344 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, plunder; since even in a naval expedition they were • . accompanied by their families. IIL The loss of their fleet, which was either taken or sunk, had intercepted the retreat of the Goths. A vast circle of Roman posts, distributed with skill, supported with firmness, and gradually closing towards a common centre, forced the barbarians into the most inaccessible parts of mount Htemus, where they found a safe refuge, but a very scanty subsistence. During the course of a rigorous winter, in which they were besieged by the emperor's troops, famine and pestilence, desertion and the sword, A.D. 270, continually diminished the imprisoned multitude. On the return of spring, nothing appeared in arms except a hardy and desperate band, the remnant of that mighty host which had embarked at the mouth of the Neister. March. The pestilence which swept away such numbers of Death of ^^le barbarians, at length proved fatal to their con- the em- ' i . peror, who qucror. After a short but glorious reign of two years, Aurdian"'^'^ Claudius expired at Sirmium, amidst the tears and for his sue- acclamations of his subjects. In his last illness he convened the principal officers of the state and army, and in their presence recommended Aurelian, one of his generals, as the most deserving of the throne, and the best qualified to execute the great design which he himself had been permitted only to undertake. The virtues of Claudius, his valour, affability'*, justice, and temperance, his love of fame and of his country, place him in that short list of emperors who added lustre to the Roman purple. Those virtues, however, were ce- lebrated with peculiar zeal and complacency by the courtly writers of the age of Constantine, who was the great grandson of Crispus, the elder brother of Clau- dius. The voice of flattery was soon taught to repeat, that the gods, who so hastily had snatched Claudius from the earth, rewarded his merit and piety by the perpetual establishment of the empire in his family p.
- • According to Zonaras, (1. xii. p. 638.) Claudius, before his death, in-
vested him with the purple ; but this singular fact is rather contradicted than confirmed by other writers. P See the life of Claudius by Pollio, and the orations of Mamertinus, Eu-
