With the recall of Belisarius terminates the first period of the Gothic War (535‑40), During these five years the Goths had been expelled, except a few isolated garrisons, from the whole of the peninsula. They were now limited to the northern regions of Italy — Liguria, and parts of Emilia and Venetia, retaining strongholds in Pavia, Verona, and some other cities. Many of their fighters had gone over to the imperialists. Rome and Ravenna had become provincial cities of the Byzantine Empire. But eleven years of war and devastation were yet to come before the dread of Gothic domination was entirely at an end.

The state of Italy at the end of the first period of the war was very pitiable, especially in those northern regions that had been devastated by the Franks and Burgundians as well as by the Goths and the Byzantines. The inhabitants of Tuscany and Emilia took to the mountains and lived on acorns, or flocked to the seashore to search for fish and refuse. Fifty thousand of them perished, says Procopius, who was an eye-witness of many horrors and describes with Thucydidean vividness the poor famished wretches with eyes glaring in madness, their protruding bones covered with skin like parchment that turned from yellow to deep red and from red to blacks — so that neither birds nor beasts would feed on the corpses. He asserts too that cannibalism was frequent, as when the Vandals invaded Spain (p. 86), and he tells a story of two women who, near Rimini, offered entertainment to travellers and killed seventeen in their sleep — in order to feed upon them — but were detected and killed by the eighteenth.

When Belisarius arrived he found himself no longer in favour at the court of Constantinople. He was not allowed a public triumph. He was sent off to the far East, where the irrepressible Persian king, Chosroes, had been invading imperial territory and had captured and sacked Antioch. Then, on some frivolous charge of treasonable language, he was recalled, and found himself in still deeper disfavour. His wife, Antonina, had been dishonouring him by her conduct and had become an intimate confidente of the Empress uxu Theodora, the scandalous indecencies of whose earlier life were being slowly obliterated by the piety of her latter days. The favour that Theodora had formerly conferred upon him had been transferred to his unfaithful wife, and when he attempted to arrest his wife — or perhaps even to imprison her- she was liberated by the influence of the Empress, who took every opportunity of humiliating and disgracing him.22

Meanwhile in Italy discontent and disorder prevailed. Not only the people but the imperial army itself, neglected and unpaid, began to regret the Gothic domination, while among the Goths themselves, after two unsuccessful selections, self-confidence was renewed by the choice of a chief, Baduila or Baduela,23 generally called Totila, under whose leadership the Gothic power in Italy was to revive and hold the field for eleven years more.

So low had the fortunes of Belisarius sunk that he lived in hourly dread of assassination. Solitary and gloomy he wandered, it is said, about the streets of Constantinople, avoided by all his acquaintances. At last, in 544, Justinian, anxious about Italy and perhaps terrified by the ravages of the great Plague,24 which seems to have reached Constantinople about 544, proposed that Belisarius should reassume the command of the war against the Ostrogoths. But no troops were put at his disposal. At his own cost therefore he raised a band of 4000 Illyrians. With these he crossed to Ravenna, and succeeded in capturing Bologna.

Meanwhile Totila had made himself master of a great part of South Italy, and, encamped at Tibur (Tivoli), was threatening Rome, held by imperial troops under Bessa, and was capturing and garrisoning strongholds on the Flaminian Way, which led from Rome to Rimini, so as to block the road against succours from the north. For a year Belisarius, longing to hasten to the relief of Rome, was forced to look on in powerless despair, sending urgent appeals to Justinian for reinforcements, and even going across to Durazzo in order to await their arrival. But when at last they did arrive they proved ill-trained and insubordinate, and the officer in command — the same Johannes who had formerly thwarted the plans of Belisarius almost as obstinately as Narses himself — insisted on first expelling the Goths from Apulia and Calabria before attempting to raise the siege of Rome, which Totila had now begun to beleaguer, and which Belisarius was determined to relieve.

As in the case of Narses, it proved necessary to divide forces. Johannes disembarked his troops at Otranto, and, as there were only a few scattered bands of the Goths in those regions he ere long was able to report to Justinian that he was master of South Italy, whereas Belisarius made sail for the mouth of the Tiber. Here he occupied the Harbour (Portus Romanus), while Ostia itself was in the hands of Totila's Goths, who had cast a chain cable across the river to prevent provisions reaching Rome. A gallant attempt made by the Byzantines to burst the chain and fight a way with barges and fireships up the stream into the city failed at the last moment by reason of Bessa's stupidity or treachery, and so incensed were the people and soldiery of the besieged city against their commander, who seems to have accumulated a large amount of money by selling food at exorbitant prices to the famished citizens, that, some Isaurian sentinels having been won over, the Porta Asinaria was opened in the dead of night to the Goths. When they entered (December 17, 546) the Byzantine garrison and a great multitude poured out of the city by other gates — Bessa being obliged to abandon all his ill-gotten gold.

It is scarcely credible, but is asserted by Procopius, that when the Goths entered Rome they found there scarcely five hundred persons. Most of them had taken refuge in the churches, and after some bloodshed, committed in the first flush of victory, the barbarians were restrained, if not from pillage, from further slaughter of the suppliants by the orders of Totila, who seems to have acted, as on other occasions, with dignity and humanity.25

Totila remained longer in Rome than Alaric — whose stay had been only six days. While there he sent as envoy to Justinian the deacon Pelagius (afterwards Pope Pelagius), who with calm courage and almost alone had faced the Gothic king as Pope Leo had formerly faced Attila and Gaiseric. By the hands of Pelagius Totila sent a letter to the Emperor. 'I respect thee as my father,' he wrote, 'and shall always be thy faithful ally; but if thou wilt not accept peace I will destroy Rome, lest it prove anew a danger to the Goths.'

Justinian made no reply; so Totila began to pull down the walls of Rome. He had demolished a third part of them, and possibly a good many other buildings, when suddenly he desisted — possibly because Belisarius, who had rebuilt these same walls, wrote a touching letter to him on the subject, possibly because he hoped some day to make Rome the capital of a 'Gothica" under the auspices of the Eastern Empire. Then he marched off to the south of Italy, taking with him as hostages those of the Roman Senate who — as the famous senators of olden days when Gauls captured Rome — had awaited, though perhaps in not quite so dignified an attitude, the advent of the barbarian victor.

After what we have already heard we ought perhaps not to be much surprised at the statement that when Totila and his Goths vacated Rome the great city, which in the days of Alaric's invasion had still contained about two million inhabitants, remained for six weeks absolutely empty — in all its enormous labyrinth of ancient and later edifices, in all its countless streets and open spaces, not one single human being was visible.26

Into the deserted city Belisarius and his Byzantines entered, and the Aurelian walls were hurriedly restored, many old marbles, still visible in many places, being built into them — as had happened in Athens when Themistocles was in power. Then from the surrounding country came flocking back thousands who had sought concealment; hearing which Totila returned; but he was repulsed and once more encamped at Tivoli. And now (547) both Rome and Ravenna were in the hands of the imperialists, and they might have hoped that fortune was again inclining in their favour; but all appeals to the Eastern court27 were fruitless, for Justinian had of late become totally engrossed by doctrinal questions, and apparently it was his one ambition to be recognized not only as a great civil legislator but as the supreme legislator for the Church — if not her supreme Head — and as the restorer of religious unity by the triumph of what he believed to be the one true faith.

Despairing of aid both from Constantinople and from the imperial troops under Johannes, who obstinately employed all his energies in a kind of guerilla in the south, Belisarius abandoned Rome and sailed to the coasts of South Italy, where he spent a whole year in fruitless and inglorious expeditions, until at last he received orders to return to Constantinople. Here he arrived in 549, bearing with him immense riches but a tarnished reputation and a spirit broken by his last ill-fated campaign. He was at this time only forty-four years of ages. He survived his recall sixteen years, but as Italy saw him no more his later life must be here dismissed with a few words.

For ten years he lived in retirement at Constantinople, in affluence and respected but without official recognition. In 559, however, the Huns — or rather the Avars,28 who had seized the country that once belonged to the Huns and, like the Huns, had sent insolent envoys to exact a large tribute — threatened the capture of Constantinople so seriously that Justinian thought of abandoning his capital.29 In his panic he appealed to Belisarius, whose martial self-confidence seems to have revived, for he made a splendid dash at the savage invaders and routed them; whereupon he was at once recalled by Justinian, whose senile timidity and suspicious jealousy some years later (563) caused him to believe charges of treason brought against the old soldier to who he owed so much. Belisarius was deprived of all his property and put under supervision as a suspect. A few months later, his innocence being apparent, restitution was made and he was reappointed to some official dignity. Early in 565 he died, nine months before the death of Justinian. The legend which pictures him as a blind old beggar seated at the portal of a church with a plate or board bearing the words, Date obolum Belisario ('Give a penny to Belisarius!'), seems to have originated in the eleventh or twelfth century.

We must now return to the year 549 and to Italy, where Totila (or Baduila) and his Goths are again making themselves masters of the whole country. Once more they seize the Port of the Tiber and besiege Rome; once more the famished Roman citizens are so incensed at their Byzantine commanders, whom they accuse of hoarding food to sell it at exorbitant rates, that they kill one of them and then persuade the Isaurian sentinels (Susan note -repeat story) to open a city gate to the enemy. Taranto in the south, Rimini in the north, and many other towns then surrendered to the Goths, who even crossed into Sicily and overran the whole island. The invaders also collected a considerable fleet and ventured to blockade Ancona, but Johannes, who since the recall of Belisarius had continued his somewhat futile guerilla (Susan note), combined naval forces with those of the Byzantine commander at Ravenna and inflicted such a crushing defeat on the ill-trained barbarian squadron that Totila once more offered peace to Justinian, proposing somewhat arrogantly to restore to the Emperor Sicily and Dalmatia. But Justinian had already (551) appointed Narses to the supreme command against the Goths.

Narses was already seventy-three years old, but seems to have lost none of his former vigour and self-confidence. His great wealth and his persuasive powers enabled him to collect a large and motley host, in which were Avars, Gepidae, Herulians, Persians and other barbarians, as well as a body of 2500 savages whom a little later he had to bribe to return to their northern homes, so ferocious and unmanageable they proved. These were Longobardi, or Lombards, of whom we shall soon hear a great deal. They were commanded by their chieftain Audoin, father of the famous Alboin. Supported by a fleet, and crossing the mouths of rivers by bridges of boats, Narses led his army by land to Ravenna. He then marched south, and avoiding the tunnelled Furlo pass (p. 141 n), which was strongly held by the enemy, he kept near the sea-line, and having crossed the Apennines near Sentinum and the 'sepulchres of the Gauls' (Susan note -still there?) (the Gauls who had fallen in the great battle against the Romans eight and a half centuries before) he awaited Totila's approach from Rome on the plain of Tadino or Tagina, and on the day revealed to him by the Virgin (under whose special protection he believed himself to be) he gave battle.30 The Goths were routed and Totila, pierced by the lance of a Gepid warrior, was carried by his men to a cottage at Capre, some miles from the field of battle, and died there. This victory was followed up by the surrender of many towns and the capture of Rome, defended only by a small Gothic garrison, which for some time held heroically the Mole of Hadrian. Then once more are sent to Constantinople the keys of the ancient mother-city of the Roman Empire, which during Justinian's reign, as Procopius reminds us, had been taken and retaken five times.

Infuriated by the defeat and death of their king and the capture of Rome, the Goths in the south perpetrated at this time some horrible atrocities, massacring five hundred youths who Totila had taken with him as hostages, and many of the senators whom he had taken with him as prisoners of war. From this time onward the Roman Senate existed no more. 'After a period of thirteen centuries,' says Gibbon, 'the institution of Romulus expired . . . . Ascend six hundred years and contemplate the kings of the earth soliciting an audience as the slaves, or freedmen, of the Roman Senate.'

Meanwhile in the north a new Gothic army was being collected. Theia, a valorous captain of Totila's, had made Verona his headquarters, and still held Pavia and other important posts; and at Pavia he was proclaimed king. Before attempting to move southwards it was necessary to secure the neutrality of the Franks, who by this time had secured a firm footing in the lake districts and even in parts of Venetia.31 When this was accomplished Theia crossed the Apennines. His object was to form a junction with his brother Aligern, who had strongly fortified himself in Cumae — that city near Lake Avernus, the home of the Sibyl, which was founded by ancient Greeks perhaps more than a thousand years before the Christian era, and relics of whose mighty ramparts still exist. By skillfully evading the imperial forces the Gothic king reached the Bay of Naples, where, at the mouth of the river Draco (Sarno), not far from Pompeii, he encamped, depending on a Gothic or mercenary fleet for his provisions. For two months the armies of Theia and Narses, separated by the deep stream, faced each other without venturing across to attack. Then the Gothic commander of the fleet, alarmed by the approach of hostile ships from Sicily and other parts, surrendered his vessels to the Byzantines, and Theia was obliged to withdraw to the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Hard pressed by famine, he decided to descend and risk all in an encounter. Leaving their horses behind them, the Goths advanced in a compact phalanx, Theia at their head. 'Which when the Romans saw,' says Procopius,32 'deeming that if he were driven back it would be easy to break their whole line of battle, those who felt bold enough — and they were many — united to attack him, some hurling their missiles, others assailing him at close quarters. But he, covering himself with his shield, received thereupon the javelins, and then, suddenly darting forward, slew many of the enemy. And when he saw his shield laden with javelin, giving it to a shield-bearer he took from him another; and so, he continued to fight for the third part of the day, until at last, his shield on one occasion being laden with twelve javelins, so that he could not easily lift it or repel his assailants, he held it planted firmly on the ground in front of him, and while dealing mortal blows with his right and parrying with his left he called aloud to the shield-bearer. And when the man brought him another shield, he quickly made exchange; but for a moment his side was exposed and he was struck by a javelin and killed on the spot. And some Romans impaled his head on a pike and bore it around, showing it to both armies.'

4. THE BYZANTINE SUPREMACY

After the fall of their king the Goths fought desperately for two days more, but they finally surrendered on the condition of either remaining in Italy as subjects of the Emperor or departing to lands beyond the limits of the Empire. Many recrossed the Alps and became merged in other Germanic tribes. A thousand, breaking away before the compact was signed, cut their way to Pavia, where they probably joined the Franks. A few scattered garrisons held out for a time. Theia's brother Aligern defended Cumae valiantly for more than a year, until the Romans, having 'scooped the Sibyl's cavern into a prodigious mine' (says Gibbon, citing Agathias), caused the collapse of the city's wall, and forced the besieged to surrender.33

But still more obstinate was the defence of Lucca. Indeed, it was still uncaptured when a new barbarian deluge swept over the whole face of Italy. Vast hordes of Franks and Alemanni, with some 75,000 fighting men, came pouring from the north, and spread themselves over all the peninsula, led by two Alemann brothers, Butelin (Buccelin) and Leutar (Lothair), apparently commissioned by the unwarlike, though powerful, Frank king, Theudebald, who preferred the security of his palace at Metz. After plundering Lucania, Campania, and Bruttium, Leutar rapidly withdrew northwards. His army was decimated by plague, of which he himself died. Butlein was attacked by Narses on the river Volturnus, in Calabria. He was slain and his army was defeated and dispersed; and before the end of 554 almost all trace of this strange inundation — which in its phenomenal inrush and outrush reminds one of the Cimmerian deluge in the days of King Gyges of Lydia (Susan note) — had disappeared, and although now and again we hear of the great Frank nation, massed like a huge thundercloud in the north and threatening to roll down on Italy, we may for the present forget its existence.

After the rout on the Volturnus and the disappearance of the barbarian invaders Narses entered Rome with his captives and booty. At Conza, in Campania, a fortified camp had hitherto been held by about 7000 Goths. These now surrender, and are sent as captives to Constantinople — probably to be enrolled in the imperial army — and with this event we may consider Byzantine supremacy to have been fully established in Italy. The fourteen years which intervene from the final overthrow of the Gothic domination to the coming of the Lombards in 568 offer little to the chronicler of wars and dramatic atrocities, and we know comparatively little of the real history of the Italian people during this period, except that by war and plague and famine they had been reduced to a state of great misery and destitution and that Byzantine rule, by its oppressive taxation, necessary for a large standing army and viceregal magnificence, made things perhaps even worse that they had been under the Goths. And this is saying much, for in spite of much that was admirable in the government of Theoderic and Totila there was little hope for the country while no true union of the dominant and the subject races was realized, and sincere as Theoderic's attempt undoubtedly was, such union was impossible, not only on account of the essential differences between the Roman and the Northern character and temperament (much greater than that between the natures of the Norman and of the Anglo-Saxon), but also because the Goths never became, so to speak, children of the Italian soil, but remained to the end a military caste — an army of fortune, as Villari well calls them.

In later chapters will be given some descriptions of the state of Italy during this epoch, and some remarks on Byzantine art-influences and on the legislation of Justinian, as far as it affected Italy. Here it will suffice to add a few words about Narses.

For about fourteen years after the death of Theia at the battle of Mount Vesuvius Narses was practically the military Dictator or Vice-Imperator of Italy. During the first half of this period he made Ravenna his chief residence; but he did not possess the title of Exarch, which was given to later governors of that city. His official titles were 'Patricius' and 'Magister militum.' His rule seems to have been exceedingly stern, and in spite of Justinian's famous Pragmatic Sanction (554), by which civil and ecclesiastical authority in Italy was nominally freed from military interference, the country was practically in a state of siege, the army tributes became insupportable, military officialism overrode municipal jurisdiction, great landowners of military rank oppressed the working classes, and prelates were imprisoned or sent for punishment to Constantinople on charges of insubordination against the civil government.34 Under such conditions it was no wonder that agriculture was abandoned, that public buildings fell to ruin, and that famine and pestilence stalked through the land'.

In 560 Narses removed to Rome and took up his quarters in the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine. About this time, it will be remembered, the Avars were alarming Justinian at Constantinople, and before he and Belisarius died in 565 there were other evidences of serious movements among the Northern nations. The Slavs as well as various Mongol and Tartar races were pushing westwards from Asia and disturbing those — such as the Lombards, of whom we have already heard — who had lately settled in Central and Northern Europe. On the death of Justinian his nephew, Justin II, proclaimed a policy of peace and military retrenchment; but his retrenchment of the subsidies promised to the Avars by his uncle caused him to realize the danger of such economies, and his perplexity was increased by the arrival of an embassy of Roman nobles, who informed him that rather than submit any longer to the despotic rule of Narses the Italians would ere long call upon the Goths or some other barbarians to save them. Justin's perplexity was perhaps not relieved by the remark of his imperial consort, Sophia — a remark which, if made, doubtless came to the ears of the Roman envoys and was repeated by them to Narses — that if she had her way she would soon teach the old eunuch that his proper occupations was spinning wool among the maids. "I will spin her a tangle that she will never unravel all her life,' is said to have been the answer of Narses when, together with the contemptuous words of the Empress, the envoys brought to him from Justin the order for his recall; and his indignation seems to have been increased by the nomination of an officer, Longinus, who was to supersede him as governor of Ravenna. He refused to accept the order of the Emperor, and in 567 he withdrew to Naples, preferring to risk the perils of disobedience rather than to undergo the humiliations in store for him at Constantinople.

The 'tangle' that Narses threatened to spin was perhaps the Lombard invasion of Italy — which took place the following year. Anyhow, the historian of the Lombards, Paul the Deacon, who tells us the story, adds that the veteran victor of the Goths was generally suspected of having been so overpowered by anger and indignation that he sent messengers35 inviting the Lombards to invade Italy, as Boniface had in earlier days invited the vandals to attack Africa and as Eudoxia perhaps invited Gaiseric to attack Rome. Like Boniface, it is said, Narses repented too late of his act. Yielding to the entreaties of Pope John III, who visited him at Naples, he is said to have returned to Rome, intending to organize resistance against the Lombard hordes, which were already preparing to pour southward over the Alps. But ere the storm burst he died, in the year 567 or 568 — unless indeed we prefer to believe some old authorities36 who assert that he lived in Rome for fix or six years after the Lombard invasion and died in the same year as Pope John, namely, 573.

The Author's Notes:

1 The highest Roman dignity possible below the imperial. The Emperor's father generally held it. Zeno decreed that none should hold it who had not already been consul, prefect, or magister militum. In later times Popes conferred the title of 'Patricius' on some of the German emperors and other princes.

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2 See p.16, and for Zeno see the list at p. 18.

3. Zeno's successor, Anastasius, nearly lost his throne, and his life, in one of the tumults caused by these religious questions — this time the question being whether 'one of the Persons of the Trinity had been crucified or not.' He was in hiding for three days and had to beg for his life, in the attitude of a suppliant and stripped of his insignia, before a raving mob of fanatics.

4 Zeno had been dethroned and expelled during 475‑77 by Basiliscus (brother of the dowager-Empress Verina, and commander of the ill-fated expedition against Gaiseric, for which see p. 112) and had been restored partly by the help of Theoderic, then a young man of twenty-three years, whom he adopted as his son, giving him the titles of Patrician and Consul.

5 The ancient German ballad Rabenschlacht, or Strit vor Rabene ('Raven-battle,' or 'Fight in front of Ravenna'), is founded on the memories of the bloody sallies made by Odovacar; but in the ballad the times of Attila and Odovacar are hopelessly confounded.

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6 Procopius (Bell. Goth. i, I) uses a Thucydidean expression (Susan note) in such curious context that it is not certain whether he wishes to tell us, as Gibbon believes, that 'the hostile kings consented to rule with equal authority the provinces of Italy.' This seems quite incredible.

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7 Anastasius was an old and respected 'domestic of the palace' — a [Greek- Susan note)] ('husher', silence-keeper) of the imperial chambers — on whom Zeno's widow, Ariadne (daughter of Leo I and Verina), conferred her hand and the imperial title. He reigned nearly twenty-eight years.

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8 He calls the Emperor the 'guardian [bulwark] of the universe,' and assures him that his own rule is only a 'humble imitation of the one great Empire.'

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9 Lilybaeum, the last Vandal possession in Sicily, was given over as dowry, and claimed later by the Goths.

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10 See Lineage of Theoderic, p. 172.

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11 Perhaps before he became Archbishop, which was possibly on his return in 526. He was the builder of S. Vitale. See p.203

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12 See p. 130. Gibbon makes Theodahad the son of Thrasamund and thus half a Vandal. Villari says he was the son of a Goth who married Amalafrida after Thrasamund's death. But Thrasamund died in 523, so that in this case Theodahad in 534 could only have been about ten years of age!

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13 Procopius says that it was instigated by the Empress Theodora, jealous of Amalasuntha's beauty!

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14 He first came into notice by suppressing the dangerous 'Nika' tumult, for which see Index. His name perhaps means 'White Prince' (Beli-tsar). Procopius was with him in Africa. Justinian had invented a casus belli against the Vandals by siding with the expelled king Hilderic, who had put to death Amalafrida, Theoderic's sister, and widow of the late king Thrasamund — an act that of course occasioned the fierce hostility of the Goths against the Vandals.

15 Procopius, whose sympathies were of course Byzantine, ignores this, evidently lest it should diminish the merits of Belisarius.

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16 Later imprisoned on an island near Constantinople by Justinian. See index.

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17 The Petra pertusa, now the Passo di Furlo (Lat. forulus), where a tunnel of about 110 feet pierces the rock in a narrow ravine. Vespasian had it made, as the ancient inscription over the north entrance tells us. In the vicinity is the river Metaurus, near which Hasdrubal was slain, and Urbino, Raffael's birthplace.

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18 The ancient S. Ambrogio was probably razed or burnt. A bit of the old doors (p. 60) is still shown. The present building is Romanesque and dates from about 900. The oldest church in Milan, S. Lorenzo, of Byzantine model and copied from S. Vitale (Ravenna), was built c. 560, twenty years after this disaster, during Byzantine supremacy.

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19 We shall find them reappearing a few years later (554) and sweeping in meteoric course through the whole length of the peninsula, down to Otranto — and again suddenly vanishing.

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20 Gibbon attributes it to machinations of Belisarius, and says that he also (like the Vandals — from whom he may have learnt it) employed both at Ravenna and at Osimo the odious method of poisoning the waters with drugs and dead bodies.

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21 Belisarius and Narses had not the title of Exarch, which appears first about 584. See Index.

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22 The character of Antonina, as painted by Procopius, in his Anecdota (p. 183) and copied in still more vivid colours by Gibbon, is, we may hope, much calumniated. She certainly was frivolous, and probably worse, but she also showed great courage, loyalty, and vigour in sharing her husband's fortunes in Italy. Theodora, too, behaved on several occasions with far more manly courage than did Justinian — who more than once wished to run away from Constantinople.

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23 So called on his coins. See Plate I, 21. Totila was perhaps a title or sobriquet ('Tod-los,' i.e. 'Deathless'!), but it may be better to retain its use.

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24 Justinian himself was attacked, but recovered.

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25 Later medieval writers accuse Totila of wholesale incendiarism and savage destruction of ancient monuments. Gregorovius and other German writers naturally extol his heroism and nobility. His government is praised even by the imperialistic Procopius himself. 'He did not molest the country-folk in any part of Italy, but encouraged them to work the land, merely paying him the dues that they formerly paid to the large landowners.' He appropriated only the wealth of these big landowners, and as the Church (says Villari) had become one of the chief latifondisti, it suffered accordingly.

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26 Post quam devastationem XL aut amplius dies Roma fuit ita desolata ut nemo ibi hominum nisi bestiae morarentur. (Marcell. Conte, or his continuer.) (Susan note Greek text) . . . .(Procopius)

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27 Antonina, who seems to have come to her senses and to have shared her husband's dangers in Italy, returned to Constantinople to beg for reinforcements, but found that the Empress Theodora had just died (July 548) and that Justinian was deaf to everything but religious questions, so she merely begged for the recall of Belisarius.

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28 See p. 103 n.

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29 As on the outbreak of the Nika tumult. See Index.

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30 This is told us by Paul the Deacon (740‑801), whose History of the Lombards is our chief authority for the next two centuries. The fine Gothic War of Procopius terminates with the death of Theia in 553; but there is a continuation of it by Agathias. See p. 182

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31 The compact seems to have involved the cession to the Franks of Pavia, together with the treasure which had been collected there by Vitiges and Totila after the town had recovered from its terrible sack by these same Franks in 538. See p. 142.

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32 This Winkelried episode is on the last page of the Gothic War.

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33 Others assert that Aligern, rather than submit to the Franks and Alemanni, escaped to Ravenna and took service in the imperial army.

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34 Written shortly before the German occupation of Belgium, There was at this time great friction between Justinian and the Roman prelates, the Emperor endeavouring to assert his supremacy as Head of the Church. He had even summoned Pope Vigilius to Constantinople, and, finding him recalcitrant, had treated him with violence and had imprisoned him for half a year on an island. The Pope died at Syracuse on his voyage to Italy in 555.

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35 He is said to have sent them specimens of South Italian fruit to tempt them, as Norman adventurers sent Spanish oranges and other fruit to their fellows in Normandy. (Susan note)

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36 I.e. the Roman Liber Pontificalis, a work evidently compiled by numerous writers. It is an important source of information concerning Church history, especially of the ninth century. Another work of the same name was compiled (c. 840) by Agnellus, a priest of Ravenna, who gives much valuable information, although he ingenuously admits that when he could discover no facts he was wont to depend on prayer to inspire his imagination aright in reconstructing the lives of long-departed pontiffs and prelates.