Already in the reign of Caracalla, the Goths had begun to move southwards from their earliest known haunts in south Prussia and Poland,[325] but their advance was for a time checked by that emperor. This was their first attempt at marching in the direction of Rome. A little later, in the reign of Philippus, they seized a great part of the Roman province of Dacia (Hungary), and from this time their attacks, though from time to time repelled, became more frequent and more destructive. Under their two great divisions of Ostro-Goth and Visi-Goth they waged a continual predatory war against Rome, becoming able eventually to wrest from the Romans the whole of Italy, and to capture the haughty city itself. [Sidenote: Their habits.] The character of the Goths has probably been sketched with sufficient accuracy by Tacitus in his famous essay “De Germanis,” as that of a wild, illiterate, brave nation, preserving in their habits and ordinary mode of life their original savage character. They possessed nothing that could be called a city; but dwelt in rude and temporary huts wherever game and water were abundant. “The characteristic,” says he, “of all these nations is the round shield, the short sword, and obedience to their kings.”[326] [Sidenote: Defeat the Emperor Decius, A.D. 257.] Such were the people who, more than any others, caused the disruption of the Roman empire. Devastating the country on all sides, as they advanced through the Ukraine into Thrace, and having captured the city of Philippopolis, and defeated and slain the Emperor Decius, they were for a while checked by an ignominious peace, and by the payment of a considerable sum in money by his successor, Gallus, which only showed the weakness of the empire, and stimulated them to fresh attacks. The province of Dacia, ceded to them by Aurelian, was one of the first steps in advance they secured; for, though often repulsed with great loss, their perseverance was indomitable, while they showed an aptitude for war remarkable among men in other respects so ignorant; their recovery from crushing defeats being often scarcely less glorious than their victories. Thus, when joined with the Vandals in the expedition that ended in the possession of Dacia, they soon made themselves masters of the Black Sea. An enormous army needs an ample fleet; but it would seem that the fearless courage of the Goths made up for want of skill in the construction of their transport vessels. The natives of the coasts of that sea had for centuries made use of very frail boats for its navigation;[327] and there is no reason for supposing that the Goths had better ships than Tacitus describes as on the Euxine in his day. Speaking of a sudden invasion of Pontus, A.D. 69, that historian says: “The barbarians even insolently scoured the sea, in hastily constructed vessels of their own, called ‘cameræ,’ built with narrow sides and broad bottoms, and joined together without fastenings of brass and iron.