Brilliantly arose the sun on the next morning, casting its first beams
over the warlike movement in the Gothic camp.
As the King issued from his dwelling in the marketplace of Taginae,
Adalgoth, Thorismuth, and Phaza hurried to meet him with his milk-white
charger, sent, together with a magnificent suit of armour, by Valeria,
his bride.
His arms rang as the King swung himself into the saddle.
His grooms led up two other horses in reserve, one of which was Pluto,
the Prefect's restless and fiery charger.
From Totila's shoulders flowed his long white mantle, held together at
the neck by a broad and heavy clasp set with precious stones. His
cuirass was of shining silver, richly inlaid with gold, the figure of a
flying swan upon the breast. The edges of the cuirass at the neck,
arms, and belt, were bound with red silk. Beneath it showed the coat of
white silk, reaching over the thighs.
Broad gold bracelets and silvered gauntlets protected his arms and
hands; greaves his knees and the top of his feet.
His narrow and gracefully-shaped shield was divided into three fields
of silver, gold, and crimson. On the golden field the figure of the
flying swan was wrought in white enamel.
The caparison and reins of his horse were set with silver and
embroidered with red silk.
In his right hand the King held a spear, to the point of which Valeria
had fastened four streamers of red and white riband; merrily they
fluttered in the morning breeze.
Thus brilliantly arrayed, the King rode through the streets of Taginae
at the head of his horsemen. Earl Thorismuth, Phaza, and Duke Adalgoth,
and also Julius, rode in his train. Julius carried no weapons, but he
bore a shield forged by Teja.
Never had Totila shone in such beauty! The people greeted him upon his
way with shouts of joy. At the northern gate of Taginae, Aligern came
riding towards him.
"I thought that thy place was with the right wing," said the King.
"What brings thee here?"
"My cousin Teja has ordered me to remain at thy side and guard thy
life."
"My Teja is untiring in his care of me!" cried the King.
Aligern joined the escort.
Earl Thorismuth now undertook the command of the footmen who were
hidden in the houses of Taginae.
Outside the gate, the King rode to the front of his not very numerous
troop of horsemen, and disclosed his plan to the captains.
"I entrust to you, comrades, the most difficult of all tasks--flight!
But the flight will be only seeming. What is true, is your courage and
the destruction of the foe."
And now the small troop rode forward past the place of ambush on the
Flaminian Way, the King convincing himself that the Persian horsemen
were in readiness upon both the wooded heights. The ambush on the right
was commanded by Furius himself, that on the left by his chief,
Isdigerd.
Totila now rode into Caprae through the southern gate, and admonished
the bowmen under Earl Wisand not to issue from the houses in which they
were concealed, until the Persian horsemen had fallen upon the
Longobardians from their ambush, but then immediately to sally out of
the southern gate, while at the same time the spear-bearers would
advance against the enemy from the northern gate of Taginae.
"Thus the Longobardians and such of Narses' foot who have pressed
forward between Caprae and Taginae will be surrounded on all sides and
crushed. I and Thorismuth attack in front, Furius and Isdigerd on both
flanks, and Wisand in the rear. They will be lost!"
"Does he not look like the sun-god?" Adalgoth delightedly asked Julius.
"Peace! Make no idol of sun or man! Besides, to-day is the solstice!"
answered Julius.
At length the King reached the northern gate of Caprae, left it open
behind him, and galloped out with his little troop upon the level land
between Caprae and Helvillum.
Here Narses had placed his centre; foremost Alboin with his
Longobardians. Behind these, at a considerable distance, stood Narses
in his litter, surrounded by Cethegus, Liberius, Auzalas, and other
leaders.
Narses had had a bad night, disturbed by slight fits. He was very weak,
and could not stand up for any length of time in his low and open
litter.
He had strictly admonished Alboin not to advance to the attack without
special orders.
King Totila gave a sign to his horsemen, and at a trot the thin line
advanced towards the far superior ranks of the Longobardians.
"They surely will not shame us by attacking us with only a few lances?"
cried Alboin.
But an attack did not seem to be the present object of the King.
He had ridden far in advance of his men, who had suddenly halted, and
now attracted all eyes by his feats of horsemanship.
The spectacle which he afforded was so wonderful in the eyes of the
Byzantines, that the witnesses related it in astonishment to Procopius,
who, himself amazed, has remitted it to us.
"On this day," he writes, "King Totila evidently wished to show his
enemies what manner of man he was. His weapons and his horse shone with
gold. So many shining red streamers fluttered from the point of his
spear that this ornament alone announced the King from a distance.
Thus, mounted on a splendid charger, in the space between the two
armies, did he indulge in a skilful exercise of arms. Now he rode in a
circle; now he caracoled in semicircles to the right and left; now he
hurled his spear into the air, as he rode off at full gallop, and
caught it by the middle of the shaft as it fell quivering, first with
his right hand, and then with his left; and thus he showed to the
wondering troops his feats of horsemanship."
After the battle, however, the Byzantines learned the true reason of
this merry sport.
For a time Alboin looked on quietly.
Then he said to a Longobardian chief who stood near him:
"That fellow rides to the battle-field adorned like a bridegroom! What
costly armour! We do not see the like at home, Gisulf. And not to dare
to attack! Does Narses again sleep?"