Belisarius besieged Naples. That city, admirably situated, was
defended by good ramparts and a numerous garrison. Its inhabitants
had resolved to perish rather than surrender, and for twenty days
all the assaults of the Roman general were in vain. He was about to
abandon the enterprise, when a happy chance offered him the success
he had ceased to hope for. An Isaurian soldier was curious to see the
structure of an aqueduct which Belisarius had caused to be cut off at
a considerable distance from the city, and there found a rock pierced
with a channel large enough to allow water to flow through it, but
not sufficiently wide to enable a man to pass. He thought that by
enlarging this channel it would be possible to gain entrance into the
city, and hastened to inform his general of the discovery. Belisarius
secretly charged some Isaurians with the task, which they performed
in a few hours, making a passage for an armed man. Belisarius, with
his usual humanity, anxious to save life, had an interview with one
of the principal citizens, and in vain endeavoured to persuade him to
escape the cruelty of the soldiery by a surrender. Reduced to employ
force, the Roman general selected that evening a body of four hundred
men, completely armed, and as soon as it was dark led them, each being
provided with a lantern, towards the aqueduct. They were preceded by
two trumpets, which were to be sounded as soon as they were in the
place. Belisarius ordered the ladders to be ready for an escalade at
the same time, all the troops being under arms. When the detachment
had entered the aqueduct, the greater part of them were seized with
a panic, and retraced their steps, in spite of the efforts of their
conductors to urge them on. Belisarius had them replaced by two hundred
of the bravest men of his army, when the others, ashamed of their
cowardice, followed close upon their heels. The aqueduct, covered by a
brick vault, penetrated far into the city; and the soldiers, without
knowing it, were already beneath the streets of Naples, when they
arrived at the mouth of the channel, in a basin, whose sides were
high and impracticable to armed men. Their embarrassment was extreme;
more continued coming, and there was not sufficient room for them in
so small a place. One of the soldiers, more active and bold than the
rest, took off his arms, climbed to the top, and found himself in
the miserable ruins of an old building, inhabited by an old woman:
he threatened to kill her if she opened her mouth. He then threw a
cord down, the end of which he fastened to an olive-tree, and by this
species of ladder the band of soldiers gained the top of the basin two
hours before day. They advanced towards the wall on the northern side,
surprised the guards of two towers, and put them to the sword. Masters
of this part of the wall, they gave the signal agreed upon with the
trumpets, and Belisarius immediately had the ladders planted. They were
found to be too short; but he ordered two to be tied together, and by
that means reached the parapets. The Romans spread themselves through
the city, where they met with little resistance. The soldiers gave
themselves up to blind indiscriminate cruelty. Belisarius succeeded at
length in putting a stop to this frightful course, by threatening some
and entreating others. After having abandoned the booty to them as a
recompense for their valour, he re-established quiet in the city, and
caused children to be restored to their parents, and wives to their
husbands.