With his dying breath he is said to have
recommended Claudius to the favor of the senate; and at all events
Claudius it was who succeeded. Scarcely was the new emperor installed,
before he was summoned to a trial not only arduous in itself, but terrific
by the very name of the enemy. The Goths of the Ukraine, in a new armament
of six thousand vessels, had again descended by the Bosphorus into the
south, and had sat down before Thessalonica, the capitol of Macedonia.
Claudius marched against them with the determination to vindicate the
Roman name and honor: "Know," said he, writing to the senate, "that
320,000 Goths have set foot upon the Roman soil. Should I conquer them,
your gratitude will be my reward. Should I fall, do not forget who it is
that I have succeeded; and that the republic is exhausted." No sooner did
the Goths hear of his approach, than, with transports of ferocious joy,
they gave up the siege, and hurried to annihilate the last pillar of the
empire. The mighty battle which ensued, neither party seeking to evade it,
took place at Naissus. At one time the legions were giving way, when
suddenly, by some happy manoeuvre of the emperor, a Roman corps found its
way to the rear of the enemy.
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