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.

a

the Franks

Narses,

At the entrance of the spring the Imperial troops who had guarded the cities assembled, to the number of eighteen Defeat of thousand men, in the neighbourhood of Rome. Their and Alawinter hours had not been consumed in idleness. By the Manni by command and after the example of Narses, they repeated A.D. 554. 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 waggons 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,

:

50 See the death of Lothaire in Agathias (1. ii. p. 38 [p. 70, ed. Bonn]) and Paul Warnefrid, surnamed Diaconus (1. ii. c. 2, p. 775). The Greek makes him rave and tear his flesh. He had plundered churches.

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.

51

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 honour of the victory. His troops were disposed 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 armour, skirmished without peril round this immoveable 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 Sindbal, and Aligern the Gothic prince, deserved the prize of superior valour; and their example incited 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. After the battle of Casilinum Narses entered the capital; the arms and treasures of the Goths, the Franks, and the Alamanni were displayed; his

53

51 Père Daniel (Hist. de la Milice Françoise, tom. i. p. 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.

52 Agathias (1. ii. p. 47 [p. 87, ed. Bonn]) has produced a Greek epigram of six lines on this victory of Narses, which is favourably compared to the battles of Marathon and Platea." The chief difference is indeed in their consequences-so trivial in the former instance-so permanent and glorious in the latter.

53 The Beroia and Brincas of Theophanes or his transcriber (p. 201 [tom. i. p. 367, ed. Bonn]) must be read or understood Verona and Brixia.

"Not in the epigram, but in the previous observations.-M.

soldiers, with garlands in their hands, chanted the praises of the conqueror; and Rome for the last time beheld the semblance of a triumph.

A.D. 554-568.

After a reign of sixty years the throne of the Gothic kings was filled by the exarchs of Ravenna, the representatives in peace Settlement and war of the emperor of the Romans. Their jurisdiction of Italy, 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 honours of envy, calumny, and disgrace: but the favourite 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. 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 Sindbal, 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

54 Ελείπετο γὰρ, οἶμαι, αὐτοῖς ὑπὸ ἀβελτερίας τὰς ἀσπίδας τυχὸν καὶ τὰ κράνη ἀμφορέως oivou xai Bagbirou arodore (Agathias, 1. ii. [c. 11] p. 48 [p. 88, ed. Bonn]). 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.

55 Maffei has proved (Verona Illustrata, P. i. 1. x. p. 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.

56 See Paulus Diaconus, 1. iii. c. 3, p. 776. Menander (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 133 [p. 345, ed. Bonn]) mentions some risings in Italy by the Franks, and Theophanes (p. 201 [tom. i. p. 367, ed. Bonn]) hints at some Gothic rebellions.

VOL. V.

R

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, 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 labourers died of hunger in the narrow region of Picenum; and a strict interpretation of the evidence of Procopius would swell the loss of Italy above the total sum of her present inhabitants.6

the Bulga

37

I desire to believe, but I dare not affirm, that Belisarius sincerely Invasion of 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

rians, A.D. 559.

7 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. Præpositus Sacri Cubiculi, and to Antiochus Præfectus Prætorio Italiæ; and has been preserved by Julian Antecessor, and in the Corpus Juris Civilis, after the novels and edicts of Justinian, Justin, and Tiberius.

58 A still greater number was consumed by famine in the southern provinces, without (xTo;) the Ionian Gulf. Acorns were used in the place of bread. Procopius had seen a deserted orphan suckled by a she-goat [Goth. ii. c. 17]. Seventeen passengers were lodged, murdered, and eaten, by two women, who were detected and slain by the eighteenth, &c."

59 Quinta regio Piceni est; quondam uberrimæ 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.

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.

a Denina considers that greater evil was inflicted upon Italy by the Grecian re

conquest than by any other invasion. Revoluz, d'Italia, t. i. I. v. p. 247.-M.

61

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 walls 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 walls; and the forces of the empire were employed on the distant frontiers of Italy, Africa, and Persia. The seven schools, 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." 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 vigour of his youth. By his command the vessels of gold and silver were removed from the churches in the neighbourhood, and even the suburbs, of Constantinople: the ramparts were lined with trembling

63

61 In the decay of these military schools, the satire of Procopius (Anecdot. c. 24 [tom. iii. p. 135, ed. Bonn]; Aleman. p. 102, 103) is confirmed and illustrated by Agathias (1. v. p. 159 [p. 310, ed. Bonn]), who cannot be rejected as an hostile

witness.

62 The distance from Constantinople to Melanthias, Villa Cæsariana (Ammian. Marcellin. xxxi. 11), is variously fixed at 120 or 140 stadia (Suidas, tom. ii. p. 522, 523; Agathias, 1. v. (c. 14] p. 158 [p. 308, ed. Bonn]), or xviii or xix miles (Itineraria, p. 138, 230, 323, 332, and Wesseling's Observations). The first xii 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. 1. iv. c. 8).

63 The Atyras (Pompon. Mela, I. 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 Ædif. 1. iv. c. 2; Itinerar. p. 570; and Wesseling).