of the conquerors, prevented Claudius from completingct in one day-the destruction of the Goths. The war was diffused over the provinces of 7 Maesia, Thrace, and Macedonia, and its opera'tions drawn out into a variety of marches, sur

remnant of that mighty host which had embarked at the mouth of the Niester.

The pestilence which swept away such numbers of the barbarians, at length proved fatal to their conqueror. After a short but glorious reign of two years, Claudius expired at Sirmium, amidsi: the tears and 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 quaIified- 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 celebrated 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 Claudius. The voice of flattery was soon taught to repeat, that the Gods, who so hastily had snatched Claudius from the earth, rewarded his meritand piety by the perpetual establishment of the empire in his family U.