“ During his reign the empire was ravaged by a fearful pestilence; and the chief cities of Greece were sacked by the Goths, who descended on the Greek coast with a fleet of five hundred. His generals rebelled against him in almost every province of the empire, and this period of Roman history came to be called the reign of the Thirty Tyrants. Nevertheless, these usurpers probably saved the empire at the time, by maintaining order and repelling the attacks of the barbarians. ”