Part V.
From the moment that Belisarius had determined to sustain a
siege, his assiduous care provided Rome against the danger of
famine, more dreadful than the Gothic arms. An extraordinary
supply of corn was imported from Sicily: the harvests of Campania
and Tuscany were forcibly swept for the use of the city; and the
rights of private property were infringed by the strong plea of
the public safety. It might easily be foreseen that the enemy
would intercept the aqueducts; and the cessation of the
water-mills was the first inconvenience, which was speedily
removed by mooring large vessels, and fixing mill-stones in the
current of the river. The stream was soon embarrassed by the
trunks of trees, and polluted with dead bodies; yet so effectual
were the precautions of the Roman general, that the waters of the
Tyber still continued to give motion to the mills and drink to
the inhabitants: the more distant quarters were supplied from
domestic wells; and a besieged city might support, without
impatience, the privation of her public baths. A large portion
of Rome, from the Praenestine gate to the church of St. Paul, was
never invested by the Goths; their excursions were restrained by
the activity of the Moorish troops: the navigation of the Tyber,
and the Latin, Appian, and Ostian ways, were left free and
unmolested for the introduction of corn and cattle, or the
retreat of the inhabitants, who sought refuge in Campania or
Sicily. Anxious to relieve himself from a useless and devouring
multitude, Belisarius issued his peremptory orders for the
instant departure of the women, the children, and slaves;
required his soldiers to dismiss their male and female
attendants, and regulated their allowance that one moiety should
be given in provisions, and the other in money. His foresight
was justified by the increase of the public distress, as soon as
the Goths had occupied two important posts in the neighborhood of
Rome. By the loss of the port, or, as it is now called, the city
of Porto, he was deprived of the country on the right of the
Tyber, and the best communication with the sea; and he reflected,
with grief and anger, that three hundred men, could he have
spared such a feeble band, might have defended its impregnable
works. Seven miles from the capital, between the Appian and the
Latin ways, two principal aqueducts crossing, and again crossing
each other: enclosed within their solid and lofty arches a
fortified space, ^87 where Vitiges established a camp of seven
thousand Goths to intercept the convoy of Sicily and Campania.
The granaries of Rome were insensibly exhausted, the adjacent
country had been wasted with fire and sword; such scanty supplies
as might yet be obtained by hasty excursions were the reward of
valor, and the purchase of wealth: the forage of the horses, and
the bread of the soldiers, never failed: but in the last months
of the siege, the people were exposed to the miseries of
scarcity, unwholesome food, ^88 and contagious disorders.
Belisarius saw and pitied their sufferings; but he had foreseen,
and he watched the decay of their loyalty, and the progress of
their discontent. Adversity had awakened the Romans from the
dreams of grandeur and freedom, and taught them the humiliating
lesson, that it was of small moment to their real happiness,
whether the name of their master was derived from the Gothic or
the Latin language. The lieutenant of Justinian listened to
their just complaints, but he rejected with disdain the idea of
flight or capitulation; repressed their clamorous impatience for
battle; amused them with the prospect of a sure and speedy
relief; and secured himself and the city from the effects of
their despair or treachery. Twice in each month he changed the
station of the officers to whom the custody of the gates was
committed: the various precautions of patroles, watch words,
lights, and music, were repeatedly employed to discover whatever
passed on the ramparts; out-guards were posted beyond the ditch,
and the trusty vigilance of dogs supplied the more doubtful
fidelity of mankind. A letter was intercepted, which assured the
king of the Goths that the Asinarian gate, adjoining to the
Lateran church, should be secretly opened to his troops. On the
proof or suspicion of treason, several senators were banished,
and the pope Sylverius was summoned to attend the representative
of his sovereign, at his head-quarters in the Pincian palace. ^89
The ecclesiastics, who followed their bishop, were detained in
the first or second apartment, ^90 and he alone was admitted to
the presence of Belisarius. The conqueror of Rome and Carthage
was modestly seated at the feet of Antonina, who reclined on a
stately couch: the general was silent, but the voice of reproach
and menace issued from the mouth of his imperious wife. Accused
by credible witnesses, and the evidence of his own subscription,
the successor of St. Peter was despoiled of his pontifical
ornaments, clad in the mean habit of a monk, and embarked,
without delay, for a distant exile in the East. ^* At the
emperor's command, the clergy of Rome proceeded to the choice of
a new bishop; and after a solemn invocation of the Holy Ghost,
elected the deacon Vigilius, who had purchased the papal throne
by a bribe of two hundred pounds of gold. The profit, and
consequently the guilt, of this simony, was imputed to
Belisarius: but the hero obeyed the orders of his wife; Antonina
served the passions of the empress; and Theodora lavished her
treasures, in the vain hope of obtaining a pontiff hostile or
indifferent to the council of Chalcedon. ^91
[Footnote 87: Procopius (Goth. l. ii. c. 3) has forgot to name
these aqueducts nor can such a double intersection, at such a
distance from Rome, be clearly ascertained from the writings of
Frontinus, Fabretti, and Eschinard, de Aquis and de Agro Romano,
or from the local maps of Lameti and Cingolani. Seven or eight
miles from the city, (50 stadia,) on the road to Albano, between
the Latin and Appian ways, I discern the remains of an aqueduct,
(probably the Septimian,) a series (630 paces) of arches
twenty-five feet high.]
[Footnote 88: They made sausages of mule's flesh; unwholesome, if
the animals had died of the plague. Otherwise, the famous
Bologna sausages are said to be made of ass flesh, (Voyages de
Labat, tom. ii. p. 218.)]
[Footnote 89: The name of the palace, the hill, and the adjoining gate, were all derived from the senator Pincius. Some recent vestiges of temples and churches are now smoothed in the garden of the Minims of the Trinita del Monte, (Nardini, l. iv. c. 7, p. 196. Eschinard, p. 209, 210, the old plan of Buffalino, and the great plan of Nolli.) Belisarius had fixed his station between the Pincian and Salarian gates, (Procop. Goth. l. i. c. 15.)] [Footnote 90: From the mention of the primum et secundum velum, it should seem that Belisarius, even in a siege, represented the emperor, and maintained the proud ceremonial of the Byzantine palace.]
[Footnote *: De Beau, as a good Catholic, makes the Pope the victim of a dark intrigue. Lord Mahon, (p. 225.) with whom I concur, summed up against him. - M.]
[Footnote 91: Of this act of sacrilege, Procopius (Goth. l. i. c.
The epistle of Belisarius to the emperor announced his
victory, his danger, and his resolution. "According to your commands, we have entered the dominions of the Goths, and reduced to your obedience Sicily, Campania, and the city of Rome; but the loss of these conquests will be more disgraceful than their acquisition was glorious. Hitherto we have successfully fought against the multitudes of the Barbarians, but their multitudes may finally prevail. Victory is the gift of Providence, but the reputation of kings and generals depends on the success or the failure of their designs. Permit me to speak with freedom: if you wish that we should live, send us subsistence; if you desire that we should conquer, send us arms, horses, and men. The Romans have received us as friends and deliverers: but in our present distress, they will be either betrayed by their confidence, or we shall be oppressed by their treachery and hatred. For myself, my life is consecrated to your service: it is yours to reflect, whether my death in this situation will contribute to the glory and prosperity of your reign." Perhaps that reign would have been equally prosperous if the peaceful master of the East had abstained from the conquest of Africa and Italy: but as Justinian was ambitious of fame, he made some efforts (they were feeble and languid) to support and rescue his victorious general. A reenforcement of sixteen hundred Sclavonians and Huns was led by Martin and Valerian; and as they reposed during the winter season in the harbors of Greece, the strength of the men and horses was not impaired by the fatigues of a sea-voyage; and they distinguished their valor in the first sally against the besiegers. About the time of the summer solstice, Euthalius landed at Terracina with large sums of money for the payment of the troops: he cautiously proceeded along the Appian way, and this convoy entered Rome through the gate Capena, ^92 while Belisarius, on the other side, diverted the attention of the Goths by a vigorous and successful skirmish. These seasonable aids, the use and reputation of which were dexterously managed by the Roman general, revived the courage, or at least the hopes, of the soldiers and people. The historian Procopius was despatched with an important commission to collect the troops and provisions which Campania could furnish, or Constantinople had sent; and the secretary of Belisarius was soon followed by Antonina herself, ^93 who boldly traversed the posts of the enemy, and returned with the Oriental succors to the relief of her husband and the besieged city. A fleet of three thousand Isaurians cast anchor in the Bay of Naples and afterwards at Ostia. Above two thousand horse, of whom a part were Thracians, landed at Tarentum; and, after the junction of five hundred soldiers of Campania, and a train of wagons laden with wine and flour, they directed their march on the Appian way, from Capua to the neighborhood of Rome. The forces that arrived by land and sea were united at the mouth of the Tyber. Antonina convened a council of war: it was resolved to surmount, with sails and oars, the adverse stream of the river; and the Goths were apprehensive of disturbing, by any rash hostilities, the negotiation to which Belisarius had craftily listened. They credulously believed that they saw no more than the vanguard of a fleet and army, which already covered the Ionian Sea and the plains of Campania; and the illusion was supported by the haughty language of the Roman general, when he gave audience to the ambassadors of Vitiges. After a specious discourse to vindicate the justice of his cause, they declared, that, for the sake of peace, they were disposed to renounce the possession of Sicily. "The emperor is not less generous," replied his lieutenant, with a disdainful smile, "in return for a gift which you no longer possess: he presents you with an ancient province of the empire; he resigns to the Goths the sovereignty of the British island." Belisarius rejected with equal firmness and contempt the offer of a tribute; but he allowed the Gothic ambassadors to seek their fate from the mouth of Justinian himself; and consented, with seeming reluctance, to a truce of three months, from the winter solstice to the equinox of spring. Prudence might not safely trust either the oaths or hostages of the Barbarians, and the conscious superiority of the Roman chief was expressed in the distribution of his troops. As soon as fear or hunger compelled the Goths to evacuate Alba, Porto, and Centumcellae, their place was instantly supplied; the garrisons of Narni, Spoleto, and Perusia, were reenforced, and the seven camps of the besiegers were gradually encompassed with the calamities of a siege. The prayers and pilgrimage of Datius, bishop of Milan, were not without effect; and he obtained one thousand Thracians and Isaurians, to assist the revolt of Liguria against her Arian tyrant. At the same time, John the Sanguinary, ^94 the nephew of Vitalian, was detached with two thousand chosen horse, first to Alba, on the Fucine Lake, and afterwards to the frontiers of Picenum, on the Hadriatic Sea. "In the province," said Belisarius, "the Goths have deposited their families and treasures, without a guard or the suspicion of danger. Doubtless they will violate the truce: let them feel your presence, before they hear of your motions. Spare the Italians; suffer not any fortified places to remain hostile in your rear; and faithfully reserve the spoil for an equal and common partition. It would not be reasonable," he added with a laugh, "that whilst we are toiling to the destruction of the drones, our more fortunate brethren should rifle and enjoy the honey."
[Footnote 92: The old Capena was removed by Aurelian to, or near, the modern gate of St. Sebastian, (see Nolli's plan.) That memorable spot has been consecrated by the Egerian grove, the memory of Numa two umphal arches, the sepulchres of the Scipios, Metelli, &c.]
[Footnote 93: The expression of Procopius has an invidious cast, (Goth. l. ii. c. 4.) Yet he is speaking of a woman.]
[Footnote 94: Anastasius (p. 40) has preserved this epithet of Sanguinarius which might do honor to a tiger.]
The whole nation of the Ostrogoths had been assembled for
the attack, and was almost entirely consumed in the siege of Rome. If any credit be due to an intelligent spectator, one third at least of their enormous host was destroyed, in frequent and bloody combats under the walls of the city. The bad fame and pernicious qualities of the summer air might already be imputed to the decay of agriculture and population; and the evils of famine and pestilence were aggravated by their own licentiousness, and the unfriendly disposition of the country. While Vitiges struggled with his fortune, while he hesitated between shame and ruin, his retreat was hastened by domestic alarms. The king of the Goths was informed by trembling messengers, that John the Sanguinary spread the devastations of war from the Apennine to the Hadriatic; that the rich spoils and innumerable captives of Picenum were lodged in the fortifications of Rimini; and that this formidable chief had defeated his uncle, insulted his capital, and seduced, by secret correspondence, the fidelity of his wife, the imperious daughter of Amalasontha. Yet, before he retired, Vitiges made a last effort, either to storm or to surprise the city. A secret passage was discovered in one of the aqueducts; two citizens of the Vatican were tempted by bribes to intoxicate the guards of the Aurelian gate; an attack was meditated on the walls beyond the Tyber, in a place which was not fortified with towers; and the Barbarians advanced, with torches and scaling-ladders, to the assault of the Pincian gate. But every attempt was defeated by the intrepid vigilance of Belisarius and his band of veterans, who, in the most perilous moments, did not regret the absence of their companions; and the Goths, alike destitute of hope and subsistence, clamorously urged their departure before the truce should expire, and the Roman cavalry should again be united. One year and nine days after the commencement of the siege, an army, so lately strong and triumphant, burnt their tents, and tumultuously repassed the Milvian bridge. They repassed not with impunity: their thronging multitudes, oppressed in a narrow passage, were driven headlong into the Tyber, by their own fears and the pursuit of the enemy; and the Roman general, sallying from the Pincian gate, inflicted a severe and disgraceful wound on their retreat. The slow length of a sickly and desponding host was heavily dragged along the Flaminian way; from whence the Barbarians were sometimes compelled to deviate, lest they should encounter the hostile garrisons that guarded the high road to Rimini and Ravenna. Yet so powerful was this flying army, that Vitiges spared ten thousand men for the defence of the cities which he was most solicitous to preserve, and detached his nephew Uraias, with an adequate force, for the chastisement of rebellious Milan. At the head of his principal army, he besieged Rimini, only thirty-three miles distant from the Gothic capital. A feeble rampart, and a shallow ditch, were maintained by the skill and valor of John the Sanguinary, who shared the danger and fatigue of the meanest soldier, and emulated, on a theatre less illustrious, the military virtues of his great commander. The towers and battering-engines of the Barbarians were rendered useless; their attacks were repulsed; and the tedious blockade, which reduced the garrison to the last extremity of hunger, afforded time for the union and march of the Roman forces. A fleet, which had surprised Ancona, sailed along the coast of the Hadriatic, to the relief of the besieged city. The eunuch Narses landed in Picenum with two thousand Heruli and five thousand of the bravest troops of the East. The rock of the Apennine was forced; ten thousand veterans moved round the foot of the mountains, under the command of Belisarius himself; and a new army, whose encampment blazed with innumerable lights, appeared to advance along the Flaminian way. Overwhelmed with astonishment and despair, the Goths abandoned the siege of Rimini, their tents, their standards, and their leaders; and Vitiges, who gave or followed the example of flight, never halted till he found a shelter within the walls and morasses of Ravenna.
To these walls, and to some fortresses destitute of any
mutual support, the Gothic monarchy was now reduced. The provinces of Italy had embraced the party of the emperor and his army, gradually recruited to the number of twenty thousand men, must have achieved an easy and rapid conquest, if their invincible powers had not been weakened by the discord of the Roman chiefs. Before the end of the siege, an act of blood, ambiguous and indiscreet, sullied the fair fame of Belisarius. Presidius, a loyal Italian, as he fled from Ravenna to Rome, was rudely stopped by Constantine, the military governor of Spoleto, and despoiled, even in a church, of two daggers richly inlaid with gold and precious stones. As soon as the public danger had subsided, Presidius complained of the loss and injury: his complaint was heard, but the order of restitution was disobeyed by the pride and avarice of the offender. Exasperated by the delay, Presidius boldly arrested the general's horse as he passed through the forum; and, with the spirit of a citizen, demanded the common benefit of the Roman laws. The honor of Belisarius was engaged; he summoned a council; claimed the obedience of his subordinate officer; and was provoked, by an insolent reply, to call hastily for the presence of his guards. Constantine, viewing their entrance as the signal of death, drew his sword, and rushed on the general, who nimbly eluded the stroke, and was protected by his friends; while the desperate assassin was disarmed, dragged into a neighboring chamber, and executed, or rather murdered, by the guards, at the arbitrary command of Belisarius. ^95 In this hasty act of violence, the guilt of Constantine was no longer remembered; the despair and death of that valiant officer were secretly imputed to the revenge of Antonina; and each of his colleagues, conscious of the same rapine, was apprehensive of the same fate. The fear of a common enemy suspended the effects of their envy and discontent; but in the confidence of approaching victory, they instigated a powerful rival to oppose the conqueror of Rome and Africa. From the domestic service of the palace, and the administration of the private revenue, Narses the eunuch was suddenly exalted to the head of an army; and the spirit of a hero, who afterwards equalled the merit and glory of Belisarius, served only to perplex the operations of the Gothic war. To his prudent counsels, the relief of Rimini was ascribed by the leaders of the discontented faction, who exhorted Narses to assume an independent and separate command. The epistle of Justinian had indeed enjoined his obedience to the general; but the dangerous exception, "as far as may be advantageous to the public service," reserved some freedom of judgment to the discreet favorite, who had so lately departed from the sacred and familiar conversation of his sovereign. In the exercise of this doubtful right, the eunuch perpetually dissented from the opinions of Belisarius; and, after yielding with reluctance to the siege of Urbino, he deserted his colleague in the night, and marched away to the conquest of the Aemilian province. The fierce and formidable bands of the Heruli were attached to the person of Narses; ^96 ten thousand Romans and confederates were persuaded to march under his banners; every malecontent embraced the fair opportunity of revenging his private or imaginary wrongs; and the remaining troops of Belisarius were divided and dispersed from the garrisons of Sicily to the shores of the Hadriatic. His skill and perseverance overcame every obstacle: Urbino was taken, the sieges of Faesulae Orvieto, and Auximum, were undertaken and vigorously prosecuted; and the eunuch Narses was at length recalled to the domestic cares of the palace. All dissensions were healed, and all opposition was subdued, by the temperate authority of the Roman general, to whom his enemies could not refuse their esteem; and Belisarius inculcated the salutary lesson that the forces of the state should compose one body, and be animated by one soul. But in the interval of discord, the Goths were permitted to breathe; an important season was lost, Milan was destroyed, and the northern provinces of Italy were afflicted by an inundation of the Franks.
[Footnote 95: This transaction is related in the public history (Goth. l. ii. c. 8) with candor or caution; in the Anecdotes (c.
When Justinian first meditated the conquest of Italy, he
sent ambassadors to the kings of the Franks, and adjured them, by the common ties of alliance and religion, to join in the holy enterprise against the Arians. The Goths, as their want were more urgent, employed a more effectual mode of persuasion, and vainly strove, by the gift of lands and money, to purchase the friendship, or at least the neutrality, of a light and perfidious nation. ^97 But the arms of Belisarius, and the revolt of the Italians, had no sooner shaken the Gothic monarchy, than Theodebert of Austrasia, the most powerful and warlike of the Merovingian kings, was persuaded to succor their distress by an indirect and seasonable aid. Without expecting the consent of their sovereign, the thousand Burgundians, his recent subjects, descended from the Alps, and joined the troops which Vitiges had sent to chastise the revolt of Milan. After an obstinate siege, the capital of Liguria was reduced by famine; but no capitulation could be obtained, except for the safe retreat of the Roman garrison. Datius, the orthodox bishop, who had seduced his countrymen to rebellion ^98 and ruin, escaped to the luxury and honors of the Byzantine court; ^99 but the clergy, perhaps the Arian clergy, were slaughtered at the foot of their own altars by the defenders of the Catholic faith. Three hundred thousand males were reported to be slain; ^100 the female sex, and the more precious spoil, was resigned to the Burgundians; and the houses, or at least the walls, of Milan, were levelled with the ground. The Goths, in their last moments, were revenged by the destruction of a city, second only to Rome in size and opulence, in the splendor of its buildings, or the number of its inhabitants; and Belisarius sympathized alone in the fate of his deserted and devoted friends. Encouraged by this successful inroad, Theodebert himself, in the ensuing spring, invaded the plains of Italy with an army of one hundred thousand Barbarians. ^101 The king, and some chosen followers, were mounted on horseback, and armed with lances; the infantry, without bows or spears, were satisfied with a shield, a sword, and a double-edged battle-axe, which, in their hands, became a deadly and unerring weapon. Italy trembled at the march of the Franks; and both the Gothic prince and the Roman general, alike ignorant of their designs, solicited, with hope and terror, the friendship of these dangerous allies. Till he had secured the passage of the Po on the bridge of Pavia, the grandson of Clovis dissembled his intentions, which he at length declared, by assaulting, almost at the same instant, the hostile camps of the Romans and Goths. Instead of uniting their arms, they fled with equal precipitation; and the fertile, though desolate provinces of Liguria and Aemilia, were abandoned to a licentious host of Barbarians, whose rage was not mitigated by any thoughts of settlement or conquest. Among the cities which they ruined, Genoa, not yet constructed of marble, is particularly enumerated; and the deaths of thousands, according to the regular practice of war, appear to have excited less horror than some idolatrous sacrifices of women and children, which were performed with impunity in the camp of the most Christian king. If it were not a melancholy truth, that the first and most cruel sufferings must be the lot of the innocent and helpless, history might exult in the misery of the conquerors, who, in the midst of riches, were left destitute of bread or wine, reduced to drink the waters of the Po, and to feed on the flesh of distempered cattle. The dysentery swept away one third of their army; and the clamors of his subjects, who were impatient to pass the Alps, disposed Theodebert to listen with respect to the mild exhortations of Belisarius. The memory of this inglorious and destructive warfare was perpetuated on the medals of Gaul; and Justinian, without unsheathing his sword, assumed the title of conqueror of the Franks. The Merovingian prince was offended by the vanity of the emperor; he affected to pity the fallen fortunes of the Goths; and his insidious offer of a foederal union was fortified by the promise or menace of descending from the Alps at the head of five hundred thousand men. His plans of conquest were boundless, and perhaps chimerical. The king of Austrasia threatened to chastise Justinian, and to march to the gates of Constantinople: ^102 he was overthrown and slain ^103 by a wild bull, ^104 as he hunted in the Belgic or German forests. [Footnote 97: This national reproach of perfidy (Procop. Goth. l.
[Footnote 98: Baronius applauds his treason, and justifies the
Catholic bishops - qui ne sub heretico principe degant omnem
lapidem movent - a useful caution. The more rational Muratori
(Annali d'Italia, tom. v. p. 54) hints at the guilt of perjury,
and blames at least the imprudence of Datius.]
[Footnote 99: St. Datius was more successful against devils than
against Barbarians. He travelled with a numerons retinue, and
occupied at Corinth a large house. (Baronius, A.D. 538, No. 89,
A.D. 539, No. 20.)]
[Footnote 100: (Compare Procopius, Goth. l. ii. c. 7, 21.) Yet
such population is incredible; and the second or third city of
Italy need not repine if we only decimate the numbers of the
present text Both Milan and Genoa revived in less than thirty
years, (Paul Diacon de Gestis Langobard. l. ii. c. 38.)
Note: Procopius says distinctly that Milan was the second
city of the West. Which did Gibbon suppose could compete with it, Ravenna or Naples; the next page he calls it the second. -
[Footnote 101: Besides Procopius, perhaps too Roman, see the Chronicles of Marius and Marcellinus, Jornandes, (in Success. Regn. in Muratori, tom. i. p. 241,) and Gregory of Tours, (l.
[Footnote 103: The king pointed his spear - the bull overturned a tree on his head - he expired the same day. Such is the story of Agathias; but the original historians of France (tom. ii. p. 202, 403, 558, 667) impute his death to a fever.]
[Footnote 104: Without losing myself in a labyrinth of species and names - the aurochs, urus, bisons, bubalus, bonasus, buffalo, &c., (Buffon. Hist. Nat. tom. xi., and Supplement, tom. iii. vi.,) it is certain, that in the sixth century a large wild species of horned cattle was hunted in the great forests of the Vosges in Lorraine, and the Ardennes, (Greg. Turon. tom. ii. l.