Justinian.—Part II.
The foresight of Totila had raised obstacles worthy of such an
antagonist. Ninety furlongs below the city, in the narrowest part
of the river, he joined the two banks by strong and solid timbers
in the form of a bridge, on which he erected two lofty towers,
manned by the bravest of his Goths, and profusely stored with
missile weapons and engines of offence. The approach of the
bridge and towers was covered by a strong and massy chain of
iron; and the chain, at either end, on the opposite sides of the
Tyber, was defended by a numerous and chosen detachment of
archers. But the enterprise of forcing these barriers, and
relieving the capital, displays a shining example of the boldness
and conduct of Belisarius. His cavalry advanced from the port
along the public road, to awe the motions, and distract the
attention of the enemy. His infantry and provisions were
distributed in two hundred large boats; and each boat was
shielded by a high rampart of thick planks, pierced with many
small holes for the discharge of missile weapons. In the front,
two large vessels were linked together to sustain a floating
castle, which commanded the towers of the bridge, and contained a
magazine of fire, sulphur, and bitumen. The whole fleet, which
the general led in person, was laboriously moved against the
current of the river. The chain yielded to their weight, and the
enemies who guarded the banks were either slain or scattered. As
soon as they touched the principal barrier, the fire-ship was
instantly grappled to the bridge; one of the towers, with two
hundred Goths, was consumed by the flames; the assailants shouted
victory; and Rome was saved, if the wisdom of Belisarius had not
been defeated by the misconduct of his officers. He had
previously sent orders to Bessas to second his operations by a
timely sally from the town; and he had fixed his lieutenant,
Isaac, by a peremptory command, to the station of the port. But
avarice rendered Bessas immovable; while the youthful ardor of
Isaac delivered him into the hands of a superior enemy. The
exaggerated rumor of his defeat was hastily carried to the ears
of Belisarius: he paused; betrayed in that single moment of his
life some emotions of surprise and perplexity; and reluctantly
sounded a retreat to save his wife Antonina, his treasures, and
the only harbor which he possessed on the Tuscan coast. The
vexation of his mind produced an ardent and almost mortal fever;
and Rome was left without protection to the mercy or indignation
of Totila. The continuance of hostilities had imbittered the
national hatred: the Arian clergy was ignominiously driven from
Rome; Pelagius, the archdeacon, returned without success from an
embassy to the Gothic camp; and a Sicilian bishop, the envoy or
nuncio of the pope, was deprived of both his hands, for daring to
utter falsehoods in the service of the church and state.
Famine had relaxed the strength and discipline of the garrison of
Rome. They could derive no effectual service from a dying people;
and the inhuman avarice of the merchant at length absorbed the
vigilance of the governor. Four Isaurian sentinels, while their
companions slept, and their officers were absent, descended by a
rope from the wall, and secretly proposed to the Gothic king to
introduce his troops into the city. The offer was entertained
with coldness and suspicion; they returned in safety; they twice
repeated their visit; the place was twice examined; the
conspiracy was known and disregarded; and no sooner had Totila
consented to the attempt, than they unbarred the Asinarian gate,
and gave admittance to the Goths. Till the dawn of day, they
halted in order of battle, apprehensive of treachery or ambush;
but the troops of Bessas, with their leader, had already escaped;
and when the king was pressed to disturb their retreat, he
prudently replied, that no sight could be more grateful than that
of a flying enemy. The patricians, who were still possessed of
horses, Decius, Basilius, &c. accompanied the governor; their
brethren, among whom Olybrius, Orestes, and Maximus, are named by
the historian, took refuge in the church of St. Peter: but the
assertion, that only five hundred persons remained in the
capital, inspires some doubt of the fidelity either of his
narrative or of his text. As soon as daylight had displayed the
entire victory of the Goths, their monarch devoutly visited the
tomb of the prince of the apostles; but while he prayed at the
altar, twenty-five soldiers, and sixty citizens, were put to the
sword in the vestibule of the temple. The archdeacon Pelagius 13
stood before him, with the Gospels in his hand. “O Lord, be
merciful to your servant.” “Pelagius,” said Totila, with an
insulting smile, “your pride now condescends to become a
suppliant.” “I am a suppliant,” replied the prudent archdeacon;
“God has now made us your subjects, and as your subjects, we are
entitled to your clemency.” At his humble prayer, the lives of
the Romans were spared; and the chastity of the maids and matrons
was preserved inviolate from the passions of the hungry soldiers.
But they were rewarded by the freedom of pillage, after the most
precious spoils had been reserved for the royal treasury. The
houses of the senators were plentifully stored with gold and
silver; and the avarice of Bessas had labored with so much guilt
and shame for the benefit of the conqueror. In this revolution,
the sons and daughters of Roman consuls tasted the misery which
they had spurned or relieved, wandered in tattered garments
through the streets of the city and begged their bread, perhaps
without success, before the gates of their hereditary mansions.
The riches of Rusticiana, the daughter of Symmachus and widow of
Boethius, had been generously devoted to alleviate the calamities
of famine. But the Barbarians were exasperated by the report,
that she had prompted the people to overthrow the statues of the
great Theodoric; and the life of that venerable matron would have
been sacrificed to his memory, if Totila had not respected her
birth, her virtues, and even the pious motive of her revenge. The
next day he pronounced two orations, to congratulate and admonish
his victorious Goths, and to reproach the senate, as the vilest
of slaves, with their perjury, folly, and ingratitude; sternly
declaring, that their estates and honors were justly forfeited to
the companions of his arms. Yet he consented to forgive their
revolt; and the senators repaid his clemency by despatching
circular letters to their tenants and vassals in the provinces of
Italy, strictly to enjoin them to desert the standard of the
Greeks, to cultivate their lands in peace, and to learn from
their masters the duty of obedience to a Gothic sovereign.
Against the city which had so long delayed the course of his
victories, he appeared inexorable: one third of the walls, in
different parts, were demolished by his command; fire and engines
prepared to consume or subvert the most stately works of
antiquity; and the world was astonished by the fatal decree, that
Rome should be changed into a pasture for cattle. The firm and
temperate remonstrance of Belisarius suspended the execution; he
warned the Barbarian not to sully his fame by the destruction of
those monuments which were the glory of the dead, and the delight
of the living; and Totila was persuaded, by the advice of an
enemy, to preserve Rome as the ornament of his kingdom, or the
fairest pledge of peace and reconciliation. When he had signified
to the ambassadors of Belisarius his intention of sparing the
city, he stationed an army at the distance of one hundred and
twenty furlongs, to observe the motions of the Roman general.
With the remainder of his forces he marched into Lucania and
Apulia, and occupied on the summit of Mount Garganus 14 one of
the camps of Hannibal. 15 The senators were dragged in his train,
and afterwards confined in the fortresses of Campania: the
citizens, with their wives and children, were dispersed in exile;
and during forty days Rome was abandoned to desolate and dreary
solitude. 16
13 (return) [ During the long exile, and after the death of
Vigilius, the Roman church was governed, at first by the
archdeacon, and at length (A. D 655) by the pope Pelagius, who
was not thought guiltless of the sufferings of his predecessor.
See the original lives of the popes under the name of Anastasius,
(Muratori, Script. Rer. Italicarum, tom. iii. P. i. p. 130, 131,)
who relates several curious incidents of the sieges of Rome and
the wars of Italy.]
14 (return) [ Mount Garganus, now Monte St. Angelo, in the
kingdom of Naples, runs three hundred stadia into the Adriatic
Sea, (Strab.—vi. p. 436,) and in the darker ages was illustrated
by the apparition, miracles, and church, of St. Michael the
archangel. Horace, a native of Apulia or Lucania, had seen the
elms and oaks of Garganus laboring and bellowing with the north
wind that blew on that lofty coast, (Carm. ii. 9, Epist. ii. i.
201.)]
15 (return) [ I cannot ascertain this particular camp of
Hannibal; but the Punic quarters were long and often in the
neighborhood of Arpi, (T. Liv. xxii. 9, 12, xxiv. 3, &c.)]
16 (return) [ Totila.... Romam ingreditur.... ac evertit muros,
domos aliquantas igni comburens, ac omnes Romanorum res in
praedam ac cepit, hos ipsos Romanos in Campaniam captivos
abduxit. Post quam devastationem, xl. autamp lius dies, Roma fuit
ita desolata, ut nemo ibi hominum, nisi (nulloe?) bestiae
morarentur, (Marcellin. in Chron. p. 54.)]
The loss of Rome was speedily retrieved by an action, to which,
according to the event, the public opinion would apply the names
of rashness or heroism. After the departure of Totila, the Roman
general sallied from the port at the head of a thousand horse,
cut in pieces the enemy who opposed his progress, and visited
with pity and reverence the vacant space of the eternal city.
Resolved to maintain a station so conspicuous in the eyes of
mankind, he summoned the greatest part of his troops to the
standard which he erected on the Capitol: the old inhabitants
were recalled by the love of their country and the hopes of food;
and the keys of Rome were sent a second time to the emperor
Justinian. The walls, as far as they had been demolished by the
Goths, were repaired with rude and dissimilar materials; the
ditch was restored; iron spikes 17 were profusely scattered in
the highways to annoy the feet of the horses; and as new gates
could not suddenly be procured, the entrance was guarded by a
Spartan rampart of his bravest soldiers. At the expiration of
twenty-five days, Totila returned by hasty marches from Apulia to
avenge the injury and disgrace. Belisarius expected his approach.
The Goths were thrice repulsed in three general assaults; they
lost the flower of their troops; the royal standard had almost
fallen into the hands of the enemy, and the fame of Totila sunk,
as it had risen, with the fortune of his arms. Whatever skill and
courage could achieve, had been performed by the Roman general:
it remained only that Justinian should terminate, by a strong and
seasonable effort, the war which he had ambitiously undertaken.
The indolence, perhaps the impotence, of a prince who despised
his enemies, and envied his servants, protracted the calamities
of Italy. After a long silence, Belisarius was commanded to leave
a sufficient garrison at Rome, and to transport himself into the
province of Lucania, whose inhabitants, inflamed by Catholic
zeal, had cast away the yoke of their Arian conquerors. In this
ignoble warfare, the hero, invincible against the power of the
Barbarians, was basely vanquished by the delay, the disobedience,
and the cowardice of his own officers. He reposed in his winter
quarters of Crotona, in the full assurance, that the two passes
of the Lucanian hills were guarded by his cavalry. They were
betrayed by treachery or weakness; and the rapid march of the
Goths scarcely allowed time for the escape of Belisarius to the
coast of Sicily. At length a fleet and army were assembled for
the relief of Ruscianum, or Rossano, 18 a fortress sixty furlongs
from the ruins of Sybaris, where the nobles of Lucania had taken
refuge. In the first attempt, the Roman forces were dissipated by
a storm. In the second, they approached the shore; but they saw
the hills covered with archers, the landing-place defended by a
line of spears, and the king of the Goths impatient for battle.
The conqueror of Italy retired with a sigh, and continued to
languish, inglorious and inactive, till Antonina, who had been
sent to Constantinople to solicit succors, obtained, after the
death of the empress, the permission of his return.
17 (return) [ The tribuli are small engines with four spikes, one
fixed in the ground, the three others erect or adverse,
(Procopius, Gothic. l. iii. c. 24. Just. Lipsius, Poliorcetwv, l.
v. c. 3.) The metaphor was borrowed from the tribuli,
(land-caltrops,) an herb with a prickly fruit, commex in Italy.
(Martin, ad Virgil. Georgic. i. 153 vol. ii. p. 33.)]
18 (return) [ Ruscia, the navale Thuriorum, was transferred to
the distance of sixty stadia to Ruscianum, Rossano, an
archbishopric without suffragans. The republic of Sybaris is now
the estate of the duke of Corigliano. (Riedesel, Travels into
Magna Graecia and Sicily, p. 166—171.)]
The five last campaigns of Belisarius might abate the envy of his
competitors, whose eyes had been dazzled and wounded by the blaze
of his former glory. Instead of delivering Italy from the Goths,
he had wandered like a fugitive along the coast, without daring
to march into the country, or to accept the bold and repeated
challenge of Totila. Yet, in the judgment of the few who could
discriminate counsels from events, and compare the instruments
with the execution, he appeared a more consummate master of the
art of war, than in the season of his prosperity, when he
presented two captive kings before the throne of Justinian. The
valor of Belisarius was not chilled by age: his prudence was
matured by experience; but the moral virtues of humanity and
justice seem to have yielded to the hard necessity of the times.
The parsimony or poverty of the emperor compelled him to deviate
from the rule of conduct which had deserved the love and
confidence of the Italians. The war was maintained by the
oppression of Ravenna, Sicily, and all the faithful subjects of
the empire; and the rigorous prosecution of Herodian provoked
that injured or guilty officer to deliver Spoleto into the hands
of the enemy. The avarice of Antonina, which had been some times
diverted by love, now reigned without a rival in her breast.
Belisarius himself had always understood, that riches, in a
corrupt age, are the support and ornament of personal merit. And
it cannot be presumed that he should stain his honor for the
public service, without applying a part of the spoil to his
private emolument. The hero had escaped the sword of the
Barbarians. But the dagger of conspiracy 19 awaited his return.
In the midst of wealth and honors, Artaban, who had chastised the
African tyrant, complained of the ingratitude of courts. He
aspired to Praejecta, the emperor’s niece, who wished to reward
her deliverer; but the impediment of his previous marriage was
asserted by the piety of Theodora. The pride of royal descent was
irritated by flattery; and the service in which he gloried had
proved him capable of bold and sanguinary deeds. The death of
Justinian was resolved, but the conspirators delayed the
execution till they could surprise Belisarius disarmed, and
naked, in the palace of Constantinople. Not a hope could be
entertained of shaking his long-tried fidelity; and they justly
dreaded the revenge, or rather the justice, of the veteran
general, who might speedily assemble an army in Thrace to punish
the assassins, and perhaps to enjoy the fruits of their crime.
Delay afforded time for rash communications and honest
confessions: Artaban and his accomplices were condemned by the
senate, but the extreme clemency of Justinian detained them in
the gentle confinement of the palace, till he pardoned their
flagitious attempt against his throne and life. If the emperor
forgave his enemies, he must cordially embrace a friend whose
victories were alone remembered, and who was endeared to his
prince by the recent circumstances of their common danger.
Belisarius reposed from his toils, in the high station of general
of the East and count of the domestics; and the older consuls and
patricians respectfully yielded the precedency of rank to the
peerless merit of the first of the Romans. 20 The first of the
Romans still submitted to be the slave of his wife; but the
servitude of habit and affection became less disgraceful when the
death of Theodora had removed the baser influence of fear.
Joannina, their daughter, and the sole heiress of their fortunes,
was betrothed to Anastasius, the grandson, or rather the nephew,
of the empress, 21 whose kind interposition forwarded the
consummation of their youthful loves. But the power of Theodora
expired, the parents of Joannina returned, and her honor, perhaps
her happiness, were sacrificed to the revenge of an unfeeling
mother, who dissolved the imperfect nuptials before they had been
ratified by the ceremonies of the church. 22
19 (return) [ This conspiracy is related by Procopius (Gothic. l.
iii. c. 31, 32) with such freedom and candor, that the liberty of
the Anecdotes gives him nothing to add.]
20 (return) [ The honors of Belisarius are gladly commemorated by
his secretary, (Procop. Goth. l. iii. c. 35, l. iv. c. 21.) This
title is ill translated, at least in this instance, by præfectus
praetorio; and to a military character, magister militum is more
proper and applicable, (Ducange, Gloss. Graec. p. 1458, 1459.)]
21 (return) [ Alemannus, (ad Hist. Arcanum, p. 68,) Ducange,
(Familiae Byzant. p. 98,) and Heineccius, (Hist. Juris Civilis,
p. 434,) all three represent Anastasius as the son of the
daughter of Theodora; and their opinion firmly reposes on the
unambiguous testimony of Procopius, (Anecdot. c. 4, 5,—twice
repeated.) And yet I will remark, 1. That in the year 547,
Theodora could sarcely have a grandson of the age of puberty; 2.
That we are totally ignorant of this daughter and her husband;
and, 3. That Theodora concealed her bastards, and that her
grandson by Justinian would have been heir apparent of the
empire.]
22 (return) [ The sins of the hero in Italy and after his return,
are manifested, and most probably swelled, by the author of the
Anecdotes, (c. 4, 5.) The designs of Antonina were favored by the
fluctuating jurisprudence of Justinian. On the law of marriage
and divorce, that emperor was trocho versatilior, (Heineccius,
Element Juris Civil. ad Ordinem Pandect. P. iv. No. 233.)]
Before the departure of Belisarius, Perusia was besieged, and few
cities were impregnable to the Gothic arms. Ravenna, Ancona, and
Crotona, still resisted the Barbarians; and when Totila asked in
marriage one of the daughters of France, he was stung by the just
reproach that the king of Italy was unworthy of his title till it
was acknowledged by the Roman people. Three thousand of the
bravest soldiers had been left to defend the capital. On the
suspicion of a monopoly, they massacred the governor, and
announced to Justinian, by a deputation of the clergy, that
unless their offence was pardoned, and their arrears were
satisfied, they should instantly accept the tempting offers of
Totila. But the officer who succeeded to the command (his name
was Diogenes) deserved their esteem and confidence; and the
Goths, instead of finding an easy conquest, encountered a
vigorous resistance from the soldiers and people, who patiently
endured the loss of the port and of all maritime supplies. The
siege of Rome would perhaps have been raised, if the liberality
of Totila to the Isaurians had not encouraged some of their venal
countrymen to copy the example of treason. In a dark night, while
the Gothic trumpets sounded on another side, they silently opened
the gate of St. Paul: the Barbarians rushed into the city; and
the flying garrison was intercepted before they could reach the
harbor of Centumcellae. A soldier trained in the school of
Belisarius, Paul of Cilicia, retired with four hundred men to the
mole of Hadrian. They repelled the Goths; but they felt the
approach of famine; and their aversion to the taste of
horse-flesh confirmed their resolution to risk the event of a
desperate and decisive sally. But their spirit insensibly stooped
to the offers of capitulation; they retrieved their arrears of
pay, and preserved their arms and horses, by enlisting in the
service of Totila; their chiefs, who pleaded a laudable
attachment to their wives and children in the East, were
dismissed with honor; and above four hundred enemies, who had
taken refuge in the sanctuaries, were saved by the clemency of
the victor. He no longer entertained a wish of destroying the
edifices of Rome, 23 which he now respected as the seat of the
Gothic kingdom: the senate and people were restored to their
country; the means of subsistence were liberally provided; and
Totila, in the robe of peace, exhibited the equestrian games of
the circus. Whilst he amused the eyes of the multitude, four
hundred vessels were prepared for the embarkation of his troops.
The cities of Rhegium and Tarentum were reduced: he passed into
Sicily, the object of his implacable resentment; and the island
was stripped of its gold and silver, of the fruits of the earth,
and of an infinite number of horses, sheep, and oxen. Sardinia
and Corsica obeyed the fortune of Italy; and the sea-coast of
Greece was visited by a fleet of three hundred galleys. 24 The
Goths were landed in Corcyra and the ancient continent of Epirus;
they advanced as far as Nicopolis, the trophy of Augustus, and
Dodona, 25 once famous by the oracle of Jove. In every step of
his victories, the wise Barbarian repeated to Justinian the
desire of peace, applauded the concord of their predecessors, and
offered to employ the Gothic arms in the service of the empire.
23 (return) [ The Romans were still attached to the monuments of
their ancestors; and according to Procopius, (Goth. l. iv. c.
22,) the gallery of Aeneas, of a single rank of oars, 25 feet in
breadth, 120 in length, was preserved entire in the navalia, near
Monte Testaceo, at the foot of the Aventine, (Nardini, Roma
Antica, l. vii. c. 9, p. 466. Donatus, Rom Antiqua, l. iv. c. 13,
p. 334) But all antiquity is ignorant of relic.]
24 (return) [ In these seas Procopius searched without success
for the Isle of Calypso. He was shown, at Phaeacia, or Cocyra,
the petrified ship of Ulysses, (Odyss. xiii. 163;) but he found
it a recent fabric of many stones, dedicated by a merchant to
Jupiter Cassius, (l. iv. c. 22.) Eustathius had supposed it to be
the fanciful likeness of a rock.]
25 (return) [ M. D’Anville (Memoires de l’Acad. tom. xxxii. p.
513—528) illustrates the Gulf of Ambracia; but he cannot
ascertain the situation of Dodona. A country in sight of Italy is
less known than the wilds of America. Note: On the site of Dodona
compare Walpole’s Travels in the East, vol. ii. p. 473; Col.
Leake’s Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 163; and a dissertation by
the present bishop of Lichfield (Dr. Butler) in the appendix to
Hughes’s Travels, vol. i. p. 511.—M.]
Justinian was deaf to the voice of peace: but he neglected the
prosecution of war; and the indolence of his temper disappointed,
in some degree, the obstinacy of his passions. From this salutary
slumber the emperor was awakened by the pope Vigilius and the
patrician Cethegus, who appeared before his throne, and adjured
him, in the name of God and the people, to resume the conquest
and deliverance of Italy. In the choice of the generals, caprice,
as well as judgment, was shown. A fleet and army sailed for the
relief of Sicily, under the conduct of Liberius; but his youth
2511 and want of experience were afterwards discovered, and
before he touched the shores of the island he was overtaken by
his successor. In the place of Liberius, the conspirator Artaban
was raised from a prison to military honors; in the pious
presumption, that gratitude would animate his valor and fortify
his allegiance. Belisarius reposed in the shade of his laurels,
but the command of the principal army was reserved for Germanus,
26 the emperor’s nephew, whose rank and merit had been long
depressed by the jealousy of the court. Theodora had injured him
in the rights of a private citizen, the marriage of his children,
and the testament of his brother; and although his conduct was
pure and blameless, Justinian was displeased that he should be
thought worthy of the confidence of the malcontents. The life of
Germanus was a lesson of implicit obedience: he nobly refused to
prostitute his name and character in the factions of the circus:
the gravity of his manners was tempered by innocent cheerfulness;
and his riches were lent without interest to indigent or
deserving friends. His valor had formerly triumphed over the
Sclavonians of the Danube and the rebels of Africa: the first
report of his promotion revived the hopes of the Italians; and he
was privately assured, that a crowd of Roman deserters would
abandon, on his approach, the standard of Totila. His second
marriage with Malasontha, the granddaughter of Theodoric endeared
Germanus to the Goths themselves; and they marched with
reluctance against the father of a royal infant the last
offspring of the line of Amali. 27 A splendid allowance was
assigned by the emperor: the general contributed his private
fortune: his two sons were popular and active and he surpassed,
in the promptitude and success of his levies the expectation of
mankind. He was permitted to select some squadrons of Thracian
cavalry: the veterans, as well as the youth of Constantinople and
Europe, engaged their voluntary service; and as far as the heart
of Germany, his fame and liberality attracted the aid of the
Barbarians. 2711 The Romans advanced to Sardica; an army of
Sclavonians fled before their march; but within two days of their
final departure, the designs of Germanus were terminated by his
malady and death. Yet the impulse which he had given to the
Italian war still continued to act with energy and effect. The
maritime towns Ancona, Crotona, Centumcellae, resisted the
assaults of Totila. Sicily was reduced by the zeal of Artaban,
and the Gothic navy was defeated near the coast of the Adriatic.
The two fleets were almost equal, forty-seven to fifty galleys:
the victory was decided by the knowledge and dexterity of the
Greeks; but the ships were so closely grappled, that only twelve
of the Goths escaped from this unfortunate conflict. They
affected to depreciate an element in which they were unskilled;
but their own experience confirmed the truth of a maxim, that the
master of the sea will always acquire the dominion of the land.
28
2511 (return) [ This is a singular mistake. Gibbon must have
hastily caught at his inexperience, and concluded that it must
have been from youth. Lord Mahon has pointed out this error, p.
401. I should add that in the last 4to. edition, corrected by
Gibbon, it stands “want of youth and experience;”—but Gibbon can
scarcely have intended such a phrase.—M.]
26 (return) [ See the acts of Germanus in the public (Vandal. l.
ii, c. 16, 17, 18 Goth. l. iii. c. 31, 32) and private history,
(Anecdot. c. 5,) and those of his son Justin, in Agathias, (l.
iv. p. 130, 131.) Notwithstanding an ambiguous expression of
Jornandes, fratri suo, Alemannus has proved that he was the son
of the emperor’s brother.]
27 (return) [ Conjuncta Aniciorum gens cum Amala stirpe spem
adhuc utii usque generis promittit, (Jornandes, c. 60, p. 703.)
He wrote at Ravenna before the death of Totila]
2711 (return) [ See note 31, p. 268.—M.]
28 (return) [ The third book of Procopius is terminated by the
death of Germanus, (Add. l. iv. c. 23, 24, 25, 26.)]
After the loss of Germanus, the nations were provoked to smile,
by the strange intelligence, that the command of the Roman armies
was given to a eunuch. But the eunuch Narses 29 is ranked among
the few who have rescued that unhappy name from the contempt and
hatred of mankind. A feeble, diminutive body concealed the soul
of a statesman and a warrior. His youth had been employed in the
management of the loom and distaff, in the cares of the
household, and the service of female luxury; but while his hands
were busy, he secretly exercised the faculties of a vigorous and
discerning mind. A stranger to the schools and the camp, he
studied in the palace to dissemble, to flatter, and to persuade;
and as soon as he approached the person of the emperor, Justinian
listened with surprise and pleasure to the manly counsels of his
chamberlain and private treasurer. 30 The talents of Narses were
tried and improved in frequent embassies: he led an army into
Italy, acquired a practical knowledge of the war and the country,
and presumed to strive with the genius of Belisarius. Twelve
years after his return, the eunuch was chosen to achieve the
conquest which had been left imperfect by the first of the Roman
generals. Instead of being dazzled by vanity or emulation, he
seriously declared that, unless he were armed with an adequate
force, he would never consent to risk his own glory and that of
his sovereign. Justinian granted to the favorite what he might
have denied to the hero: the Gothic war was rekindled from its
ashes, and the preparations were not unworthy of the ancient
majesty of the empire. The key of the public treasure was put
into his hand, to collect magazines, to levy soldiers, to
purchase arms and horses, to discharge the arrears of pay, and to
tempt the fidelity of the fugitives and deserters. The troops of
Germanus were still in arms; they halted at Salona in the
expectation of a new leader; and legions of subjects and allies
were created by the well-known liberality of the eunuch Narses.
The king of the Lombards 31 satisfied or surpassed the
obligations of a treaty, by lending two thousand two hundred of
his bravest warriors, 3111 who were followed by three thousand of
their martial attendants. Three thousand Heruli fought on
horseback under Philemuth, their native chief; and the noble
Aratus, who adopted the manners and discipline of Rome, conducted
a band of veterans of the same nation. Dagistheus was released
from prison to command the Huns; and Kobad, the grandson and
nephew of the great king, was conspicuous by the regal tiara at
the head of his faithful Persians, who had devoted themselves to
the fortunes of their prince. 32 Absolute in the exercise of his
authority, more absolute in the affection of his troops, Narses
led a numerous and gallant army from Philippopolis to Salona,
from whence he coasted the eastern side of the Adriatic as far as
the confines of Italy. His progress was checked. The East could
not supply vessels capable of transporting such multitudes of men
and horses. The Franks, who, in the general confusion, had
usurped the greater part of the Venetian province, refused a free
passage to the friends of the Lombards. The station of Verona was
occupied by Teias, with the flower of the Gothic forces; and that
skilful commander had overspread the adjacent country with the
fall of woods and the inundation of waters. 33 In this
perplexity, an officer of experience proposed a measure, secure
by the appearance of rashness; that the Roman army should
cautiously advance along the seashore, while the fleet preceded
their march, and successively cast a bridge of boats over the
mouths of the rivers, the Timavus, the Brenta, the Adige, and the
Po, that fall into the Adriatic to the north of Ravenna. Nine
days he reposed in the city, collected the fragments of the
Italian army, and marching towards Rimini to meet the defiance of
an insulting enemy.
29 (return) [ Procopius relates the whole series of this second
Gothic war and the victory of Narses, (l. iv. c. 21, 26—35.) A
splendid scene. Among the six subjects of epic poetry which Tasso
revolved in his mind, he hesitated between the conquests of Italy
by Belisarius and by Narses, (Hayley’s Works, vol. iv. p. 70.)]
30 (return) [ The country of Narses is unknown, since he must not
be confounded with the Persarmenian. Procopius styles him (see
Goth. l. ii. c. 13); Paul Warnefrid, (l. ii. c. 3, p. 776,)
Chartularius: Marcellinus adds the name of Cubicularius. In an
inscription on the Salarian bridge he is entitled Ex-consul,
Ex-praepositus, Cubiculi Patricius, (Mascou, Hist. of the
Germans, (l. xiii. c. 25.) The law of Theodosius against ennuchs
was obsolete or abolished, Annotation xx.,) but the foolish
prophecy of the Romans subsisted in full vigor, (Procop. l. iv.
c. 21.) * Note: Lord Mahon supposes them both to have been
Persarmenians. Note, p. 256.—M.]
31 (return) [ Paul Warnefrid, the Lombard, records with
complacency the succor, service, and honorable dismission of his
countrymen—reipublicae Romanae adversus aemulos adjutores
fuerant, (l. ii. c. i. p. 774, edit. Grot.) I am surprised that
Alboin, their martial king, did not lead his subjects in person.
* Note: The Lombards were still at war with the Gepidae. See
Procop. Goth. lib. iv. p. 25.—M.]
3111 (return) [ Gibbon has blindly followed the translation of
Maltretus: Bis mille ducentos—while the original Greek says
expressly something else, (Goth. lib. iv. c. 26.) In like manner,
(p. 266,) he draws volunteers from Germany, on the authority of
Cousin, who, in one place, has mistaken Germanus for Germania.
Yet only a few pages further we find Gibbon loudly condemning the
French and Latin readers of Procopius. Lord Mahon, p. 403. The
first of these errors remains uncorrected in the new edition of
the Byzantines.—M.]
32 (return) [ He was, if not an impostor, the son of the blind
Zames, saved by compassion, and educated in the Byzantine court
by the various motives of policy, pride, and generosity, (Procop.
Persic. l. i. c. 23.)]
33 (return) [ In the time of Augustus, and in the middle ages,
the whole waste from Aquileia to Ravenna was covered with woods,
lakes, and morasses. Man has subdued nature, and the land has
been cultivated since the waters are confined and embanked. See
the learned researches of Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiae Medii
Aevi. tom. i. dissert xxi. p. 253, 254,) from Vitruvius, Strabo,
Herodian, old charters, and local knowledge.]