered by a morass. In the beginning of theaction, the son of Decius, a youth of the fairesthopes, and already associated to the honours ofthe purple, was slain by an arrow, in the sightof his afflicted father; who, summoning all hisfortitude, admonished the dismayed troops, thatthe loss of a single soldier was of little import-ance to the republic/ The conflict was ter-rible ; it was the combat of despair against griefand rage. The first line of the Goths at lengthgave way in disorder; the second, advancing tosustain it, shared its fate; and the third onlyremained entire, prepared to dispute the passageof the morass, which was imprudently attemptedby the presumption of the enemy. “ Here the“ fortune of the day turned, and all things be-“ came adverse to the Romans : the place deep“ with ooze, sinking under those who stood,“ slippery to such as advanced ; their armour“ heavy, the waters deep; nor could they wield,“ in that uneasy situation, their weighty jave-“ lins. The barbarians, on the contrary, were“ enured to encounters in the bogs, their per-“ sons tall, their spears long, such as could

* Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, tom. iii, p. 598. As Zosimus and some of his followers mistake the Danube for the Tanais, they placethe field of battle in the plains of Scythia.

r Aurelius Victor allows two distinct actions for the deaths of the twoDeciij but I have preferred the account of Jornandes.