Gibbon's The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
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Chapter XLIII: Last Victory And Death Of Belisarius, Death Of
Justinian.
Part III.
The prudence of Narses impelled him to speedy and decisive
action. His powers were the last effort of the state; the cost
of each day accumulated the enormous account; and the nations,
untrained to discipline or fatigue, might be rashly provoked to
turn their arms against each other, or against their benefactor.
The same considerations might have tempered the ardor of Totila.
But he was conscious that the clergy and people of Italy aspired
to a second revolution: he felt or suspected the rapid progress
of treason; and he resolved to risk the Gothic kingdom on the
chance of a day, in which the valiant would be animated by
instant danger and the disaffected might be awed by mutual
ignorance. In his march from Ravenna, the Roman general
chastised the garrison of Rimini, traversed in a direct line the
hills of Urbino, and reentered the Flaminian way, nine miles
beyond the perforated rock, an obstacle of art and nature which
might have stopped or retarded his progress. ^34 The Goths were
assembled in the neighborhood of Rome, they advanced without
delay to seek a superior enemy, and the two armies approached
each other at the distance of one hundred furlongs, between
Tagina ^35 and the sepulchres of the Gauls. ^36 The haughty
message of Narses was an offer, not of peace, but of pardon. The
answer of the Gothic king declared his resolution to die or
conquer. "What day," said the messenger, "will you fix for the
combat?" "The eighth day," replied Totila; but early the next
morning he attempted to surprise a foe, suspicious of deceit, and
prepared for battle. Ten thousand Heruli and Lombards, of
approved valor and doubtful faith, were placed in the centre.
Each of the wings was composed of eight thousand Romans; the
right was guarded by the cavalry of the Huns, the left was
covered by fifteen hundred chosen horse, destined, according to
the emergencies of action, to sustain the retreat of their
friends, or to encompass the flank of the enemy. From his proper
station at the head of the right wing, the eunuch rode along the
line, expressing by his voice and countenance the assurance of
victory; exciting the soldiers of the emperor to punish the guilt
and madness of a band of robbers; and exposing to their view gold
chains, collars, and bracelets, the rewards of military virtue.
From the event of a single combat they drew an omen of success;
and they beheld with pleasure the courage of fifty archers, who
maintained a small eminence against three successive attacks of
the Gothic cavalry. At the distance only of two bow-shots, the
armies spent the morning in dreadful suspense, and the Romans
tasted some necessary food, without unloosing the cuirass from
their breast, or the bridle from their horses. Narses awaited
the charge; and it was delayed by Totila till he had received his
last succors of two thousand Goths. While he consumed the hours
in fruitless treaty, the king exhibited in a narrow space the
strength and agility of a warrior. His armor was enchased with
gold; his purple banner floated with the wind: he cast his lance
into the air; caught it with the right hand; shifted it to the
left; threw himself backwards; recovered his seat; and managed a
fiery steed in all the paces and evolutions of the equestrian
school. As soon as the succors had arrived, he retired to his
tent, assumed the dress and arms of a private soldier, and gave
the signal of a battle. The first line of cavalry advanced with
more courage than discretion, and left behind them the infantry
of the second line. They were soon engaged between the horns of
a crescent, into which the adverse wings had been insensibly
curved, and were saluted from either side by the volleys of four
thousand archers. Their ardor, and even their distress, drove
them forwards to a close and unequal conflict, in which they
could only use their lances against an enemy equally skilled in
all the instruments of war. A generous emulation inspired the
Romans and their Barbarian allies; and Narses, who calmly viewed
and directed their efforts, doubted to whom he should adjudge the
prize of superior bravery. The Gothic cavalry was astonished and
disordered, pressed and broken; and the line of infantry, instead
of presenting their spears, or opening their intervals, were
trampled under the feet of the flying horse. Six thousand of the
Goths were slaughtered without mercy in the field of Tagina.
Their prince, with five attendants, was overtaken by Asbad, of
the race of the Gepidae. "Spare the king of Italy," ^* cried a
loyal voice, and Asbad struck his lance through the body of
Totila. The blow was instantly revenged by the faithful Goths:
they transported their dying monarch seven miles beyond the scene
of his disgrace; and his last moments were not imbittered by the
presence of an enemy. Compassion afforded him the shelter of an
obscure tomb; but the Romans were not satisfied of their victory,
till they beheld the corpse of the Gothic king. His hat,
enriched with gems, and his bloody robe, were presented to
Justinian by the messengers of triumph. ^37
[Footnote 34: The Flaminian way, as it is corrected from the
Itineraries, and the best modern maps, by D'Anville, (Analyse de
l'Italie, p. 147 - 162,) may be thus stated: Rome to Narni, 51
Roman miles; Terni, 57; Spoleto, 75; Foligno, 88; Nocera, 103;
Cagli, 142; Intercisa, 157; Fossombrone, 160; Fano, 176; Pesaro,
184; Rimini, 208 - about 189 English miles. He takes no notice
of the death of Totila; but West selling (Itinerar. p. 614)
exchanges, for the field of Taginas, the unknown appellation of
Ptanias, eight miles from Nocera.]
[Footnote 35: Taginae, or rather Tadinae, is mentioned by Pliny;
but the bishopric of that obscure town, a mile from Gualdo, in
the plain, was united, in the year 1007, with that of Nocera.
The signs of antiquity are preserved in the local appellations,
Fossato, the camp; Capraia, Caprea; Bastia, Busta Gallorum. See
Cluverius, (Italia Antiqua, l. ii. c. 6, p. 615, 616, 617,) Lucas
Holstenius, (Annotat. ad Cluver. p. 85, 86,) Guazzesi,
(Dissertat. p. 177 - 217, a professed inquiry,) and the maps of
the ecclesiastical state and the march of Ancona, by Le Maire and
Magini.]
[Footnote 36: The battle was fought in the year of Rome 458; and
the consul Decius, by devoting his own life, assured the triumph
of his country and his colleague Fabius, (T. Liv. x. 28, 29.)
Procopius ascribes to Camillus the victory of the Busta Gallorum;
and his error is branded by Cluverius with the national reproach
of Graecorum nugamenta.]
[Footnote *: "Dog, wilt thou strike thy Lord?" was the more
characteristic exclamation of the Gothic youth. Procop. lib. iv.
-
32. - M.]
[Footnote 37: Theophanes, Chron. p. 193. Hist. Miscell. l. xvi.
-
108.]
As soon as Narses had paid his devotions to the Author of
victory, and the blessed Virgin, his peculiar patroness, ^38 he
praised, rewarded, and dismissed the Lombards. The villages had
been reduced to ashes by these valiant savages; they ravished
matrons and virgins on the altar; their retreat was diligently
watched by a strong detachment of regular forces, who prevented a
repetition of the like disorders. The victorious eunuch pursued
his march through Tuscany, accepted the submission of the Goths,
heard the acclamations, and often the complaints, of the
Italians, and encompassed the walls of Rome with the remainder of
his formidable host. Round the wide circumference, Narses
assigned to himself, and to each of his lieutenants, a real or a
feigned attack, while he silently marked the place of easy and
unguarded entrance. Neither the fortifications of Hadrian's
mole, nor of the port, could long delay the progress of the
conqueror; and Justinian once more received the keys of Rome,
which, under his reign, had been five times taken and recovered.
^39 But the deliverance of Rome was the last calamity of the
Roman people. The Barbarian allies of Narses too frequently
confounded the privileges of peace and war. The despair of the
flying Goths found some consolation in sanguinary revenge; and
three hundred youths of the noblest families, who had been sent
as hostages beyond the Po, were inhumanly slain by the successor
of Totila. The fate of the senate suggests an awful lesson of
the vicissitude of human affairs. Of the senators whom Totila
had banished from their country, some were rescued by an officer
of Belisarius, and transported from Campania to Sicily; while
others were too guilty to confide in the clemency of Justinian,
or too poor to provide horses for their escape to the sea-shore.
Their brethren languished five years in a state of indigence and
exile: the victory of Narses revived their hopes; but their
premature return to the metropolis was prevented by the furious
Goths; and all the fortresses of Campania were stained with
patrician ^40 blood. After a period of thirteen centuries, the
institution of Romulus expired; and if the nobles of Rome still
assumed the title of senators, few subsequent traces can be
discovered of a public council, or constitutional order. Ascend
six hundred years, and contemplate the kings of the earth
soliciting an audience, as the slaves or freedmen of the Roman
senate! ^41
[Footnote 38: Evagrius, l. iv. c. 24. The inspiration of the
Virgin revealed to Narses the day, and the word, of battle, (Paul
Diacon. l. ii. c. 3, p. 776)]
[Footnote 39: (Procop. Goth. lib. iv. p. 33.)]
In the year 536 by Belisarius, in 546 by Totila, in 547 by
Belisarius, in 549 by Totila, and in 552 by Narses. Maltretus
had inadvertently translated sextum; a mistake which he
afterwards retracts; out the mischief was done; and Cousin, with
a train of French and Latin readers, have fallen into the snare.]
[Footnote 40: Compare two passages of Procopius, (l. iii. c. 26,
-
iv. c. 24,) which, with some collateral hints from Marcellinus
and Jornandes, illustrate the state of the expiring senate.]
[Footnote 41: See, in the example of Prusias, as it is delivered
in the fragments of Polybius, (Excerpt. Legat. xcvii. p. 927,
928,) a curious picture of a royal slave.]
The Gothic war was yet alive. The bravest of the nation
retired beyond the Po; and Teias was unanimously chosen to
succeed and revenge their departed hero. The new king
immediately sent ambassadors to implore, or rather to purchase,
the aid of the Franks, and nobly lavished, for the public safety,
the riches which had been deposited in the palace of Pavia. The
residue of the royal treasure was guarded by his brother Aligern,
at Cumaea, in Campania; but the strong castle which Totila had
fortified was closely besieged by the arms of Narses. From the
Alps to the foot of Mount Vesuvius, the Gothic king, by rapid and
secret marches, advanced to the relief of his brother, eluded the
vigilance of the Roman chiefs, and pitched his camp on the banks
of the Sarnus or Draco, ^42 which flows from Nuceria into the Bay
of Naples. The river separated the two armies: sixty days were
consumed in distant and fruitless combats, and Teias maintained
this important post till he was deserted by his fleet and the
hope of subsistence. With reluctant steps he ascended the
Lactarian mount, where the physicians of Rome, since the time of
Galen, had sent their patients for the benefit of the air and the
milk. ^43 But the Goths soon embraced a more generous resolution:
to descend the hill, to dismiss their horses, and to die in arms,
and in the possession of freedom. The king marched at their
head, bearing in his right hand a lance, and an ample buckler in
his left: with the one he struck dead the foremost of the
assailants; with the other he received the weapons which every
hand was ambitious to aim against his life. After a combat of
many hours, his left arm was fatigued by the weight of twelve
javelins which hung from his shield. Without moving from his
ground, or suspending his blows, the hero called aloud on his
attendants for a fresh buckler; but in the moment while his side
was uncovered, it was pierced by a mortal dart. He fell; and his
head, exalted on a spear, proclaimed to the nations that the
Gothic kingdom was no more. But the example of his death served
only to animate the companions who had sworn to perish with their
leader. They fought till darkness descended on the earth. They
reposed on their arms. The combat was renewed with the return of
light, and maintained with unabated vigor till the evening of the
second day. The repose of a second night, the want of water, and
the loss of their bravest champions, determined the surviving
Goths to accept the fair capitulation which the prudence of
Narses was inclined to propose. They embraced the alternative of
residing in Italy, as the subjects and soldiers of Justinian, or
departing with a portion of their private wealth, in search of
some independent country. ^44 Yet the oath of fidelity or exile
was alike rejected by one thousand Goths, who broke away before
the treaty was signed, and boldly effected their retreat to the
walls of Pavia. The spirit, as well as the situation, of Aligern
prompted him to imitate rather than to bewail his brother: a
strong and dexterous archer, he transpierced with a single arrow
the armor and breast of his antagonist; and his military conduct
defended Cumae ^45 above a year against the forces of the Romans.
Their industry had scooped the Sibyl's cave ^46 into a prodigious
mine; combustible materials were introduced to consume the
temporary props: the wall and the gate of Cumae sunk into the
cavern, but the ruins formed a deep and inaccessible precipice.
On the fragment of a rock Aligern stood alone and unshaken, till
he calmly surveyed the hopeless condition of his country, and
judged it more honorable to be the friend of Narses, than the
slave of the Franks. After the death of Teias, the Roman general
separated his troops to reduce the cities of Italy; Lucca
sustained a long and vigorous siege: and such was the humanity or
the prudence of Narses, that the repeated perfidy of the
inhabitants could not provoke him to exact the forfeit lives of
their hostages. These hostages were dismissed in safety; and
their grateful zeal at length subdued the obstinacy of their
countrymen. ^47
[Footnote 42: The item of Procopius (Goth. l. iv. c. 35) is
evidently the Sarnus. The text is accused or altered by the rash
violence of Cluverius (l. iv. c. 3. p. 1156:) but Camillo
Pellegrini of Naples (Discorsi sopra la Campania Felice, p. 330,
331) has proved from old records, that as early as the year 822
that river was called the Dracontio, or Draconcello.]
[Footnote 43: Galen (de Method. Medendi, l. v. apud Cluver. l.
-
c. 3, p. 1159, 1160) describes the lofty site, pure air, and
rich milk, of Mount Lactarius, whose medicinal benefits were
equally known and sought in the time of Symmachus (l. vi. epist.
-
and Cassiodorus, (Var. xi. 10.) Nothing is now left except
the name of the town of Lettere.]
[Footnote 44: Buat (tom. xi. p. 2, &c.) conveys to his favorite
Bavaria this remnant of Goths, who by others are buried in the
mountains of Uri, or restored to their native isle of Gothland,
(Mascou, Annot. xxi.)]
[Footnote 45: I leave Scaliger (Animadvers. in Euseb. p. 59) and
Salmasius (Exercitat. Plinian. p. 51, 52) to quarrel about the
origin of Cumae, the oldest of the Greek colonies in Italy,
(Strab. l. v. p. 372, Velleius Paterculus, l. i. c. 4,) already
vacant in Juvenal's time, (Satir. iii.,) and now in ruins.]
[Footnote 46: Agathias (l. i. c. 21) settles the Sibyl's cave
under the wall of Cumae: he agrees with Servius, (ad. l. vi.
Aeneid.;) nor can I perceive why their opinion should be rejected
by Heyne, the excellent editor of Virgil, (tom. ii. p. 650, 651.)
In urbe media secreta religio! But Cumae was not yet built; and
the lines (l. vi. 96, 97) would become ridiculous, if Aeneas were
actually in a Greek city.]
[Footnote 47: There is some difficulty in connecting the 35th
chapter of the fourth book of the Gothic war of Procopius with
the first book of the history of Agathias. We must now
relinquish the statesman and soldier, to attend the footsteps of
a poet and rhetorician, (l. i. p. 11, l. ii. p. 51, edit.
Lonvre.)]
Before Lucca had surrendered, Italy was overwhelmed by a new
deluge of Barbarians. A feeble youth, the grandson of Clovis,
reigned over the Austrasians or oriental Franks. The guardians
of Theodebald entertained with coldness and reluctance the
magnificent promises of the Gothic ambassadors. But the spirit of
a martial people outstripped the timid counsels of the court: two
brothers, Lothaire and Buccelin, ^48 the dukes of the Alemanni,
stood forth as the leaders of the Italian war; and seventy-five
thousand Germans descended in the autumn from the Rhaetian Alps
into the plain of Milan. The vanguard of the Roman army was
stationed near the Po, under the conduct of Fulcaris, a bold
Herulian, who rashly conceived that personal bravery was the sole
duty and merit of a commander. As he marched without order or
precaution along the Aemilian way, an ambuscade of Franks
suddenly rose from the amphitheatre of Parma; his troops were
surprised and routed; but their leader refused to fly; declaring
to the last moment, that death was less terrible than the angry
countenance of Narses. ^* The death of Fulcaris, and the retreat
of the surviving chiefs, decided the fluctuating and rebellious
temper of the Goths; they flew to the standard of their
deliverers, and admitted them into the cities which still
resisted the arms of the Roman general. The conqueror of Italy
opened a free passage to the irresistible torrent of Barbarians.
They passed under the walls of Cesena, and answered by threats
and reproaches the advice of Aligern, ^! that the Gothic
treasures could no longer repay the labor of an invasion. Two
thousand Franks were destroyed by the skill and valor of Narses
himself, who sailed from Rimini at the head of three hundred
horse, to chastise the licentious rapine of their march. On the
confines of Samnium the two brothers divided their forces. With
the right wing, Buccelin assumed the spoil of Campania, Lucania,
and Bruttium; with the left, Lothaire accepted the plunder of
Apulia and Calabria. They followed the coast of the Mediterranean
and the Adriatic, as far as Rhegium and Otranto, and the extreme
lands of Italy were the term of their destructive progress. The
Franks, who were Christians and Catholics, contented themselves
with simple pillage and occasional murder. But the churches
which their piety had spared, were stripped by the sacrilegious
hands of the Alamanni, who sacrificed horses' heads to their
native deities of the woods and rivers; ^49 they melted or
profaned the consecrated vessels, and the ruins of shrines and
altars were stained with the blood of the faithful. Buccelin was
actuated by ambition, and Lothaire by avarice. The former
aspired to restore the Gothic kingdom; the latter, after a
promise to his brother of speedy succors, returned by the same
road to deposit his treasure beyond the Alps. The strength of
their armies was already wasted by the change of climate and
contagion of disease: the Germans revelled in the vintage of
Italy; and their own intemperance avenged, in some degree, the
miseries of a defenceless people. ^*
[Footnote 48: Among the fabulous exploits of Buccelin, he
discomfited and slew Belisarius, subdued Italy and Sicily, &c.
See in the Historians of France, Gregory of Tours, (tom. ii. l.
-
c. 32, p. 203,) and Aimoin, (tom. iii. l. ii. de Gestis
Francorum, c. 23, p. 59.)]
[Footnote *: .... Agathius.]
[Footnote !: Aligern, after the surrender of Cumae, had been sent
to Cesent by Narses. Agathias. - M.]
[Footnote 49: Agathias notices their superstition in a
philosophic tone, (l. i. p. 18.) At Zug, in Switzerland, idolatry
still prevailed in the year 613: St. Columban and St. Gaul were
the apostles of that rude country; and the latter founded a
hermitage, which has swelled into an ecclesiastical principality
and a populous city, the seat of freedom and commerce.]
[Footnote *: A body of Lothaire's troops was defeated near Fano,
some were driven down precipices into the sea, others fled to the
camp; many prisoners seized the opportunity of making their
escape; and the Barbarians lost most of their booty in their
precipitate retreat. Agathias. - M.]
At the entrance of the spring, the Imperial troops, who had
guarded the cities, assembled, to the number of eighteen thousand
men, in the neighborhood of Rome. Their winter hours had not
been consumed in idleness. By the command, and after the example,
of Narses, they repeated each day their military exercise on foot
and on horseback, accustomed their ear to obey the sound of the
trumpet, and practised the steps and evolutions of the Pyrrhic
dance. From the Straits of Sicily, Buccelin, with thirty
thousand Franks and Alamanni, slowly moved towards Capua,
occupied with a wooden tower the bridge of Casilinum, covered his
right by the stream of the Vulturnus, and secured the rest of his
encampment by a rampart of sharp stakes, and a circle of wagons,
whose wheels were buried in the earth. He impatiently expected
the return of Lothaire; ignorant, alas! that his brother could
never return, and that the chief and his army had been swept away
by a strange disease ^50 on the banks of the Lake Benacus,
between Trent and Verona. The banners of Narses soon approached
the Vulturnus, and the eyes of Italy were anxiously fixed on the
event of this final contest. Perhaps the talents of the Roman
general were most conspicuous in the calm operations which
precede the tumult of a battle. His skilful movements
intercepted the subsistence of the Barbarian deprived him of the
advantage of the bridge and river, and in the choice of the
ground and moment of action reduced him to comply with the
inclination of his enemy. On the morning of the important day,
when the ranks were already formed, a servant, for some trivial
fault, was killed by his master, one of the leaders of the
Heruli. The justice or passion of Narses was awakened: he
summoned the offender to his presence, and without listening to
his excuses, gave the signal to the minister of death. If the
cruel master had not infringed the laws of his nation, this
arbitrary execution was not less unjust than it appears to have
been imprudent. The Heruli felt the indignity; they halted: but
the Roman general, without soothing their rage, or expecting
their resolution, called aloud, as the trumpets sounded, that
unless they hastened to occupy their place, they would lose the
honor of the victory. His troops were disposed ^51 in a long
front, the cavalry on the wings; in the centre, the heavy-armed
foot; the archers and slingers in the rear. The Germans advanced
in a sharp-pointed column, of the form of a triangle or solid
wedge. They pierced the feeble centre of Narses, who received
them with a smile into the fatal snare, and directed his wings of
cavalry insensibly to wheel on their flanks and encompass their
rear. The host of the Franks and Alamanni consisted of infantry:
a sword and buckler hung by their side; and they used, as their
weapons of offence, a weighty hatchet and a hooked javelin, which
were only formidable in close combat, or at a short distance. The
flower of the Roman archers, on horseback, and in complete armor,
skirmished without peril round this immovable phalanx; supplied
by active speed the deficiency of number; and aimed their arrows
against a crowd of Barbarians, who, instead of a cuirass and
helmet, were covered by a loose garment of fur or linen. They
paused, they trembled, their ranks were confounded, and in the
decisive moment the Heruli, preferring glory to revenge, charged
with rapid violence the head of the column. Their leader,
Sinbal, and Aligern, the Gothic prince, deserved the prize of
superior valor; and their example excited the victorious troops
to achieve with swords and spears the destruction of the enemy.
Buccelin, and the greatest part of his army, perished on the
field of battle, in the waters of the Vulturnus, or by the hands
of the enraged peasants: but it may seem incredible, that a
victory, ^52 which no more than five of the Alamanni survived,
could be purchased with the loss of fourscore Romans. Seven
thousand Goths, the relics of the war, defended the fortress of
Campsa till the ensuing spring; and every messenger of Narses
announced the reduction of the Italian cities, whose names were
corrupted by the ignorance or vanity of the Greeks. ^53 After the
battle of Casilinum, Narses entered the capital; the arms and
treasures of the Goths, the Franks, and the Alamanni, were
displayed; his soldiers, with garlands in their hands, chanted
the praises of the conqueror; and Rome, for the last time, beheld
the semblance of a triumph.
[Footnote 50: See the death of Lothaire in Agathias (l. ii. p.
-
and Paul Warnefrid, surnamed Diaconus, (l. ii. c. 3, 775.)
The Greek makes him rave and tear his flesh. He had plundered
churches.]
[Footnote 51: Pere Daniel (Hist. de la Milice Francoise, tom. i.
-
17 - 21) has exhibited a fanciful representation of this
battle, somewhat in the manner of the Chevalier Folard, the once
famous editor of Polybius, who fashioned to his own habits and
opinions all the military operations of antiquity.]
[Footnote 52: Agathias (l. ii. p. 47) has produced a Greek
epigram of six lines on this victory of Narses, which a favorably
compared to the battles of Marathon and Plataea. The chief
difference is indeed in their consequences - so trivial in the
former instance - so permanent and glorious in the latter.
Note: Not in the epigram, but in the previous observations -
-
[Footnote 53: The Beroia and Brincas of Theophanes or his
transcriber (p. 201) must be read or understood Verona and
Brixia.]
After a reign of sixty years, the throne of the Gothic kings
was filled by the exarchs of Ravenna, the representatives in
peace and war of the emperor of the Romans. Their jurisdiction
was soon reduced to the limits of a narrow province: but Narses
himself, the first and most powerful of the exarchs, administered
above fifteen years the entire kingdom of Italy. Like
Belisarius, he had deserved the honors of envy, calumny, and
disgrace: but the favorite eunuch still enjoyed the confidence of
Justinian; or the leader of a victorious army awed and repressed
the ingratitude of a timid court. Yet it was not by weak and
mischievous indulgence that Narses secured the attachment of his
troops. Forgetful of the past, and regardless of the future,
they abused the present hour of prosperity and peace. The cities
of Italy resounded with the noise of drinking and dancing; the
spoils of victory were wasted in sensual pleasures; and nothing
(says Agathias) remained unless to exchange their shields and
helmets for the soft lute and the capacious hogshead. ^54 In a
manly oration, not unworthy of a Roman censor, the eunuch
reproved these disorderly vices, which sullied their fame, and
endangered their safety. The soldiers blushed and obeyed;
discipline was confirmed; the fortifications were restored; a
duke was stationed for the defence and military command of each
of the principal cities; ^55 and the eye of Narses pervaded the
ample prospect from Calabria to the Alps. The remains of the
Gothic nation evacuated the country, or mingled with the people;
the Franks, instead of revenging the death of Buccelin,
abandoned, without a struggle, their Italian conquests; and the
rebellious Sinbal, chief of the Heruli, was subdued, taken and
hung on a lofty gallows by the inflexible justice of the exarch.
^56 The civil state of Italy, after the agitation of a long
tempest, was fixed by a pragmatic sanction, which the emperor
promulgated at the request of the pope. Justinian introduced his
own jurisprudence into the schools and tribunals of the West; he
ratified the acts of Theodoric and his immediate successors, but
every deed was rescinded and abolished which force had extorted,
or fear had subscribed, under the usurpation of Totila. A
moderate theory was framed to reconcile the rights of property
with the safety of prescription, the claims of the state with the
poverty of the people, and the pardon of offences with the
interest of virtue and order of society. Under the exarchs of
Ravenna, Rome was degraded to the second rank. Yet the senators
were gratified by the permission of visiting their estates in
Italy, and of approaching, without obstacle, the throne of
Constantinople: the regulation of weights and measures was
delegated to the pope and senate; and the salaries of lawyers and
physicians, of orators and grammarians, were destined to
preserve, or rekindle, the light of science in the ancient
capital. Justinian might dictate benevolent edicts, ^57 and
Narses might second his wishes by the restoration of cities, and
more especially of churches. But the power of kings is most
effectual to destroy; and the twenty years of the Gothic war had
consummated the distress and depopulation of Italy. As early as
the fourth campaign, under the discipline of Belisarius himself,
fifty thousand laborers died of hunger ^58 in the narrow region
of Picenum; ^59 and a strict interpretation of the evidence of
Procopius would swell the loss of Italy above the total sum of
her present inhabitants. ^60
[Footnote 54: (Agathias, l. ii. p. 48.) In the first scene of
Richard III. our English poet has beautifully enlarged on this
idea, for which, however, he was not indebted to the Byzantine
historian.]
[Footnote 55: Maffei has proved, (Verona Illustrata. P. i. l. x.
-
257, 289,) against the common opinion, that the dukes of Italy
were instituted before the conquest of the Lombards, by Narses
himself. In the Pragmatic Sanction, (No. 23,) Justinian
restrains the judices militares.]
[Footnote 56: See Paulus Diaconus, liii. c. 2, p. 776. Menander
in (Excerp Legat. p. 133) mentions some risings in Italy by the
Franks, and Theophanes (p. 201) hints at some Gothic rebellions.]
[Footnote 57: The Pragmatic Sanction of Justinian, which restores
and regulates the civil state of Italy, consists of xxvii.
articles: it is dated August 15, A.D. 554; is addressed to
Narses, V. J. Praepositus Sacri Cubiculi, and to Antiochus,
Praefectus Praetorio Italiae; and has been preserved by Julian
Antecessor, and in the Corpus Juris Civilis, after the novels and
edicts of Justinian, Justin, and Tiberius.]
[Footnote 58: A still greater number was consumed by famine in
the southern provinces, without the Ionian Gulf. Acorns were
used in the place of bread. Procopius had seen a deserted orphan
suckled by a she-goat. Seventeen passengers were lodged,
murdered, and eaten, by two women, who were detected and slain by
the eighteenth, &c.
Note: Denina considers that greater evil was inflicted upon
Italy by the Urocian conquest than by any other invasion.
Reveluz. d' Italia, t. i. l. v. p. 247. - M.]
[Footnote 59: Quinta regio Piceni est; quondam uberrimae
multitudinis, ccclx. millia Picentium in fidem P. R. venere,
(Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 18.) In the time of Vespasian, this
ancient population was already diminished.]
[Footnote 60: Perhaps fifteen or sixteen millions. Procopius
(Anecdot. c. 18) computes that Africa lost five millions, that
Italy was thrice as extensive, and that the depopulation was in a
larger proportion. But his reckoning is inflamed by passion, and
clouded with uncertainty.]
I desire to believe, but I dare not affirm, that Belisarius
sincerely rejoiced in the triumph of Narses. Yet the
consciousness of his own exploits might teach him to esteem
without jealousy the merit of a rival; and the repose of the aged
warrior was crowned by a last victory, which saved the emperor
and the capital. The Barbarians, who annually visited the
provinces of Europe, were less discouraged by some accidental
defeats, than they were excited by the double hope of spoil and
of subsidy. In the thirty-second winter of Justinian's reign,
the Danube was deeply frozen: Zabergan led the cavalry of the
Bulgarians, and his standard was followed by a promiscuous
multitude of Sclavonians. ^* The savage chief passed, without
opposition, the river and the mountains, spread his troops over
Macedonia and Thrace, and advanced with no more than seven
thousand horse to the long wall, which should have defended the
territory of Constantinople. But the works of man are impotent
against the assaults of nature: a recent earthquake had shaken
the foundations of the wall; and the forces of the empire were
employed on the distant frontiers of Italy, Africa, and Persia.
The seven schools, ^61 or companies of the guards or domestic
troops, had been augmented to the number of five thousand five
hundred men, whose ordinary station was in the peaceful cities of
Asia. But the places of the brave Armenians were insensibly
supplied by lazy citizens, who purchased an exemption from the
duties of civil life, without being exposed to the dangers of
military service. Of such soldiers, few could be tempted to
sally from the gates; and none could be persuaded to remain in
the field, unless they wanted strength and speed to escape from
the Bulgarians. The report of the fugitives exaggerated the
numbers and fierceness of an enemy, who had polluted holy
virgins, and abandoned new-born infants to the dogs and vultures;
a crowd of rustics, imploring food and protection, increased the
consternation of the city, and the tents of Zabergan were pitched
at the distance of twenty miles, ^62 on the banks of a small
river, which encircles Melanthias, and afterwards falls into the
Propontis. ^63 Justinian trembled: and those who had only seen
the emperor in his old age, were pleased to suppose, that he had
lost the alacrity and vigor of his youth. By his command the
vessels of gold and silver were removed from the churches in the
neighborhood, and even the suburbs, of Constantinople; the
ramparts were lined with trembling spectators; the golden gate
was crowded with useless generals and tribunes, and the senate
shared the fatigues and the apprehensions of the populace.
[Footnote *: Zabergan was king of the Cutrigours, a tribe of
Huns, who were neither Bulgarians nor Sclavonians. St. Martin,
vol. ix. p. 408 - 420. - M]
[Footnote 61: In the decay of these military schools, the satire
of Procopius (Anecdot. c. 24, Aleman. p. 102, 103) is confirmed
and illustrated by Agathias, (l. v. p. 159,) who cannot be
rejected as a hostile witness.]
[Footnote 62: The distance from Constantinople to Melanthias,
Villa Caesariana, (Ammian. Marcellin. xxx. 11,) is variously
fixed at 102 or 140 stadia, (Suidas, tom. ii. p. 522, 523.
Agathias, l. v. p. 158,) or xviii. or xix. miles, (Itineraria,
-
138, 230, 323, 332, and Wesseling's Observations.) The first
-
miles, as far as Rhegium, were paved by Justinian, who built
a bridge over a morass or gullet between a lake and the sea,
(Procop. de Edif. l. iv. c. 8.)]
[Footnote 63: The Atyras, (Pompon. Mela, l. ii. c. 2, p. 169,
edit. Voss.) At the river's mouth, a town or castle of the same
name was fortified by Justinian, (Procop. de Edif. l. iv. c. 2.
Itinerar. p. 570, and Wesseling.)]
But the eyes of the prince and people were directed to a
feeble veteran, who was compelled by the public danger to resume
the armor in which he had entered Carthage and defended Rome.
The horses of the royal stables, of private citizens, and even of
the circus, were hastily collected; the emulation of the old and
young was roused by the name of Belisarius, and his first
encampment was in the presence of a victorious enemy. His
prudence, and the labor of the friendly peasants, secured, with a
ditch and rampart, the repose of the night; innumerable fires,
and clouds of dust, were artfully contrived to magnify the
opinion of his strength; his soldiers suddenly passed from
despondency to presumption; and, while ten thousand voices
demanded the battle, Belisarius dissembled his knowledge, that in
the hour of trial he must depend on the firmness of three hundred
veterans. The next morning the Bulgarian cavalry advanced to the
charge. But they heard the shouts of multitudes, they beheld the
arms and discipline of the front; they were assaulted on the
flanks by two ambuscades which rose from the woods; their
foremost warriors fell by the hand of the aged hero and his
gnards; and the swiftness of their evolutions was rendered
useless by the close attack and rapid pursuit of the Romans. In
this action (so speedy was their flight) the Bulgarians lost only
four hundred horse; but Constantinople was saved; and Zabergan,
who felt the hand of a master, withdrew to a respectful distance.
But his friends were numerous in the councils of the emperor, and
Belisarius obeyed with reluctance the commands of envy and
Justinian, which forbade him to achieve the deliverance of his
country. On his return to the city, the people, still conscious
of their danger, accompanied his triumph with acclamations of joy
and gratitude, which were imputed as a crime to the victorious
general. But when he entered the palace, the courtiers were
silent, and the emperor, after a cold and thankless embrace,
dismissed him to mingle with the train of slaves. Yet so deep
was the impression of his glory on the minds of men, that
Justinian, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, was encouraged
to advance near forty miles from the capital, and to inspect in
person the restoration of the long wall. The Bulgarians wasted
the summer in the plains of Thrace; but they were inclined to
peace by the failure of their rash attempts on Greece and the
Chersonesus. A menace of killing their prisoners quickened the
payment of heavy ransoms; and the departure of Zabergan was
hastened by the report, that double-prowed vessels were built on
the Danube to intercept his passage. The danger was soon
forgotten; and a vain question, whether their sovereign had shown
more wisdom or weakness, amused the idleness of the city. ^64
[Footnote 64: The Bulgarian war, and the last victory of
Belisarius, are imperfectly represented in the prolix declamation
of Agathias. (l. 5, p. 154-174,) and the dry Chronicle of
Theophanes, (p. 197 198.)]
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