Book 7

1.1. Thus Belisarius, while affairs were still in suspense, came to Byzantium bringing with him Wittigis and the notable Goths and the children of Ildibadus and all the goods, and there followed him Ildiger and Valerianus and Martinus with Herodian, these alone. 1.2. And the emperor Justinian saw Wittigis with his wife gladly, and marvelled at the throng of the barbarians for the beauty and stature of their bodies. 1.3. And receiving the wealth of Theoderic, which was a thing worth seeing, he set it out in the Palatium as a spectacle for those of the senate in private, taking pride in the magnitude of what had been done; but he neither displayed it to the populace nor granted the triumph to Belisarius, as he had done when he came after conquering Gelimer and the Vandals. 1.4. Yet in all men's tales Belisarius was the theme, having won two victories such as it had never before befallen any man to achieve, and having led two kings captive to Byzantium, and having made the race and the wealth of both Gizeric and Theoderic spoil for the Romans, contrary to expectation—men than whom none more illustrious had ever arisen among the barbarians—and having brought back the wealth from the enemy again into the state, and having recovered for the empire in a short time nearly half the portion of land and sea. 1.5. And it was a delight to the people of Byzantium to see Belisarius going forth from his house into the forum each day, or returning to it, and no one was ever sated with this sight. 1.6. For his going forth resembled a most crowded procession, since a multitude of Vandals and Goths and Moors always followed him. And he was also handsome in body and tall and most comely of countenance of all men. 1.7. And he showed himself so gentle and so easy of approach to those who met him that he resembled a man both very poor and of no repute. 1.8. And the love of his rule that was invincible among the soldiers and the country folk arose because he had become the most generous of all men toward the soldiers; for those who had been unfortunate in an engagement he consoled for their former wounds with great sums of money, and to those who had distinguished themselves he gave as prizes armlets and necklaces to wear; and if a soldier's horse or bow or any other thing whatever had been lost in battle, another was straightway provided in its place by Belisarius. And toward the country folk he used such sparingness and forethought that, while Belisarius was general, it never befell that they suffered any violence, but it came about, contrary to expectation, that all on whom a multitude of his army was quartered grew rich. 1.9. For all their goods were sold to them at their own price. And whenever the crops were at their height, he guarded strictly lest his horse, passing through, should do harm to anyone. 1.10. And of the ripe fruits on the trees no one whatever was at all permitted to touch any. 1.11. And indeed he laid claim to chastity in a prodigious degree; for he touched no woman whatever except his own wedded wife. 1.12. So that, although he had taken captive from among the Vandals and Goths so great a number of women, and women of such beauty of countenance as no one anywhere of men ever saw, he permitted no one of them either to come into his sight or to meet him in any other way. 1.13. And he was, besides all his other qualities, exceedingly quick-witted and most capable of devising the best course in difficulties. 1.14. In the dangers of war he was both stout-hearted with safety and most daring with calculation, and was keen and slow in the attack on the enemy by turns, 1.15. as each was needful. And apart from these things, in terrors he kept his mind hopeful and superior to confusion, while in success he was neither lifted up nor wanton; indeed, no one ever saw Belisarius drunk. 1.16. Now during all the time that he commanded the Roman army both in Libya and in Italy, he continued to conquer and always to win what lay before him. 1.17. But when he came, summoned, to Byzantium, his valour became known to the greatest degree even more than before. 1.18. For being himself pre-eminent in all valour, and surpassing all the generals who had ever been both in the abundance of his wealth and in the power of his shield-bearers and guards, he became, as was natural, terrible to all commanders and soldiers. 1.19. For no one, I think, dared to oppose his command, and they never refused to carry out fully whatever he ordered, both out of respect for his valour and out of fear of his power. 1.20. For he provided seven thousand horsemen from his own household, of whom not one had ever proved a failure, but each one of them claimed to stand first in the line of battle and to challenge the best of the enemy. 1.21. And the elders of the Romans, when, being besieged by the Goths, they watched what was being done in the engagements of the war, marvelled greatly and cried out that a single household was undoing the power of Theoderic. 1.22. So Belisarius, having become powerful both in dignity and in judgement, as has been said, deliberated what would be advantageous to the emperor's affairs and always carried out what had been decided by his own independent judgement. 1.23. But the other commanders, being rather equal among themselves and having in mind to accomplish nothing except their own private gains, began both to plunder the Romans and to give over the subjects to the soldiers, and they neither themselves any longer thought what was needful nor kept the soldiers obedient to their orders. 1.24. Wherefore many errors were committed by them, and the affairs of the Romans were all ruined in a short time. By what manner this came about I now proceed to tell. 1.25. When Ildibadus learned that Belisarius had set out from Ravenna and was going on his journey, he gathered about himself all the barbarians and as many of the Roman soldiers as a revolution pleased. 1.26. And he attended most carefully to his rule, and was eager to recover for the race of the Goths the mastery over the Italians. 1.27. At the beginning, then, not more than a thousand followed him, and they held a single city, Ticinum; but little by little there came over to him all who were in Liguria and Venetia. 1.28. Now there was a certain Alexander in Byzantium set over the public accounts; this office the Romans, using Greek, call logothete. 1.29. This man always charged against the soldiers the loss to the public treasury. And bringing them under such accusations, he himself quickly became of repute from being obscure, and from being poor simply rich, and indeed he exacted great sums of money for the emperor, if anyone ever did; but he became, of all men, most responsible for the soldiers being few and poor and slow toward dangers. 1.30. And the people of Byzantium called him also by the surname Psalidios, because it was easy for him, by cutting off the gold coin in a circle, to make it less by as much as he wished, and yet to preserve the round shape which it had before. 1.31. For psalidion they call the instrument with which one does such things. This Alexander the emperor, when he had summoned Belisarius, 1.32. sent into Italy. And he, when he had come to Ravenna, set forth accounts that had no reason. For the Italians, who had neither touched the emperor's money nor done anything improper toward the treasury, he called to account, bringing against them the charge of their injustice toward Theoderic and the other rulers of the Goths, and compelling them to pay back if they had gained anything by deceiving those men, as he himself alleged. 1.33. And the wounds and dangers of the soldiers he requited, contrary to their expectation, with the pettiness of his accounts. Wherefore the Italians became ill-disposed to the emperor Justinian, and none of the soldiers any longer wished to set himself in the danger of war, but, playing the coward on purpose, they always made the affairs of the enemy advance greatly. 1.34. So the other commanders for these reasons remained quiet, but Vitalius alone (for he happened to have in Venetia both another multitude of an army and a large throng of Erulian barbarians) dared to come to battle with Ildibadus, fearing, as happened, lest, when at a later time he had come to a great measure of power, they should no longer be able to hold him back. 1.35. And when a fierce battle had taken place about the city of Tarbesion, Vitalius, defeated by far, fled, saving some few, but losing the most of his men there. In this battle many of the Eruli fell, and Visandus the leader of the Eruli was killed. 1.36. And Theudimundus the son of Mauricius the son of Mundus, being still a youth, came into danger of death, yet escaped with Vitalius. And the name of Ildibadus from this exploit came both to the emperor and to all men. 1.37. Afterward it befell that Uraïas gave offence to Ildibadus from the following cause. There was to Uraïas a wife who bore off the first prize for wealth and beauty of body among these barbarians, above all. 1.38. She once went down to the bath, clothed in a great quantity of finery and bringing with her an attendance worthy of much account. 1.39. And seeing the wife of Ildibadus there in plain garments, she neither did obeisance to her as one dwelling with a king, but otherwise despised and insulted her. For Ildibadus was still in poverty, since he had by no means come upon the royal wealth. 1.40. And the wife of Ildibadus, being grievously distressed at the strangeness of the insult, came to her husband in tears and saw fit that he should avenge her, who had suffered irreparable things at the hands of the wife of Uraïas. 1.41. Wherefore Ildibadus at first slandered Uraïas to the barbarians, alleging that he was about to desert to the enemy, and a little later killed him by treachery, and from this he fell into the hatred of the Goths. 1.42. For it was by no means their wish that Uraïas should thus, without consideration, be removed from among men. And many now, gathering among themselves, reviled Ildibadus as one who had wrought unholy deeds. None, however, was willing to avenge this murder upon him. 1.43. Now there was among them a certain Velas, a Gepid by race, who had come to the dignity of being one of the king's guards. 1.44. This man, having become betrothed to a woman fair of face, fell into a prodigious love; but while he had been sent against the enemy, in order that he might make with certain others an assault upon them, Ildibadus, whether led by ignorance or by something else, gave the betrothed woman in marriage to another of the barbarians. 1.45. And when Velas, returning from the camp, heard this, being passionate by nature, he did not bear the insult arising from the deed, but resolved straightway to kill Ildibadus, 1.46. thinking that he would thereby gratify all the Goths. And watching him once feasting the best of the Goths, he set about the plot. 1.47. For it is the custom that, while the king is feasting, many others and the guards stand around. So while Ildibadus, putting his hand to the food, was lying prone on the couch, Velas suddenly struck him on the neck with his sword, 1.48. so that, while the food was still held in the man's fingers, the head, falling forward onto the table, struck all present with consternation and brought them into great amazement. 1.49. This vengeance came upon Ildibadus for the murder of Uraïas. And the winter was ending, and the sixth year of this war which Procopius has written was coming to a close.

2.1. Now there was a certain Eraric in the army of the Goths, a Rogian by race, but invested with great power among these barbarians. These Rogi are a Gothic nation, and of old they lived independently. 2.2. But when Theoderic at the first joined them in alliance with certain other nations, they were classed as part of the race of the Goths and acted together with them in all things against the enemy. 2.3. By no means, however, mingling with foreign women, they preserved among themselves the name of their nation by an unmixed succession of children. 2.4. This Eraric, when affairs had come into confusion over the murder of Ildibadus, the Rogi suddenly proclaimed king. 2.5. This by no means pleased the Goths, but the most of them fell into great despondency, since the hopes which they had formerly held in Ildibadus had been destroyed—he who had been capable of recovering both the rule and the mastery of Italy for the Goths. 2.6. Eraric, however, did nothing worthy of account; for after living five months he died in the following manner. 2.7. There was a certain Totila, a nephew of Ildibadus, a man who had come to the height of intelligence and was exceedingly energetic and worthy of much account among the Goths. This Totila happened at that time to be the commander of the Goths in Tarbesion. 2.8. And when he learned that Ildibadus had thus been removed from among men, as has been said, he sent to Constantianus at Ravenna and begged that pledges be given him concerning his safety, on condition that he would surrender both himself and the Goths whom he commanded, together with Tarbesion, to the Romans. 2.9. And Constantianus, hearing this gladly, swore to everything just as Totila asked, and a fixed day was agreed upon by both for the deed, on which Totila and the Goths holding the garrison in Tarbesion were to receive into the city some of the friends of Constantianus and to put themselves, together with it, into their hands. 2.10. But the Goths were already distressed at the rule of Eraric, seeing that the man was not adequate to carry on the war against the Romans, and the most of them openly reviled him as having become a hindrance to great deeds for them, because he had removed Ildibadus from their path. 2.11. And at last, taking counsel together, they sent to Totila at Tarbesion, inviting him to the rule. For having already much longing for the rule of Ildibadus, they turned the hope of victory to Totila his kinsman, becoming hopeful in the man because he wished the same things. 2.12. But he openly revealed to those who came to him his agreement with the Romans, and said that, if the Goths should kill Eraric before the appointed day, he would follow them and would accomplish everything in whatever way they wished. 2.13. When the barbarians heard this, they set about a plot for the destruction of Eraric. These things were happening in the camp of the Goths. 2.14. In the meantime the Roman army, enjoying in safety the inactivity of the enemy, neither combined nor purposed to do anything against the barbarians. 2.15. And Eraric, calling together all the Goths, persuaded them to send envoys to the emperor Justinian, to beg that he should make peace with them on the same terms on which he had been willing previously to make a treaty with Wittigis: that the Goths, holding the lands beyond the river Padus, should withdraw from the rest of Italy. 2.16. And when the Goths approved this, selecting some of his most intimate friends, he sent them as envoys, among others one Caballarius by name. 2.17. These were to do with the emperor ostensibly what I have said before, but secretly he instructed them to do nothing else with the emperor than that he himself should receive much money and be enrolled among the patricians on condition that, handing over the whole of Italy, he should lay down the appearance of the rule. 2.18. So when the envoys came to Byzantium, they did these things. In the meantime the Goths killed Eraric by treachery. And when he had died, Totila took over the rule according to their agreement.

3.1. When the emperor Justinian learned both what had happened concerning Eraric and that the Goths had established Totila in the rule over them, he ceased not from reproaching and taunting the commanders of the army there. 3.2. Wherefore, establishing garrisons in each city, John the nephew of Vitalian and Bessas and Vitalius and all the others gathered in Ravenna, where Constantianus and Alexander, whom I mentioned before, were staying. 3.3. And when all had gathered, it seemed best to them first to march against Verona, which is in Venetia, and when they should have taken both it and the Goths there, then to go against Totila and Ticinum. 3.4. Now this Roman army had been gathered to twelve thousand, and there were eleven commanders of them, of whom the first were Constantianus and Alexander, who went straight to the city of Verona. 3.5. And coming near it, about sixty stades off, they encamped in the plain there. For everywhere about this place are plains fit for horsemen, extending to the city of Mantua, which is distant a day's journey from the city of Verona. 3.6. Now there was a notable man among the Venetians, Marcianus by name, who dwelt in a fort not far from the city of Verona, and being most well-disposed to the emperor, was eager to hand over the city to the Roman army. 3.7. And, since one of the guards was known to him from boyhood, sending to him some of his friends, he persuaded the man with money to receive the emperor's army into the city. 3.8. And when the guard of the gates agreed to this, Marcianus sent those who had arranged it with him to the commanders of the Roman army, in order that they might report the agreements and burst into the city with them by night. 3.9. And it seemed advantageous to the commanders that one of them should go ahead with a few men; and if the guard should open the gates to them, that they should hold them and receive the army into the city in safety. 3.10. Now of the rest no one was willing to undertake the danger, but Artabazes alone, an Armenian by race and exceedingly good in matters of war, set himself to the task by no means unwillingly. 3.11. This man commanded the Persians whom Belisarius had a little before happened to send to Byzantium from the land of the Persians with Bleschames, having taken the fort of Sisaurana. 3.12. And then, selecting a hundred men from the whole army, at an unseasonable hour of the night he came close to the wall. 3.13. And when the guard opened the gates to them where it had been agreed, some of them, standing there, summoned the army, while others, mounting onto the wall, killed the guards there, falling upon them unexpectedly. 3.14. But when all the Goths perceived the evil, fleeing through other gates they departed. Now a certain rock rises exceedingly high before the wall, from which it is possible to observe everything being done in Verona and to count the people there, and indeed to see the plain for the most part. 3.15. There the Goths, taking refuge, kept quiet the whole night. And the Roman army, having come within forty stades of the city, went no farther forward, since the generals were disputing with one another about the goods in the city. 3.16. And while they were still contending about this booty, the day had now become clearly bright, and the Goths, from the summit, observing exactly both the enemy in the city and how far off the rest of the army stood from Verona, advanced at a run to the city through the very gates from which they had departed before; for those who had entered were not able to hold them. 3.17. The Romans, then, taking counsel together, took refuge about the battlements of the wall, and as the barbarians in great numbers came to close quarters with them, both the others and Artabazes above all, displaying marvellous deeds, most stoutly defended themselves against the assailants. 3.18. And then the commanders of the Roman army, having settled with one another about the goods in Verona, resolved to advance against the city with the whole rest of the army. 3.19. But finding the gates shut against them and the enemy defending themselves most stoutly, they quickly rode back, although they saw the others fighting inside the wall and begging them not to abandon them but to remain there until, taking refuge with them, they might be saved. 3.20. Wherefore Artabazes and his men, overpowered by the multitude of the enemy and despairing of the help from their own people, all leaped down outside from the wall. 3.21. Now those who chanced to fall on level ground were brought unharmed to the Roman camp, among whom was also Artabazes; but all who fell into difficult places perished there. 3.22. And when Artabazes came to the Roman camp, after much reproaching and reviling of all, he went with them, and crossing the Eridanus they came to the city of Faventia, which is in the country of Aemilia and is distant one hundred and twenty stades from Ravenna.

4.1. And Totila, learning what had happened in Verona, summoned many of the Goths from Verona, and when they were present, with the whole army, which was five thousand, he went against his opponents. And when the commanders of the Roman army learned this, they deliberated about their present situation. 4.2. And Artabazes coming forward spoke as follows: “Let none of you, men in command, see fit to despise the enemy because we are now inferior in numbers, nor, because we contend against those who have been enslaved by Belisarius, let him go against them with a slack reckoning. 4.3. For many, deceived by an untrue opinion, have brought themselves to ruin, and contempt, arising at the wrong time, has had the power to undo the existing strength of some, since besides their previous misfortune calls these men to good fortune. 4.4. For fortune, coming to the despair of good hopes, turns about to an excess of daring. 4.5. And I have said this among you now not led by suspicion, but from those things by which, having risked myself against them lately, I have learned the daring of these men. 4.6. And let none suppose that, because I was defeated with a few men, I marvel at the power of the enemy. For the valour of men is made manifest both to those who surpass in numbers and to those who are inferior in this, to those at least who will fight against them. 4.7. I think, then, it will be more advantageous for us, watching the crossing of the river by the barbarians, to come to close quarters when they are crossing midway, than when they have already all come together in a mass. 4.8. And let such a victory be deemed inglorious by none. For the issue of affairs is wont to give the name of glory or inglory, and men are accustomed to praise the victors, not searching into the manner of 4.9. the victory.” Artabazes said so much. But the commanders, opposing his opinion, did nothing of what was needful, but remaining where they were, wasted the opportunity. 4.10. And now the army of the Goths had come close, and when they were about to cross the river, Totila, calling all together, exhorted them as follows: “All other battles, men of my kindred, for the most part announcing a battle of a similar kind to the armies, urge them to the contest; but we set ourselves to this contest against the enemy using not an equal fortune, but with much that differs. 4.11. For if they should be defeated, as may chance, they will not long afterward be able to renew the fight against us. For in the forts of all Italy a multitude of soldiers has been left them, and it is in no way unlikely that another army from Byzantium will immediately come to their aid. But if we suffer this same thing, it will be left for the name of the Goths to perish together with the hope. 4.12. For from two hundred thousand it has befallen us to be reduced to five thousand. Having said so much, I think it not out of place to remind you of this also, that when you resolved with Ildibadus to take up arms against the emperor, the multitude that lived with you was no more than a thousand, and the whole country surrounded you up to the city of Ticinum. 4.13. But when you became superior in the engagement, the affairs both of your army and of the country went forward for you. So that if you are now willing to play the man, I have hope, as the war advances, as is likely, of altogether prevailing over our opponents. 4.14. For it always befalls the victors to have become both more numerous and more powerful. Let each of you, then, be eager to come to close quarters with the enemy with all his might, knowing well that for us, who have not now distinguished ourselves, it is impossible to renew the fight against our opponents. 4.15. And it is worth while for us to come to close quarters with the enemy with good hope, being bold in the injustice of these men. 4.16. For their life toward their subjects has been such that the Italians now need no other punishment for the treachery they ventured against the Goths, which they ought not. So that, to put it in a word, all evils have befallen them at the hands of those whom they received. 4.17. And what could be more easily taken than enemies whose dealings with God are evidently not sound? And indeed it would befit us to become hopeful for the contest from the fear that there is of us toward them. 4.18. For we go against no other men than those who lately, having come into the very midst of Verona, gave it up for no reason, although none whatever was pursuing them, and thus shamefully rushed into flight.” 4.19. Having exhorted them thus, Totila ordered three hundred of his followers, crossing the river about twenty stades off, to get behind the camp of the enemy, and when the battle should be at close quarters, going against their rear, to shoot at them and harass them with all their might, in order that those men, being thrown into confusion, might be mindful of no resistance. 4.20. And he himself with the whole rest of the army immediately crossed the river and went straight against his opponents; 4.21. and the Romans straightway came to meet them. And when both, advancing on their way, came nearer one another, a Goth, Valaris by name, great in body and exceedingly terrible in appearance, yet energetic and good in matters of war, riding his horse out ahead of the rest of the army, took his stand in the space between, corselet-clad and having a helmet on his head, and challenged all the Romans, if anyone wished to come to close quarters with him. 4.22. The rest, then, dismayed, remained quiet, but Artabazes set himself to the contest with him alone. 4.23. So both, driving their horses against each other, when they came close, thrust their spears; and Artabazes, anticipating, struck Valaris first in the right side. 4.24. And the barbarian, struck a mortal blow, was about to fall backward to the earth, but his spear, propped behind on the ground against a certain rock, by no means allowed him to fall. 4.25. And Artabazes pressed on still more, thrusting his spear into the man's vitals. For he did not yet suspect that he had been caught by a mortal blow. 4.26. And so it befell that the iron point of Valaris' spear, having become nearly upright, touched the corselet of Artabazes, and advancing little by little passed through the whole corselet, but slipping off the skin about the neck of Artabazes, grazed it. 4.27. And by some chance the iron, going forward, cut an artery which was somewhere there, and there was straightway a flow of much blood. 4.28. But the man had no sensation of pain, but he himself rode his horse back to the Roman army, 4.29. while Valaris fell there dead. And Artabazes too, the blood not ceasing, on the third day afterward was removed from among men, and shook all the hope of the Romans, since then too, having become unfit for fighting in this engagement, he brought their affairs to ruin in no small matters. 4.30. For he, having got out of range of the missiles, attended to his wound, while both armies came to close quarters. 4.31. And when the engagement had become fierce, the three hundred barbarians, going by the road behind the Roman army, suddenly appeared, and the Romans, observing them and supposing that there was a great multitude of those fighting against them, fell into dread and straightway rushed into flight, 4.32. as it became possible for each. And the barbarians killed the Romans, who were fleeing in no order, and took alive many of them and kept them in custody, and they took all the standards, which had never before befallen the Romans. And of the commanders each, as he was able, fled with some few, and they guarded the cities where they chanced to be saved.

5.1. Not long afterward Totila sent an army against Justinus and Florentia, over whom he set as commanders the most warlike of the Goths, Bleda and Roderic and Uliaris. These, when they had come to Florentia, sitting down about the wall, set themselves to a siege. 5.2. And Justinus, thrown into confusion since he had brought in none of the provisions, sent to Ravenna to the commanders of the Roman army, 5.3. begging them to help him quickly. And he who was sent, escaping the notice of the enemy by night, came to Ravenna and reported their situation. 5.4. Wherefore a Roman army worthy of account straightway went to Florentia, of which Bessas and Cyprianus and John the nephew of Vitalian were the leaders. When the Goths learned this from their scouts, 5.5. breaking off the siege, they withdrew to a place named Mucellis, distant a day's journey from Florentia. 5.6. And when the Roman army joined Justinus, they left some few of his followers there to guard the city, while they themselves, taking the rest, advanced against the enemy. 5.7. And as they journeyed, it seemed most advantageous to them that one of the commanders, selecting the most notable men of the whole army, should go forward and himself come to close quarters with the enemy unexpectedly by a sudden raid, while the rest of the army, marching at leisure, should come there. And casting lots for this, they awaited the resolve of fortune for this. 5.8. Now the lot fell to John, but the commanders no longer wished to carry out what had been agreed. 5.9. Wherefore John was compelled to go forward with his followers against the enemy. And the barbarians, learning of the assault of their opponents, resolved with much fear to abandon the plain where they happened to be encamped, and ran up with tumult onto a certain great hill which rises there. 5.10. And when John and his men came there, running up themselves against the enemy, they set to work. 5.11. And as the barbarians defended themselves stoutly, there was much shoving, and many on both sides fell, displaying marvellous deeds. 5.12. And when John, with much shouting and tumult, rushed against the enemy facing him, it befell that one of his own guards, struck by a javelin from one of the enemy, fell; and from this the Romans, thrust back, withdrew. 5.13. And now the rest of the Roman army, having come to the plain, made a phalanx and stood. And if they had received John and his men as they fled, going to close quarters with the enemy together with them, they would both have conquered in the engagement and been able to take nearly all of them. 5.14. But by some chance it befell that an untrue report went about in the Roman army, that John had been removed from among men in this action by one of his own guards. 5.15. And when the report came to the commanders, they no longer saw fit to remain there, but all went off in a shameful withdrawal. 5.16. For neither drawn up nor in any companies, but each one as he was able, rushed into flight. And many perished in this flight, but all who were saved fled for many days, though pursued nowhere. 5.17. And afterward, as each chanced, entering certain forts, they reported to those they met nothing else than that John was dead. 5.18. And from this they neither mingled any longer with one another nor purposed for the future to combine against the enemy, but each remained inside his own wall and prepared for a siege, fearing lest the barbarians should come against him. 5.19. And Totila, displaying much friendliness toward the captives, was able to win them over, and for the rest the most of them of their own will marched against the Romans with him. And the winter was ending, and the seventh year of this war which Procopius has written was coming to a close.

6.1. Then Totila took the forts of Caesena and Petra. And a little later he came to Tuscany, and making trial of the places there, when no one was willing to come over to him, crossing the river Tiber, he by no means came into the borders of Rome, but coming immediately to the Campanians and Samnites, he won over the strong city of Beneventum with no trouble, and razed its walls to the ground, in order that an army coming from Byzantium might not, setting out from a strong place, be able to give trouble to the Goths. 6.2. After this he resolved to besiege the Neapolitans, since they were by no means willing to receive him into the city, although he said many enticing things. For Conon was on guard there, having a thousand Romans and Isaurians. 6.3. And he himself, encamping with the greater part of the army not far from the wall, kept quiet, but sending a part of the army, he took the fort of Cumae and certain other strongholds, and was able to gird himself there with great wealth. 6.4. And finding there the wives of the senators, he neither insulted them and with much friendliness released them free, and from this he won a great name both for intelligence and for kindness among all the Romans. And since no enemy met him, always sending around small bodies of the army, he accomplished deeds worthy of much account. 6.5. He won over the Bruttii and Lucanians and held Apulia with Calabria, and himself exacted the public taxes, and bore off the revenues of the goods in place of those who possessed the lands, and arranged the rest as having become master of Italy. 6.6. Wherefore the emperor owed great sums of money to the Roman army, which had not received its accustomed allowances at the appointed times. 6.7. And from this the Italians, having fallen both from their possessions and into a great measure of danger again, were in great mourning. And the soldiers showed themselves still more disobedient to their commanders, and remained gladly in the cities. 6.8. Constantianus, then, held Ravenna, and John Rome, and Bessas Spolitium, and Justinus Florentia, and Cyprianus Perusia, and each of the others wherever he chanced at the beginning to have fled and been saved. 6.9. When the emperor learned this and regarded it as a misfortune, he established Maximinus as prefect of the praetorian guards of Italy as quickly as possible, in order that he might both be overseer to the commanders in the war and provide the soldiers with the provisions according to their need. 6.10. And he sent with him a fleet of ships, filling it with Thracian and Armenian soldiers. And Herodian led the Thracians, and Phazas an Iberian, the nephew of Peranius, the Armenians; and there sailed with them also a few Huns. 6.11. So Maximinus, setting out from Byzantium with the whole fleet, came to Epirus in Greece; and there, wasting the opportunity, he sat idle for no reason. 6.12. For he was by no means experienced in deeds of war, and from this was a coward and most given to delay. 6.13. After this the emperor sent also Demetrius as general, who had previously campaigned with Belisarius as commander of a regiment of foot. 6.14. So Demetrius, sailing to Sicily, when he heard that Conon and the Neapolitans were being most bitterly besieged and were altogether in want of provisions, wished to help them quickly, but being unable, since his army was small and not worthy of account, 6.15. devised the following. Gathering as many ships as possible from all Sicily and filling them with grain and the other provisions, he sailed, giving his opponents the impression that there was a very great army in the ships. 6.16. And he hit upon the thought of the enemy. For they supposed that a great army was coming against them, judging from the fact that they heard a great fleet was sailing from Sicily. 6.17. And if at the beginning Demetrius had wished to go straight to Naples, I think he would both have struck the enemy with consternation and saved the city, no one withstanding him. 6.18. But as it was, dreading the danger, he by no means resolved to put in at Naples, but sailing down to the harbour of Rome, he was eager to gather soldiers from there. 6.19. But they, inasmuch as they had been defeated by the barbarians and still had great fear of them, were by no means willing to follow Demetrius against Totila and the Goths. Wherefore he was compelled to go to Naples with only those who had come with him from Byzantium. 6.20. Now there was another Demetrius, a Cephallenian by race, a sailor of old and exactly experienced in the works and dangers of the sea, and having sailed with Belisarius both to Libya and Italy, he had become of repute for this experience, and from this the emperor had established him as governor of Naples. 6.21. And when the barbarians began to besiege the place, being gripped by much insolence, he heaped many insults upon Totila, and the man was seen to be exceedingly foul-mouthed in this struggle. 6.22. And as the evil advanced and Conon was perishing, getting secretly into a certain skiff, he dared to go to the general Demetrius alone. 6.23. And being saved contrary to expectation, and joining Demetrius, he encouraged him greatly and urged him to this enterprise. 6.24. But Totila, hearing the whole account about this fleet, held many fast-sailing warships in readiness, and when the enemy put in at the shore there not far from Naples, coming upon them unexpectedly, he struck them with consternation and turned them all to flight. 6.25. And of them he killed many and took alive very many, while those escaped who at the beginning were able to leap into the skiffs of the ships, among whom was also Demetrius the general. For all the ships with their very cargoes and the very men 6.26. the barbarians took. And there they found also Demetrius the governor of Naples. Cutting off both his tongue and his hands, they did not kill him, but having thus mutilated him, let him go wherever he wished. And thus Demetrius paid this penalty to Totila for his unbridled tongue.

7.1. Afterward Maximinus too with all his ships put in at Sicily, and coming to Syracuse remained quiet, dreading matters of war. 7.2. When the commanders of the Roman army learned this, they sent to him with much eagerness, begging him to help quickly, both the others and Conon from Naples, who was being most strongly besieged by the barbarians; for all the provisions had now failed them. 7.3. But he, having wasted all the opportunity in this dread, when he both feared the emperor's threats and, being reproached by the others, gave way, himself none the less remained there, but sent the whole army with Herodian and Demetrius and Phazas to Naples, the winter season now pressing most strongly. 7.4. And when the Roman fleet came near Naples, a hard wind came down, stirring up a prodigious storm. 7.5. And the darkness gave way everywhere, and the surge did not allow the sailors to draw up the oars or to do anything else. And through the noise of the breakers they could no longer hear one another, but confusion brilliantly prevailed and the violence of the wind held sway, which carried them, by no means willing, to the shore where the enemy were encamped. 7.6. So the barbarians, boarding the vessels of their opponents at their will, killed and sank them, no one withstanding them. And they took alive many others and Demetrius the general. 7.7. But Herodian and Phazas with some few were able to escape, since their ships had come not very near the camp of the enemy. Such, then, was the state of things regarding the Roman fleet. 7.8. And Totila, fastening a cord about the neck of Demetrius, dragged him to the wall of Naples and ordered him to exhort the besieged no longer to perish trusting in useless hopes, but to be released from great evils by handing over the city to the Goths as quickly as possible. 7.9. For it was impossible for the emperor to send them any further help, but on this fleet all their power and hope had perished. Demetrius said so much as Totila ordered. 7.10. And the besieged, now prodigiously hard pressed by famine and the rest of their want, when they saw the suffering of Demetrius and heard all his words, despairing of all hope, fell into wailings and helplessness, and the city was full of much tumult and lamentation. 7.11. After this Totila, calling them together to the battlements, spoke as follows: “Having no charge or complaint against you, men of Naples, we have now set ourselves to this siege, but in order that, having freed you from most hateful masters, we may be able to repay you the thanks for those things on account of which you suffered the most grievous things from the enemy in this war. 7.12. For it has befallen you alone of all the Italians to have displayed the greatest goodwill toward the nation of the Goths and to have come most unwillingly under your opponents. 7.13. So that even now, being compelled to besiege you along with them, we are ashamed, as is natural, of your good faith, although we make this siege not for the harm of the Neapolitans. 7.14. Do not, then, being distressed at the terrors of the siege, think you ought to hold the Goths in anger. For those eager to benefit their friends are worthy to bear no charge from them, even if they are not compelled to accomplish their kindness toward them through what is pleasant. 7.15. And let no fear of the enemy enter into you, nor, led by what has happened before, think that they will prevail over us; for the strange events of life, which come contrary to expectation by some chance, are wont in time to fall again. 7.16. And we are so well-disposed to you that we grant Conon and all the soldiers to go unharmed wherever they wish, if you give over the city to us and depart from there, keeping all their own goods; and nothing will hinder us from swearing concerning these things and the safety of the Neapolitans.” 7.17. Totila said so much, and both the Neapolitans and all the soldiers with Conon approved. For great necessity of famine oppressed them. 7.18. Keeping their good faith toward the emperor, however, and still waiting for some help to come to them, they agreed to give over the city within thirty days. 7.19. But Totila, wishing to drive away from them all hope from the emperor, fixed a period of three months, on condition that after this they should do what had been agreed. And he affirmed that before this he would make no assault upon the wall, nor use any other plot against them. 7.20. These things, then, had been thus resolved. But the besieged, not waiting for the appointed day (for they were too hard pressed by the want of necessities), a little later received Totila and the barbarians into the city. And the winter was ending, and the eighth year of this war which Procopius has written was coming to a close.

8.1. When Totila had taken Naples, he displayed kindness toward the captured that befitted neither an enemy nor a barbarian man. 8.2. For having taken the Romans sick from famine, in whom even the strength of the body had now retreated, and fearing lest, coming suddenly to fullness of food, as is natural, 8.3. they should be choked, he devised the following. Setting guards at the harbour and the gates, he ordered that no one go anywhere from there. 8.4. And he himself provided victuals to all with a certain provident sparingness, in less measure than their desire, adding each day so much of the measure as not to seem to give any constant perception of what was being put in. 8.5. And thus, having strengthened their power and opened the gates, he let each go wherever he wished. 8.6. And Conon and the soldiers with him, all whom he was by no means pleased to have remain there, embarking on ships, he ordered to sail at their will. And they, thinking the withdrawal to Byzantium would bring them shame, purposed to sail quickly to Rome. 8.7. But as the wind was against them, being by no means able to set out from there, they were at a loss, fearing lest it should befall that Totila should disregard what had been agreed because he had conquered, and they should suffer some great evil at his hands. 8.8. When Totila perceived this, calling them all together he consoled them and, strengthening his pledges to them still more, ordered them now to take courage and to mingle with the Gothic army with no fear, and to buy provisions there and, if they needed anything else, to obtain it as from friends. 8.9. And when the wind was still borne against them and much time was wasted, providing horses and beasts of burden and presenting them with travelling supplies, he ordered them to journey to Rome by the road, sending with them some of the notable men among the Goths as escorts. 8.10. And the wall of Naples he undertook to raze to the ground, in order that the Romans, occupying it again and setting out from a strong place, might not give trouble to the Goths. 8.11. For he wished rather to settle matters with them by battle in the open in the plain than to contend by certain devices and stratagems. He razed a great part of it, however, and left the rest. 8.12. About this time a certain Roman, a Calabrian by race, coming to him, accused one of his guards of having done violence to his daughter, who was a maiden, against her will. 8.13. And he, being eager to punish the man's offence, since he did not deny the charge, shut him up in prison. 8.14. But the most notable of the barbarians about him, fearing for him (for he happened to be an energetic man and good in matters of war), gathering at once and coming into the sight of Totila, begged him to remit the charge against the man. 8.15. And he, gently and with no confusion making himself acquainted with what was said, spoke as follows: “Not yielding to an excess of inhumanity nor overjoyed at the misfortunes of kinsmen, but, as far as possible, fearing lest something base should befall the Goths, I set myself to these words, fellow-soldiers. 8.16. I know this, that the great throng of men change the names of things into their opposites. 8.17. For they are wont to call lawlessness kindness, from which it befalls that all good things are destroyed and confounded, and harsh and simply ill-tempered whoever wishes to maintain the laws exactly, in order that, using these names as a screen for their wantonness, they may be able to err more fearlessly and to display their wickedness. 8.18. But I exhort you not to exchange the safety of yourselves for the offence of one man, nor, doing no wrong yourselves, to share in this pollution. For to err and to prevent the punishment of those who have erred, I think, are equal. 8.19. I wish you, then, to make your decision about the present matter, looking at it thus: that now a choice of two things lies before you, either not to give over this man to justice for his wrongs, or for the race of the Goths both to be saved and to keep the mastery of the war. 8.20. For consider: at the beginning of this war we had a multitude of soldiers brilliant in repute and in experience of dangers, and money, to speak briefly, greater than could be numbered, and a prodigious abundance of horses and arms, and all the forts there are among the Italians. For these too seem not altogether useless provisions to those who set themselves to war. 8.21. But when, being ranged under Theudatus, a man who set justice below his desire to be rich, we by no means rendered God propitious to us by our lawlessness in conduct, you know, doubtless, whither our fortune has gone, by what and by how many men we have been defeated. 8.22. But now God, having sufficiently taken the penalty from us for the things in which we erred, again orders our life according to our wish, and, to put it altogether, leads our affairs better for us than according to our hope, since it has befallen us to have conquered the enemy beyond our existing power. 8.23. To maintain, then, the pretext of victory by doing what is just will be more profitable than, going contrary to it, to seem to have become envious against ourselves. 8.24. For it is not possible, it is not, for him who does wrong and uses violence to be of good repute in the contests, but according to the life of each the fortune of war is dispensed.” Totila said so much. 8.25. And the notable men of the Goths, approving what had been said, no longer begged off the guard, but allowed him to do whatever should seem best to him. And he not long afterward put the man to death, and the goods, all that happened to be his, he gave to the woman who had been violated.

9.1. While Totila was doing these things, in the meantime the commanders of the Roman army, together with the soldiers, were plundering the goods of the subjects, and left out nothing whatever of insolence and wantonness, but the commanders, keeping mistresses in the forts, held revel, while the soldiers, showing themselves disobedient to their commanders, fell into every form of impropriety. 9.2. And it befell all the Italians to suffer the most grievous things at the hands of both armies. 9.3. For of their fields they were deprived by the enemy, and of all their furniture by the emperor's army. And besides this they were maltreated and destroyed for no reason, being hard pressed by the want of necessities. 9.4. For the soldiers, being by no means able to defend them when they were maltreated by the enemy, not only knew no shame at all at the present situation, but even made the barbarians objects of longing to them by the wrongs they did. 9.5. And Constantianus, being at a loss because of these things, sent a letter to the emperor Justinian, openly declaring that he was unable to hold out in the war against the Goths. 9.6. And the other commanders too, as if confirming the opinion, signified in this letter their agreement in their shrinking from the contest. For the Italians the affairs went on thus. And Totila sent a letter to the senate of the Romans. 9.7. And the writing made plain the following: “Those who wrong their neighbours either through previous ignorance, perhaps, or through some forgetfulness that comes upon them, for these it is right that those who have suffered terrible things be forgiving. For the cause of the error, having befallen, begs off for them the most of the charges. 9.8. But if anyone wrongs another from deliberate purpose alone, for this man it will be left not even ever to contradict concerning what has been done. 9.9. For he would justly bear the charge not only of the deed but also of the purpose. 9.10. Therefore, since these things are so, reckon now what defence it will befall you to have made for the things wrought against the Goths: whether it has befallen you to be ignorant of the benefactions of Theoderic and Amalasuntha, or whether they have become faint in you through time and forgetfulness. 9.11. And yet neither of these is so. For it was not on trifling matters nor toward your forefathers, in the olden time, that they displayed their kindnesses, but in the most necessary things toward you yourselves, lately and recently, O dear Romans. 9.12. But did you, having learned the valour of the Greeks toward their subjects either by hearsay or by experience, thus resolve to give over to them the affairs of the Goths and the Italians? 9.13. And yet you, I think, entertained them most excellently, but what guests and friends of them you found, you know, doubtless, if you remember anything of the reckonings of Alexander. 9.14. For I forbear to speak of the soldiers and the commanders of the soldiers, of whose friendliness and magnanimity you have had the benefit; on account of which it has come about that affairs are in such a state of fortune. 9.15. And let none of you suppose either that I bring these reproaches against them out of the ambition of a young man, or that I, being a ruler of barbarians, make my speech rather boastful. 9.16. For I do not say that the mastery over these men is the work of our valour, but I affirm that they paid a certain penalty for their injustice toward you. 9.17. And yet how would it not seem most absurd that God should avenge you upon them, but that you should cling to their impropriety and be unwilling to be released from the evils arising from it? Give, then, some pretext for your defence toward the Goths 9.18. and for our forgiveness toward you. And you will give it, if, not waiting for the end of the war, but while some hope—and that an unprofitable one—is still left to you, you choose the better course and set right the things wrought against us, which you ought not.” 9.19. So much the writing made plain. And Totila, putting it into the hands of some of the captives, ordered them to go to Rome and give it to those of the senate. 9.20. And they did so. But John prevented those who saw this letter from making any answer to Totila. Wherefore Totila again, writing many little letters and putting into them the most dreadful oaths, swore expressly that the Goths would never do harm to any of the Romans. 9.21. Who in the world conveyed these little letters to Rome I cannot say. For all of them, fixed at an unseasonable hour of the night in the conspicuous places of the city, became known when day came; and the commanders of the Roman army, being gripped by much suspicion against the priests of the Arians, established them all outside the city straightway. 9.22. And Totila, hearing this, sent a part of the army to Calabria and instructed them to make trial of the fort in Dryus. But when those who held the watch-station there were by no means willing to come over to him, he ordered those sent there to set themselves to a siege, while he himself went with the greater part of the army to the regions about Rome. 9.23. When the emperor learned this, he fell into helplessness and was compelled to send Belisarius against Totila, although the Persians were still pressing most strongly. And the winter was ending, and the ninth year of this war which Procopius has written was coming to a close.

10.1. Thus Belisarius went into Italy a second time. And since he had very few soldiers (for he was by no means able to detach from the army in Media those who followed him), going about all Thrace and putting forth money, he gathered young volunteers. 10.2. And there was with him, by the emperor's decision, Vitalius the general of the Illyrians, who had just returned from Italy, where he had happened to leave the Illyrian soldiers. 10.3. Both, then, having gathered four thousand, came to Salones, having in mind to go first to Ravenna, and from there to carry on the war in whatever way might be possible. 10.4. For to land in the regions of Rome they were by no means able, neither escaping the notice of the enemy (since they heard that they were encamped both among the Calabrians and the Campanians) nor forcing them in any way whatever. For they went against them not with an equal power. 10.5. In the meantime those besieged in Dryus, the necessities having altogether failed them, came to a parley with the barbarians who were besieging them, on condition that they should give over the fort by agreement, and a fixed day was agreed upon by both for this. 10.6. But Belisarius, loading provisions sufficient for a year's length into ships, ordered Valentinus to sail with them to Dryus, and to lead away the former guards of the fort as quickly as possible (whom he had learned were wasted by sickness and famine), and to establish some of those who sailed with him at the watch-station in their place; for thus he would more easily, they being fresh and in want of none of the necessities, guard the fort in safety. 10.7. So Valentinus, meeting a favourable wind with this fleet, sailed down to Dryus four days before the appointed day, and finding the harbour unguarded, both mastered it and was able with no trouble to enter the fort. 10.8. For the Goths, bold in what had been agreed and suspecting that no obstacle would arise for them in the interval, had now arranged matters about Dryus carelessly and remained quiet. 10.9. But then, seeing the fleet sailing in unexpectedly, they were afraid and broke off the siege, and getting far off from the place encamped and reported all that had befallen them to Totila. By so much did the fort of Dryus come into danger. 10.10. And some of Valentinus' men, wishing to plunder the regions there, made sorties, and meeting the enemy by some chance near the seashore came to close quarters with them. 10.11. And being defeated by far in the battle, the most of them fled into the water of the sea, where, having lost a hundred and seventy, the rest withdrew to the fort. 10.12. And Valentinus, finding the former guards half-dead, led them away, and establishing others fresh in their place, just as Belisarius instructed him, and leaving them provisions for a year's length, came with the rest of the army to Salones. 10.13. And Belisarius, setting out from there with the whole fleet, put in at Pola. And there, ordering the army, he remained some time. 10.14. And Totila, hearing that he had come there, and wishing to learn what power he was bringing, did as follows. There was a certain Bonus, a nephew of John, commander of the garrison in Genua. 10.15. Using his name, he wrote a letter to Belisarius ostensibly from him, as though urging him to come to them as quickly as possible, since they were in certain grievous dangers. 10.16. And selecting five exceedingly clever men, he put the letter into their hands and instructed them to observe exactly the power of Belisarius, pretending that they had been sent by Bonus. 10.17. So Belisarius saw the men who came into his sight with much friendliness, as was his custom. 10.18. And reading the letter, he ordered them to report to Bonus that he would come with his whole army not long hence. And they, observing everything, just as Totila instructed them, returned to the camp of the Goths and affirmed that the power of Belisarius was by no means worthy of account. 10.19. In the meantime Totila took by treachery the city of Tibur, which had an Isaurian garrison, in the following manner. Some of the inhabitants kept guard at the gates together with the Isaurians. 10.20. These, having become at variance with the Isaurians who kept guard with them from no cause arising on their part, brought in by night the enemy who were encamped somewhere close. 10.21. So the Isaurians, taking counsel together, while the city was being taken, were nearly all able to escape. 10.22. But of the inhabitants the Goths spared none, but killed them all, together with the priest of the city, in a manner which, though I know it, I shall by no means mention, in order that I may not leave memorials of inhumanity to later time; among whom perished also Catellus, a man of repute among the Italians. 10.23. And the barbarians held Tibur, and the Romans could no longer bring provisions into Rome from Tuscany through the Tiber. For the city, lying by the river above Rome about a hundred and twenty stades, became for the future a bulwark against those wishing to sail in there.

11.1. So matters about Tibur it befell to happen thus. And Belisarius, coming with the whole fleet to Ravenna, gathered together the Goths present and the Roman soldiers and spoke as follows: “Not now for the first time, men, has it befallen that the works of valour have been melted away by baseness. 11.2. For from above this is simply implanted in human affairs, that the wickedness of the basest has had the power both to check and to destroy the many deeds of good men. This same thing has now too brought to ruin the affairs of the emperor. 11.3. To whom it is so much a care to set right the errors that, setting the mastery over the Persians below these things, he has resolved to send me now to you, in order that I may set right and heal if anything has been wrought wrongly by the commanders either toward his own soldiers or toward the Goths. 11.4. Now that nothing be done amiss by anyone is neither human nor outside the nature of affairs, but to set right the errors befits an emperor abundantly and is worthy of consolation enough to those who are loved. 11.5. For not only will it befall you to be freed from your difficulties, but it will at once be added that you both know and enjoy the goodwill of the emperor toward you; than which what could be more worthy to a man of all possessions? 11.6. Since, then, I am present with you for this very purpose, it behoves each of you to use all his power, 11.7. in order that you may have the benefit of the help arising from this. And whoever of you has kinsmen or friends with Totila the tyrant, let him summon them as quickly as possible, making plain the emperor's purpose. 11.8. For thus there would come to you the good things both from peace and from the great emperor. As for myself, I have come here neither desiring to make war on anyone, nor would I ever willingly be an enemy to the emperor's subjects. 11.9. But if, even now, holding it a trifling matter to choose what is better for themselves, these men go against us, it is of necessity that we too use them, most unwillingly, as enemies.” 11.10. Belisarius said so much. But none of his opponents came over to him, neither Goth nor Roman. After this he sent Thurimuth the spearman and some of his 11.11. followers with Vitalius and the Illyrian soldiers to Aemilia, and ordered them to make trial of the places there. 11.12. So Vitalius, with this army, coming about the city of Bononia and taking some of the forts there by agreement, kept quiet in the city of Bononia. 11.13. But not long afterward all the Illyrians who were campaigning with him, suddenly, neither suffering nor hearing any evil, withdrew secretly from there and were conveyed home. 11.14. And sending envoys to the emperor, they begged him to give them pardon, having come to their homes in this manner for no other reason than that, having campaigned in Italy for a long time and by no means receiving their allowances, the public treasury owed them much money. 11.15. And an army of Huns, having fallen upon the Illyrians, it had befallen their children and wives to be enslaved. 11.16. Learning which, and being in want of the necessities among the Italians, they had withdrawn. With these the emperor, being at first angry, then became forgiving. And Totila, learning of the withdrawal of the Illyrians, sent an army against Bononia, to snatch up Vitalius and his men. 11.17. But Vitalius and Thurimuth, laying ambushes beforehand, destroyed many of the assailants 11.18. and turned the rest to flight. There Nazares, a notable man, an Illyrian by race and commander of the soldiers in Illyricum, displayed marvellous deeds against the enemy above all. And thus Thurimuth came to Belisarius at Ravenna. 11.19. Then Belisarius sent three of his guards, Thurimuth and Ricilas and Sabinianus, with a thousand soldiers to the city of Auximus, to help Magnus and the Romans besieged there. 11.20. And they, escaping the notice of Totila and the camp of the enemy, came by night to Auximus and purposed to make certain sorties against their opponents. 11.21. And on the following day, learning about midday that some of the enemy were somewhere close, they went out to meet them, but resolved to send scouts against them first to observe their power, in order that they might not go against them unconsidered. 11.22. But Ricilas the guard of Belisarius (for he happened at that time to be flushed with wine) would not let others go on the scouting, but he himself alone, riding his horse out, went quickly. 11.23. And falling in with three Goths in a precipitous place, at first he took his stand as if to array himself against them; for he had come to the height of courage. But seeing many pouring against him from all sides, he rushed into flight. 11.24. And as his horse stumbled in the difficult ground, a great shout arose from the enemy, and all hurled their javelins at him. When the Romans perceived this, they came to the aid at a run. 11.25. And Ricilas, covered with many spears, died; but Thurimuth and his men, routing their opponents and taking up the corpse, conveyed it to the city of Auximus—the man having drawn a lot for the close of his life not worthy of his valour. 11.26. After this Sabinianus and Thurimuth, taking counsel with Magnus, found it inexpedient for them to make any further stay there, reckoning that they would never be a match for the enemy, who were many, and that, consuming the provisions of the besieged, they would make the city even more quickly capturable for their opponents. 11.27. And when this had been resolved, they themselves and the thousand prepared for the departure, intending to begin the retreat by night; but immediately one of the soldiers, deserting secretly to the camp of the enemy, made known what was being done. 11.28. Totila, then, selecting two thousand men for their valour, when night came on, guarded the roads thirty stades from Auximus, giving perception to no one. 11.29. And when these saw the enemy passing about midnight, drawing their swords they set to work. 11.30. And they killed two hundred of them, while Sabinianus and Thurimuth with the rest, since it was in the dark, were able both to escape notice and to flee to Ariminum. 11.31. The Goths, however, mastered all the beasts of burden, which carried the soldiers' service-baggage and arms and clothing. 11.32. Now there are two towns by the shore of the Ionian Gulf, Pisaurus and Fanus, lying between the cities of Auximus and Ariminum. The houses of these Wittigis had burnt at the beginning of this war, and had razed the walls to about half, in order that the Romans, occupying them, might not give trouble to the Goths. 11.33. One of these, Pisaurus, Belisarius resolved to occupy; for it seemed to him that the place lay suitably for pastures of horses. So sending some of his friends by night, he secretly measured out exactly the breadth and length of each gate. 11.34. And constructing the gates and binding them about with iron, and then putting them into certain skiffs, he sent them, ordering Sabinianus and Thurimuth quickly to fit them to the walls and remain inside the wall, and, when they were in safety, to rebuild, in whatever way, all that had fallen of the wall, throwing in stones and clay and anything else. They, then, did so. 11.35. But Totila, learning what was being done, came against them with a great army. 11.36. And making trial and spending some time there, when he was not able to take it, he withdrew without accomplishing anything to the camp at Auximus. 11.37. And none of the Romans any longer sallied out against the enemy, but each remained inside the walls. And Belisarius, sending two of his guards to Rome, Artasires a Persian and Barbation a Thracian, to guard the city with Bessas, who happened to be there, instructed them by no means to sally out against the enemy. 11.38. And Totila and the army of the Goths, when they perceived that the power of Belisarius was not adequate to array itself against them, resolved to trouble the strongest of the places. 11.39. Wherefore, encamping in Picenum about both Firmum and Asculum, they set themselves to a siege. And the winter was ending, and the tenth year of this war which Procopius has written was coming to a close.

12.1. And Belisarius, being by no means able to defend the besieged, sent John the nephew of Vitalian to Byzantium, binding him with the most dreadful oaths that he would be eager to return as quickly as possible, to beg the emperor to send them a large army and great sums of money, and indeed also arms and horses. 12.2. For the soldiers, being very few, were not themselves willing to fight, saying that the public treasury owed them much money and that they themselves were in want of everything. 12.3. And so it was. And he wrote a letter to the emperor about these things. And the writing made plain the following: “We have come to Italy, most mighty emperor, without men and horses and arms and money. Without which, I think, no one would ever be able to carry on a war, if he does not have them sufficiently. 12.4. For going about Thrace and Illyricum most diligently, we gathered very few soldiers, pitiable and having no arms in their hands and altogether unpractised in battle. 12.5. And we see that those left here are neither self-sufficient and are cowed and enslaved in spirit by often being defeated by the enemy; who indeed did not escape their opponents even idly, but by abandoning their horses and throwing their arms to the ground. 12.6. And for us to provide a revenue of money from Italy is impossible, since it has again been occupied by the enemy. 12.7. Wherefore, having become overdue concerning the soldiers' allowances, we are by no means able to give them orders; for the debt has taken from us our freedom of speech. 12.8. And know this well also, O master, that of those who campaign under you the greater number happen to have deserted to the enemy. 12.9. If, then, it were necessary for Belisarius alone to be sent to Italy, your preparations for the war have been made most excellently; for I am already in the very midst of the Italians. But if you wish to prevail over the enemy in the war, the other things too must be furnished. 12.10. For a general, I think, could not exist without those who serve under him. My guards and shield-bearers, then, most of all, ought to be sent to me, and after them a very great multitude of Huns and other barbarians, to whom money must now be given.” 12.11. So much Belisarius wrote. And John, spending much time in Byzantium, accomplished nothing of what he came for, but married a daughter of Germanus the cousin of the emperor. 12.12. In the meantime Totila took Firmum and Asculum by agreement; and coming to Tuscany, he besieged Spolitium and Asisium. Now Herodian commanded the watch-station in Spolitium, and Sisifridus that in Asisium, a Goth by race but exceedingly well-disposed to the Romans and the emperor's affairs. 12.13. Herodian, then, came to a parley with the enemy, on condition that they should remain quiet for thirty days. 12.14. Of which, if no help should come to them, he would give over both himself and the city, together with the soldiers and the Goths dwelling there. And he gave his son as a hostage on this agreement. 12.15. But when the appointed day was present and no army of the Romans came from anywhere, Herodian and all who held the garrison there put themselves and Spolitium into the hands of Totila and the Goths according to what had been agreed. 12.16. And they say that Herodian gave over both himself and Spolitium to the Goths out of his hatred toward Belisarius; for Belisarius had threatened that he would make him render accounts of his conduct. So matters about Spolitium went on thus. 12.17. And Sisifridus, making a sortie with his followers, both lost the most of those with him and himself died. 12.18. And the people of Asisium, being at a loss before the present situation, straightway gave over the city to the enemy. And Totila, sending immediately to Cyprianus, saw fit that he should give over Perusia to him, threatening him if he should disobey, but promising to present him with great sums of money 12.19. if he should accomplish this. And when nothing proceeded for him through Cyprianus, he persuaded with money one of his guards, Ulifus by name, to make away with the man by treachery. 12.20. So Ulifus, falling in with Cyprianus alone, killed him and fled to Totila. But none the less the soldiers of Cyprianus guarded the city for the emperor; wherefore the Goths resolved to withdraw from there.

13.1. After this Totila went against Rome, and when he came near, he set himself to a siege; the farmers, however, he did no harm to throughout all Italy, but ordered them to till the land fearlessly, as was their custom, for ever, paying him the taxes which formerly they had been wont to pay both to the public treasury and to the owners. 13.2. And when some of the Goths came close to the wall of Rome, Artasires and Barbation, taking with them many of their followers, Bessas by no means approving, made a sortie against them. 13.3. And they killed many straightway and turned the rest to flight. Following them and rushing far out into the pursuit, they fell upon ambushes set by the enemy. 13.4. There, losing the most of their men, they themselves with some few barely escaped, and for the future no longer dared to sally out against their opponents, although they pressed close. 13.5. And from this an exact famine oppressed the Romans, who could no longer bring in any of the necessities from the fields, and were shut off from the cargoes coming from the sea. 13.6. For when the Goths took Naples, establishing a fleet there of many vessels, both at the islands called the islands of Aeolus and at all others lying there, they exactly guarded the passage. 13.7. So all the ships that sailed up from Sicily toward the harbour of Rome all fell, with their very crews, under their hands. 13.8. And Totila, sending an army to Aemilia, ordered them to take the city of Placentia either by force or by agreement. 13.9. This is the first city of the country of Aemilia, having a strong fortification. And it lies by the river Eridanus and was the only one of the places there still left subject to the Romans. 13.10. And when this army came near Placentia, they made proposals to the guards there, that they should give over the city to Totila and the Goths by agreement. 13.11. But when nothing proceeded for them, encamping there, they set themselves to a siege, perceiving that those in the city were in want of provisions. 13.12. Then there came to the commanders of the emperor's army in Rome a suspicion of treachery against Cethegus, a patrician man and first of the Roman senate. Wherefore he went off to Centumcellae. 13.13. And Belisarius, fearing both for Rome and for the whole situation, since it was impossible to help from Ravenna, especially with a small army, resolved to set out from there and occupy the regions about Rome, in order that, being near, he might be able to help those who were suffering there. 13.14. And he repented of his having come at first to Ravenna, which, persuaded by Vitalius, he had previously done, not for the advantage of the emperor's affairs, since, shutting himself up there, he had given the enemy the power to manage at their will the turn of the war. 13.15. And it seemed to me either that Belisarius chose the worse course—since it was then fated that evil should come to the Romans—or that he had deliberated the better, but that God became a hindrance, having in mind to help Totila and the Goths, and from this the best of his plans were turned to the entire opposite for Belisarius. 13.16. For for those on whom the wind of fortune blows from a favourable quarter, even when they deliberate the worst, nothing terrible will meet them, the divine power turning these things about to everything advantageous; 13.17. but to a man who is unfortunate, I think, no good counsel is at hand, his knowledge and true opinion being taken from him by his destiny to suffer. 13.18. And if he should ever deliberate anything of what is needful, fortune, blowing against the one who deliberated, straightway turns his good counsel toward the most wicked of issues. 13.19. But whether these things are so or otherwise I cannot say. And Belisarius, establishing Justinus over the guard of Ravenna, himself with some few was conveyed from there through Dalmatia and the places there to Epidamnus, where, awaiting an army from Byzantium, he remained quiet. And writing a letter to the emperor, he reported his present fortunes. 13.20. And the emperor not long afterward sent to him John the nephew of Vitalian and Isaaces the Armenian, the brother of Aratius and Narses, with an army of barbarian and Roman soldiers. 13.21. These, coming to Epidamnus, joined Belisarius. And he sent Narses the eunuch to the rulers of the Eruli, in order that he might persuade many of them to campaign in Italy. 13.22. And many of the Eruli followed him, of whom, among others, Philemuth was commander, and with him they came to the regions of Thrace. For there, wintering, they were to set out at the beginning of spring to Belisarius. 13.23. And there was with them also John, whom they called by the surname Phagas. And on this journey it befell that a certain fortune wrought great good for the Romans unexpectedly. 13.24. For a large throng of Sclaveni barbarians had lately crossed the river Ister, and plundered the regions there, and enslaved a very great number of Romans. 13.25. Against these the Eruli, coming suddenly to close quarters and conquering them contrary to expectation, though they far surpassed them in measure, both killed them and released all the captives to go home. 13.26. And then Narses, finding also a certain man assuming the name of Chilbudius, an illustrious man who had once been a general of the Romans, was easily able to convict the imposture. And what this was I shall now make plain.

14.1. There was a certain Chilbudius, of the household of the emperor Justinian, exceedingly energetic in matters of war, and so superior to money that in place of the greatest possession in his property he held the possessing of nothing; 14.2. this Chilbudius the emperor, when he had held the imperial power for four years, proclaiming general of Thrace, established over the guard of the river Ister, ordering him to keep watch that the river should no longer be crossable by the barbarians there, since the Huns and Antae and Sclaveni, having often made the crossing of it, had wrought irreparable deeds against the Romans. 14.3. And Chilbudius became so terrible to the barbarians that for a period of three years, all the time that he was staying there with this office, not only was no one able to cross the Ister against the Romans, but the Romans, often going to the opposite mainland with Chilbudius, both killed and enslaved the barbarians there. 14.4. But three years later Chilbudius crossed the river where he was wont with a small army, and the Sclaveni met him in full force. 14.5. And when a fierce battle had taken place, many of the Romans fell and Chilbudius the general. 14.6. And for the future the river became crossable at all times for the barbarians at their will, and the affairs of the Romans became easy to assail, and the whole Roman empire was by no means able in this matter to become a counterpoise to the valour of one man. 14.7. And some time later the Antae and Sclaveni, having become at variance with one another, came to close quarters, where it befell the Antae to be defeated by their opponents. 14.8. In this battle a Sclavenian man took prisoner one of the enemy, Chilbudius by name, just growing his first beard, and taking him went home. 14.9. This Chilbudius, as time went on, became most well-disposed to his master and energetic against the enemy. 14.10. And often having risked himself ahead of his master, he distinguished himself exceedingly and was able to gird himself with great fame from this. 14.11. About this time the Antae, falling upon the regions of Thrace, plundered and enslaved many of the Romans there. Leading them off, they were conveyed back to their native abodes. 14.12. And fortune brought one of these captives to a kindly and gentle master. But this man was very mischievous and such as to circumvent those he met by deceit. 14.13. And since, wishing to return to the land of the Romans, he was by no means able, he devised the following. Coming into the sight of his master, he praised his kindness and affirmed that on account of this many good things would come to him from God, and that he himself would in no way appear thankless to a most kindly master, but that, if he should be willing to listen to him as he set forth the best advice, he would make him master of great wealth not long hence. 14.14. For there was in the nation of the Sclaveni Chilbudius, the man who had been general of the Romans, in the position of a slave, escaping the notice of all the barbarians as to who he was. 14.15. If, then, it should be his wish to put forth the price of Chilbudius and to convey the man to the land of the Romans, it was not unlikely that he would gird himself with good repute and a very great quantity of wealth from the emperor. 14.16. The Roman, saying this, straightway persuaded his master, and with him came into the midst of the Sclaveni; for these barbarians now treated with one another and mingled fearlessly. Putting forth, then, much money to the master of Chilbudius, they bought the man and went off with him immediately. 14.17. And when they were in their own abodes, the purchaser inquired of the man whether he were Chilbudius himself, the general of the Romans. 14.18. And he did not refuse to tell what was, with the true account, in order, that he himself was an Ante by race, and fighting with his kinsmen against the Sclaveni, who were then enemies to them, had been taken by one of his opponents; but now, since he had come to his native abodes, he would for the future be free himself too, according to the law. 14.19. So he who had put forth the gold for him, falling into speechlessness, was distressed, having failed of a not moderate hope. 14.20. But the Roman, wishing to console the man and to thrust aside the truth, in order that nothing might be difficult for him about his return home, affirmed that this very man was indeed that Chilbudius, but that, being afraid because he was in the midst of barbarians, he was by no means willing to reveal the whole account; if, however, he should come to the land of the Romans, he would not only not hide the true account, but would even, as is natural, pride himself on this name. At first, then, these things were done secretly from the other barbarians. 14.21. But when the report, going about, came to all, nearly all the Antae gathered for this, and saw fit that the matter should be common, thinking that great good would come to them, since they had now become masters of Chilbudius the general of the Romans. 14.22. For these nations, the Sclaveni and the Antae, are not ruled by one man, but live in a democracy from of old, and for this reason both the advantageous and the difficult matters of affairs are always brought to common counsel among them. And in like manner, to speak generally, all other things too are and have been customary among these barbarians from above. 14.23. For they hold that one god, the maker of lightning, is alone lord of all, and they sacrifice to him oxen and all victims; but fate they neither know nor in any other way admit that it has any power among men, but whenever death is already at their feet, either being seized by sickness or setting themselves to war, they promise that, if they escape, they will straightway make a sacrifice to the god in return for their life, and having escaped they sacrifice what they promised, and they think that their safety has been bought by this sacrifice. 14.24. They worship, however, both rivers and nymphs and certain other divinities, and sacrifice to all of these, and make their divinations in these sacrifices. They dwell in wretched huts, scattered far from one another, and each for the most part changes the place of his habitation. 14.25. When they set themselves to battle, the most go against the enemy on foot, holding small shields and javelins in their hands, but they put on no corselet. 14.26. And some have neither tunic nor cloak, but, fitting on only their trousers up to the privy parts, thus set themselves to engagement with their opponents. And there is for both one tongue, altogether barbarous. 14.27. Nor indeed do they differ at all from one another in appearance. For they are all both tall and exceedingly strong, and as to their bodies and hair they are neither very white or fair, nor are they at all turned wholly to the dark, but they are all ruddy. 14.28. And they have a hard and neglected mode of life, like the Massagetae, and like them they are most continually full of filth; yet they are by no means wicked or mischievous, but even in their simplicity they preserve the Hunnic character. 14.29. And indeed there was one name for both the Sclaveni and the Antae from above; for both were anciently called Spori, because, I think, they dwell in the land scattered (sporaden), in scattered tents. 14.30. Wherefore they hold a large land; for they occupy the most of the other bank of the Ister. So much, then, for this people. 14.31. And the Antae, then gathering, as has been said, compelled this man to agree with them that he was Chilbudius himself, the general of the Romans. 14.32. And when he denied it, they threatened to punish him. While these things were being done thus, in the meantime the emperor Justinian, sending certain envoys to these barbarians, saw fit that they should all settle together in an ancient city, Turris by name, which lies beyond the river Ister, Trajan the emperor of the Romans having built it in earlier times, and which had been deserted from of old, the barbarians there having plundered it. 14.33. This and the land about it the emperor Justinian agreed to give them, as belonging at the first to the Romans, and to help settle them with all his might, and to put forth great sums of money to them, on condition that, being for the future in treaty with him, they should be perpetually a hindrance to the Huns when they wished to overrun the Roman empire. 14.34. When the barbarians heard this, they approved and promised to do everything, if he should establish Chilbudius again as general of the Romans and give him to them as a co-settler, affirming that this very man, as they wished, was Chilbudius. 14.35. And the man, lifted up by these hopes, now himself too both wished and affirmed that he was Chilbudius the general of the Romans. And as he was setting out for Byzantium on these terms, Narses caught him on this journey. 14.36. And joining him, when he found the man dissembling (although he uttered the Latin tongue and had already learned much of the marks of Chilbudius and was sufficiently able to play the part), he shut him up in prison and compelled him to tell the whole account, and thus brought him with himself to Byzantium. But I now return to the point from which I digressed.

15.1. The emperor, then, was doing these things which have been shown by me. In the meantime Belisarius sent Valentinus and one of his own guards, Phocas by name, exceedingly good in matters of war, with an army to the harbour of the Romans, in order that they might guard the fort in Portus together with the garrison there, whom Innocentius commanded, and, wherever it should be possible for them, making sorties, throw into confusion the camp of the enemy. 15.2. So Valentinus and Phocas, sending secretly to Rome, signified to Bessas that they were about immediately to attack the stockade of their opponents by a sudden raid; it would be needful, then, for him too, selecting the most warlike of the soldiers in Rome, when he perceived the raid, to come to the aid at a run, in order that both might be able to do the barbarians some great harm. 15.3. But this by no means pleased Bessas, although he had three thousand soldiers with him. Wherefore Valentinus and Phocas, with five hundred, attacking the camp of the enemy unexpectedly, killed some few, and a perception of the tumult there quickly came to the besieged. 15.4. But when no one sallied out from the city, they quickly withdrew to the harbour altogether unharmed. 15.5. And sending to Bessas again, they charged that some unbefitting shrinking had fallen upon him, but affirming that a little later they would make another sortie against the enemy, they exhorted him too in due season to attack the barbarians with all his might. 15.6. But he none the less refused to risk himself by sallying out against his opponents. Valentinus and Phocas, however, purposed to fall upon the enemy with a larger army and were now in readiness. 15.7. But a certain soldier, ranged under Innocentius, deserting to Totila, announced that on the following day there would be an assault from Portus against them. 15.8. And he resolved to lay ambushes of warlike men in the places that were suitable for this. There on the following day Valentinus and Phocas, falling upon them with their followers, lost the most and themselves died. And some few, barely escaping, were conveyed to Portus. 15.9. At that time too Vigilius, the high priest of Rome, staying in Sicily, sent as many ships as possible filled with grain, thinking that in some way they would be able to bring the cargoes into Rome for those conveying them. 15.10. So these ships sailed toward the harbour of the Romans, but the enemy, perceiving this and anticipating by a short time, were in the harbour and hid themselves inside the walls, in order that, as soon as the ships should put in there, they might master them with no trouble. 15.11. Observing which, those who held the garrison in Portus all went up onto the battlements and, shaking their garments, wished to signal to those in the ships not to go forward, but to turn aside elsewhere, 15.12. wherever they chanced. But they, not understanding what was being done, but thinking that the Romans in Portus rejoiced and were inviting them to the harbour, the wind being favourable to them, were quickly inside the harbour. 15.13. Now there sailed in the ships many other Romans and a certain bishop, Valentinus by name. And the barbarians, rising from the ambushes, mastered all the vessels, no one defending himself. 15.14. And taking the bishop alive, they led him to Totila, but all the others they killed, and went off dragging the ships with their cargoes. 15.15. Totila inquired of this priest whatever he wished, and bringing it against him that he by no means told the truth, cut off both his hands. 15.16. These things, then, it befell to happen thus. And the winter was ending, and the eleventh year of this war which Procopius has written was coming to a close.

16.1. And Vigilius, the high priest of Rome, came to the emperor at Byzantium, summoned from Sicily. For he happened to have been staying in Sicily a long time on this account. 16.2. About this time the Romans besieged in Placentia, all the necessities having now altogether failed them, came, forced by famine, to certain unholy foods. 16.3. And indeed they tasted of one another. And on account of this they gave over both themselves and Placentia to the Goths by agreement. 16.4. These things, then, proceeded thus, and from Rome, besieged by Totila, all the necessities had now failed. 16.5. There was a certain man among the priests of Rome, Pelagius by name, a deacon in rank, who, having stayed a long time in Byzantium, had become a most intimate friend of the emperor Justinian, and being girt with great wealth had happened to come to Rome a little before. 16.6. And in this siege, having put forth the most of his money to those in want of the necessities, being of repute even before among all the Italians, he bore off, as is natural, a greater fame for kindness. 16.7. This Pelagius the Romans, when they were suffering helpless things from famine, persuaded both to go to Totila and to arrange for them a truce of some few days, on condition that, if no help should come to them from Byzantium within this truce, they would give over both themselves and the city to the Goths by agreement. 16.8. On this embassy Pelagius came to Totila. And Totila, greeting him with much reverence and friendliness, spoke first as follows: 16.9. “To all barbarians, for the most part, it is a custom to revere the office of envoys, but to me it has been from above an object of eagerness to honour those who lay claim to any of the virtue which you yourself possess, and otherwise too. 16.10. And honour and insult toward an envoy I think are distinguished not by the gentleness of countenance nor by the loftiness of words of those who receive him, but in this, whether one tells him the truth or uses unsound speech to him. 16.11. For it befalls that man to be especially honoured to whom, openly revealing the true account, they thus send the man away, but for him to be especially insulted who, having heard hollow and fabricated words, goes off and departs. 16.12. Except for three things, then, O Pelagius, of all the rest, whatever you may ask, you will never fail to obtain it from us. 16.13. Concerning which it is better that you, guarding yourself, keep silence, in order that, having become most responsible to yourself for accomplishing nothing of what you came for, you may not lay upon us the blame concerning them. 16.14. For from asking unsuitably about present matters, the accomplishing of nothing is for the most part implanted. And I say, in order that you may make your speeches neither for the sake of any of the Sicilians, nor of the walls of Rome, nor of the slaves who have come over to us. 16.15. For it is not possible either that the Goths use sparing toward any of the Sicilians, or that this wall stand, or that the slaves who have campaigned with us be slaves to their former owners. And in order that I may not seem to put these things forward with an unreasoning purpose, I shall dissolve the suspicion by telling at once the reasons. 16.16. The island was prosperous from of old in revenue of money and in abundance of all crops growing there, so that it not only sufficed those who dwelt in it, but you Romans, importing from there each year, had the carrying of provisions sufficiently. 16.17. Wherefore at the beginning the Romans begged Theoderic not to establish a garrison of many Goths there, in order that nothing might be a hindrance to their freedom or their other prosperity. 16.18. These things being so, the army of the enemy sailed down to Sicily, neither in multitude of men nor in any other thing whatever a match for us. 16.19. But the Sicilians, seeing the fleet, did not report these things to the Goths, did not shut themselves up in the forts, did not resolve to give any offence to their opponents, but throwing open the gates of the cities with all eagerness received the army of the enemy with upturned hands, like, I think, the most untrustworthy of slaves, watching from a long time for the chance to escape from the hand of their owners and to find new and unknown masters for themselves. 16.20. And setting out from there as from a bulwark, the enemy held the rest of Italy with no toil and occupied this Rome, bringing in from Sicily such a quantity of grain as to hold out against a siege for a year's length for all the Romans. 16.21. Such, then, is the case of the Sicilians, for whom there will be no means for the Goths to be forgiving, the magnitude of their offences taking from those who have done wrong all pity. 16.22. Now the enemy, having shut themselves up inside these walls, by no means resolved to come down into the plain and array themselves against us, but by stratagems and circumventions always and every day driving the Goths back, they have become masters of our affairs unexpectedly. 16.23. In order, then, that we may not suffer this same thing afterward too, it is worth while to take forethought. For those who, once tripped up by ignorance, have fallen into the same misfortune again, not foreseeing the calamity already become familiar to them by experience—this seems to be not an opposition of fortune, but, as is natural, 16.24. to come round to the folly of those who have failed. And one might add that the razing of the wall of Rome will above all be advantageous to you. For no longer being shut up with others and shut off from all the necessities, you will not be besieged by those who come against you, but both sides will risk themselves in battle against one another, and you will become the prize of the victors without dangers of your own. 16.25. As for the slaves who have come over to us, we shall say so much, that, if we should learn that we are now putting into your hands those who arrayed themselves with us against your opponents and who received from us the agreement that we would never give them over to their former owners, we shall not even keep good faith toward you. 16.26. For it is not possible, it is not, that he who disregards his agreements toward the most pitiable of all should display his purpose firm toward any other, but, as if of another mark of his nature, he is wont always to carry his faithlessness round to all who deal with him.” 16.27. Totila said so much, and Pelagius answered as follows: “You have made me your earnest object above all, O noble man, and, alleging the name of the embassy, have ranged us in the most dishonoured portion. 16.28. For to insult a man who is both a friend and an envoy, I think, is not he who would strike him on the cheek and use other wantonness toward him, but he who would resolve to send away unsuccessful the man who came to him. 16.29. For men are wont to set themselves to the embassy not in order that they may obtain some honour from those who receive them, but in order that, having accomplished some good for those who sent them, they may return to them. 16.30. So that it will be more advantageous to have been reviled and accomplished something of what they came for than, having heard kindlier words, to return having failed of their hope. To beg off, then, I do not know why I should about these things which you yourself have said. 16.31. For why should one trouble him who, before the defence, has refused the agreement? But this I would not keep silent, that it is plain how great kindness you intend to display toward the Romans who have taken up arms against you, who have resolved to bring an irrevocable hatred against the Sicilians, who have in no way met you. 16.32. But I, for my part, leaving aside my entreaty to you, shall transfer my embassy to God, who is wont to be wrathful against those who despise supplications.”

17.1. Having said so much, Pelagius departed. And the Romans, when they saw him returning unsuccessful, fell into much helplessness. And the famine, growing ever more at its height, wrought irreparable things upon them each day. The soldiers, however, had not yet run out of the necessities, but still held out. 17.2. Wherefore the Romans, gathering in a body and coming to the commanders of the emperor's army, Bessas and Conon, in tears and with much wailing spoke as follows: “We see, O generals, that our present fortunes are such that, even if we were able to do you some unholy deed, this charge would bring upon us no blame. 17.3. For the excess of necessity has its defence in itself. But now, being unable to defend ourselves by deed, we have come to you to make plain in word and to bewail our calamity. Hear us gently, not being thrown into confusion by the boldness of our words, but measuring this by the height of our suffering. 17.4. For he who has been compelled to despair of safety is no longer able for the rest to preserve decorum either in deeds or in words. 17.5. Think of us, O generals, neither as Romans nor as kinsmen to you, nor as having become of the same character as the customs of the state, nor as having received the emperor's army into the city of our own will, but as being enemies from the first and having taken up arms against you, then defeated in battle, having become your captive slaves taken in war according to the law of war. 17.6. And furnish to your captives food not sufficient for our need, but having enough to keep us alive, in order that we who survive may in turn serve you in whatever it is fitting for servants to render to their owners. 17.7. But if this is not easy or pleasing to you, but you see fit to release us from your hand, gaining this, that you do not toil over the burials of slaves; and if not even this is left to us, see fit to kill us and do not deprive us of a temperate death nor grudge us the death sweetest of all, but by a single act release the Romans from countless 17.8. difficulties.” When Bessas and his men heard this, they said that to furnish them provisions was impossible, and to kill them unholy, yet that to release them was not without danger. And they affirmed that Belisarius and the army from Byzantium would be present immediately, and consoling them in this way dismissed them. 17.9. But the famine, growing still more at its height and being prolonged, rose to a great measure of evil, suggesting foods strange and beyond the bounds of nature. 17.10. At first, then, Bessas and Conon, who commanded the garrison in Rome (for they happened to have stored within the wall of Rome a great measure of grain), and the soldiers, cutting off from their own need, sold to the wealthy of the Romans for great sums of money; for the price of a measure had become seven gold pieces. 17.11. But those whose household affairs did not go so well as to be able to share in food of such worth, putting down a quarter of the price and filling a measure with bran, ate it, necessity making their food sweetest and most luxurious to them. 17.12. And an ox, which the shield-bearers of Bessas might take in their sorties, they sold for fifty gold pieces. And whoever had a dead horse or anything else of the kind was ranked among the exceedingly fortunate, since he could luxuriate on the flesh of a dead animal. 17.13. But the whole rest of the throng ate only nettles, of which many grow about the wall and everywhere in the ruins of the city. 17.14. And in order that the sharpness of the herb might not bite their lips and the parts about the throat, they boiled them with care and ate them. 17.15. So long, then, as the Romans had gold coin, thus, as has been said, they bought the grain and the bran and got off. But when this had now failed them, those who carried their furniture to the market exchanged all of it for their daily life. 17.16. But at last, when the emperor's soldiers had no grain to sell to the Romans (except indeed that a little was still left to Bessas), and the Romans had nothing to buy with, all looked to the nettles. 17.17. And as this food was not sufficient for them—since they could not even come to fullness of it at all—their flesh for the most part became wasted, and their colour, coming little by little to lividness, made them most like phantoms. 17.18. And many, while still walking and chewing the nettles with their teeth, died suddenly and fell to the ground. 17.19. And now they even ate one another's dung. And many, hard pressed by famine, made away with themselves, since they no longer found dogs or mice or any other dead animal on which to feed. 17.20. There was a certain Roman man there, the father of five children, whom the children, standing around him and laying hold of his garment, asked for food. 17.21. And he, neither wailing nor showing that he was thrown into confusion, but most strongly hiding the whole suffering in his mind, ordered the children to follow him as though to receive food. 17.22. And when he came to the bridge of the Tiber, binding his garment over his face and covering his eyes with it, he leaped from the bridge into the water of the Tiber, the children and all the Romans there watching what was being done. 17.23. And for the rest the commanders of the emperor, taking other money, released the Romans, as many as wished to depart from there. 17.24. And some few being left there, all the others went off, fleeing as each had become able. And the most of them, their strength being already withered away by famine, died as they sailed or went on the road. 17.25. And many, caught by the enemy on the road, perished. To this had fortune gone for the senate and people of Rome.

18.1. When the army with John and Isaaces came to Epidamnus and joined Belisarius, John saw fit that all, ferrying across the gulf and going on foot with the whole army, should bear in common what should befall; but to Belisarius this seemed inexpedient, but rather that it would be more advantageous for them to sail to the regions about Rome. 18.2. For going on foot, more time would be wasted for them and perhaps some hindrance would meet them; but John, going through Calabria and the nations there, should drive out the barbarians there (who were quite few) and, making subject the parts within the Ionian Gulf, should join them, coming to the regions about Rome. 18.3. Where Belisarius himself too purposed to put in with the rest of the army. For he thought that, since the Romans were being most bitterly besieged, even, as is natural, the very shortest delay would do irreparable harm to affairs. 18.4. And sailing, if a favourable wind fell upon them, it would be possible to put in at the harbour of the Romans on the fifth day, but for an army going on foot from Dryus, not even in forty days could they be in Rome. 18.5. Having given John these instructions, Belisarius set out from there with the whole fleet; but a hard wind falling upon them, they put in at Dryus. 18.6. When the Goths perceived this, all who had been ranged for the siege of the fort there, breaking off the siege, were immediately conveyed to the city of Brentesium, distant two days' journey from Dryus, but lying by the shore of the gulf and being unwalled, suspecting that Belisarius would immediately cross the strait there, and reported their situation to Totila. 18.7. And he both made the whole army ready as though to meet him and ordered the Goths in Calabria, wherever it should be possible for them, to keep watch over the passage. 18.8. But when Belisarius, a favourable wind blowing, sailed away from Dryus, the Goths, being careless, kept a not earnest mode of life among the Calabrians, and Totila, remaining quiet, guarded still more the entrances into Rome, in order that nothing of the provisions might be able to be brought in. 18.9. And in the Tiber he devised the following. Observing a place where the river especially comes down in a narrow channel, about ninety stades from the city, he laid there very long beams reaching from one bank to the other into the form of a bridge. 18.10. And building two wooden towers by either bank, he established a watch-station of warlike men, in order that no longer should it be possible for any skiffs or other vessels sailing up from Portus to come into the city. 18.11. In the meantime Belisarius put in at the harbour of the Romans, and the army with John remained. And John ferried across to Calabria, the Goths by no means perceiving it, who were staying, as has been said, about Brentesium. 18.12. And taking two of the enemy going on the road for scouting, he killed one straightway, but the other, laying hold of his knees, begged to be taken alive. 18.13. “For I shall not be useless,” he said, “to you and the Roman army.” And when John asked him what he, not being killed, would ever be of advantage to the Romans and to himself, the man promised to set him over the Goths when they were least expecting it. 18.14. And he said that he would not at all fail of his entreaty, but that he ought first to show him the pastures of the horses. So when the barbarian agreed to this too, he went with him. 18.15. And first, finding the horses of the enemy grazing, all who happened to be on foot mounted upon them; and they were many and excellent. Then they advanced at a run against the camp of their opponents. 18.16. And the barbarians, being unarmed and altogether unprepared, and struck with consternation at the unexpectedness, the most of them perished there, being mindful of no resistance, while some few escaping were conveyed to Totila. 18.17. And John, consoling and winning over all the Calabrians, brought them into goodwill toward the emperor, promising that many good things would come to them both from the emperor and from the Roman army. 18.18. And setting out as fast as he could from Brentesium, he occupied a city named Canusium, which lies about the middle of Apulia and is distant from Brentesium a journey of five days for one going westward and toward Rome. 18.19. Twenty-five stades from this Canusium is Cannae, where they say the great disaster befell the Romans in earlier times, Hannibal commanding the Libyans. 18.20. There a certain Tullianus, the son of Venantius, a Roman man, having great power among the Bruttii and Lucanians, coming into the sight of John, charged the emperor's army with what they had previously wrought against the Italians, but agreed that, if they should henceforth use any fairness toward them, he would put into their hands the Bruttii and Lucanians, who would again be subject to the emperor in the payment of tribute none the less than they were before. 18.21. For they had not come over willingly to barbarians who were Arians, but had done so as being especially forced by their opponents and wronged by the emperor's soldiers. 18.22. And when John affirmed that for the future all good things would come to the Italians from them, Tullianus went with him. 18.23. And from this the soldiers no longer held the Italians in any suspicion, but the most of the parts within the Ionian Gulf became both friendly to them and subject to the emperor. 18.24. When Totila heard this, selecting three hundred Goths, he sent them to Capua. And he instructed them, when they should see the army with John going from there to Rome, to follow them, giving them no perception of it; 18.25. for the rest would be his concern. And John, fearing on account of this lest he should fall into some encirclement of the enemy, no longer went to Belisarius, but advanced into the Bruttii and Lucanians. 18.26. Now there was among the Goths a certain Recimundus, a man of repute, whom Totila had happened to establish over the garrison of the Bruttii, having some of the Goths and Roman soldiers and Moorish deserters, in order that with them he might guard both the strait at Scylla and the shore there, so that none might be able to set out from there to Sicily or to sail down from the island to there too fearlessly. 18.27. Upon this army, between Rhegium and Vebo, John, falling unexpectedly and self-announced, struck them with consternation suddenly as they were mindful of no resistance, and straightway turned them to flight. 18.28. And they fled to the mountain that rises there, which was hard to traverse and otherwise precipitous, but John, pursuing and coming with the enemy to the steep ground, and coming to close quarters with them before they had yet strengthened themselves in the difficult places, killed very many both of the Moors and Roman soldiers, who defended themselves most stoutly, and took Recimundus and the Goths with all the rest by agreement. 18.29. John, then, having accomplished these things, remained there, and Belisarius, always waiting for John, remained quiet. And he found fault that John had not, by risking himself and coming to close quarters with the three hundred guarding at Capua, undertaken to make the passage, although he had with him barbarians gathered for their valour. But John, despairing of the passage, advanced into Apulia, and remained quiet in a place called Cervarium.

19.1. Belisarius, then, fearing for the besieged, lest they should do something irreparable through the want of necessities, purposed in whatever way to bring provisions into Rome. 19.2. And since he by no means had a power adequate to settle matters with the enemy by battle in the plain, he first devised the following. 19.3. Yoking together two exceedingly broad skiffs and binding them very firmly to each other, he constructed a wooden tower upon them, much higher than those made by the enemy on the bridge. 19.4. For he had previously happened to measure these exactly, sending some of his followers who were sent ostensibly as deserters to the barbarians. 19.5. And surrounding two hundred warships with wooden walls, he let them down into the Tiber, making holes everywhere in the wooden walls, in order that it might be possible to shoot at the enemy from there. So putting grain and many other provisions into these warships, he filled them with the most warlike of the soldiers. 19.6. And he stationed other soldiers, both foot and horse, on either side in certain strong places about the mouths of the Tiber, whom he ordered to remain there and, if any of the enemy should go against Portus, to prevent it with all their might. 19.7. And bringing Isaaces into Portus, he gave over to him both the city and his wife and anything else he happened to have there. And he instructed him by no means to depart from there, not even if he should learn that Belisarius had perished at the hands of the enemy, but always to hold to the guard, in order that, if any obstacle should meet them, they might have a place to which to flee and be saved. 19.8. For they had no other fortress in this region, but everything everywhere was hostile to them. 19.9. And he himself, embarking on one of the warships, led the fleet and ordered the skiffs to be dragged along, 19.10. on which he happened to have constructed the tower. And on the top of the tower he placed a certain skiff, filling it with pitch and sulphur and resin and all the other things which are wont to become the swiftest food of fire. 19.11. And along the other bank of the river, which is on the right as one goes from Portus to Rome, a foot-army also went as support. 19.12. And sending to Bessas on the day before, he had ordered him on the following day to sally out with a large army and throw the camps of the enemy into confusion—which indeed he had often instructed him before. 19.13. But Bessas neither before nor in this battle resolved to carry out what was enjoined. 19.14. For there was still grain left to him alone, since of all that the rulers of Sicily had previously sent to Rome to suffice both the soldiers and the whole people, he had given the people only a very little, but kept hidden the most, which he had received on account of the soldiers, and which, selling to those of the senate for great sums of money, he was by no means willing to dissolve the siege. 19.15. So Belisarius and the Roman fleet went sailing up with toil, since the current was against them. But the Goths by no means came to meet them, but remained quiet in their stockades. 19.16. And now the Romans, coming close to the bridge, met a guard of the enemy, who had been ranged for the watch with an iron chain on either side of the river, which Totila had not long before happened to place there, reaching from one bank of the Tiber to the other, in order that the enemy might not be able even to come easily to the bridge. 19.17. And shooting at them, they killed some, and routing the rest and taking up the chain, they went straight to the bridge. And as soon as they came to it, they set to work, and the barbarians defended themselves most stoutly from the towers. 19.18. And now they rose up from their stockades and advanced at a run to the bridge. Then indeed Belisarius, bringing the skiffs on which the tower had been made very close to one of the towers of the enemy, which stood on the road by Portus over the very water of the river, ordered them to set fire to the skiff and throw it down on top of the enemy's tower. 19.19. And the Romans did so. And falling upon the tower, the skiff straightway set it on fire, and with it all the Goths, who were about two hundred. 19.20. And Osdas was burned with them, who commanded them, being the most warlike of all the Goths. And the Romans, now taking courage, shot at the barbarians who had come up from the stockades still more than before. 19.21. And they, struck with consternation at what had happened, turning their backs, rushed into flight as each was able; and the Romans laid hold of the bridge and were about immediately to destroy it and go forward and be conveyed to Rome, no one any longer withstanding them. 19.22. But since these things were not the wish of fortune, a device of one of the envious daemons came about, which destroyed the affairs of the Romans in the following manner. 19.23. While the armies were going on thus, as has been said, in the meantime a certain report, coming to Portus for the harm of the Romans, went about, that Belisarius was conquering and had taken up the chain, having destroyed the barbarians there, and the other things which I have mentioned before. 19.24. And Isaaces, hearing this, was no longer able to remain within himself, but was eager to share in this glory. And disregarding the instructions of Belisarius, he went off as quickly as possible to the other bank of the river. 19.25. And taking a hundred horsemen of the soldiers whom Belisarius had happened to establish there, he rode against the stockade of the enemy, which Roderic commanded, a man good in matters of war. 19.26. And coming suddenly upon the barbarians there, he struck, among others, Roderic, who came to meet him. 19.27. And the Goths straightway, leaving the camp, withdrew, either suspecting that a multitude of the enemy was behind Isaaces, or deceiving their opponents in order that they might be able to take them, which is what happened. 19.28. So the men with Isaaces, getting into the stockade of the enemy, plundered the silver which lay there and the other goods. 19.29. But the Goths, turning back immediately, killed many of their opponents and took Isaaces alive with some few others not many. And horsemen, coming to Belisarius at a run, announced that Isaaces was held by the enemy. 19.30. And Belisarius, struck with consternation at what he had heard, and not searching out by what device Isaaces had been taken, but thinking that both Portus and his wife had perished and all their affairs were destroyed, and that no other fortress was left to which they could flee and be saved for the future, fell into speechlessness, which had not happened to him before. 19.31. Wherefore he quickly led the army back, intending to attack the enemy while they were still in disorder and to recover the place by every device. So the Roman army withdrew from there unsuccessful. 19.32. And coming to Portus, Belisarius learned of the madness of Isaaces and perceived the confusion which had befallen him unbefittingly, and being in great pain at the opposition of fortune, became sick in body. 19.33. For a fever, coming upon him, distressed him prodigiously for a length of time and brought him into danger of death. 19.34. And two days later it befell Roderic to die, and Totila, being grievously distressed at the calamity, put Isaaces to death.

20.1. And Bessas, still more selling the grain, grew rich, the necessity of those in want dispensing for him the prices. And being wholly devoted to anxiety about these things, he attended neither to the guard of the wall nor to anything else concerning safety, but it was possible for the soldiers to be slack who wished, and there was a garrison of some few on the walls, and this too most neglected. 20.2. For those on whom the guard always lay had much liberty to sleep, since no one was set over them who would make any account of such a thing; nor did any go around the walls in a circle, as was wont, and see fit to search out what the guards were doing; nor indeed could any of the inhabitants help them keep guard. 20.3. For there were very few left there, as has been said by me, and they themselves prodigiously maltreated by famine. 20.4. Four Isaurians, then, having guard about the Asinarian gate, watching the time of night at which it fell to those who had it to sleep, while the guard of the wall there lay upon them, fastening a rope from the battlements reaching to the ground, and taking hold of this with both hands, got outside the wall, and coming to Totila agreed to receive into the city both him and the Gothic army; for they affirmed they were able to do this with no trouble. 20.5. And he, agreeing that he would have abundant gratitude toward them if they should accomplish this, and would make them masters of great sums of money, sent two of his followers with them to observe the place from which the men said it was possible for the Goths to come into the city. 20.6. And these, when they came to the wall, taking hold of the ropes, went up onto the battlements, no one there either speaking or perceiving what was being done. 20.7. And when they were there, the Isaurians showed the barbarians everything, that if they wished to come up no obstacle would arise, and that to those who came up there would be much liberty, no one whatever withstanding them; and ordering them to report these things to Totila, they sent them away. 20.8. When Totila heard this, he was somewhat pleased at the message, but, being even so gripped by suspicion against the Isaurians, saw fit not to trust them too much. 20.9. And not many days later the men came to him again, urging him to the deed. And he sent two others with them, in order that they too, searching out everything exactly, might report. 20.10. And they, returning to him, announced everything in like manner to the former men. In the meantime many Roman soldiers, sent out for scouting from the city, fell in with ten Goths going on the road not far off, whom they took and brought straightway to Bessas. 20.11. And he inquired of these barbarians what Totila was purposing, and the Goths said they were in hope that some of the Isaurians would give over the city to them; for the report had now become known to many of the barbarians. 20.12. But Bessas and Conon, hearing even this, held it in much disregard and made no account of it. And a third time the Isaurians, coming into the sight of Totila, urged the man to the deed. 20.13. And he sent others with them and one of his kinsmen, who, returning to him and reporting the whole account, strengthened him for the deed. 20.14. And Totila, as soon as night had come, arming the whole army quietly, led it against the Asinarian gate. And he ordered four of the Goths who were well off in courage and strength to go up to the battlements through the nooses with the Isaurians, at that time of night, of course, at which the guard of the wall there fell to these Isaurians, the others taking their sleep in turn. 20.15. And these, when they were inside the wall, went down to the Asinarian gate, no one withstanding them, and destroyed with axes the wood which, fitted by insertion into each wall, they were wont to use to fasten the gates, and all the irons with which the guards, putting in the keys, were always wont both to lock the gates and to open them as need required. 20.16. And thus, throwing open the gates as they wished, they received into the city Totila and the Gothic army with no trouble. And Totila, gathering them there into one place, by no means allowed them to scatter; for he feared lest some ambush by the enemy should befall them. And when confusion, 20.17. as is natural, and tumult fell upon the city, the most of the Roman soldiers fled with their commanders through another gate, as it became easy for each, but some few took refuge with the rest of the Romans in the churches. 20.18. And of the patricians Decius and Basilius with certain others (for they happened to have horses present) were able to flee with Bessas. 20.19. But Maximus and Olybrius and Orestes and certain others fled to the church of Peter the apostle. Of the people, however, it befell that five hundred men were left in all the city, who took refuge in the churches with difficulty. 20.20. For of all the rest, some had previously gone off to other countries, and some had perished of famine, as has been said by me before. Many, then, announced to Totila by night that Bessas and the enemy were fleeing. And he, saying that they had spoken a pleasant word, would not allow them to pursue. 20.21. For what could be sweeter to a man, he said, than that the enemy should flee? 20.22. And when it was now day and no suspicion of any ambush was any longer left, Totila went to the church of Peter the apostle to pray, while the Goths destroyed those who had fallen in their way. 20.23. And there died in this manner twenty-six of the soldiers and sixty of the people. And when Totila came to the church, Pelagius came into his sight bearing the oracles of the Christians in his hands, and in every way putting forward his supplication, said, “Spare your own, O master.” 20.24. And he, mocking and exulting, said, “Now, O Pelagius, you have come to supplicate me.” “When,” Pelagius answered, “God has made me your slave. 20.25. But for the future, O master, spare your slaves.” Totila, receiving this supplication, forbade the Goths to kill for the future any of all the Romans, but to take out for himself the most precious of the goods, and the rest to plunder for themselves at their will. 20.26. Much, then, he found in the houses of the patricians, but most of all where Bessas lodged. For the unholy prices of the grain, as has been shown, this wretched man was gathering for Totila. 20.27. And thus it came about for the rest of the Romans, and for those of the senate, and not least for Rusticiana, who had become the wife of Boethius and was the daughter of Symmachus, and was always putting forth her substance to the needy, to live, clothed in the garments of slaves and country folk, begging bread or some other necessity from the enemy. 20.28. And going about the houses and constantly knocking at the doors, they begged that food be given them, the deed bringing them no shame. 20.29. And the Goths were eager to kill Rusticiana, charging that, putting forth money to the commanders of the Roman army, she had destroyed the statues of Theoderic, avenging the murders of her father Symmachus and of Boethius her husband. 20.30. But Totila did not allow her to suffer anything unpleasant, but kept both her and all the others free from violence, although the Goths were exceedingly eager to come to their beds. 20.31. Wherefore it befell that none of them was violated in body, neither a married woman nor a maiden nor a widow, and Totila won great fame for chastity from this deed.

21.1. On the following day Totila, calling all the Goths together, spoke as follows: “Not to make to you any new or unknown exhortation have I gathered you here, fellow-soldiers, but to say those things which I have often said to you, and which, when you received them, it befell the greatest of goods to come to pass. 21.2. Do not, then, through this use any disregard toward the exhortation now. 21.3. For of words that lead to prosperity it is not natural that there be satiety for a man, even if one should seem to weary him by their length; since it is not right to refuse the benefit arising from them either. 21.4. And I say that lately, when twenty myriads of most warlike soldiers gathered together, using prodigious wealth and displaying a certain abundance, as great as possible, of horses and arms, and a great throng of most intelligent elders—which seems most advantageous to those who set themselves to contests—we were defeated by seven thousand Greeks, and have been deprived of the rule and of all the rest for no reason. 21.5. But now, having been reduced to a few, naked and pitiable and experienced in nothing whatever, it has befallen us to master the enemy, who are more than twenty thousand. 21.6. The things done, then, to speak in a word, are such; but the causes of things befalling thus I shall now make plain to you who know them: that the Goths formerly, setting justice below all other things, wrought unholy deeds both toward one another and toward the Roman subjects, by which, as is natural, God, being led against them, then campaigned with the enemy. 21.7. And on account of these things, although surpassing our opponents by far in numbers and in valour and in the rest of the preparation for war, we were defeated by a certain power unseen and least of all knowable. 21.8. Therefore the guarding of these goods will lie with you, preserving plainly justice. For if you change, the things from God too will immediately be hostile. 21.9. For it is not wont to ally itself either with a race of men or with the nature of nations, but with those by whom the reckoning of justice is more honoured. And there is no toil for it to transfer good things to others. 21.10. For for a man only not to do wrong lies in his purpose, but for God all things naturally lie in his power. 21.11. I say, then, that you ought to keep justice both toward one another and toward your subjects. For it would be the same thing as to say that you preserve your prosperity for ever.” 21.12. Saying so much to the Goths, Totila, calling together those of the Roman senate, reproached and reviled them much, who, having received many good things from Theoderic and Athalaric, and being themselves established for ever over the whole rule and managing the state, and being girt with a great quantity of wealth, then, gripped by much thanklessness toward the Goths their benefactors, had looked to a revolt, which they ought not, to their own harm, and had brought in the Greeks against their country, having suddenly become traitors to themselves. 21.13. And he inquired whether they themselves had ever suffered any evil at the hands of the Goths. 21.14. And he compelled them to say if any good had befallen them from the emperor Justinian, enumerating everything in order: that they had been deprived of nearly all the magistracies, and, being maltreated by the so-called logothetes, had been compelled to render accounts of their dealings in office toward the Goths, and, being worn down by the war, paid the public taxes to the Greeks no less than in time of peace; and many other things he put into his speech, such as it is likely a hostile master should reproach those he has enslaved. 21.15. And, pointing out to them Herodian and the Isaurians who had given over the city to him, “You,” he said, “though brought up with the Goths, did not resolve to give over to us even a deserted place to this day, but these men received us both into Rome itself and into Spolitium. 21.16. Wherefore you have come to be in the position of slaves, while these men, having become, as is natural, friends and kinsmen to the Goths, will for the future hold your 21.17. magistracies.” So the patricians, hearing this, kept silence. But Pelagius did not cease begging off Totila on behalf of men who had failed and been unfortunate, until he dismissed them, making a promise of kindness. 21.18. After this he sent Pelagius and one of the orators in Rome, Theodorus by name, as envoys to the emperor Justinian, binding them with the most dreadful oaths, that they would use goodwill toward him and would be eager to return to Italy as quickly as possible. 21.19. And he instructed them to obtain peace for him from the emperor with all their might, in order that he might not be compelled to raze the whole of Rome to the ground and destroy those of the senate, and to carry the war into Illyricum. And he wrote a letter to the emperor Justinian. 21.20. Now the emperor had already heard what had happened in Italy. And when the envoys came to him, they reported what Totila instructed them and put the letter into his hands. 21.21. And the writing made plain the following: “As to what has befallen to happen in the city of the Romans, since I think you have learned all, I have resolved to keep silent. 21.22. But for what reasons I have sent these envoys you will know at once. We ask that you both receive yourself the good things from peace and concede them to us. 21.23. Of which we have the finest memorials and examples in Anastasius and Theoderic, who reigned not long before, and filled all the time of their reign with peace and good things. 21.24. For if this should ever be your wish, you would justly be called my father, and you would have us 21.25. for the future as allies against whomever you should wish.” When the emperor Justinian saw this brought to him and heard all the words of the envoys, he dismissed them immediately, making them this answer alone, and writing to Totila, that he had made Belisarius supreme commander of the war, and that he therefore had the authority to settle matters with Totila in whatever way he wished.

22.1. While these envoys were being sent to Byzantium and again to Italy, in the meantime in the Lucanians it befell that the following happened. 22.2. Tullianus, gathering the country folk there, guarded the entrance, which was very narrow, in order that the enemy might not go to do mischief to the regions of Lucania. 22.3. And three hundred Antae kept guard with them, whom John, at the request of Tullianus, had previously happened to leave there; for these barbarians are good at fighting in difficult ground above all. 22.4. When Totila learned this, he thought it inexpedient to send Goths to the work, but gathering a multitude of country folk and sending with them some few Goths, he ordered them to make trial of the entrance with all their might. 22.5. And when these came to close quarters with one another, there was much shoving on both sides, but the Antae, by their own valour, and at the same time the difficult ground also helping them, together with the country folk of Tullianus turned their opponents to flight. 22.6. And there was much slaughter of them. When Totila learned this, he resolved to raze Rome to the ground, and to leave the most of the army somewhere there, and with the rest to go against John and the Lucanians. 22.7. So of the wall in many places he razed as much as about a third of the whole. And he was about to set fire to the finest and most notable of the buildings and to make Rome a pasture for sheep, but Belisarius, learning this, sent envoys and a letter to him. 22.8. These, when they came into the sight of Totila, told for what reasons they had come and put the letter into his hands. And the writing made plain the following: “To make the beauties of a city that do not exist would be the inventions of prudent men who know how to live in a civilized way; but to destroy those that exist would befit the senseless, and they would not be ashamed to leave this mark of their nature to later time. 22.9. Now Rome, of all the cities that are under the sun, is agreed to be the greatest and most notable. 22.10. For it has been wrought by the valour not of one man, nor has it come to such size and beauty by the power of a short time, but a multitude of kings, and many companies of the best men, and length of time and abundance of wealth, were able to gather here both all other things from all the earth and craftsmen. 22.11. And thus, building little by little such a city as you see, they left memorials of the valour of all to those who come after, so that wanton outrage against these would, as is natural, seem a great wrong against the men of every age. 22.12. For it takes from those who lived before the memory of their valour, and from those who come after the sight of the works. 22.13. These things being so, know this well, that one of two things is of necessity. For either you will be defeated by the emperor in this struggle, or you will prevail, as may chance. 22.14. If, then, you should conquer, by destroying Rome you would have destroyed not another's possession, most excellent man, but your own, and by preserving it you will be enriched, as is natural, with the finest of all possessions; but if it should befall that the worse fortune be fulfilled for you, by saving Rome much gratitude would be preserved for you from the victor, but if you destroy it, there will be left no account of kindness, and there will be added the getting no benefit from the deed. 22.15. And a repute worthy of the deed will overtake you from all men, which stands ready for you on either side of your purpose. 22.16. For whatever the works of rulers may be, it is of necessity that such a name also be borne concerning them.” So much Belisarius wrote. 22.17. And Totila, having read the letter often and made himself exactly acquainted with the exhortation, was persuaded and did no further harm to Rome. And signifying to Belisarius his purpose, he immediately dismissed the envoys. 22.18. And he ordered the greater part of the army to encamp not far from Rome, but about a hundred and twenty stades westward, in a place called Algedon, and to remain quiet, in order that there might be no power for Belisarius and his men to go anywhere outside Portus; and he himself with the rest of the army went against John and the Lucanians. 22.19. He kept with himself, however, those of the Roman senate, but sent all the others, together with their wives and children, to the regions of Campania, leaving no man in Rome, but leaving it altogether deserted. 22.20. And John, learning that Totila was coming against him, no longer saw fit to remain in Apulia, but came at a run to Dryus. And the patricians who were being led to Campania, sending some of their household to the Lucanians, by the resolve of Totila ordered their country folk to release themselves from what they were doing and to till the fields as they were wont; for they announced that good things would come to them from their owners. 22.21. And these released themselves from the Roman army and remained quiet in the fields; but Tullianus fled and went off, and the three hundred Antae resolved to withdraw to John. 22.22. So all the parts within the Ionian Gulf, except Dryus, again became subject to the Goths and Totila. And the barbarians, now taking courage and scattering in companies, went about all the regions in a circle. 22.23. When John learned this, he sent many of his followers against them. And these, falling unexpectedly upon the enemy, killed many. 22.24. And from this Totila, becoming afraid, and gathering all those with him, encamped about Mount Garganum, which rises about the middle of Apulia, in the stockade of Hannibal the Libyan, and remained quiet.

23.1. In the meantime one of those who had fled from Rome with Conon when the city was being taken, Martinianus by name, a Byzantine by race, coming to Belisarius, saw fit to be sent ostensibly as a deserter to the enemy, promising to do the Romans great good; and this seeming best to Belisarius, he went off. And Totila, when he saw him, was prodigiously pleased. 23.2. For he had both heard of and often seen the youth distinguishing himself in single combats. And since his two children and his wife were among the captives, the wife and one of his children he gave back to the man straightway, but the other he kept in the position of a hostage and sent to Spolitium with certain others. 23.3. Now it happened that the Goths, when, Herodian giving it over, they took Spolitium, had razed the wall of the city to the ground, but of the place for hunting before the city, which they are wont to call an amphitheatre, blocking up the entrances exactly and establishing there a garrison of Goths and Roman deserters, 23.4. in order that they might guard the regions there. So Martinianus, when he came to Spolitium, was able to win over fifteen soldiers, whom he persuaded that, having done some great deed against the barbarians, they should thus return to the Roman army. 23.5. And sending some men to the commander of the garrison in Perusia, he ordered him to send an army as quickly as possible to Spolitium, making known to him the whole account. 23.6. Now Odolgan, a Hun, then commanded the garrison in Perusia, since Cyprianus had been removed from among men by treachery at the hands of one of his guards, as has been said by me before. He went with an army to Spolitium. 23.7. And Martinianus, perceiving that this army was somewhere close, together with the fifteen soldiers suddenly destroyed the commander of the garrison and, throwing open the gates, received all the Romans into the fort. And they killed very many of the enemy, and taking some alive led them to Belisarius. 23.8. A little later a thought came to Belisarius to go up to Rome and to behold to what fortune it had come. So selecting a thousand of the soldiers he went there. 23.9. But a Roman man, coming at a run to the enemy, who were encamped at Algedon, announced the army of Belisarius. 23.10. And the barbarians, laying ambushes in the places before Rome, when they saw Belisarius and his men coming somewhere close, rose from the ambushes and went against them. 23.11. And when a fierce battle had taken place, the Romans by their own valour routing the enemy and destroying very many, withdrew immediately to Portus. These things, then, proceeded thus. 23.12. Now there is a city of the Calabrians by the sea, Taras, distant about two days' journey from Dryus, on the way thence to the Thurii and Rhegini. 23.13. There John came with some few, the people of Taras inviting him, having established the rest at the guard of Dryus. 23.14. And when he saw the city to be exceedingly great and altogether unwalled, he thought he would by no means be able to guard the whole; but seeing the sea of the city to the north running into a gulf about a certain very narrow place on either side, where the harbour of the people of Taras is, and an isthmus, as is natural, being the space between, no less than twenty stades, he devised the following. 23.15. Cutting off the portion of the isthmus from the rest of the city, he surrounded it with a wall from one part of the sea to the other and dug a deep trench about the wall. 23.16. And there he gathered not only the people of Taras but all who dwelt in the regions there, and left them a garrison worthy of account. 23.17. And in this way all the Calabrians, having now become in safety, looked to a revolt from the Goths. These things were going on thus. 23.18. And Totila, occupying a most strong fort in the Lucanians lying somewhere close to the borders of Calabria, which the Romans call Acherontis, and establishing there a watch-station of no fewer than four hundred men, himself went with the rest of the army toward Ravenna, leaving some of the barbarians in the regions of Campania, on whom the Romans of the senate who were there lay as a guard.

24.1. And to Belisarius there came at that time a provident daring, which at first seemed madness to those who saw and heard it, but which issued in a deed of valour lofty and divinely prodigious. 24.2. For leaving some few soldiers for the guard in Portus, he himself with the rest of the army came to Rome and wished to occupy it with all his might. 24.3. And since he was not able to rebuild in a short time as much of the wall as Totila had razed, he did as follows. 24.4. Gathering the stones that were somewhere near, he threw them upon one another in no order, having nothing whatever inside, since he had neither lime nor anything else of the kind, but only in order that the face of the building might be preserved, and he set a great quantity of stakes outside. 24.5. And he had previously happened to dig deep trenches about the whole wall, as has been said by me in the previous narrative. 24.6. And as the whole army wrought these things with all eagerness, in twenty-five days all of the wall that had been razed was completed in this manner. 24.7. And those of the Romans who dwelt about the regions there gathered there, both out of desire of dwelling in Rome and because, having for a while been in want of the necessities, they found there an abundance which Belisarius was able to make, filling as many ships as possible with all the necessities and bringing them into Rome through the river. 24.8. When Totila heard this, setting out immediately with the whole army he came against Belisarius and Rome, Belisarius not having yet been able to fit gates to the wall. 24.9. For Totila had happened to destroy all of them, which Belisarius had not had time to make for want of craftsmen. 24.10. And when the army of the barbarians came near, for the moment, encamping, they bivouacked by the river Tiber, and on the following day, with the sun rising, gripped by much anger and tumult, they went against the wall. 24.11. And Belisarius, selecting the most warlike of the soldiers, stationed them in the place of the gates, and ordered the rest to defend themselves against the assailants from above on the walls with all their might. 24.12. There was, then, a fierce battle. For the barbarians at first had hope of taking the city at the first shout, but the matter withstanding them, and the Romans defending themselves most stoutly, using anger they pressed upon the enemy, their rage urging them beyond their power to daring. 24.13. And the Romans held out beyond expectation, the danger, as is natural, leading them to courage. 24.14. There was, then, much slaughter of the barbarians, being shot at from above, and both sides were gripped by much weariness and hardship, and the battle, beginning in the morning, ended at nightfall. 24.15. After this the barbarians, coming into their camps, bivouacked, attending to the wounded among them, while of the Romans the rest held guard within the wall, but those who were well off in courage above all guarded the place of the gates in turn, setting many caltrops in front, so that the enemy might not come against them by a sudden raid. 24.16. The caltrops are of this kind. Fitting together at the back four stakes of equal length, they make their straight lines into the form of a triangle on every side, and they throw them on the ground wherever they chance. 24.17. And in this way three of the stakes always stand most firmly on the ground, and the one remaining, rising alone, always becomes a hindrance to both men and horses. 24.18. And whenever anyone rolls this caltrop, the one which before had drawn the lot of the upright space in the air stands to the ground, and another taking its place is a hindrance above to those wishing to go forward. Such are the caltrops. So both sides bivouacked thus after the battle. 24.19. On the following day Totila resolved to assault the wall again with the whole army, and the Romans defended themselves in the manner described. And having become superior in the engagement, they took courage to sally out against the enemy. 24.20. And as the barbarians withdrew, some of the Romans, pursuing, got somewhere far from the wall. These the barbarians were about to encircle, so that they might not be able to return to the city. But Belisarius (for he observed what was being done), sending many of those about him there, was able to save the men. 24.21. And thus the barbarians, thrust back, withdrew, having lost many of their fighting men and bringing very many wounded to the camp. 24.22. And there they remained quiet, treating their wounds and attending to their arms (for many of them had now been destroyed) and making all the rest in full readiness. And many days later they went against the wall as though to assault it. 24.23. But the Romans, meeting them, came to close quarters. And by some chance he who bore the standard of Totila, being struck a mortal blow, both fell from his horse and threw the standard to the ground. 24.24. And the Romans who fought in the front rushed to seize the standard and the corpse. But the most daring of the barbarians, anticipating, seized the standard and, cutting off the left hand of the corpse, took it with them. 24.25. For he who had fallen happened to be wearing on it a golden bracelet worthy of account, on which they were by no means willing that their opponents should glory, fleeing plainly the shame arising from the deed. 24.26. And the army of the barbarians turned to withdrawal in no order, while the Romans both spoiled the rest of the corpse, and pursuing the enemy for the most part killed many, and came into the city altogether unharmed. 24.27. Then those who were notable among the Goths, coming to Totila, both reviled him and without restraint reproached him for his ill-counsel, that, having taken Rome, he neither razed it all to the ground, so that it might no longer be capturable by the enemy, nor held it himself, but what had been wrought by them with toil and much time, this he himself destroyed for no reason. 24.28. So is it implanted in men always to order their judgement according to the issues of affairs, and to make their mind go along with the current of fortune, and from this to make abrupt changes of opinion. 24.29. Wherefore the Goths, when Totila prospered in his undertakings, regarded him as equal to a god, calling him invincible and unconquerable, when he allowed a portion of the walls of captured cities to be destroyed; but when he failed, as has been said, they did not refuse to revile him, forgetting what they had lately said about him, and going against it with no shrinking. 24.30. But these and such things it is not possible for men not always to err in, since they are wont to happen even by nature. 24.31. And Totila and the barbarians, breaking off the siege, came to the city of Tibur, having destroyed nearly all the bridges of the Tiber, in order that the Romans might not be able easily to come against them. 24.32. One bridge, however, which is named after Molvius, they were by no means able to destroy, since it happened to be close to the city. And they resolved with all their might to rebuild the fort in Tibur; 24.33. for they had previously happened to raze it. And depositing all their goods there, they remained quiet. 24.34. And Belisarius, now more fearlessly fitting the gates of the wall of Rome on every side and binding them about with iron, sent the keys again to the emperor. And the winter was ending, and the twelfth year of this war which Procopius has written was coming to a close.

25.1. Now Totila had much earlier happened to send an army against Perusia, who, encamping about the wall of the city, exactly besieged the Romans there. 25.2. And when they perceived that they were now in want of provisions, sending to Totila, they begged him to come there with the whole army, thinking that thus they would more easily and with less toil take both Perusia and the Romans there. 25.3. But Totila, seeing the barbarians not very eager for what was enjoined, wished to make some exhortation to them. 25.4. Wherefore, calling all together, he spoke as follows: “Seeing that you, fellow-soldiers, are not rightly angry at me, but are vexed at the opposition of fortune that has befallen, I have now resolved to gather you together, in order that, taking away from you an opinion by no means right, I may be able to set your judgement to the better, and that you may neither seem to be thankless toward me, which in no way befits you, nor use thanklessness toward the Deity through folly. 25.5. For human things are by nature wont sometimes to fail, and whoever, being a man, then shows himself ill-tempered toward what befalls, will himself bear, as is natural, the repute of ignorance, but will in no way escape the necessity arising from fortune. 25.6. And I wish to remind you of what was done before, not so much for the sake of dissolving the causes of what has befallen, but also to show that these more justly belong to you. 25.7. For Wittigis, at the beginning of setting himself to this war, razed the walls of Fanus and Pisaurus, the cities by the sea, but Rome and all the other cities of Italy he left unharmed in no way. 25.8. From Fanus and Pisaurus, then, nothing base befell the Goths, but from the wall of Rome and the other forts there, in the way that you know, affairs went against the Goths and Wittigis. 25.9. I, then, when I received the rule from your giving, reckoned that it was better to follow those of his deeds which seemed the better than to give harm from those that damaged affairs. 25.10. For by nature men seem to differ in nothing great from one another, but experience, becoming a teacher to some, sets the man who has learned by far above those who have not had the teaching. 25.11. Since, then, we took Beneventum, razing its walls we straightway mastered the rest, of which alike we resolved to raze the walls, in order that the army of the enemy might not, setting out from some strong place, be able to outwit the war, but might be compelled, coming down straight to us into the plain, to come to close quarters. 25.12. And they fled, while I ordered the cities that were taken to be razed. 25.13. And you, admiring the good counsel, served this judgement, making the deed, as is natural, your own. For he who praises the doer becomes none the less the author of what is done. 25.14. But now you have changed, O dearest Goths, since it befell that Belisarius, choosing daring beyond words, prevailed beyond expectation in his undertakings, and from this it befalls that you are struck with consternation at the man as being brave. 25.15. For the bold are more easily called daring than the provident safe. For he who has dared against established custom is honoured by the thought of his seeming energy, but he who, with a provident judgement, has shrunk from the danger, if he fails, draws upon himself the charge of what has befallen, and even if he accomplishes what he intended, seems to the ignorant to have wrought nothing himself. 25.16. And apart from these things, you do not reckon that you are angry at me on account of those things by which it befalls you now to be vexed. Or do you think that Belisarius has distinguished himself against you, who, being captives in war and having become fugitives, taking up arms while I was general, have often been able to surpass him in war? 25.17. And yet if it befell that you wrought those things by my valour, you ought, being ashamed of it, to keep silent, reflecting that in the failures of men nothing is wont to remain in itself; but if some fortune awarded that mastery to you, it will be more advantageous for you to revere it than to be ill-tempered toward it, so that, having given offence, you may not be forced to learn good sense over again. 25.18. And yet how would it not appear far from the temperate character that those who, not long before, were girt with many and great successes, having failed now in a brief matter, should thus have their spirit enslaved? For such a thing is nothing else than to refuse and deny to be men. 25.19. For to fail in no time at all would be the property of God. Laying these things aside, then, I say you ought to go against the enemy in Perusia with all eagerness. For if you should be able to take them, your fortunes will again be set fair. 25.20. For what has befallen not even all eternity could make undone, but when other successes come upon those who have failed, it befalls that the memory of their evils is abated. 25.21. And the mastery over Perusia will be for you with no toil. For Cyprianus, who commanded the Romans there, has been removed by fortune and our plans, and a multitude without a leader, especially when in want of the necessities, is by nature least able to play the man. 25.22. Nor indeed will anyone do mischief to us from behind; for the bridges of the river I have resolved to destroy for this very reason, that we may not suffer anything unexpected by a sudden raid, and it befalls that Belisarius and John are suspicious of each other, which it is possible to see through what they have done. 25.23. For purposes fighting with one another are convicted through their deeds. They have therefore by no means been able to mingle with one another to this time. For the suspicion of each toward the other holds back both. And in those in whom this is implanted, envy and hatred are of necessity settled. 25.24. And when these fall between them, it is impossible that anything of what is needful be done.” Saying so much, Totila led the army to Perusia, and coming there encamped close to the wall and, sitting down, set himself to a siege.

26.1. While these things were being done thus, in the meantime to John, besieging the fort of Acherontis and accomplishing nothing, there came a thought and a daring which was able both to save the senate of the Romans and to gird himself with great and prodigious fame among all men. 26.2. For hearing that Totila and the army of the Goths were assaulting the wall of Rome, selecting the most notable of the horsemen, with no warning to anyone, he went, relaxing neither night nor day, to the Campanians (for there Totila had happened to leave them), in order that, falling upon them unexpectedly, he might be able both to snatch up and to save those of the senate, since the regions there were altogether unwalled. 26.3. Now it befell about this time that Totila, fearing, as happened, lest some of the enemy should come to do mischief to the captives, sent an army of horsemen to Campania. 26.4. And when these came to the city of Menturna, it seemed best to them that the most should remain quiet there and attend to the horses (for it befell them to have met with much weariness on this journey), but to send some to observe what was at Capua and the regions there. And the country between happens to be no more than three hundred stades. 26.5. So four hundred, who happened to have fresh horses and bodies, they sent for scouting. 26.6. And by some chance it befell on that day, about the same time, that the army with John and these four hundred barbarians were at Capua, neither having heard anything before of their opponents. 26.7. And a fierce battle suddenly took place; for the moment they saw each other, they came to close quarters; and the Romans conquered by force and straightway killed the most of the enemy. 26.8. And some few of the barbarians were able to flee, and going at a run came to Menturna. When the others saw them, some bathed in blood, others still bearing the missiles in their bodies, others neither uttering anything nor reporting any of what had befallen, but still gripped by their withdrawal and showing the fear in themselves, they straightway leaped onto their horses and fled with them. 26.9. And coming to Totila, they reported that the multitude of the enemy was beyond telling, healing in this way, of course, the shame from their flight. 26.10. Now there happened to be Roman soldiers, no fewer than seventy of those who had previously deserted to the Goths, going to the regions of Campania, 26.11. who resolved to come over to John. And John found there some few men of the senate, but nearly all the women. 26.12. For when Rome was being taken, many men, fleeing and following the soldiers, came to Portus, but it befell all the women to be taken. 26.13. Clementinus, however, a patrician man, taking refuge in one of the churches there, was by no means willing to follow the Roman army, since, having previously given over to Totila and the Goths a fort which is close to Naples, he feared the emperor's anger, as is natural; and Orestes, who had been consul of the Romans, happened to be somewhere close, but for want of horses was by no means willing to go, and remained there. 26.14. So those of the senate, together with the seventy soldiers who had come over, John straightway sent to Sicily. 26.15. And Totila, hearing this, was in great mourning and hastened to avenge himself upon John for this deed. Wherefore he marched against him with the greater part of the army, leaving a portion of his followers there for the sake of a garrison. 26.16. Now John happened to have made his camp with those about him, who were a thousand, among the Lucanians, and to have previously sent scouts, who, searching out all the roads, kept watch lest an army of the enemy should go against them to do mischief. 26.17. And Totila, having such a thing in mind, that it was not possible for John and his men to sit in the camp without scouts, leaving the accustomed roads, drove against them through the mountains, which there rise many, precipitous and exceedingly high—which one could not have suspected, since these mountains are reckoned impassable. 26.18. Now those sent for the scouting by John, perceiving that an army of the enemy had come about the regions there, but learning nothing clear concerning this, but fearing, as happened, drove themselves toward the Roman camp. 26.19. And it befell them to come there together with the barbarians by night. And Totila, now gripped by much anger and not provident judgement, reaped the folly from his rage. 26.20. For having with him an army tenfold that of his opponents, and it being plain that it is advantageous for a superior army to fight in the open, and that he ought rather to come to close quarters with the enemy at dawn, in order that they might not be able to escape notice in the dark, this he by no means guarded; for he would, having netted them all, have straightway taken his opponents; but gratifying his rage, at an unseasonable hour of the night he stood over the army of the enemy. 26.21. And none of them at all looked to resistance, since the most were still sleeping, yet the Goths were not able to kill many, but the most, rising, were able to escape notice in the dark. 26.22. And getting outside the camp, into the mountains which rise many somewhere close, they ran up and were saved. 26.23. Among whom was John himself and Arufus the leader of the Eruli. And there died about a hundred Romans. 26.24. Now there was with John a certain Gilacius by name, an Armenian by race, commander of some few Armenians. This Gilacius knew neither how to speak Greek nor to utter the Latin or Gothic or any other tongue except only Armenian. 26.25. Some Goths, falling in with him, inquired who in the world he was. For they were by no means willing to kill whoever fell in their way, in order that they might not be compelled to destroy one another in the night-battle, as was natural. 26.26. And he was able to answer them nothing else than that he was Gilacius the general. For the dignity, which he had happened to receive from the emperor, he was able to learn by often hearing it. 26.27. So the barbarians, perceiving from this that he was an enemy, for the moment took him alive, but not long afterward put the man to death. 26.28. John, then, and Arufus with their followers fled with all their might and came at a run to Dryus, and the Goths, having plundered the Roman camp, withdrew.

27.1. So the armies among the Italians went on thus. And the emperor Justinian resolved to send another army against the Goths and Totila, led by the letters of Belisarius, since he urged him to this, often signifying their present situation. 27.2. First, then, he sent Pacurius the son of Peranius and Sergius the nephew of Solomon with some few men. And these, coming to Italy, immediately joined the rest of the army. 27.3. After this he sent Verus with three hundred Eruli and Varazes an Armenian by race with eight hundred Armenians, and, removing Valerianus the general of the Armenians from there with the guards and shield-bearers following him, who were more than a thousand, ordered him to go to Italy. 27.4. Verus, then, putting in first at Dryus and leaving his ships there, was by no means willing to remain there, where the camp of John was, but riding with those about him went forward. 27.5. For this was a man not in earnest, but for the most part given over to the disease of drunkenness, and from this always gripped by unconsidered boldness. 27.6. And when they came close to the city of Brentesium, encamping there they remained. When Totila learned this, he said, “Verus is one of two things: either he is using a great power, or he is gripped by much folly. 27.7. Let us go against him at once, then, in order that we may either make trial of the man's power or that he may perceive his own 27.8. folly.” Saying this, Totila went against him with a great army, but the Eruli, observing the enemy now present, took refuge in a certain wood that was somewhere near. 27.9. And the enemy, encircling them, destroyed more than two hundred, and were about to seize Verus himself and the rest who were hiding in the thorns, but a certain fortune that befell them saved them unexpectedly. 27.10. For the ships in which Varazes and the Armenians with him were sailing suddenly put in at the shore there. When Totila saw this, suspecting that the army of the enemy was more than it was, setting out immediately he drove away from there, and Verus and his men gladly came at a run to the ships. 27.11. And Varazes resolved to sail no farther forward, but came with them to Taras, where John the nephew of Vitalian arrived with the whole army not long afterward. These things, then, proceeded thus. 27.12. And the emperor wrote to Belisarius that he had sent him a large army, with which he ought, joining the enemy in Calabria, to come to close quarters. 27.13. And now Valerianus too, having come near the Ionian Gulf, thought it inexpedient to ferry across for the present at least. 27.14. For the provisions would by no means suffice for the soldiers and horses at that time of the year, since it was about the winter solstice. 27.15. And sending three hundred of his followers to John, he agreed that, having wintered, he too would come at the beginning of spring. 27.16. Belisarius, then, when he had read the emperor's letter, selecting nine hundred for their valour, seven hundred horse and two hundred foot, and establishing all the rest for the guard of the country there, and setting Conon over them as commander, immediately sailed for Sicily. 27.17. And from there he set out, purposing to put in at the harbour of Taras, having on his left the place called Scylaeum, on which the poets say Scylla came into being—not because the bestial little woman, as those men say, was there, but because a great quantity of pups, which they now call little dogs, happen to be there in the strait from of old even to my time. 27.18. For names, at the beginning, are always fitting to things, but report, carrying them around to some other men, makes there opinions that are not right, through ignorance of the true. 27.19. And time, going on thus, immediately becomes a strong artificer of the myth, and, as is natural, by the license of his art makes the poets witnesses of what did not happen. Thus the people of the place anciently named one promontory of the island of Corcyra which is to the east the Dog's Head, but others wish from this that the people there are dog-headed. 27.20. And indeed they call some of the Pisidians Lycocranitae, not because they have the heads of wolves, but because the mountain that rises there was called Lycu Cranus (Wolf's Skull). But let these things seem and be said in whatever way is pleasing to each. But I return to the point from which I digressed.

28.1. Belisarius, then, was eager to go straight to Taras. Now there is a certain crescent-shaped shore there, where, the beach receding, the sea goes up, as it were in a gulf, far into the land. 28.2. And the whole sailing-course of this shore extends to a thousand stades, and on either side, by the outlet of the current, lie two towns: one, Croton, toward the setting sun, and Taras toward the rising. 28.3. And in the middle of the beach the city of Thurii is settled. And as the storm was against him and the wind, with much surge, forced him, and by no means permitted the ships to go farther forward, he put in at the harbour of the people of Croton. 28.4. So Belisarius, since he neither found any fort there nor had any place from which provisions might be brought for the soldiers, himself with his wife and the foot-soldiers remained there, in order that he might be able from there to summon and direct the army with John; 28.5. but he ordered all the horsemen to go forward and encamp by the entrances of the country, setting Phazas the Iberian and Barbation the spearman over them. 28.6. For thus he thought they would most easily provide all the provisions for themselves and their own horses, and would be able, as is natural, to repel the enemy in the narrow place. 28.7. For the mountains of the Lucanians, extending to the Bruttii and coming together in a narrow space, make there only two very narrow entrances, of which one is called Petra Haematos (Rock of Blood) in the Latin tongue, and the other the people of the place are wont to call Lavula. 28.8. There by the shore is Ruscianae, the port of the Thurii, and above it about sixty stades the ancient Romans built a most strong fort. This John had long before happened to occupy and establish a garrison worthy of account. 28.9. So the soldiers of Belisarius, going somewhere there, fell in with an army of the enemy, which Totila had sent to make trial of the fort there. 28.10. And coming immediately to close quarters with them, they routed them by their valour with no toil, although being inferior by far in number, and destroyed more than two hundred. 28.11. And the rest, fleeing, came to Totila and reported all that had befallen; and the Romans, encamping there, remained, and, being without a leader and victorious, used a more fearless mode of life. 28.12. For neither, being gathered, did they remain quiet, nor, sitting close to the narrow place, did they guard the entrances, but, turning to disregard, by night they slept scattered as far as possible from one another, and in the day went about searching for provisions, neither sending out any for scouting nor having deliberated anything else concerning safety. 28.13. Totila, then, when he learned all this, selecting three thousand horsemen from the whole camp, went against the enemy. 28.14. And falling upon them unexpectedly, not drawn up but going about thus as has been said, 28.15. he struck them all with consternation and threw them into confusion. There Phazas (for he happened to be encamped somewhere close), meeting the enemy and displaying deeds worthy of valour, became the cause for some of escaping, but he himself with all those about him died. 28.16. And this was a great disaster for the Romans, since all placed their hope in them as being pre-eminent in matters of war. 28.17. All who were able to flee, however, were saved as it became possible for each. And first Barbation the guard of Belisarius, fleeing with all his might with two others, came to Croton. And reporting the present fortune, he added that he thought the barbarians would be present immediately. 28.18. When Belisarius heard this, he was in great mourning and leaped into the ships. And setting out from there and meeting a wind, on that day they put in at Messana of Sicily, which is distant seven hundred stades from Croton and lies opposite Rhegium.

29.1. About this time an army of Sclaveni, crossing the river Ister, wrought irreparable deeds upon all the Illyrians as far as the people of Epidamnus, killing and enslaving all who fell in their way, even to manhood, and plundering their goods. 29.2. And now they were able to take even many forts there which had seemed strong before, no one defending them, and went about everywhere searching them out at their will. 29.3. And the commanders of the Illyrians, having an army of fifteen thousand, followed, yet by no means dared to go anywhere near the enemy. 29.4. At that time, too, earthquakes often occurred in the winter season, exceedingly hard and prodigious, both in Byzantium and in other places, all by night. 29.5. And those who dwelt there, suspecting that they would be buried, were in great fear, yet nothing base befell them to suffer from this. 29.6. At that time too the river Nile, rising more than eighteen cubits, both flooded Egypt and watered the whole of it; but in the Thebaid, which is higher up, it gave its waters subsiding and withdrawing at the appropriate times to those who dwelt there to sow the land and attend to the other things, as was wont; 29.7. but from the land lower down, when it had once overflowed, it no longer departed, but, troubling it, passed the whole time of sowing—a thing which had not happened before in all eternity—and there were places where, the water having abated, it flooded again not long afterward. 29.8. And thus all the seed rotted, as much as had happened to be thrown into the land in the meantime. And the men were gripped by much helplessness at the strangeness of the calamity, and of the other animals the most were destroyed by want of food. 29.9. At that time too the sea-monster which the Byzantines called Porphyrius was taken. This sea-monster had troubled Byzantium and the regions about it for more than fifty years, not continuously, however, but leaving off, as it chanced, for a long time in between. 29.10. And it sank many ships, and threw the crews of many into confusion and forced them, carrying them very far off. It had been a care, then, to the emperor Justinian to master this beast. But he was by no means able to accomplish his purpose. How it now befell to be taken 29.11. I shall make plain. There happened to be great calm holding the sea, and a very great multitude of dolphins gathered somewhere close to the mouth of the Euxine Sea. 29.12. And these, suddenly seeing the monster, fled as each was able, but the most came to the outlets of the Sagaris. Some of them, then, the monster, overtaking, was straightway able to swallow. 29.13. And whether still gripped by hunger or by rivalry, it none the less pursued, until it fell, unawares, somewhere close to the land. 29.14. And there, meeting exceedingly deep mud, it forced and moved everything, in order that it might depart from there as quickly as possible, but was by no means able to escape this shoal, but became still more in the mire. 29.15. And when this came to all the dwellers around, going against it at once at a run, they cut at it with axes most continually on all sides, yet not even so did they kill it, but dragged it off with certain stout ropes. 29.16. And putting it into wagons they found it to be in length about thirty cubits, and in breadth ten. And there, tearing it apart in companies, some of them tasted of it at the moment, while others resolved to salt the portion that fell to them. 29.17. And the Byzantines, when they both perceived the earthquakes and learned what had befallen concerning the Nile and this monster, foretold straightway that whatever was pleasing to each of them would come to pass. 29.18. For men are wont, being at a loss before present things, to make wonders of the things to come, and, worn down by what troubles them, to conjecture for no reason what will befall. 29.19. But I, leaving the divinations and the interpretations of portents to others, know this well, that the staying of the Nile upon the land became the cause of great calamities at least for the present, but the disappearance of the monster appears to be a release from many evils. 29.20. And some say that this is not the monster of which I made mention, but another, which it befell to be taken. But I return to the point from which I made the digression of my account. 29.21. Totila, then, having accomplished these things which have been shown before, when he learned that the Romans in the fort at Ruscianae were running short of the necessities, thinking that he would take them as quickly as possible if they should not be able to bring in any of the provisions, encamped very close and, sitting down, set himself to a siege. And the winter was ending, and the thirteenth year of this war which Procopius has written was coming to a close.

30.1. And the emperor Justinian sent foot-soldiers, no fewer than two thousand, to Sicily in ships, and ordered Valerianus to go to Belisarius with no delay. 30.2. And he, ferrying across, sailed down to Dryus, where he found Belisarius with his wife. 30.3. About this time Antonina the wife of Belisarius was sent to Byzantium to beg the empress to fit out the war with greater preparation. 30.4. But the empress Theodora, having fallen sick, was removed from among men, having survived for the empire twenty-one years and three months. 30.5. In the meantime those besieged in the fort at Ruscianae, hard pressed by the want of necessities, came to a parley with the enemy, and agreed to give over the fort about the middle of the summer season, if no help should come to them in the meantime, on condition that all should remain unharmed. 30.6. Now there were in this fort many notable Italians, and Deopheron the brother of Tullianus, and of the Roman army three hundred Illyrian horsemen, whom John had happened to establish there, setting over them Chalazar the spearman, a Massagete by race, exceedingly good in matters of war, and Gudilas a Thracian, and a hundred foot-soldiers sent by Belisarius for the guard of the fort. 30.7. At that time too the soldiers whom Belisarius had ranged for the guard of Rome killed their commander Conon, bringing against him as a charge his trafficking in grain and the other provisions to their own harm. 30.8. And sending some of the priests as envoys, they affirmed that, unless the emperor should grant them amnesty for this charge and pay within a fixed time the allowances which the public treasury owed them, they would, with no delay, come over to Totila and the Goths. And the emperor fulfilled their request. 30.9. And Belisarius, summoning John to Dryus, and gathering a large fleet with him and Valerianus and the other commanders, sailed quickly straight to Ruscianae, being eager to help the besieged. 30.10. And those in the fort, observing this fleet from on high and becoming hopeful, no longer resolved to come over to the enemy, although the day agreed upon for them had now arrived. 30.11. And at first, a prodigious storm falling upon them, and the shore there being altogether without a harbour, it befell that all the ships were scattered as far as possible from one another; 30.12. and in this way it befell that a length of time was wasted for them. And again, gathering in the harbour of the people of Croton, they put out for Ruscianae. When the barbarians saw them, leaping onto their horses they came about the beach, intending to prevent the landing of the enemy. 30.13. And Totila stationed them along the most of the shore facing the prows of the ships, some holding spears, others with bows drawn. 30.14. When the Romans saw this, they were dismayed and by no means dared to go near, but for some time, holding the ships at a distance, remained quiet; and afterward, despairing of the landing, all backed water and, setting out, put in again at the harbour of the people of Croton. 30.15. There, deliberating in common, it seemed best to them that Belisarius, going to Rome, should both settle matters there as well as possible and bring in provisions, while John and Valerianus, landing the men and horses and journeying by the road, should go to Picenum, to throw into confusion those of the enemy who were besieging the towns there. 30.16. For thus they had hope that Totila, breaking off the siege, would follow them. 30.17. John, then, with his followers, who were a thousand, did so; but Valerianus, fearing the danger, sailed with his ships around the Ionian Gulf straight for Ancon. For he thought that thus he would be in Picenum in safety and would join John. 30.18. But Totila by no means resolved even so to break off the siege, but himself sat there, while, selecting two thousand horsemen from the camp, he sent them to Picenum, in order that, joining the barbarians there, they might repel John and Valerianus. 30.19. And those besieged in the fort at Ruscianae, when the necessities had now altogether failed them and they had no longer any hope of help from the Romans, sending Gudilas the spearman and Deopheron the Italian to Totila, made an embassy concerning their safety, begging him to be forgiving toward them for what had been done. 30.20. And Totila announced that he would carry out the punishment on no other than Chalazar, as having disregarded what had previously been agreed, but that he would remit the charge to all the others. 30.21. Thus, then, he received the fort. And cutting off both the hands and the privy parts of Chalazar, he straightway killed him, and of the soldiers those who wished to remain he ordered to keep their own goods, on condition that for the future they should array themselves with the Goths on equal and like terms—which indeed he was wont to do in the other forts that were taken; 30.22. but those to whom remaining was by no means pleasing, these he ordered to depart wherever they wished, stripped, so that none of all men might campaign with him unwillingly. 30.23. Eighty of the Roman army, then, leaving their goods, came to Croton, but the others remained there with their goods. 30.24. From the Italians, however, he took away all their goods, but left their bodies altogether unharmed. 30.25. And Antonina the wife of Belisarius, the empress having died, coming to Byzantium begged the emperor to summon her husband there. And she accomplished this most easily. For the Median war, now pressing most strongly, was urging the emperor Justinian to this.

31.1. About this time certain men plotted an attack against the emperor Justinian. How they came to this plan, and in what manner, being thwarted, they by no means came to the deed, 31.2. I shall now make plain. To Artabanes, who had overthrown the tyrant Gontharis, as has been said by me in the previous narrative, there came a prodigious desire to make Praejecta the niece of the emperor, whom he held betrothed, 31.3. his wife. And this was very much her wish too, not led to it by love of the man, but because she acknowledged that she owed him much gratitude, since he had avenged the murder of her husband Areobindus, and saved her and snatched her up when she was captive and not long after about to come unwillingly to the bed of the tyrant Gontharis. 31.4. And when both wished these things, Artabanes sent Praejecta to the emperor, but he himself, although established general of all Libya, needed the emperor, having invented certain unsound pretexts, 31.5. that he should summon him to Byzantium. For the hope of the marriage led him to this, showing forth many other good things from it, and that for the future he would not be far from the throne. 31.6. For men, having unexpectedly laid hold of prosperity, cannot keep their mind there, but await further things, and always go forward in their hopes, until they are deprived even of the good fortune that had befallen them, which they ought not. The emperor, however, fulfilled his request and summoned Artabanes to Byzantium, 31.7. establishing another general of Libya in his place, as has been related by me. 31.8. And when Artabanes came to Byzantium, the people marvelled at what he had done and otherwise loved him. 31.9. For he was tall in body and handsome, and his character was liberal and he uttered few words. And the emperor honoured him among the foremost. 31.10. For establishing him general of the soldiers in Byzantium and commander of the foederati, he enrolled him in the dignity of the consuls. 31.11. But to dwell with Praejecta he was by no means able. For he had a wife previously, who was a kinswoman and had come to him in marriage from boyhood. 31.12. Whom he had long before happened to put off himself, having perhaps fallen upon some cause for which it befalls wives to give offence to husbands. 31.13. This woman, so long as the affairs of Artabanes did not stand well, sat at home in all quietness, bearing the present in silence. But when Artabanes had now become both brilliant in his deeds and great in his fortunes, the woman, no longer bearing the dishonour, came to Byzantium. And becoming a suppliant of the empress, she saw fit to recover her husband. 31.14. And the empress (for she was by nature always inclined to favour unfortunate women) resolved that he should dwell, much against his will, with her, and Praejecta John the son of Pompeius the son of Hypatius made his wedded wife. 31.15. This calamity Artabanes did not bear gently, but grew savage and said that, having done such good for the Romans... no one allowed him, willing as he was, to lead in marriage the woman willingly betrothed to him, while he was compelled to be with the woman most hostile of all to him for all time; a thing which by nature most distresses the soul of a man. 31.16. Wherefore, indeed, not long afterward, as soon as the empress had been removed from among men, he gladly sent this wife away immediately. 31.17. Now the emperor happened to have his cousin Germanus, who had a brother Boraïdes. This Boraïdes the brother of Germanus had lately died, leaving the most of his goods to his brother and the children of that brother. 31.18. And though he had a wife and one daughter, he ordered the daughter to have only so much as the law compelled. Wherefore the emperor saw fit rather to support the daughter; a thing which especially galled Germanus.

32.1. So matters about Artabanes and Germanus stood thus for the emperor. Now there was a certain man, Arsaces by name, in Byzantium, an Armenian by race, an Arsacid man, related by birth to Artabanes. 32.2. He had been detected a little before doing mischief to the state, and was plainly convicted of treachery, as acting in concert with Chosroes the king of the Persians for a revolution against the Romans. 32.3. And the emperor did him no other harm, but, scourging him a few times on the back, exposed him to public derision, mounted on a camel through the city, yet took from him nothing either of his body or of his substance, 32.4. nor indeed punished him with exile. But Arsaces, none the less being distressed at what had befallen, began to devise plots against both Justinian and the state. 32.5. And when he saw Artabanes distressed, as his kinsman, he provoked him still more, and, catching the man with the ambushes of words, reviled him, relaxing neither night nor day, and reproached him as one who had become brave and unmanly by turns. 32.6. For toward the evils of others he had become noble and a destroyer of tyranny, when, being a friend and a guest, he had taken Gontharis with his own hand and killed him for no reason. 32.7. But at the present time, having played the coward, he sat there so unmanfully, while his country was most continually held in guard and worn down by unaccustomed taxes, and his father had been slain on the pretext of agreements and a treaty, and all his kindred had been enslaved and were always scattered everywhere over the Roman empire. 32.8. But these things being so, Artabanes thinks it enough if he be general of the Romans and be called consul only. ‘And you,’ he said, ‘being my kinsman and having suffered irreparable things, in no way share my grief; but I pity you, most excellent man, for your fortune in both your women, both her of whom you have been deprived, which you ought not, and her with whom you have been compelled to dwell. 32.9. And yet it is not likely that anyone who has even a little spirit should shrink from the murder of Justinian, neither through shrinking nor through any dread, who sits unguarded for ever in some hall at an unseasonable hour of the night, together with the oldest of the priests, eager to turn over the oracles of the Christians. 32.10. But indeed,’ he said, ‘none of the kinsmen of Justinian will set himself against you. Germanus, however, the most powerful of all, I think, will help you eagerly together with his children, who are youths boiling with both their age and their spirit against him, whom I have hope of bringing of their own accord to the deed. 32.11. For they happen to have already been wronged by him in such things as neither we nor any other of the Armenians have.’ With such things Arsaces, always bewitching Artabanes, when at some time he saw that he had given in, brought the matter to another Persarmenian, 32.12. Chanaranges by name. Now this Chanaranges was a youth, handsome in body, but not in earnest, but for the most part childish. 32.13. So when Arsaces had joined both him and Artabanes in purpose and in words, he departed, promising that he would make Germanus and his children of one mind with them for the deed. 32.14. Now Justinus the elder of the children of Germanus was a youth and just growing his first beard, but energetic and keen toward action; 32.15. so that he had mounted into the chair of the consuls not long before. And coming to him, Arsaces said that he wished to meet him secretly in a certain church. 32.16. And when both came into the church, Arsaces first saw fit that Justinus should affirm by oaths that he would never report his words to any of all men except only to his father. 32.17. And when the man had sworn this, he reproached him because, being a nearest kinsman to the emperor, he saw market men and common men, who had no right to them, holding the magistracies of the state, while he himself, being already of such age that affairs were managed by him, overlooked not only himself but also his father, although he had come to the height of valour, and his brother Justinian, sitting in the position of a private man for all time. 32.18. And it had not even befallen him to come into the substance of his uncle, of which he had become heir, at least so far as Boraïdes had resolved, and then had been deprived of it, which he ought not, for the most part. 32.19. And yet it was likely that they would be overlooked still far more immediately, as soon as Belisarius should come from Italy. For he was reported to be already somewhere in the midst of the Illyrians. 32.20. Saying so much, Arsaces urged the youth to the plot against the emperor, revealing the agreements between himself and Artabanes and Chanaranges concerning this deed. 32.21. When Justinus heard this, he was thrown into confusion, and, being seized with dizziness, openly refused Arsaces, saying that these things ought never to be done either by himself or by Germanus his father. 32.22. And Arsaces reported what had befallen to Artabanes, while Justinus carried the whole account to his father. And he, taking counsel with Marcellus, who commanded the guards in the Palatium, deliberated about the matter, whether it was advantageous for them to report it to the emperor. 32.23. Now this Marcellus was most weighty in character and for the most part given to silence, doing nothing for the sake of money, nor enduring jests in words or deeds, nor otherwise rejoicing in a slack mode of life, but always having a hard life and alien to pleasure, yet an exact guardian of justice and a most ardent lover of the truth. 32.24. He, then, would not let the account be carried to the emperor. ‘For,’ he said, ‘it is inexpedient that you become the informer of this. For if you should wish to say anything secretly to the emperor, Artabanes and his men will immediately suspect that it has been reported, and if Arsaces should be able to escape unseen, the charge will remain unproved. 32.25. And I am by no means wont, unless I have inquired most exactly, either to believe myself or to report to the emperor. 32.26. I wish, then, either to be a hearer of the words myself, or that one of my friends, by your preparation, should hear the man saying something clear about these things.’ 32.27. When Germanus heard this, he ordered Justinus his son to act so that Marcellus' instruction might be carried out. 32.28. And he was no longer able to say anything about this to Arsaces, since he had openly refused him, as has been said by me. 32.29. But he inquired of Chanaranges whether Arsaces had come to him lately by the resolve of Artabanes. ‘For I would never,’ he said, ‘have dared to leave any of the secret things to him, being such as he is. 32.30. But if you should wish to tell me anything to the purpose, deliberating in common we might perhaps 32.31. do some good.’ Concerning these things Chanaranges, having taken counsel with Artabanes, carried everything to Justinus, all that Arsaces had previously happened to tell him. 32.32. And when Justinus agreed both to accomplish everything himself and to provide his father of one mind, it seemed best to Germanus to bring Chanaranges into conversation, and a fixed day was agreed upon for the dialogue. 32.33. Germanus, signifying this to Marcellus, saw fit that he should provide one of his friends to them, 32.34. who should be a hearer of the words of Chanaranges. And he provided Leontius, the son-in-law of Athanasius, a man who laid claim to the account of justice and exceedingly understood how to tell the truth. 32.35. Him Germanus, bringing into his house, seated in a chamber, where a thick curtain hung as a screen of the couch on which he was wont to feast. 32.36. And hiding Leontius within this curtain, he himself with Justinus his son remained outside. 32.37. There, when Chanaranges came, Leontius clearly heard him saying everything which had been deliberated by him and Artabanes and Arsaces. 32.38. Among which this also came into the discussion, that if they should kill the emperor while Belisarius was still on his way to Byzantium, nothing of what had been deliberated would proceed for them; since they wished to establish Germanus as emperor, but it was likely that Belisarius would gather a multitude of an army from the regions of Thrace, and thus, the man coming against them, they would by no means be able to thrust him off. 32.39. It would be needful, then, to put off the deed until the coming of Belisarius, and, as soon as the man should come to Byzantium and be with the emperor in the Palatium, then, it being late evening somewhere, bearing daggers, to come there unexpectedly, and to kill both Marcellus and Belisarius together with the emperor. 32.40. For thus they would for the future manage matters more fearlessly as they wished. When Marcellus learned this from Leontius, not even so did he resolve to carry the account to the emperor, but was still gripped by much shrinking, lest he should bring about the ruin of Artabanes unconsidered with much haste. 32.41. Germanus, however, carried everything to Buzes and Constantianus, fearing, as happened, lest from the delay he should incur some suspicion. 32.42. And many days later, when Belisarius was reported to be already somewhere close, Marcellus carried the whole account to the emperor, and he immediately ordered that Artabanes and his men be led off to prison, and entrusted the examination concerning them to some of the magistrates. 32.43. And when the whole plot had now come to light and was expressly in writing, the emperor seated all those of the senate in the Palatium, where they are wont to make their judgements about disputed matters. 32.44. And these, having read over everything which had happened to be told by those examined, none the less brought the charge against Germanus and Justinus his son, until Germanus, providing the testimony of Marcellus and Leontius, was able to dissolve the suspicion. 32.45. For both they and Constantianus and Buzes affirmed on oath that Germanus had hidden nothing whatever of these things on their account, but that everything had befallen just as has been related by me. 32.46. So those of the senate immediately voted to acquit both him and his son, as having done no wrong against the state. 32.47. And when all came inside before the emperor, the emperor himself, sharply angered, was vexed and grew prodigiously savage against Germanus, charging him with the slowness of the disclosure; and two of the magistrates, flattering him, agreed with his opinion and seemed to share his vexation; and in this way they greatly raised the emperor's anger, being eager to gratify him with the calamities of others. 32.48. But the others, cowering, kept silence, by not opposing yielding to him whatever he wished. But Marcellus alone, speaking uprightly, was able to save the man. 32.49. For drawing the charge upon himself and forcing it with all his might, he said that Germanus had reported what was being done most opportunely, but that he himself, searching too exactly, had disclosed it rather slowly. 32.50. And thus he stopped the emperor's anger. And great fame this Marcellus girt himself with among all men, as one who laid claim to valour in the most necessary matters. 32.51. And the emperor Justinian removed Artabanes from the office which he held, but did him no other harm, nor indeed any of the others, except indeed that he held them all in custody not without honour, in the Palatium, however, not in the public prison.

33.1. About the time of this war the barbarians became expressly masters of the whole West. And the Gothic war for the Romans, although at first they had conquered by force, as has been said by me before, came to such a pass that not only did much of their money and many of their men perish for no benefit, but Italy too was lost in addition, and they beheld nearly all the Illyrians and Thracians being ravaged and destroyed in no order by the barbarians, who had become neighbours to them. And it came about thus. 33.2. The Goths gave the whole of the Gauls that were subject to them, at the beginning of this war, to the Germans, thinking that they would not be able to array themselves against both, as has been said by me in the previous narrative. 33.3. And this deed not only could the Romans not prevent, but the emperor Justinian even strengthened it for them, so that no obstacle from these barbarians, were they made hostile, might meet him. 33.4. For the Franks never thought that they held the Gauls in safety unless the emperor set his seal on this very thing. And from this the rulers of the Germans held both Massalia, the colony of the Phocaeans, and all the regions by the sea, and mastered the sea there. 33.5. And they sit in Arelate watching the chariot-contest, and have made a gold coin from the metals in the Gauls, not putting on this stater the stamp of the Roman emperor, as is the custom, 33.6. but their own image. And yet the king of the Persians is wont to make a silver coin in whatever way he wishes, but to put his own stamp on a gold stater is lawful neither for him nor for any other king of all the barbarians, and this though he be lord of more gold, since they are not even able to pass this coin on to those who deal with them, even if it befalls that those who deal with them are barbarians. So matters went for the Franks thus. 33.7. And when the affairs of the Goths and Totila became superior in the war, the Franks made the most of Venetia their own for no reason, the Romans being no longer able to defend it nor the Goths able to carry on the war against both. 33.8. And the Gepaedes took and held the city of Sirmium and almost all the Dacias, as soon as the emperor Justinian had taken them from the Goths; and they enslaved the Romans there, and going still ever forward on their way they plundered, doing violence to the Roman empire. 33.9. Wherefore the emperor no longer gave them the allowances which they had from of old been wont to receive from the Romans. 33.10. And the Lombards the emperor Justinian presented with the city of Noricum and with the forts on Pannonia and many other places and very great sums of money. 33.11. On account of this the Lombards, setting out from their ancestral abodes, settled thence beyond the river Ister, not far from the Gepaedes. 33.12. And they plundered and enslaved the Dalmatians and Illyrians as far as the borders of Epidamnus; and when some of the captives, fleeing from there, were able to be conveyed home, these barbarians, going about the Roman empire, as being in treaty with the Romans, whenever they recognized any of those who had fled, laid hold of them as of their own slaves who had run away, and dragging them off from their parents, conveyed them with themselves to their own homes, no one withstanding them. 33.13. And the Eruli too held other places of Dacia, the emperor giving them, about the city of Singidunum, where they are settled now, overrunning the Illyrians and the regions of Thrace and plundering them for the most part. And some of them became Roman soldiers, ranged among those called foederati. 33.14. So whenever envoys of the Eruli were sent to Byzantium, these men, who plundered the subjects of the Romans, having received all their allowances from the emperor, departed with no toil.

34.1. Thus the barbarians divided up the Roman empire among themselves. And some time later the Gepaedes and the Lombards, since they dwelt somewhere near one another, became exceedingly at variance. 34.2. And being eager for war with all eagerness against one another, both sides were keen to come to battle with the enemy, and a fixed time was set for the engagement. 34.3. But the Lombards, thinking that they would not be a match for the Gepaedes by themselves (for it befell that they were inferior in numbers to the enemy), resolved to bring in the Romans to alliance. 34.4. So sending envoys to the emperor Justinian, they begged him to send them an army. When the Gepaedes learned this, they too sent envoys to Byzantium to beg for the same things. Now at that time Thorisin commanded the Gepaedes, and the other people Auduin. 34.5. And the emperor Justinian resolved to hear the words of both, not coming together, however, but coming to him separately. 34.6. First, then, the Lombards, coming into the emperor's sight, spoke as follows: “We are dismayed, O emperor, at the impropriety of the Gepaedes, who, having transgressed against your empire in matters so great in multitude and so great in magnitude, now come to you bringing you the greatest of insults. 34.7. For these men alone would do the utmost outrage to their neighbours, who, thinking them too easy to deceive, came to them to enjoy the simplicity of the wronged. 34.8. And we ask you to consider so much, in what state of mind are the affairs of friendship for the Gepaedes. For thus you would work out what is advantageous most safely for the Roman empire, since men are able with safety to judge of what is to be from what has always gone before. 34.9. If, then, it befell that the nation of the Gepaedes had displayed its thanklessness only toward certain others, we should have needed much argument and time and outside testimony, wishing to convict the character of these men; but now it is possible to take the example near at hand from you yourselves. 34.10. For consider: the Goths held the land of the Dacians in payment of tribute in earlier times, and the Gepaedes all dwelt at the first on the other side of the Ister, so cowed by the power of the Goths that they were never able even to make trial of crossing the river, but being in treaty and most friendly with the Romans, and receiving many gifts in the name of friendship each year both from those who reigned before, 34.11. and from you none the less. We would gladly inquire what good these men have ever wrought toward the Romans in return for these things. But they would not be able to say either great or small; 34.12. so long, then, as they had nothing on which to wrong you, not by any purpose, but compelled by inability, they kept quiet. 34.13. For you saw fit to lay no claim to the regions beyond the Ister, while the fear from the Goths drove them back from this side. 34.14. And who would ever call inability good will? What confirmation of friendship will arise in the impossibility of doing wrong? It is not so, O emperor, it is not. For power alone displays the nature of a man, bringing forth into public the character of all by the license to act. 34.15. For behold: as soon as the Gepaedes saw the Goths driven out of all Dacia, and you held in occupation with the enemy, the most abominable of them dared everywhere to mount upon your land.” 34.16. “How could one reach in words the impropriety of the matter? Did they not despise the Roman empire? Did they not break the ordinances of treaties and alliances? 34.17. Did they not insult those whom they ought least? Did they not do violence to an empire of which they would pray to be slaves, if any leisure should arise for you against them? The Gepaedes, O emperor, hold Sirmium and enslave Romans, and boast that they lay claim to the whole of Dacia; 34.18. having conquered what war on your behalf, or with you, or against you yourselves? Or having made this land the prize of what contest? And this though they have often been hired by you and have received money, as has been said, for time we know not how far back. 34.19. And yet of their present embassy there has been no act more abominable in all time. For when they saw us eager for war against them, they took heart to come to Byzantium and to come into the sight of an emperor so greatly insulted. 34.20. Perhaps, too, in the abundance of their shamelessness, they will invite you to alliance against us, who are so earnestly your friends. 34.21. And indeed if they come intending to give back what they have mounted upon, which in no way belongs to them, the Lombards must be reckoned by the Romans most responsible for the benefit arising from this, since, compelled by fear, they belatedly clothe themselves in unwilling good will. 34.22. For he who has obtained a kindness will, as is natural, know the gratitude to him who has made the necessity. But if they have not even now resolved to give up what does not belong to them, what could be the excess of this their evil character?” 34.23. “Let these things, then, be said by us with barbaric simplicity, sparing of words, in no way worthy of the matters. 34.24. But do you, O emperor, considering all that has been said by us more meagrely than the need, do what will be advantageous both to the Romans and to your Lombards, considering this above all else, that to us, who are of one mind with you about God, the Romans will at the first justly be arrayed in alliance, but to those who are Arians, and for this very reason, they will go in opposition.” 34.25. The Lombards said so much. And coming on the following day to the emperor, the envoys of the Gepaedes too spoke as follows: “It is just, O emperor, that those who come to their neighbours at a request for alliance should first show that they come to beg for things both just and advantageous to their allies, and thus make the speeches for which they make their embassy. 34.26. That we have been wronged by the Lombards, then, is plain at once; for we are eager to dissolve our differences by justice, 34.27. and it in no way belongs to those who are eager to do violence to plead at law. 34.28. And that in multitude and valour the Gepaedes happen to be by far superior to the Lombards, 34.29. why should one speak at length among those who know? But to go to a contest ranged with the inferior is to go to a manifest evil, when it is possible, ranging with the more powerful, to have the victory without danger; which we think none even of those who have a little prudence would choose. 34.30. So that, going against certain others, the Gepaedes too will for the future be arrayed with you, owing you gratitude for what has been done, and from the abundance of their power providing, as is natural, the mastery over the enemy. 34.31. And indeed it would befit you to reckon this also, that the Lombards have lately become friends to the Romans, while it befalls the Gepaedes to have been from above in treaty and known to you. 34.32. And a friendship interwoven by length of time has its dissolution not easy. So that you will obtain allies not only powerful but also firm. 34.33. These, then, are the pleas we have toward you for the alliance. But behold what the Lombards are in character. 34.34. To dissolve their differences by justice, though we challenge them often, they by no means resolved, being gripped by unreasoning boldness; but when the war is now somewhere at hand, and they, going back behind affairs because they share knowledge of their own weakness, come to you, seeing fit that the Romans take up the contest on their behalf, which they ought not. 34.35. By all means these robbers put forward to you Sirmium and certain other places in Dacia as the pretext of this war. 34.36. And yet of cities and land so much remains over to your empire that you even search out men to whom you may give a portion for dwelling. 34.37. The Franks, indeed, and the nation of the Eruli, and these Lombards, you presented with such 34.38. measures of city and land, O emperor, as no one could number. But we, having the courage of your friendship, have accomplished this, which was your wish; and he who has resolved to put forth something of his possessions thinks that he who anticipated and chose the gift by his own independent judgement is far better than he who has received the kindness from him, unless, not insulting the giver, but bold because he is most especially a friend to him, he seems to have made the request of the matter; which has indeed befallen to be so for the Gepaedes toward the Romans. 34.39. Considering which, we ask you, above all, according to the alliance, to go against the Lombards with us with all your might; but if not, to stand out of the way of both. For deliberating these things you both do what is just and what is exceedingly advantageous to the Roman empire.” 34.40. So the Gepaedes said so much. And the emperor Justinian, after much deliberation, resolved to send them away unsuccessful, but, having made a sworn alliance with the Lombards, sent them more than ten thousand horsemen, of whom Constantianus and Buzes and Aratius were commanders. 34.41. And there was with them also John the nephew of Vitalian, it having been told him by the emperor that, as soon as they should have fought against the nation of the Gepaedes, he should go from there with all speed to Italy with his followers. For he happened to have come himself from Italy. 34.42. And there followed them as allies fifteen hundred Eruli, of whom, among others, Philemuth was commander. 34.43. For all the other Eruli, who were about three thousand, had been ranged with the Gepaedes, since they had not long before happened to revolt from the Romans from a cause which has been told by me before. 34.44. And a portion of the Romans who were going to the Lombards for alliance fell in unexpectedly with some Eruli, with Aordus the brother of the ruler. 34.45. And when a fierce battle had taken place, the Romans conquered, and killed both Aordus and many of the Eruli. And the Gepaedes, learning that the Roman army was somewhere close, straightway dissolved their differences with the Lombards, and these barbarians came to terms of treaty with one another, the Romans unwilling. 34.46. When the Roman army learned this, they fell into much helplessness. For they were no longer able to go forward nor had they any means to turn back, the generals fearing lest the Gepaedes and Eruli, overrunning the land of the Illyrians, should plunder it. 34.47. Remaining there, then, they reported their present situation to the emperor. These things, then, were going on thus. But I return to the point from which I made the digression of my account.

35.1. Belisarius, then, went toward Byzantium in no order, never having landed in the land of the Italians for five years, nor having been able to go anywhere there by the road, but gripped by hidden flight all this time. And always sailing from some fort by the sea to another fort along the coast continuously, 35.2. and from this it befell that the enemy more fearlessly both enslaved Rome and, to speak in a word, all the rest. And at that time too he left the city of Perusia, which happened to be the first in Tuscany, being most bitterly besieged—which, while he was still going on his way, was taken by storm. 35.3. And coming to Byzantium, he stayed there for the rest of the time, being girt with much abundance of wealth, and gazed upon for the successes which had befallen him before, which, before he campaigned in Libya, the Deity had foretold by no obscure sign. 35.4. And the sign came about thus. There was a certain estate of Belisarius in the suburb of Byzantium which is named Panteichion, and lies on the opposite mainland. There, a little before Belisarius was about to lead the Roman army against Gelimer and Libya, it befell that the vines flourished most abundantly. 35.5. And the servants, filling a great quantity of jars with the wine that came from there, and burying the lower parts of them and stopping up the upper parts exactly with clay, deposited them in the wine-cellar. 35.6. And eight months later the wine in certain jars, boiling up, both burst the clay with which each of them had been stopped, and overflowing and pouring out in quantity flooded so much of the neighbouring ground as even to make a great pool on this floor. 35.7. And when the servants saw this, falling into great amazement, they were able to fill many amphorae from there, and again, stopping up these jars with clay, kept the matter in silence. 35.8. But when they saw this happening often about the same time, they themselves brought the matter to the owner, and he, gathering many of his friends there, showed them what was being done; and they, judging by the sign, foretold that great good would come to this house. 35.9. So matters went for Belisarius thus. And Vigilius, the high priest of Rome, together with the Italians present there at that time, many and most notable, ceased not, but needed the emperor to lay claim to Italy with all his might. 35.10. And most of all Gothigus urged him, a patrician man, who had mounted into the chair of the consuls long before; since he too had happened to come to Byzantium for this very reason lately. 35.11. And the emperor announced that he himself would take forethought for Italy, but was for the most part occupied with the doctrines of the Christians, being eager and most exceedingly strenuous to settle well the matters disputed among them. 35.12. These things were being done in Byzantium. Now there happened to be a Lombard man fleeing to the Gepaedes from the following cause. 35.13. When Vaces commanded the Lombards, he had a nephew Risiulfus by name, whom the law, when Vaces should die, called to the leadership. 35.14. So Vaces, taking forethought that the rule should go to his own son, bringing a charge against Risiulfus that had no cause, punished the man with exile. 35.15. And he, setting out from his ancestral abodes with some few, immediately fled to the Varni, two children of his being left there. 35.16. And Vaces persuaded these barbarians with money to kill Risiulfus. And of the children of Risiulfus the one died of sickness, and the other, Ildiges by name, fled to the Sclaveni. 35.17. Not long afterward Vaces, having fallen sick, was removed from among men, and the rule of the Lombards came to Valdarus, the son of Vaces. And to this boy, being quite young, Auduin, having become guardian, managed the rule. 35.18. And using much power from this, he himself not long afterward held the rule, this boy having immediately been removed from among men by sickness. 35.19. So when war was set between the Gepaedes and the Lombards, as has been said by me, Ildiges straightway, bringing with him those of the Lombards who followed him and many of the Sclaveni, came to the Gepaedes, and the Gepaedes had hope of restoring him to the rule. 35.20. But when the present treaty was made with the Lombards, Auduin straightway demanded back Ildiges from the Gepaedes, as from friends; but they by no means resolved to give over the man, but ordered him, departing from there, to save himself wherever he wished. 35.21. And he, with no delay, came again to the Sclaveni with his followers and some Gepaedes who were willing. 35.22. And setting out from there, he went to Totila and the Goths, having with him an army of no fewer than six thousand; and coming to Venetia, and meeting some Romans, of whom Lazarus was the leader, he came to close quarters, and routing them killed many. Yet he did not join the Goths, but, crossing the river Ister, withdrew again to the Sclaveni. 35.23. While these things were being done thus as has been said by me, in the meantime one of the guards of Belisarius, Indulf by name, a barbarian by race, passionate and energetic, who had happened to be left in Italy, came over to Totila and the Goths for no reason. 35.24. And Totila straightway sent him with a large army and ships to the regions of Dalmatia. 35.25. And he, coming to a place called Mucurum, which is by the sea somewhere close to Salones, at first mingled with the people there as being a Roman and belonging to Belisarius, but afterward, himself drawing his sword and exhorting those who followed him, killed them all suddenly. 35.26. And having plundered all the goods, he went off from there, and fell upon another fort lying by the coast, which the Romans call Laureate. 35.27. And mounting it, he slew those who fell in his way. When Claudianus learned this, who then commanded Salones, he sent an army against him on the so-called warships. 35.28. And these, when they came to Laureate, came to close quarters with the enemy. And being defeated by far in the battle, they fled as it became possible for each, leaving the warships in the harbour. There also the other vessels happened to be full of grain and the other provisions. 35.29. All which Indulf and the Goths, having taken and killed all who fell in their way and plundered the goods, came to Totila. 35.30. And the winter was ending, and the fourteenth year of this war which Procopius has written was coming to a close.

36.1. After this Totila led the whole army against Rome, and sitting down set himself to a siege. Now Belisarius had happened to select three thousand for their valour, whom, establishing for the garrison of Rome, he set Diogenes over as commander, one of his own guards, an exceedingly intelligent man and good in matters of war. 36.2. Wherefore a length of time was wasted in this siege. For the besieged, by abundance of valour, appeared a match for the whole army of the Goths, and Diogenes both used the guard exactly, so that no one might go to do mischief to the wall, and, having sown grain everywhere in the city within the wall, made the provisions by no means fail them. 36.3. And often the barbarians, undertaking to assault the wall and to make trial of it, were thrust back, the Romans driving them off from there by valour. Having mastered Portus, however, they besieged Rome by force. These things, then, were going on thus. 36.4. And the emperor Justinian, when he saw Belisarius come to Byzantium, purposed to send another commander with an army against the Goths and Totila. 36.5. And if he had carried out this thought, I think, since Rome was still under him, and the soldiers there had been saved and were able to mingle with those who had come to the aid from Byzantium, he would have prevailed over his opponents in the war. 36.6. But as it was, at first, selecting Liberius, a man of the patricians of Rome, he ordered him to be in readiness, but afterward, some other occupation perhaps coming upon him, he stopped his eagerness. 36.7. And as much time was wasted in the siege of Rome, some of the Isaurians who held guard about the gate which is named after Paul the apostle (charging at once that for many years nothing had been given them by the emperor, and at the same time seeing the Isaurians who had previously given over Rome to the Goths grown sleek in the bulk of certain great sums of money), coming most secretly to a parley with Totila, agreed to give over the city, 36.8. and a fixed day was agreed upon for the deed. And when the appointed day was present, Totila contrived the following. In the river Tiber, in the first watch of the night, he let down two long vessels, putting in them men who understood how to use trumpets. 36.9. Whom he instructed to go forward rowing through the Tiber, and, when they should come close to the wall, to sound their trumpets there with all their might. 36.10. And he himself held the army of the Goths in readiness close to the said gate, which is named after Paul the apostle, escaping the notice of the enemy. 36.11. And reckoning that, if any of the Roman army, escaping notice in the dark, should be able to flee from the city, they would go to Centumcellae, since no other fortress of the places there was left to them, he resolved to lay ambushes of warlike men beforehand on the road leading there, whom he instructed to destroy the fugitives. 36.12. So those in the vessels, when they came close to the city, now used the trumpets according to what had been enjoined them. 36.13. And the Romans, struck with consternation and falling into great fear and tumult, suddenly abandoning their own watch-stations for no reason, came to the aid there at a run, thinking that the plot was against the wall there. 36.14. And only the betraying Isaurians, remaining at their own guard, both opened the gates at their will and received the enemy into the city. 36.15. And there was much slaughter of those who fell in their way there, and many, fleeing, went off through other gates, while those who went toward Centumcellae, coming under the ambushers, were destroyed. Some few of them, however, barely escaped, among whom they say Diogenes too, being wounded, was saved. 36.16. Now there was a certain man in the Roman army, Paulus by name, a Cilician by race, who at first had been set over the household of Belisarius, but afterward, as commander of a regiment of horse, campaigned in Italy and had been ranged with Diogenes for the guard of Rome. 36.17. This Paulus, when the city was then being taken, with four hundred horsemen ran up to the tomb of Hadrian and held the bridge that leads to the church of Peter the apostle. 36.18. And when the army of the Goths, it being dawn and day about to break forth, came to close quarters with these men, withstanding the enemy there most stoutly, they had the advantage; and they killed many of the barbarians, inasmuch as there was a great multitude of them and a narrow space among them. 36.19. When Totila saw this, he straightway stopped the battle, and ordered the Goths to sit quiet facing the enemy, thinking that he would take the men by famine. 36.20. So this day Paulus and the four hundred passed without food, and the night they bivouacked thus; but on the following day they resolved to feed on some of the horses, but shrinking from the unfamiliarity of the food held them off until late evening, although exceedingly hard pressed by famine. 36.21. Then, after much deliberation among themselves, and exhorting one another to courage, they resolved that it was better for them to end their life immediately by a seemly death. 36.22. For they resolved to rush upon the enemy unexpectedly, and to kill as many of them as it should be possible for each, and thus all to meet their end bravely. 36.23. Suddenly, then, embracing one another and kissing their faces, they greeted one another for death, as all about to perish immediately. 36.24. Observing which, Totila feared lest men ready to die, and having no hope of safety for the future, should do irreparable deeds to the Goths. 36.25. So sending to them, he offered them a choice of two things, that either, leaving their horses there and laying down their arms and swearing no longer to campaign against the Goths, they should depart unharmed to Byzantium, or, keeping their own goods, should for the future campaign with the Goths on equal and like terms. 36.26. These words the Romans gladly heard. And at first they all chose the way to Byzantium, but afterward, being ashamed to make their withdrawal on foot and unarmed, and fearing lest, falling into some ambushes on the retreat, they should be destroyed, and at the same time charging that the Roman treasury owed them their allowances for a long time, they all of their own will mingled with the army of the Goths, except indeed that Paulus and one of the Isaurians, Mindes by name, coming into the sight of Totila, begged him to send them to Byzantium. 36.27. For they said that they had children and wives in their native land, without whom they were not able to live. 36.28. And Totila, receiving them as men who told the truth, and presenting them with travelling supplies and sending escorts with them, let them go. And others too of the Roman army, all who had taken refuge in the churches of the city, about three hundred, receiving pledges, came over to Totila. 36.29. And Totila for the future resolved neither to raze Rome nor to abandon it, but resolved to settle there together both Goths and the Romans of the senate and all the others, from the following cause.

37.1. Totila not long before, sending to the ruler of the Franks, asked him to give his daughter to him as wedded wife. 37.2. But he thrust aside the request, saying that Totila neither was nor would ever be king of Italy, who, having taken Rome, was by no means able to hold it, but, having razed a part of it, let it go again to the enemy. 37.3. Wherefore for the present he was eager to bring provisions into it, and ordered all to be rebuilt as quickly as possible, all that he had himself happened to raze and burn when he first took Rome; and he summoned both the Romans of the senate and all the others whom he was guarding in Campania. 37.4. And there, watching the chariot-contest, he made the whole army ready, as though to campaign against Sicily. 37.5. And at the same time he made ready the four hundred long ships as if for a sea-fight, and a fleet of great and very many ships, which had been sent there from the East by the emperor, and which he had happened to capture, with all the men and cargoes, during all this time. 37.6. And he sent Stephanus, a Roman man, as envoy to the emperor, asking him to bring this war to an end, and to make the Goths his allies, on condition that they should fight with him against the other enemies. 37.7. But the emperor Justinian neither permitted the envoy to come into his sight nor made any account at all of what was said. 37.8. When Totila heard this, he again made ready for the war. And it seemed advantageous to him, having first made trial of Centumcellae, thus to go against Sicily. 37.9. Now Diogenes the guard of Belisarius then commanded the garrison there, having an adequate power with him. 37.10. So the army of the Goths, when they came to Centumcellae, encamping close to the wall, set themselves to a siege. 37.11. And Totila, sending envoys to Diogenes, challenged both him and the soldiers about him, if it was their wish to settle matters with them by battle, to set to work at once. 37.12. And he exhorted them to have no hope that any other power would come to them from the emperor; 37.13. for it was impossible for Justinian for the future to carry on this war against the Goths, if anyone is able to judge sufficiently by what had happened concerning Rome in so long a time. 37.14. He offered them, then, a choice to take whichever they wished, either to mingle with the army of the Goths on equal and like terms, or, departing from there unharmed, to be conveyed to Byzantium. 37.15. But the Romans and Diogenes said that it was neither their wish to settle matters by battle nor indeed to mingle with the army of the Goths, since without their own children and wives they could not live. 37.16. And the city of which they held the guard they had by no means any specious reason for giving over for the present, since they had no excuse, especially as they wished to send to the emperor; 37.17. but they begged him to put off the matter for some time, in order that they might in the meantime make known to the emperor their present situation, and, no help coming meanwhile from the emperor, they should thus depart, giving over the city to the Goths, but themselves making their withdrawal not without pretext. 37.18. When this pleased Totila, a fixed day was agreed upon, and thirty men were given on either side in the position of hostages on this agreement, and the Goths, breaking off the siege, went toward Sicily. 37.19. And when they came to Rhegium, they did not cross the strait there before they had made trial of the fort in Rhegium. 37.20. Now Thurimuth and Himerius commanded the garrison there, whom Belisarius had happened to establish there. 37.21. These, since they had many and excellent men with them, thrust back the enemy as they assaulted the wall, and sallying out had the advantage in the engagement. 37.22. Afterward, however, being inferior by far in the multitude of their opponents, being shut up within the wall, they remained quiet. 37.23. So Totila left a portion of the Gothic army there for the sake of a garrison, waiting to take the Romans there at a later time through the want of provisions, and sending an army to the people of Taras, won over the fort there with no toil; and the Goths whom he had left in the country of Picenum then took the city of Ariminum by treachery. 37.24. Hearing this, the emperor Justinian purposed to establish Germanus his cousin as supreme commander of the war against the Goths and Totila, and instructed him to be in readiness. And when the report of this came to Italy, the Goths fell into great anxiety; for the repute about Germanus among all men happened to be auspicious. 37.25. And the Romans, having all at once become hopeful, and those of the emperor's army held out against the danger and hardship much more than before. 37.26. But the emperor, I know not how, having changed his mind, resolved to establish for the deed Liberius, a Roman man whom I mentioned in the previous narrative, instead of Germanus. 37.27. And he, having prepared as quickly as possible, was expected to set sail immediately with an army. But when the emperor repented again, he too remained quiet. 37.28. Then indeed Verus, with the most warlike men whom he had happened to gather about himself, coming to close quarters with the Goths who were in Picenum not far from the city of Ravenna, both lost many of his followers and himself died, having become a brave man in this struggle.

38.1. About this time an army of Sclaveni, gathered to no more than three thousand, crossed the river Ister, no one withstanding them, and with no toil immediately crossing the river Hebrus, divided into two. 38.2. And one company of them had eighteen hundred men, and the other the remainder. 38.3. With both of these, although they were separated from one another, the commanders of the Roman army among the Illyrians and Thracians came to close quarters, and were unexpectedly defeated, and some of them perished there, while others, fleeing in no order, were saved. 38.4. And when all the generals had thus departed from each of the two barbarian armies, although they were by far inferior, the other company of the enemy joined Asbadus. 38.5. Now this was a guard of the emperor Justinian, since he happened to be enrolled among the so-called Candidati, and commanded the regiments of horse who from of old are settled in Tzurulum, the fort in Thrace, 38.6. who were many and excellent. And the Sclaveni, routing them with no toil, killed very many fleeing most shamefully, but seizing Asbadus took him alive for the moment, but afterward burned him, throwing him into the flame of a fire, having first flayed strips from the man's back. 38.7. Having accomplished these things, they plundered all the regions, both of the Thracians and the Illyrians, more fearlessly, and both companies took many forts by siege, neither having besieged a wall before, nor having dared to come down into the plain, since these barbarians had never before undertaken to overrun the land of the Romans. 38.8. Nor indeed do they appear to have crossed the river Ister with an army in all time, except as has been said by me before. 38.9. And those who had conquered Asbadus, having plundered everything in order as far as the sea, took by assault a city by the sea, although it had a garrison of soldiers, Topherus by name; which is the first of the Thracian cities by the coast and is distant from Byzantium a journey of twelve days. 38.10. And they took it in the following manner. The most hid themselves in difficult places before the wall, but some few, coming about the gates that are toward the rising sun, troubled the Romans on the battlements. 38.11. And the soldiers who held the garrison there, suspecting that they were no more than as many as were seen, taking up their arms immediately, all went out against them. 38.12. And the barbarians turned back, giving the impression to those who came against them that, having become afraid, they were going off in withdrawal; and the Romans, rushing out into the pursuit, got somewhere far from the wall. 38.13. So those from the ambushes, rising and getting behind the pursuers, made it no longer possible for them to go into the city. 38.14. And those who seemed to flee, turning back, made the Romans now caught between two enemies. And the barbarians, having destroyed all of them, assaulted the wall. 38.15. And the inhabitants of the city, deprived of the strength of the soldiers, fell into much helplessness, and even so defended themselves against the assailants from what was at hand. 38.16. And at first, heating oil and pitch most thoroughly, they poured it down on those who were assaulting the wall, and using casts of stones against them in a body, came not far from thrusting off the danger. 38.17. But afterward the barbarians, forcing them with a multitude of missiles, compelled them to abandon the battlements, and setting ladders against the wall took the city by storm. 38.18. Now they straightway killed all the men, to fifteen thousand, and plundered all the goods, but the children and women they made into the position of slaves. 38.19. And yet at first they spared no age, but both they and the other company, from the time they fell upon the land of the Romans, killed all who fell in their way, even to manhood. So that all the land which is of the Illyrians and Thracians became for the most part full of unburied corpses. 38.20. And they killed those who fell in their way neither by sword nor spear nor in any other accustomed way, but, fixing stakes most firmly into the ground and making them exceedingly sharp, they seated the wretches upon these with much force, driving the point of the stake into the middle of the buttocks and pushing it as far as the men's vitals, and thus they saw fit to make away with them. 38.21. And these barbarians, having buried four thick stakes deep in the ground, and binding upon them the hands and feet of the captives, then striking them on the head most continually with clubs, destroyed them as though they were dogs or snakes or some other beast. 38.22. And others, together with the oxen and sheep which they were by no means able to bring to their native abodes, they shut up in the chambers and burned with no sparing. Thus the Sclaveni always destroyed those whom they met. 38.23. But now both they and those of the other company, as if drunk with the multitude of the blood, saw fit for the future to take alive some of those who fell in their way, and from this, bringing along myriads of captives more than could be numbered, all withdrew home.

39.1. Afterward the Goths assaulted the fort of the people of Rhegium, and the besieged, defending themselves most stoutly, thrust them off, and Thurimuth always displayed deeds worthy of valour against them. 39.2. But Totila, learning that provisions were failing the besieged, left a portion of the army there for the sake of a garrison, in order that the enemy might bring nothing in for the future, but, through want of the necessities, give over both themselves and the fort to the Goths; while he himself with the rest of the army, crossing over to Sicily, assaulted the wall of the people of Messana. 39.3. And Domnentiolus the nephew of Buzes, who commanded the Romans there, meeting him before the wall and coming to close quarters, had not the worst of it. 39.4. But coming again into the city and attending to the guard there, he kept quiet. And the Goths, no one sallying out against them, plundered nearly the whole of Sicily. 39.5. And the Romans besieged in Rhegium, whom Thurimuth and Himerius commanded, as has been said by me—for the necessities had altogether failed them—gave over both themselves and the fort to the enemy by agreement. 39.6. When the emperor heard this, gathering a fleet of ships and putting into this fleet an army worthy of account from the regiments of foot, and setting Liberius over them as commander, he ordered him to sail quickly to Sicily and to save the island with all his might. 39.7. But as soon as he had established Liberius commander of the fleet he repented; for the man was exceedingly old and unpractised in deeds of war. 39.8. And remitting to Artabanes all the charges against him and establishing him general of the regiments of Thrace, he sent him immediately to Sicily, providing him with not a large army, but instructing him to take over the fleet with Liberius, since he summoned Liberius to Byzantium. 39.9. And he established Germanus his own cousin as supreme commander of the war against Totila and the Goths. To him he gave not a large army, but, providing him with money worthy of account, he instructed him, having gathered a most considerable army from the Thracians and Illyrians, thus to set out to Italy with much speed. 39.10. And he ordered him to bring with him to Italy both Philemuth the Erulian with his followers and John the son-in-law of Germanus himself and nephew of Vitalian (for, being general of the regiments in Illyricum, he had his stay there). 39.11. Then much ambition seized Germanus to win the mastery over the Goths, in order that it might be his to recover both Libya and Italy for the Roman empire. 39.12. For when Stotzas had tyrannized over Libya in earlier times and held the mastery of Libya most firmly, Germanus, sent by the emperor and conquering the rebels in battle contrary to expectation, both stopped the tyranny and recovered Libya again for the Roman empire, as has been said by me in the previous narrative. 39.13. And now, the affairs of Italy having come to such a fortune as has been related by me, he wished to gird himself with great fame from this, as having been able to recover it too for the emperor. 39.14. And first (for his wife Passara had died long before) he made Matasuntha his wedded wife, the daughter of Amalasuntha the daughter of Theoderic, Wittigis being already removed from among men. 39.15. For he hoped that, if the woman should be with him in the camp, the Goths, as is natural, would be ashamed to take up arms against her, calling to mind the rule of Theoderic and Athalaric. 39.16. After this, putting forth great sums of money, some from the emperor and more from his own household, with no sparing, he was easily able in a short time to gather a large army of most warlike men unexpectedly. 39.17. For Romans, men good in matters of war, and many of the commanders whose guards and shield-bearers they had been, who had been held in disregard, followed Germanus, both from Byzantium and from the regions of Thrace and the Illyrians none the less, Justinus and Justinian his sons displaying much eagerness about these things, 39.18. since he took them too and went off. And some he gathered also from the regiments of horse that were settled in Thrace, the emperor giving them. 39.19. And many barbarians who had their stay about the river Ister, coming for the fame of Germanus and having received much money, 39.20. mingled with the Roman army. And other barbarians, gathering from every land, flowed together. And the ruler of the Lombards, having made ready a thousand men-at-arms, promised to send them immediately. 39.21. As these things and more were reported in Italy—such as report, going forward, is wont to work upon human affairs—the Goths at once both feared and fell into perplexity, whether they ought to make war against the race of Theoderic. 39.22. And the Roman soldiers, all who happened to be campaigning unwillingly with the Goths, sending a messenger to Germanus, ordered him to signify that, as soon as they should see him present in Italy and his army encamping, they too, with no delay, would by all means range themselves with those men. 39.23. Encouraged by all these things, those of the emperor's army, both in Ravenna and wherever else any city happened to have been left to them, having become exceedingly hopeful, saw fit to guard the places exactly for the emperor. 39.24. But all who had previously come to close quarters either with Verus or with certain others of the enemy, and being defeated by their opponents in the engagement had fled and were going about scattered, as it had befallen each, when they heard that Germanus was on his way, gathering in a body in Istria, and there awaiting this army, remained quiet. 39.25. Then indeed Totila (for the day agreed upon by him and Diogenes about Centumcellae had arrived), sending to him, ordered him to give over the city according to what had been agreed. 39.26. But Diogenes said that he himself was no longer master of this; for he had heard that Germanus had been established supreme commander of this war and was not far off with his army. 39.27. And if it should be his wish, he was willing to take back his own hostages and to give back those given to them by the Goths. 39.28. And dismissing those sent to him, he attended to the guard of the city, awaiting Germanus and the army with him. 39.29. These things, then, were going on thus, and the winter was ending, and the fifteenth year of this war which Procopius has written was coming to a close.

40.1. While Germanus was gathering and ordering his army in Sardica, the city of the Illyrians, and most strongly fitting out all the preparation for the war, a throng of Sclaveni, such as had never come before, came to the land of the Romans; and crossing the river Ister, they came about Naisus. 40.2. Some few of these, having been scattered from the camp and wandering and going about alone in the regions there, some of the Romans, seizing and binding, inquired for what reason this army of the Sclaveni and intending to accomplish what had crossed the river Ister. 40.3. And they affirmed that they had come to take Thessalonica itself and the cities about it by siege. When the emperor heard this, he was greatly thrown into confusion and immediately wrote to Germanus to put off for the present the journey to Italy, and to defend Thessalonica and the other cities, and to repel the assault of the Sclaveni with all his power. And Germanus was occupied with these things. 40.4. And the Sclaveni, learning expressly from the captives that Germanus was in Sardica, came into fear; 40.5. for Germanus had a great name among these barbarians from the following cause. When Justinian the uncle of Germanus held the empire, the Antae, who dwell close to the Sclaveni, crossing the river Ister, invaded the land of the Romans with a great army. 40.6. Now the emperor had happened to establish Germanus general of all Thrace not long before. He, coming to close quarters with the army of the enemy and conquering them by force in battle, killed nearly all of them, and won great fame from this deed among all men and especially among these barbarians. 40.7. So fearing him, as has been said by me, the Sclaveni, and at the same time thinking that he was bringing with him a most considerable power, since he was being sent by the emperor against Totila and the Goths, straightway abstained from the road to Thessalonica, and no longer dared to come down into the plain, but, traversing all the mountains of the Illyrians, came into Dalmatia. 40.8. Germanus, then, being relieved of these, instructed the whole army to make ready, as about, two days later, to begin the journey from there to Italy. 40.9. But a certain fortune befell him, that, falling sick suddenly, he ended his life. And Germanus was straightway removed from among men, a man brave and exceedingly energetic, in war both the best of generals and a skilful worker with his own hands, and in peace and good times most steadfast in guarding the laws and the order of the state; judging most uprightly of all men; lending great sums of money to all who needed and never receiving from them so much as the mention of interest; in the Palatium and the forum most weighty and exceedingly grave, but a host at home each day pleasant and liberal and gracious; allowing nothing to be done amiss in the Palatium contrary to custom, so far as he was able, and never having shared in the wish or the company of the factions in Byzantium, although many even of those in power had gone to such a degree of impropriety. These things, then, went thus. 40.10. And the emperor, being grievously distressed at what had befallen, ordered John the nephew of Vitalian and son-in-law of Germanus, together with Justinian, one of the two children of Germanus, to lead this army to Italy. 40.11. And they went toward Dalmatia, intending to winter in Salones, since they thought it impossible at that time of the year, going around the circuit of the gulf, to be conveyed to Italy; for to ferry across, since ships were not present for them, was impracticable. 40.12. And Liberius, not yet having learned anything of what the emperor repented concerning this fleet, put in at Syracuse, which was being besieged by the enemy. 40.13. And forcing the barbarians there, he both put in to the harbour and got with the whole fleet inside the wall. 40.14. And Artabanes not long afterward, coming to Cephalonia, when he learned that Liberius and his men had already set out from there and gone to Sicily, setting out from there immediately crossed the sea called the Adriatic. 40.15. And when he came near the Calabrians, a prodigious storm falling upon him, and the wind being exceedingly hard and going against them, it befell that all the ships were so scattered as to make it seem that the many, driven out to Calabria, had come under the enemy. 40.16. But it was not so, but, driven by the wind with much force, they turned back, being prodigiously forced, and came again to the Peloponnese. And the others, wherever they chanced, it befell either to be destroyed or to be saved. 40.17. But one ship, in which Artabanes himself was sailing, its mast having been broken off in this tossing, coming into such danger, both borne by the surge and followed by the wave, put in at the island of Melite. So it befell that Artabanes was saved unexpectedly. 40.18. And Liberius, being able neither to sally out against the besiegers nor to settle matters with them by battle, and the provisions, since they were many, in no way sufficing for a longer time, setting out from there with his followers and escaping the notice of the enemy, withdrew to Panormus. 40.19. And Totila and the Goths, having plundered nearly all the regions of Sicily, bringing along a great quantity of horses and other animals, and carrying off the grain and all the other crops from the island, and putting all the goods, which were quite great, into their vessels, suddenly abandoned the island and returned to Italy, set in motion by the following manner. 40.20. A certain Roman, Spinus by name, setting out from Spolitium, Totila had happened not long before to establish as his assessor. 40.21. This man had his stay in the city of Catana, which was unwalled. And a certain fortune befell him, to come under the enemy there. 40.22. Whom Totila, being eager to ransom, wished to release to the Romans in his stead a woman of certain notable men, who was a captive. 40.23. But the Romans by no means thought it just to exchange a woman for a man who held the office of the so-called quaestor. 40.24. So the man, fearing lest he be destroyed among the enemy, agreed with the Romans that he would immediately persuade Totila to set out from Sicily and to ferry the whole Gothic army to Italy. 40.25. And they, having bound him with oaths concerning this agreement, gave him back to the Goths, having received the woman in his stead. 40.26. And he, coming into the sight of Totila, said that it was not to their advantage that the Goths, having plundered nearly the whole of Sicily, should stay there for the sake of some few forts. 40.27. For he affirmed that he had lately heard, while he was among the enemy, that Germanus the cousin of the emperor had been removed from among men, but that John his son-in-law and Justinian his son were already in Dalmatia with the whole army that had been gathered by Germanus, and that, fitting themselves out, they would set out from there straight for Liguria immediately, in order that, by a sudden raid, they might enslave the children and wives of the Goths and plunder all the goods; whom it would be better for us to meet, wintering in safety with our own people. 40.28. For if we should prevail over them, it would be possible for us, at the beginning of spring, more fearlessly to set foot on Sicily again, having no enemy in mind. 40.29. Persuaded by this suggestion, Totila left guards in four strongholds, and himself, bringing along all the booty, ferried across to Italy with the whole rest of the army. These things, then, were going on thus. 40.30. And John and the emperor's army, coming to Dalmatia, resolved to winter in Salones, intending, after the winter season, to go from there straight to Ravenna by the road. 40.31. And the Sclaveni, both those who had previously come into the emperor's land, as has been related by me lately, and others not long afterward, crossing the river Ister and mingling with the former, overran the Roman empire with much license. 40.32. And some held it in suspicion that Totila, having persuaded these barbarians with much money, sent them against the Romans there, in order that it might be impossible for the emperor to manage well the war against the Goths, being occupied with these barbarians. 40.33. But whether the Sclaveni came there to gratify Totila or uninvited I cannot say. Dividing themselves, however, into three bodies, these barbarians wrought irreparable deeds in all Europe, not plundering the regions there by a sudden raid, but as though wintering in their own country and fearing no enemy. 40.34. And afterward the emperor Justinian sent a most considerable army against them, of which, among others, Constantianus and Aratius and Nazares were commanders, and Justinus the son of Germanus and John whom they called by the surname Phagas. 40.35. And he established Scholasticus, one of the eunuchs in the Palatium, as overseer over all. 40.36. This army caught a portion of the barbarians about Adrianople, which lies in the midland of Thrace, distant a journey of five days from Byzantium. 40.37. And the barbarians could no longer go forward; for they were bringing along booty of men and other animals and all goods beyond number. 40.38. And remaining there, they were eager to come to close quarters with the enemy, giving them by no means any perception of this. And the Sclaveni encamped on the mountain that rises there, while the Romans were in the plain not far off. 40.39. And as much time was wasted for them in this sitting, the soldiers were vexed and made a great matter of it, charging against the generals that they, having all the provisions in abundance as commanders of the Roman army, overlooked the soldiers being hard pressed by the want of the necessities, and were unwilling to come to close quarters with the enemy. 40.40. By these the generals, being compelled, joined battle with their opponents. And a fierce battle took place, but the Romans were defeated by force. 40.41. There many and excellent soldiers perished, and the generals, coming near to fall under the enemy, with the survivors barely escaping were saved, 40.42. as it became possible for each. And the barbarians took the standard of Constantianus, and, holding the Roman army in disregard, advanced forward. 40.43. And they plundered the country called Astice at their will, which had been unravaged from of old, and from this it befell them to find much booty there; and thus, plundering much country, they came as far as the Long Walls, which are distant a little more than a day's journey from Byzantium. 40.44. But not long afterward the Roman army, following these barbarians, and falling in with a portion of them and coming to close quarters suddenly, routed them. 40.45. And they killed many of the enemy, and saved a great quantity of the Roman captives, and finding the standard of Constantianus took it up. And the rest of the barbarians, with the other booty, withdrew home.