OF THE HOMAN EMPIRE.
427
only sixty miles from the camp of Chalcedon, * CI ^ P -
directed the resistless attack, and partook of__„„
the booty; for the Goths had learned sufficientpolicy to reward the traitor, whom they detest-ed. Nice, Prusa, Apsemaea, Cius , cities thathad sometimes rivalled, or imitated, the splen-dour of Nicomedia, were involved in the samecalamity, which, in a few weeks, raged with-out control through the whole province ofBithynia . Three hundred years of peace, en-joyed by the soft inhabitants of Asia , had abo-lished the exercise of arms, and removed the ap-prehension of danger. The ancient walls weresuffered to moulder away, and all the revenueof the most opulent cities was reserved for theconstruction of baths, temples, and theatres."
When the city of Cyzicus withstood the ut- Retreat ofmost effort of Mithridates , 1 it was distinguish- theGoth *'ed by wise laws, a naval power of two hundredgalleys, and three arsenals, of arms, of militaryengines, and of corn/ It was still the seat ofwealth and luxury; but of its ancient strengthnothing remained except the situation, in a littleisland of the Propontis , connected with the con-tinent of Asia only by two bridges. From therecent sack of Prusa, the Goths advanced with-in eighteen miles 2 of the city, which they had
* Itiner Hierosolym, p. 572. Wesseling.
31 He besieged the place with 400 galleys, 150,000 foot, and a numer-ous cavalry. See Plutarch in Lucnl. Appian in Mithridat. Cicero pro Lege Manilla, c. 8.
y Strab. 1. xii, p. 573.
1 Pocock’s description of the East, 1. ii, c. 23, 24.