art and discipline prevailed, after an obstinate contest, over
the efforts of irregular valor. The broken army of the Goths
abandoned the field of battle, the wasted province, and the
passage of the Danube: and although the eldest of the sons of
Constantine was permitted to supply the place of his father, the
merit of the victory, which diffused universal joy, was ascribed
to the auspicious counsels of the emperor himself.

[Footnote *: Gibbon states, that Constantine was defeated by the
Goths in a first battle. No ancient author mentions such an
event. It is, no doubt, a mistake in Gibbon. St Martin, note to
Le Beau. i. 324. - M.]
He contributed at least to improve this advantage, by his
negotiations with the free and warlike people of Chersonesus, ^44
whose capital, situate on the western coast of the Tauric or
Crimaean peninsula, still retained some vestiges of a Grecian
colony, and was governed by a perpetual magistrate, assisted by a
council of senators, emphatically styled the Fathers of the City.

The Chersonites were animated against the Goths, by the memory of
the wars, which, in the preceding century, they had maintained
with unequal forces against the invaders of their country. They
were connected with the Romans by the mutual benefits of
commerce; as they were supplied from the provinces of Asia with
corn and manufactures, which they purchased with their only
productions, salt, wax, and hides. Obedient to the requisition
of Constantine, they prepared, under the conduct of their
magistrate Diogenes, a considerable army, of which the principal
strength consisted in cross-bows and military chariots. The
speedy march and intrepid attack of the Chersonites, by diverting