 41 Conquests of Justinian in the West Character and First Campaigns of Belisarius. He invades and subdues the Vandal Kingdom of Africa. The Gothic War. He recovers Sicily, Naples, and Rome. Siege of Rome by the Goths. Their retreat and losses. Surrender of Ravenna. Glory of Belisarius. His domestic shame and misfortunes. When Justinian ascended the throne about fifty years after the fall of the Western Empire, the kingdoms of the Goth and Vandals had obtained a solid and, as it might seem, a legal establishment both in Europe and Africa. The titles which Rome and victory had inscribed were erased with equal justice by the sword of the barbarians, and their successful rapine derived a more venerable sanction from time, from treaties, and from the oaths of fidelity already repeated by a second or third generation of obedient subjects. Experience and Christianity have refuted the superstitious hope that Rome was founded by the gods to reign forever over the nations of the earth. But the proud claim of perpetual and indifusible dominion, which her soldiers could no longer maintain, was firmly asserted by her statesmen and lawyers, whose opinions had been sometimes revived and propagated in the modern schools of jurisprudence. After Rome herself had been stripped of the imperial purple, the princes of Constantinople assumed the soul and sacred scepter of the monarchy, demanded, as the rightful inheritance, the provinces which had been subdued by the consuls or possessed by the Caesars, and feebly aspired to deliver their faithful subjects of the West from the usurpation of heretics and barbarians. The execution of this splendid design was in some degree reserved for a Justinian. During the first five years of his reign he reluctantly waged a costly and unprofitable war against the Persians, till his pride submitted to his ambition, and he purchased, at the price of £440,000 sterling, the benefit of a precarious truce, which, in the language of both nations, was dignified with the appellation of the endless peace. The safety of the East enabled the emperor to deploy his forces against the vandals, and the internal state of Africa afforded an honorable motive and promised a powerful support to the Roman arms. According to the testament of the founder, the African kingdom had linearly descended to Hilderic, the eldest of the vandal princes. A mild disposition inclined the son of a tyrant, the grandson of a conqueror, to prefer the councils of clemency and peace, and his accession was marked by the salutary edict which restored the two hundred bishops to their churches, and allowed the free profession of the Anastasian creed. Both the Catholics accepted with cold and transient gratitude a favour so inadequate to their pretensions, and the virtues of Hilderic offended the prejudices of his countrymen. The Aryan clergy presumed to insinuate that he had renounced the faith, and the soldiers more loudly complained that he had degenerated from the courage of his ancestors. His ambassadors were suspected of a secret and disgraceful negotiation in the Byzantine court, and his general, the Achilles, as he was named of the vandals, lost a battle against the naked and disorderly moors. The public discontent was exasperated by Gelimer, whose age, descent, and military fame gave him an apparent title to this secession. He assumed, with the consent of the nation, the reigns of government, and his unfortunate sovereign sunk without a struggle, from the throne to a dungeon, where he was strictly guarded with a faithful counselor, and his unpopular nephew, the Achilles of the Vandals. But the indulgence which Hilderic had shown to his Catholic subjects had powerfully recommended him to the favour of Justinian, who, for the benefit of his own sect, could acknowledge the use and justice of religious toleration. Their alliance, while the nephew of Justin remained in a private station, was cemented by the mutual exchange of gifts and letters, and the emperor Justinian asserted the cause of royalty and friendship. In two successive embassies he admonished the usurper to repent of his treason, or to abstain at least from any further violence, which might provoke the displeasure of God and of the Romans, to reverence the laws of kindred and secession, and to suffer an infirm old man peacefully to end his days, either on the throne of Carthage or in the palace of Constantinople. The passions, or even the prudence of Gelimer, compelled him to reject these requests, which were urged in the haughty tone of menace and command. And he justified his ambition in a language rarely spoken in the Byzantine court, by alleging the right of a free people to remove or punish their chief magistrate, who had failed in the execution of the kingly office. After this fruitless expossulation, the captive monarch was more rigorously preceded, his nephew was deprived of his eyes, and the cruel vandal, confident in his strength and distance, derided the vain threats and slow preparations of the emperor of the east. Justinian resolved to deliver or to avenge his friend, Gelimer to maintain his usurpation, and the war was preceded according to the practice of civilized nations, by the most solemn prostitations that each party was sincerely desirous of peace. The report of an African war was grateful only to the vain and idle populace of Constantinople, whose poverty exempted them from tribute, and whose cowardice was seldom exposed to military service. But the wiser citizens, who judged of the future by the past, revolved in their memory the immense loss both of men and money which the empire had sustained in the expedition of Basilicus. The troops, which, after five laborious campaigns, had been recalled from the Persian frontier, dreaded the sea, the climate, and the arms of an unknown enemy. The ministers of the finances computed, as far as they might compute, the demands of an African war, the taxes which must be found and levied to supply those insatiate demands, and the danger lest their own lives, or at least their lucrative employments, should be made responsible for the deficiency of the supply. Despite by such selfish motives, for we may not suspect him of any zeal for the public good, John of Cappadocia ventured to oppose, in full counsel, the inclinations of his master. He confessed that a victory of such importance could not be too dearly purchased, but he represented, in engraved discourse, the certain difficulties in the uncertain event. "'You undertake,' said the prefect, to besiege Carthage, by land, the distance is not less than one hundred and forty days' journey. On the sea, a whole year must elapse before you can receive any intelligence from your fleet. If Africa should be reduced, it cannot be preserved without the additional conquest of Sicily and Italy. Success will impose the obligation of new labors. A single misfortune will attract the barbarians into the heart of your exhausted empire.' Justinian felt the weight of his salutary advice. He was confounded by the unwanted freedom of an obsequious servant, and the design of the war would perhaps have been relinquished if his courage had not been revived by a voice, which silenced the doubts of profane reason. "'I have seen a vision,' cried an artful, or fanatic bishop of the east. "'It is the will of heaven, O emperor, that you should not abandon your holy enterprise for the deliverance of the African Church. The God of battles will march before your standard, and disperse your enemies who are the enemies of his son.' The emperor might be tempted, and his counselors were constrained, to give credit to this seasonable revelation, but they derived more rational hope from the revolt which the adherents of Hilderic or Athanasius had already excited on the borders of the Vandal monarchy. Pudentius, an African subject, had privately signified his loyal intentions, and a small military aid restored the province of Tripoli to the obedience of the Romans. The government of Sardinia had been entrusted to Godas. A valiant barbarian, he suspended the payment of tribute, disclaimed his allegiance to the usurper, and gave audience to the emissaries of Justinian, who found him master of that fruitful island, at the head of his guards, and proudly invested with the ensigns of royalty. The forces of the Vandals were diminished by discord and suspicion. The Roman armies were animated by the spirit of Belisarius, one of those heroic names which are familiar to every age and to every nation. The Africanus of New Rome was born, and perhaps educated, among the Thracian peasants, without any of those advantages, which had formed the virtues of the elder and younger Scipio. A noble origin, liberal studies, and the emulation of a free state. The silence of a loquacious secretary may be admitted to prove that the youth of Belisarius could not afford any subject of praise. He served, most assuredly with valor and reputation, among the private guards of Justinian, and when his patron became emperor, the domestic was promoted to military command. After a bold inroad into Persarmenia, in which his glory was shared by a colleague, and his progress was checked by an enemy, Belisarius repaired to the important station of Dara, where he first accepted the service of Procopius, the faithful companion and diligent historian of his exploits. The Miranese of Persia advanced with forty thousand of her best troops to raise the fortifications of Dara, and signified the day and the hour on which the citizens should prepare a bath for his refreshment after the toils of victory. He encountered an adversary equal to himself, by the new title of general of the east, his superior in the science of war, but much inferior in the number and quality of his troops, which amounted to only twenty-five thousand Romans and strangers, relaxed in their discipline, and humbled by recent disasters. As the level plain of Dara refused all shelter to stratagem and ambush, Belisarius protected his front with a deep trench, which was prolonged at first and perpendicular and afterwards in parallel lines, to cover the wings of cavalry advantageously posted to command the flanks and rear of the enemy. When the Roman center was shaken, their well-timed and rapid charge decided the conflict. The standard of Persia fell, the immortals fled. The infantry threw away their bucklers, and eight thousand of the vanquished were left on the field of battle. In the next campaign, Syria was invaded on the side of the desert, and Belisarius, with twenty thousand men, hastened from Dara to the relief of the province. During the whole summer, the designs of the enemy were baffled by his skillful dispositions. He pressed their retreat, occupied each night their camp of the preceding day, and would have secured a bloodless victory if he could have resisted the impatience of his own troops. Their valiant promise was faintly supported in the hour of battle. The right wing was exposed by the treacherous or cowardly desertion of the Christian Arabs. The Huns, a veteran band of eight thousand warriors, were oppressed by superior numbers. The flight of the Asorians was intercepted, but the Roman infantry stood firm on the left, for Belisarius himself, dismounting from his horse, showed them that intrepid despair was their only safety. They turned their backs to the Euphrates, and their faces to the enemies. Innumerable arrows glanced without effect from the compact and surviving order of their bucklers. An impenetrable line of pikes was opposed to the repeated assaults of the Persian cavalry. And after resistance in many hours, the remaining troops were skillfully embarked under the shadow of the night. The Persian commander retired with disorder and disgrace to answer a strict account of the lives of so many soldiers, which he had consumed in a barren victory. But the fame of Belisarius was not sullied by a defeat in which he alone had saved his army from the consequences of their own rashness. The approach of peace relieved him from the guard of the eastern frontier, and his conduct in the sedition of Constantinople amply discharged his obligations to the emperor. When the African War became the topic of popular discourse and secret deliberation, each of the Roman generals was apprehensive, rather than ambitious, of the dangerous honor. But as soon as Justinian had declared his preference of superior merit, their envy was rekindled by the unanimous applause which was given to the choice of Belisarius. The temper of the Byzantine court may encourage a suspicion that the hero was darkly assisted by the intrigues of his wife, the fair and subtle Antonina, who alternately enjoyed the confidence and incurred the hatred of the Empress Theodora. The birth of Antonina was ignoble. She descended from a family of charioteers, and her chastity has been stained by the foulest reproach. Yet she reigned with long and absolute power over the mind of her illustrious husband. And if Antonina disdained the merit of conjugal fidelity, she expressed a manly friendship to Belisarius, whom she accompanied with undaunted resolution and all the hardships and dangers of a military life. The preparations of the African War were not unworthy of the last contest between Rome and Carthage. The pride and flower of the army consisted of the guards of Belisarius, who, according to the pernicious indulgence of the times, devoted themselves by a particular oath of fidelity to the service of their patrons, their strength and stature, for which they had been curiously selected, the goodness of their horses and armor, and the assiduous practice of all the exercises of war, enabled them to act whenever their courage might prompt, and their courage was exalted by the social honor of their rank, and the personal ambition of favor and fortune. Four hundred of the bravest of the Heruli marched under the banner of the faithful and active forests. Their intractable valor was more highly prized than the tame submission of the Greeks and Syrians, and of such importance was a deem to procure a reinforcement of six hundred Masugetai, or Huns, that they were allured by fraud and deceit to engage in a naval expedition. Five thousand horse and ten thousand foot were embarked at Constantinople for the conquest of Africa, but the infantry, for the most part levied in Thrace and Isoria, yielded to the more prevailing use and reputation of the cavalry, and the Skidian bull was the weapon on which the armies of Rome were now reduced to place their principal dependents. From a laudable desire to assert the dignity of his theme, Procopius defends the soldiers of his own time against the morose critics, who confine that respectable name to the heavily armed warriors of antiquity, and maliciously observed that the word archer is introduced by Homer as a term of contempt. Such contempt might perhaps be due to the naked youths, who appeared on foot in the fields of Troy, and lurking behind a tombstone, or a shield of a friend, drew the bowstring to their breast, and dismissed a feeble and lifeless arrow. But our archers, pursues the historian, are mounted on horses, which they manage with admirable skill. Their head and shoulders are protected by a cask or buckler. They wear greaves of iron on their legs, and their bodies are guarded by a coat of mail. On their right side hangs a quiver, a sword on their left, and their hand is accustomed to wield a lance or javelin in closer combat. Their bows are strong and weighty. They shoot in every possible direction, advancing, retreating to the front, to the rear, or to either flank, and as they are taught to draw the bowstring, not to their breast but to the right ear, firm indeed must be the armor that can exist the rapid violence of their shaft. Five hundred transports, navigated by twenty thousand mariners of Egypt, Cilicia and Ionia, were collected in the harbor of Constantinople. The smallest of these vessels may be computed at thirty, the largest at five hundred tons. In the fair average will supply an allowance, liberal but not profuse, of about one hundred thousand tons, for the reception of thirty five thousand soldiers and sailors, of five thousand horses, of arms, engines, and military stores, and of a sufficient stock of water and provisions for a voyage perhaps of three months. The proud galleys, which in former ages swept the Mediterranean with so many hundred ores had long since disappeared, and the fleet of Justinian was escorted, only by ninety two light brigantines, covered from the missile weapons of the enemy, and rowed by two thousand of the brave and robust youth of Constantinople. Twenty two generals are named, most of whom were afterwards distinguished in the wars of Africa and Italy, but the supreme command, both by land and sea, was delegated to Belisarius alone, with the boundless power of acting according to his discretion, as if the emperor himself were present. The separation of the naval and military professions is at once the effect and cause of the modern improvements in the science of navigation, and maritime war. In the seventh year of the reign of Justinian, and about the time of the summer solstice, the whole fleet of six hundred ships was ranged in martial pomp before the gardens of the palace. The patriarch pronounced his benediction. The emperor signified his last commands. The general's trumpet gave the signal of departure, and every heart, according to its fears or wishes, explored with anxious curiosity the omens of misfortune and success. The first halt was made at Parenthus, or Heraclea, where Belisarius waited five days to receive some Thracian horses, a military gift of his sovereign. From thence, the fleet pursued their course through the mists of the propontus, but as they struggled to pass the Straits of the Hellespot, an unfavorable wind detained them four days at Apetus, where the general exhibited a memorable lesson of firmness and severity. Two of the Huns, who, in a drunken quarrel, had slain one of their fellow soldiers, were instantly shown to the army suspended on a lofty gibbet. The national indignity was presented by their countrymen, who disclaimed the servile laws of the empire, and asserted the free privilege of Skidia, where a small fine was allowed to expiate the hasty sallies of intemperance and anger. Their complaints were specious, their clamors were loud, and the Romans were not adverse to the example of disorder and impunity. But the rising sedition was appeased by the authority and eloquence of the general, and he represented the assembled troops the obligation of justice, the importance of discipline, the rewards of piety and virtue, and the unpardonable guilt of murder, which, in his apprehension, was aggravated rather than excused by the vice of intoxication. In the navigation from the helispot to Peloponnesus, which the Greeks after the siege of Troy had performed in four days, the fleet of Belisarius was guided in their course by his master galley, conspicuous in the day by the redness of the sails, and in the night by the torches blazing from the mast head. It was the duty of the pilots as they steered between the islands and turned the capes and Malaya and Tenerium to preserve the just order and regular intervals of such a multitude of ships. As the wind was fair and moderate, their labors were not unsuccessful, and the troops were safely disembarked and methoni on the Messinian coast to repose themselves for a while after the fatigues of the sea. In this place, they experienced how avarice, invested with authority, might sport with the lives of thousands which are bravely exposed for the public service. According to the military practice, the bread or biscuit of the Romans was twice prepared in the oven, and the diminution of one fourth was cheerfully allowed for the loss of weight. To gain this miserable profit and to save the expense of wood, the prefect, John of Cappadocia, had given orders that the flour should be slightly baked by the same flour which had warmed the baths of Constantinople, and when the sacks were opened, a soft and moldy paste was distributed to the army. Such unwholesome food, assisted by the heat of the climate and season, soon produced an epidemical disease which swept away 500 soldiers. Their health was restored by the diligence of Bellisarius, who provided fresh bread at methoni, and boldly expressed his just and humane indignation. The emperor heard his complaint. The general was praised, but the minister was not punished. From the port in methoni, the pilot steered along the western coast of Peloponnesus, as far as the isle of Zaccintus, or Zante, before they undertook the voyage, in their eyes a most arduous voyage, of 100 leagues over the Ionian Sea. As the fleet was surprised by calm, 16 days were consumed in the slow navigation, and even the general would have suffered the intolerable hardship of thirst if the ingenuity of Antonina had not preserved the water and glass bottles, which she buried deep in the sand, in a part of the ship impervious to the rays of the sun. At length, the harbor of Calcona, on the southern side of Sicily, afforded a secure and hospitable shelter. The gothic officers, who govern the island in the name of the daughter and grandson of Theodoric, obeyed their imprudent orders to receive the troops of Justinian like friends and allies. Provisions were liberally supplied, the cavalry was remounted, and Procopius soon returned from Syracuse with correct information of the state and designs of the vandals. His intelligence determined Belisarius to hasten his operations, and his wise impatience was seconded by the winds. The fleet lost sight of Sicily, passed before the isle of Malta, discovered the capes of Africa, ran along the coast with a strong gale from the northeast, and finally cast anchor at the promontory of Caput Vada, about five days' journey to the south of Carthage. If Gelimer had been informed of their approach of the enemy, he must have delayed the conquest of Sardinia by the immediate defense of his person and kingdom. A detachment of 5,000 soldiers and 120 galleys would have joined the remaining forces of the vandals, and the descendant of Gensurek might have surprised and oppressed a fleet of de-played in transports incapable of action, and of light brigantines that seemed only qualified for flight. Belisarius had secretly trembled when he overheard his soldiers in the passage emboldening each other to confess their apprehensions. If they were once on shore, they hoped to maintain the honor of their arms, but if they should be attacked at sea, they did not blush to acknowledge that they wanted courage to contend at the same time with the wind, the waves, and the barbarians. The knowledge of their sentiments decided Belisarius to seize the first opportunity of landing them on the coast of Africa, and he prudently rejected, in a council of war, the proposal of sailing with the fleet and army into the port of Carthage. Three months after the departure from Constantinople, the men's and horses, the arms and military stores were safely disembarked, and five soldiers were left as a guard on board of each of the ships, which were disposed in the form of a semi-circle. The remainder of the troops occupied a camp on the seashore, which they fortified, according to ancient discipline, with a ditch and rampart, and the discovery of a source of fresh water, while it allayed the thirst, excited the superstitious confidence of the Romans. The next morning, some of the neighboring gardens were pillaged, and Belisarius, after chastising the offenders, embraced the slight occasion, but the decisive moment had been calcating the maximus of justice, moderation, and genuine policy. When I first accepted the commission of subduing Africa, I depended much less, said the general, on the numbers, or even the bravery of my troops, than upon the friendly disposition of the natives, and their immortal hatred of the vandals. You alone can deprive me of this hope. If you continue to extort by rapine, which might be purchased for a little money, such acts of violence will reconcile these implacable enemies, and unite them in a just and holy league against the invaders of their country. These exhortations were enforced by rigid discipline, of which the soldiers themselves soon felt and praised the salutary effects. The inhabitants, instead of deserting their houses or hiding their corn, supplied the Romans with a fair and liberal market. The civil officers of the province continued to exercise their functions in the name of Justinian. In the clergy, promotives of conscience and interest assiduously labored to promote the cause of a Catholic emperor. The small town of Sulekte, one day's journey from the camp, had the honor of being foremost to open her gates and to resume her ancient allegiance. The larger cities of Leptis and Adrumetum imitated the example of loyalty as soon as Belisarius appeared, and he advanced without opposition as far as Grasse, a palace of the Vandal kings at a distance of 50 miles from Carthage. The weary Romans indulged themselves in the refreshment of shady groves, cool fountains, and delicious fruits, and the preference which Procopius allows to these gardens over any that he had seen, either in the east or west, may be ascribed either to the taste or the fatigue of the historian. In three generations, prosperity and a warm climate had dissolved the hearty virtue of the Vandals, who insensibly became the most luxurious of mankind. In their villas and gardens, which might deserve the Persian name of Paradise, they enjoyed a cool and elegant repose, and after the daily use of the bath, the barbarians receded at a table profusely spread with the delicacies of the land and sea. Their silken robes, loosely flowing after the fashion of the Meads, were embroidered with gold. Love and hunting were the labors of their life, and their vacant hours were amused by pantomines, chariot races, and the music and dances of the theater. In a march of 10 or 12 days, the diligence of Belisarius was constantly awake and active against his unseen enemies, by whom in every place and at every hour he might be suddenly attacked. An officer of confidence and merit, John the Armenian, led the vanguard of 300 horse, 600 massaghettai covered, at a certain distance, the left flank, and the whole fleet, steering along the coast, seldom lost sight of the army, which moved every day about 12 miles, and lodged in the evening in strong camps or in friendly towns. The near approach of the Romans to Carthage filled the mind of Gelimer with anxiety and terror. He prudently wished to protract the war till his brother, with his veteran troops, should return from the conquest of Sardinia. And he now lamented the rash policy of his ancestors, who, by destroying the fortifications of Africa, had left him only the dangerous resource of risking a battle in the neighborhood of his capital. The vandal conquerors from their original number of 50,000 were multiplied without including their women and children to 160,000 fighting men. In such forces, animated with valor and union, might have crushed at their first landing the feeble and exhausted bands of the Roman general. But the friends of the captive king were more inclined to accept the invitations than to resist the progress in Belisarius, and many a proud barbarian disguised his adversion to war under the more specious name of his hatred to the usurper. Yet the authority and promises of Gelimer collected a formidable army, and his plans were concerted with some degree of military skill. An order was dispatched to his brother, Amatis, to collect all the forces of Carthage and to encounter the van of the Roman army at the distance of ten miles from the city. His nephew, Gibamund, with 2,000 horse, was destined to attack their left. When the monarch himself, who silently followed, should charge their rear in a situation which excluded them from the aid, or even the view of their fleet. But the rashness of Amatis was fatal to himself and his country. He anticipated the hour of the attack. Outstripped his tardy followers, and was pierced with a mortal wound after he had slain with his own hand twelve of his boldest antagonists. His vandals fled to Carthage. The highway, almost ten miles, was strewed with dead bodies, and it seemed incredible that such multitudes could be slaughtered by the swords of three hundred Romans. The nephew of Gelimer was defeated, after a slight combat, by the six hundred Messigetai. They did not equal the third part of his numbers, but each skilion was fired by the example of his chief, who gloriously exercised the privilege of his family by riding foremost and alone to shoot the first arrow against the enemy. In the meanwhile, Gelimer himself, ignorant of the event, and misguided by the windings of the hills, inadvertently passed the Roman army, and reached the scene of action where Amatis had fallen. He wept the fate of his brother, and of Carthage, charged with irresistible fury the advancing squadrons, and might have pursued, and perhaps decided the victory, if he had not wasted those inestimable moments in the discharge of a vein, the opious duty to the dead. While his spirit was broken by this mournful office, he heard the trumpet of Belisarius, who, leaving Antonina and his infantry in the camp, pressed forward with his guards and the remainder of the cavalry to rally his flying troops and to restore the fortune of the day. Which room could not be found in this disorderly battle for the talents of a general, but the king fled before the hero? In the vandals, accustomed only to a Moorish enemy, were incapable ofwithstanding the arms and discipline of the Romans. Gelimer retired with hasty steps toward the desert of Numidia, but he had soon the consolation of learning that his private orders for the execution of Hilderic and his captive friends had been faithfully obeyed. The tyrant's revenge was useful only to his enemies. The death of a lawful prince excited the compassion of his people. His life might have perplexed the victorious Romans and the lieutenant of Justinian, by a crime of which he was innocent, was relieved from the painful alternative of forfeiting his honor or relinquishing his conquests. End of Chapter 41 Part 1 Chapter 41 Part 2 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 4. As soon as the tumult had subsided, the several parts of the army informed each other of the accidents of the day, when Belisarius pitched his camp on the field of victory, to which the tenth milestone from Carthage had applied the Latin appellation of Decimus. From a wise suspicion of the stratagems and resources of the vandals, he marched the next day in order of battle, halted in the evening before the gates of Carthage, and allowed a night of repose, that he might not in darkness and disorder expose the city to the license of the soldiers, or the soldiers themselves to the secret ambush of the city. But as the fears of Belisarius were the result of calm and intrepid reason, he was soon satisfied that he might confide, without danger, in the peaceful and friendly aspect of the capital. Carthage blazed, with innumerable torches, the signals of the public joy. The chain was removed that guarded the entrance of the port, the gates were thrown open, and the people with acclamations of gratitude hailed and invited their Roman deliverers. The defeat of the vandals and the freedom of Africa were announced to the city on the eve of St. Cyprian, when the churches were already adorned and illuminated for the festival of the martyr, whom three centuries of superstition had almost raised to a local deity. The Aryans, conscious that the rain had expired, resigned the temple to the Catholics, who rescued their saint from profane hands, performed the holy rites, and loudly proclaimed the Creed of Athanasius and Justinian. One awful hour reversed the fortunes of the contending parties. The suppley and vandals, who had so lately indulged the vices of conquerors, salt and humble refuge in the sanctuary of the church. While the merchants of the east were delivered from the deepest dungeon of the palace by their affrighted keeper, who implored the protection of his captives, and showed them, through an aperture in the wall, the sales of the Roman fleet. After their separation from the army, the naval commanders had proceeded with slow caution along the coast till they reached the Hermaean Promontory and obtained the first intelligence of the victory of Belisarius. Faithful to his instructions, they would have cast anchor about twenty miles from Carthage if the more skillful seamen had not represented the perils of the shore and the signs of an impending tempest. Still ignorant of the revolution, they declined, however, the rash attempt of forcing the chain in the port, and the adjacent harbor and suburb of Mindrachium were insulted only by the rapine of a private officer who disobeyed and deserted his leaders. But the imperial fleet, advancing with a fair wind, steered through the narrow entrance of the Goleta and occupied in the deep and capacious lake of Tunis, a secure station about five miles from the capital. No sooner was Belisarius informed of their arrival than he dispatched orders that the greatest part of the mariners should be immediately landed and to join the triumph and to swell the apparent numbers of the Romans. Before he allowed them to enter the gates of Carthage, he exhorted them, in a discourse worthy of himself and the occasion, not to disgrace the glory of their arms and to remember that the vandals had been the tyrants, but that they were the deliverers of the Africans, who must now be respected as the voluntary and affectionate subjects of their common sovereign. The Romans marched through the streets in closed ranks, prepared for battle if an enemy had appeared. The strict order maintained by the general imprinted on their minds the duty of obedience, and in an age in which custom and impunity almost sanctified the abuse of conquest, the genius of one man repressed the passions of a victorious army. The voice of menace and complaint was silent. The trade of Carthage was not interrupted. While Africa changed her master and her government, the shops continued open and busy, and the soldiers, after sufficient guards had been posted, modestly departed to the houses which were allotted for their reception. Belisarius fixed his residence in the palace and seated himself on the throne of Gensurek, accepted and distributed the barbaric spoil, granted their lives to the suppliant vandals, and labored to repair the damage which the suburb of Mandrakeum had sustained in the preceding night. At supper he entertained his principal officers with the form and magnificence of a royal banquet. The victor was respectfully served by the captive officers of the household, and in the moments of festivity, when the impartial spectators applauded the fortune and merit of Belisarius, his envious flatterers secretly shed their venom on every word and gesture which might alarm the suspicions of a jealous monarch. One day it was given to these pompous scenes, which may not be despised as useless if they attracted the popular veneration. But the act of mind of Belisarius, which, in the pride of victory, could suppose a defeat, had already resolved that the Roman Empire in Africa should not depend on the chances of arms or the favor of the people. The fortifications of Carthage had alone been exempted from the general prescription, but in the reign of ninety-five years they were suffered to decay by the thoughtless and indolent vandals. A wise conqueror restored, with incredible dispatch, the walls and ditches of the city. His liberality encouraged the workmen, the soldiers, the mariners, and the citizens vied with each other in the salutary labor, and Gellamer, who had feared to trust his person in an open town, beheld with astonishment and despair the rising strength of an impregnable fortress. That unfortunate monarch, after the loss of his capital, applied himself to collect the remains of an army scattered rather than destroyed by the preceding battle, and the hopes of pillage attracted some Moorish bands to the standard of Gellamer. He encamped in the fields of Bula, five days' distance from Carthage, insulted the capital, which he deprived of the use of an aqueduct, proposed a high reward for the head of every Roman, affected to spare the persons and property of his African subjects, and secretly negotiated with the Aryan sectaries and the Confederate Huns. Under these circumstances, the conquest of Sardinia served only to aggravate his distress. He reflected with the deepest anguish that he had wasted in that useless enterprise five thousand of his bravest troops, and he read, with grief and shame, the victorious letters of his brother Zano, who expressed a sanguine confidence that the king, after the example of their ancestors, had already chastised the rashness of the Roman invader. Alas, my brother, replied Gellamer, heaven has declared against our unhappy nation, while you have subdued Sardinia, we have lost Africa. No sooner did Bellisarius appear, with a handful of soldiers, than courage and prosperity deserted the cause of the vandals. Your nephew, Gibomond, your brother Amethus, had been betrayed to death by the cowardice of their followers. Our horses, our ships, Carthage itself and all Africa, are in the power of the enemy. Yet the vandals still prefer an ignominious repose, at the expense of their wives and children, their wealth and liberty. Nothing now remains except the field of Bula, and the hope of your valor. Abandoned Sardinia, fly to our relief, restore our empire or perish by our side. At the receipt of this epistle, Zeno imparted his grief to the principal vandals, but the intelligence was prudently concealed from the natives of the island. The troops embarked in 120 galleys at the port of Cagliari, cast anchor the third day on the coffines of Maritania, and hastily pursued their march to join the royal standards in the camp of Bula. Warnful was the interview, the two brothers embraced, they wept in silence. No questions were asked of the Sardinian victory. No inquiries were made of the African misfortunes. They saw before their eyes the whole extent of their calamities, and the absence of their wives and children afforded a melancholy proof that either death or captivity had been their lot. The languid spirit of the vandals was at length awakened and united by the entreaties of their king, the example of Zeno, and the instant danger which threatened their monarchy and religion. The military strength of the nation advanced to battle, and such was the rapid increase that, before their army reached Trichameron, about twenty miles from Carthage, they might boast, perhaps with some exaggeration, that they surpassed in a tenfold proportion the diminutive power of the Romans. But these powers were under the command of Belisarius, and as he was conscious of their superior merit he permitted the barbarians to surprise him at an unseasonable hour. The Romans were instantly under arms, a rivulet covered their front, a cavalry formed the first line, which Belisarius supported in the center at the head of five hundred guards, the infantry, at some distance was posted in the second line, and the vigilance of the general watched the separate station and ambiguous faith of the Massa Ghetai, who secretly reserved their aid for the conquerors. The historian has inserted, and the reader might easily supply, the speeches of the commanders, who, by arguments, the most apposite of their situation, inculcated the importance of victory and contempt of life. Zano, with the troops which had followed him to the conquest of Sardinia, was placed in the center, and the throne of Gensaric might have stood, if the multitude of vandals had imitated their intrepid resolution. Casting away their lances and missile weapons, they drew their swords and expected the charge. The Roman cavalry thrice past the rivulet, they were thriced repulsed, and the conflict was firmly maintained till Zano fell, and the standard of Belisarius was displayed. Gelimer retreated to his camp, the Huns joined the pursuit, and the victors despoiled the bodies of the slain. Yet no more than fifty Romans and eight hundred vandals were found on the field of battle, so inconsiderable was the carnage of the day which extinguished a nation and transferred the empire of Africa. In the evening Belisarius led his infantry to the attack of the camp, and the pusillanimous flight of Gelimer exposed the vanity of his recent declarations, that to the vanquish death was a relief, life a burden, and infamy the only object of terror. His departure was secret, but as soon as the vandals discovered that their king had deserted them, they hastily dispersed, anxious only for their personal safety, and careless of every object that is dear or valuable to mankind. The Romans entered the camp without resistance, and the wildest scenes of disorder were veiled in the darkness and confusion of the night. Every barbarian who met their swords was inhumanly massacred, their widows and daughters, as rich heirs, or beautiful concubines, were embraced by the licentious soldiers. An avarice itself was almost satiated with the treasures of gold and silver, the accumulated fruits of conquest or economy, and a long period of prosperity and peace. In this frantic station the troops, even of Belisarius, forgot their caution and respect. Intoxicated with lust and rapine, in small parties or alone, the adjacent fields, the woods, the rocks, and the caverns which might possibly conceal any desirable prize laden with booty, they deserted their ranks and wandered without a guide on the high road to Carthage, and if the flying enemies had dared to return, very few of the conquerors would have escaped. Deeply sensible of the disgrace and danger, Belisarius passed an apprehensive night on the field of victory. At the dawn of day he planted his standard on a hill, recalled his guards and veterans, and gradually restored the modesty and obedience of the camp. It was equally the concern of the Roman general to subdue the hostile and to save the prostate barbarian. And the supple and vandals, who could be found only in churches, were protected by his authority, disarmed and separately confined, that they might neither disturb the public peace nor become the victims of popular revenge. After dispatching a light detachment to tread the footsteps of Gelmer, he advanced with his whole army, about ten days march, as far as Hippo Regius, which no longer possessed the relics of St. Augustine. The season and the certain intelligence that the vandals had fled to the inaccessible country of the Moors, determined Belisarius to relinquish the vain pursuit, and to fix his winter quarters at Carthage. From thence he dispatched his principal lieutenant to inform the emperor that in the space of three months he had achieved the conquest of Africa. Belisarius spoke the language of truth. The surviving vandals yielded, without resistance, their arms and their freedom. The neighborhood of Carthage submitted to his presence, and the more distant provinces were successively subdued by the report of his victory. Tripoli was confirmed in her voluntary allegiance. Sardinia and Corsica surrendered to an officer who carried instead of a sword, the head of the valiant Zano. In the isles of Mallorca, Menorca and Yivica, consented to remain an humble appendage of the African kingdom. Caesarea, a royal city which in lucid geography may be confounded with the modern Algiers, was situate thirty days march to the westward of Carthage. By land, the road was infested by Moors, but the sea was open, and the Romans were now masters of the sea. An active and discreet tribune sailed as far as the Straits, where he occupied Septum, or Catua, which rises opposite to Gibraltar on the African coast. That remote place was afterwards adorned and fortified by Justinian, and he seems to have indulged the vain ambition of extending his empire to the columns of Hercules. He received the messengers of victory at the time when he was preparing to publish the pandex of the Roman law, and the devout or jealous emperor celebrated the divine goodness and confessed in silence the merit of his successful general. Impatient to abolish the temporal and spiritual tyranny of the vandals, he proceeded without delay to the full establishment of the Catholic Church. Her jurisdiction, wealth, and immunities, perhaps the most essential part of Episcopal religion, were restored and amplified with a liberal hand. The Aryan worship was suppressed, the Donatus meetings were proscribed, and the Synod of Carthage, by the voice of 217 bishops, applauded the just measure of pious retaliation. On such an occasion, it may not be presumed that many Orthodox proletes were absent, but the comparative smallness of their number, which in ancient councils had been twice, or even thrice multiplied, most clearly indicates the decay both of the church and state. He entertained an ambitious hope that his victorious lieutenant would speedily enlarge the narrow limits of his dominion to the space which they occupied before the invasion of the Moors and Vandals, and Belisarius was instructed to establish five dukes, or commanders, in the convenient stations of Tripoli, Leptus, Kyrta, Caesarea, and Sardinia, and to compute the military force of Pelotines, or borderers, that might be sufficient for the defense of Africa. The kingdom of the vandals was not unworthy of the presence of a Praetorian prefect. And four counselors, three presidents, were appointed to administer the seven provinces under his civil jurisdiction. The number of their subordinate officers, clerks, messengers, or assistants, was minutely expressed. 396 for the prefect himself, 50 for each of his vice regents, and the rigid definition of their fees and salaries was more effectual to confirm the right than to prevent the abuse. These magistrates might be oppressive, but they were not idle, and the subtle questions of justice and revenue were infinitely propagated under the new government, which professed to revive the freedom and equity of the Roman Republic. The conqueror was solicitous to extract a prompt and plentiful supply from his African subjects, and he allowed them to claim, even in the third degree, and from the collateral line, the houses and lands of which their families had been unjustly despoiled by the vandals. After the departure of Belisarius, who acted by a high and special commission, no ordinary provision was made for a master general of the forces. But the office of Praetorian prefect was entrusted to a soldier. The civil and military powers were united, according to the practice of Justinian and the chief governor, and the representative of the emperor in Africa, as well as in Italy, was soon distinguished by the appellation of Exarch. Yet the conquest of Africa was imperfect till her former sovereign was delivered, either dead or alive, into the hands of the Romans. Doubtful of the event, Gelimer had given secret orders that a part of his treasure should be transported to Spain, where he hoped to find a secure refuge at the court of the king of the Visigoths. But these intentions were disappointed by accident, treachery, and the indefatigable pursuit of his enemies, who intercepted his flight from the seashore, and chased the unfortunate monarch with some faithful followers to the inaccessible mountain of Papua, and the inland country of Numidia. He was immediately besieged by Pharis, an officer whose truth and sobriety were the more applauded, as such qualities could seldom be found among the Heruli, the most corrupt of the barbarian tribes. To his vigilance Belisarius had entrusted this important charge, and after a bold attempt to scale the mountain, in which he lost 110 soldiers, Pharis expected, during a winter siege, the operation of distress and famine on the mind of the vandal king. From the softest habits of pleasure, from the unbounded command of industry and wealth, he was reduced to share the poverty of the Moors, supportable to themselves only by the ignorance of a happier condition, in their rude hovels of mud and hurdles, which confined the smoke and excluded the light, they promiscuously slept on the ground, perhaps on a sheepskin, with their wives, their children, and their cattle. Sored and scanty were their garments, the use of bread and wine was unknown, and their otin, or barley cakes, imperfectly baked in the ashes, were devoured almost in a crude state by the hungry savages. The health of Gelimer must have sunk under these strange and unwanted hardships, from whatsoever cause they had been endured, but his actual misery was embittered by the recollections of past greatness, the daily insolence of his protectors, and the just apprehension that the light and venal Moors might be tempted to betray the rites of hospitality. The knowledge of his situation dictated the humane and friendly epistle of Pharis. Like yourself, said the chief of the Herulae, I am a no literate barbarian, but I speak the language of plain sense and an honest heart. Why will you persist in hopeless obstinacy? Why will you ruin yourself, your family and nation, the love of freedom and abhorrence of slavery? Alas, my dear Gelimer, are you not already the worst of slaves, the slaves of the vile nation of the Moors? Would it not be preferable to sustain at Constantinople a life of poverty and servitude, rather than to reign the undownded monarch of the mountain of Papua? Do you think it is a disgrace to be the subject of Justinian? Belisarius is his subject, and we ourselves, whose birth is not inferior to your own, are not ashamed of our obedience to the Roman emperor. That generous prince will grant you a rich inheritance of lands, a place in the senate and the dignity of patrician. Such are his gracious intentions, and you may depend with full assurance on the word of Belisarius. As long as heaven has condemned us to suffer, patience is a virtue, but if we reject the pro-offered deliverance, it degenerates into a blind and stupid despair. I am not insensible, replied the king of the vandals. How kind and rational is your advice, but I cannot persuade myself to become the slave of an unjust enemy, who has deserved my implacable hatred. Him I had never injured, either by word or deed, yet he has sent against me. I know not from when, a certain Belisarius, who has cast me headlong from the throne into this abyss of mystery. Justinian is a man. He is a prince. Does he not dread for himself a similar reverse of fortune? I can write no more. My grief oppresses me. Send me, I beseech you, my dear pharise. Send me a liar, a sponge, and a loaf of bread. From the vandal messenger, pharise was informed of the motives of this singular request. It was long since the king of Africa had tasted bread. A deflexion had fallen on his eyes, the effect of fatigue or incessant weeping, and he wished to salis the melancholy hours by singing to the liar the sad story of his own sad misfortunes. The humanity of pharise was moved. He set the three extraordinary gifts. But even his humanity prompted him to redouble the vigilance of his guard, that he might sooner compel his prisoner to embrace a resolution advantageous to the Romans, but salutary to himself. The obscenity of Gelimer, at length, yielded to reason and necessity. The solemn assurances of safety and honorable treatment were ratified in the emperor's name by the ambassador of Belisarius, and the king of the vandals descended from the mountain. The first public interview was in one of the suburbs of Carthage, and when the royal captive accosted his conqueror, he burst into a fit of laughter. The crowd might naturally believe that extreme grief had deprived Gelimer of his senses. But in this mournful state, unseasonable mirth insinuated to more intelligent observers, that the rain and transient senses of human greatness are unworthy of a serious thought. Their contempt was soon justified by a new example of a vulgar truth, that flattery adheres to power and envy to superior merit. The chiefs of the Roman army presumed to think themselves the rivals of a hero. Their private dispatches maliciously affirmed that the conqueror of Africa, strong in his reputation and the public love, conspired to see himself on the throne of the vandals. Justinia listened with two patient in ear, and a silence was the result of jealousy rather than of confidence. An honorable alternative of remaining in the province or of returning to the capital was indeed submitted to the discretion of Belisarius. But he wisely concluded, from intercepted letters and the knowledge of his sovereign's temper, that he must either resign his head, erect his standard, or confound his enemies by his presence and submission. Innocence and courage decided his choice. His guards, captives, and treasures were diligently embarked. And so prosperous was the navigation that his arrival at Constantinople preceded any certain account of his departure from the port of Carthage. Such unsuspecting loyalty removed the apprehensions of Justinian. Envy was silenced and inflamed by the public gratitude. And the third Africanus obtained the honors of a triumph, a ceremony which the city of Constantine had never seen, in which ancient Rome, since the reign of Tiberius, had reserved for the auspicious arms of the Caesars. From the palace of Belisarius, to the procession was conducted through the principal streets to the hippodrome, and this memorable day seemed to avenge the injuries of Gensaric and to expiate the shame of the Romans. The wealth of nations was displayed, the trophies a marshal or a feminine luxury, rich armor, golden thrones, and the chariots of state, which had been used by the vandal queen, the massy furniture of the royal banquet, the splendor of precious stones, the elegant forms of statues and vases, the more substantial treasure of gold, and the holy vessels of the Jewish temple, which, after their long peregrination, were respectively deposited in the Christian church of Jerusalem. A long train of the noblest vandals reluctantly exposed their lofty stature and manly countenance. Gelimer slowly advanced. He was clad in a purple robe, and still maintained the majesty of a king. Not a tear escaped his eyes. Not a sigh was heard. But his pride, or piety, derived some secret consolation from the words of Solomon, which he repeatedly pronounced. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. Instead of ascending a triumphal car drawn by four horses or elephants, the modest conqueror marched on foot at the head of his brave companions. His prudence might decline in honor too conspicuous for a subject, and his magnanimity might justly disdain what had been so often sullied by the violist of tyrants. The glorious procession entered the gate of the hippodrome, was saluted by the acclamations of the Senate and people, and halted before the throne where Justinian in Theodora were seated to receive the homage of the captive monarch and the victorious hero. They both performed the customary adoration, and falling prostrate on the ground respectfully touched the footstool of a prince who had not unsheathed his sword, and of a prostitute who had danced on the theater. Some gentle violence was used to bend the stubborn spirit of the grandson of Gensurek, and however trained to servitude, the genius of Belisarius must have secretly rebelled. He was immediately declared consul for the ensuing year, and the day of his inauguration resembled the pomp of a second triumph. His curile chair was borne aloft on the soldiers of captive vandals, and the spoils of war, gold cups and rich girdles were profusely scattered among the populace. CHAPTER XIV of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume IV But the purest reward of Belisarius was in the faithful execution of a treaty for which his honor had been pledged to the king of the vandals. The religious scruples of Gelimer, who adhered to the Arian heresy, were incompatible with the dignity of senator or patrician, but he received from the emperor an ample estate in the province of Galatia, where the abdicated monarch retired with his family and friends to a life of peace, of affluence, and perhaps of content. The daughters of Hilderik were entertained with the respectful tenorness due to their age and misfortune, and Justinian in Theodora accepted the honor of educating and enriching the female descendants of the great Theodosius. The bravest of the vandal youth were distributed into five squadrons of cavalry which adopted the name of their benefactor and supported in the Persian wars the glory of their ancestors. But these rare exceptions, the reward of birth or valor, are insufficient to explain the fate of a nation whose numbers, before a short and bloodless war, amounted to more than six hundred thousand persons. After the exile of their king and nobles, the servile crowd might purchase their safety by adjuring their character, religion, and language, and their degenerate posterity would be insensibly mingled with the common herd of African subjects. Yet, even in the present age and in the heart of the Moorish tribes, a curious traveler has discovered the white complexion and long flaxen hair of a northern race, and it was formerly believed that the boldest of the vandals fled beyond the power, or even the knowledge of the Romans, to enjoy their solitary freedom on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Africa had been their empire. It became their prison. Nor could they entertain a hope or even a wish of returning to the banks of the Elba where their brethren of a spirit less adventurous still wandered in their native forest. It was impossible for cowards to surmount the barriers of unknown seas and hostile barbarians. It was impossible for brave men to expose their nakedness and defeat before the eyes of their countrymen, to describe the kingdoms which they had lost, and to claim of share of the humble inheritance, which, in a happier hour, they had almost unanimously renounced. In the country between the Elba and the Odor, several populace villages of Lusatia are inhabited by the vandals. They still preserve their language, their customs, and the purity of their blood. Support with some impatience the Saxon or Prussian yoke, and serve with secret and voluntary allegiance the descendants of their ancient kings, who in his garb and present fortune is confounded with the meanest of his vassals. The name and situation of this unhappy people might indicate their descent from one common stock with the conquerors of Africa. But the use of a Sclavonian dialect more clearly represents them as the last remnant of the new colonies who succeeded to the genuine vandals, already scattered or destroyed in the age of Procopius. If Belisarius had been tempted to hesitate in his allegiance, he might have urged, even against the emperor himself, the indispensable duty of saving Africa from an enemy more barbarious than the vandals. The origin of the Moors is involved in darkness. They were ignorant of the use of letters. Their limits cannot be precisely defined. A boundless continent was open to the Libyan shepherds. The change of seasons and pastures regulated their motions, and their rude huts and slender furniture were transported with the same ease as their arms, their families, and their cattle, which consisted of sheep, oxen, and camels. During the vigor of the Roman power, they observed a respectful distance from Carthage and the seashore. Under the feeble reign of the vandals, they invaded the cities of Numidia, occupy the seacoast from Canjir to Caesarea, and pitch their camps with impunity in the fertile province of Bizachium. The formidable strength and artful conduct of Belisarius secured the neutrality of the Moorish princes, whose vanity aspired to receive, in the emperor's name, the ensigns of their royal dignity. They were astonished by the rapid event and trembled in the presence of their conqueror. But his approaching departure soon relieved the apprehensions of a savage and superstitious people. The number of their wives allowed them to disregard the safety of their infant hostages. And when the Roman general hoisted sale in the port of Carthage, he heard the cries and almost beheld the flames of the desolated province. Yet he persisted in his resolution, and leaving only a part of his guards to reinforce the feeble garrisons, he entrusted the command of Africa to the eunuch, Solomon, who proved himself not unworthy to be the successor of Belisarius. In the first invasion, some detachments, with two officers of merit, were surprised and intercepted. But Solomon speedily assembled his troops, marched from Carthage into the heart of the country, and in two great battles destroyed sixty thousand of the barbarians. The Moors, dependent on their multitude, their swiftness and their inaccessible mountains, and the aspect and smell of their camels, are said to have produced some confusion in the Roman cavalry. But as soon as they were commanded to dismount, they derided this contemptible obstacle. As soon as the columns ascended the hills, the naked and disorderly crowd was dazzled by glittering arms and regular evolutions, and the menace of their female prophets was repeatedly fulfilled, that the Moors should be disconfited by a beardless antagonist. The victorious eunuch advanced thirteen days from Carthage to besiege Mount Arrasius, the Citadel, and at the same time the Garden of Numidia. That range of hills, a branch of the Great Atlas, contains within a circumference of 120 miles a rare variety of soil and climate, the intermediate valleys and elevated plain abound with rich pastures, perpetual streams, and fruits of a delicious taste and uncommon magnitude. This fair solitude is decorated with the ruins of L'Ambessa, a Roman city once the seat of a legion, and the residence of forty thousand inhabitants. The Ionic Temple of Iscapolis is encompassed with Moorish huts, and the cattle now graze in the mists of an amphitheater, under the shade of Corinthian columns. A sharp perpendicular rock rises above the level of the mountain, where the African princes deposited their wives in treasure, and a proverb is familiar to the Arabs, that the man may eat fire who dares to attack the craggy cliffs and inhospitable natives of Mount Arrasius. This hardy enterprise was twice attempted by the eunuch Solomon. From the first he retreated with some disgrace, and in the second his patience and provisions were almost exhausted, and he again must have retired if he had not yielded to the impetuous courage of his troops, who audaciously scaled to the astonishment of the Moors, the mountain, the hostile camp, and the summit of the Jminian rock. A citadel was erected to secure this important conquest, and to remind the barbarians of their defeat. And as Solomon pursued his march to the west, the long lost province of Mauritanian Cetifi was again annexed to the Roman Empire. The Moorish war continued several years after the departure of Belisarius, but the laurels which he resigned to a faithful lieutenant may be justly ascribed to his own triumph. The experience of past faults, which may sometimes correct the mature age of an individual, is seldom profitable to the successive generations of mankind. The nations of antiquity, careless of each other's safety, were separately vanquished and enslaved by the Romans. This awful lesson might have instructed the barbarians of the west to oppose with timely councils and confederate arms the unbounded ambition of Justinian. Yet the same error was repeated, the same consequences were felt, and the Goths, both of Italy and Spain, insensible of their approaching danger, beheld with indifference and even with joy, the rapid downfall of the vandals. After the failure of the Roman line, Theodes, a valiant and powerful chief, ascended the throne of Spain, which he had formally administered in the name of Theodoric and his infant grandson. Under his command, the Visigoths besieged the fortress of Couta on the African coast. But while they spent the Sabbath day in peace and devotion, the pious security of their camp was invaded by a sally from the town, and the king himself, with some difficulty and danger, escaped from the hands of a sacrilegious enemy. It was not long before his pride and resentment were gratified by a suppliant embassy from the unfortunate Gellamer, who implored in his distress the aid of the Spanish monarch. It was not long before his pride and resentment were gratified by a suppliant embassy from the unfortunate Gellamer, who implored in his distress the aid of the Spanish monarch. But instead of sacrificing these unworthy passions to the dictates of generosity and prudence, Theodes amused the ambassadors till he was secretly informed of the loss of Carthage, and then dismissed them with an obscure and contemptuous advice to seek in their native country a true knowledge of the state of the vandals. The long continuance of the Italian war delayed the punishment of the Visigoths, and the eyes of Theodes were closed before they tasted the fruits of his mistaken policy. After his death, the scepter of Spain was disputed by a civil war. The weaker candidate solicited the protection of Justinian, and ambitiously subscribed a treaty of alliance which deeply wounded the independence and happiness of his country. Several cities, both on the ocean and the Mediterranean, receded to the Roman troops, who afterwards refused to evacuate those pledges, as it should seem, either of safety or payment. And as they were fortified by perpetual supplies from Africa, they maintained their impregnable stations for the mischievous purpose of inflaming the civil and religious factions of the barbarians. Seventy years elapsed before this painful thorn could be extirpated from the bosom of the monarchy, and as long as the emperors retained any share of these remote and useless possessions, their vanity might number Spain in the list of their provinces, and the successors of Alaric in the rank of their vassals. The error of the Goths, who reigned in Italy was less excusable than that of their Spanish brethren, and their punishment was still more immediate and terrible. From a motive of private revenge, they enabled their most dangerous enemy to destroy their most valuable ally. A sister of the great Theodoric had been given in marriage to Thrasiman, the African king. On this occasion, the fortress of Lilibium in Sicily was resigned to the vandals, and the princess Amalafrida was attended by a martial train of one thousand nobles and five thousand Gothic soldiers, who signalized their valor in the Moorish wars. Their merit was overrated by themselves, and perhaps neglected by the vandals. They viewed the country with envy and the conquerors with disdain, but their real or fictitious conspiracy was prevented by a massacre. The Goths were oppressed, and the captivity of Amalafrida was soon followed by her secret and suspicious death. The eloquent pen of Cassiodorus was employed to reproach the vandal court with the cruel violation of every social and public duty, but the vengeance which he threatened in the name of his sovereign might be derided with impunity as long as Africa was protected by the sea, and the Goths were destitute of a navy. In the blind impotence of grief and indignation, they joyfully saluted the approach of the Romans, entertained the fleet of Belisarius and the ports of Sicily, and were speedily delighted or alarmed by the surprising intelligence that the revenge was executed beyond the measure of their hopes, or perhaps of their wishes. To their friendship, the emperor was indebted for the kingdom of Africa, and the Goths might reasonably think that they were entitled to resume the possession of a barren rock so recently separated as an actual gift from the island of Sicily. They were soon undeceived by the haughty mandate of Belisarius, which excited their tardy and unavailing repentance. The city and promontory of Lilibium, said the Roman general, belong to the vandals, and I claim them by the right of conquest. Your submission may deserve the favor of the emperor. Your obstinacy will provoke his displeasure and must kindle a war that can terminate only in your utter ruin. If you compel us to take up arms, we shall contend, not to regain possession of a single city, but to deprive you of all the provinces which you unjustly withhold from their lawful sovereign. A nation of 200,000 soldiers might have smiled at the vain menace of Justinian and his lieutenant, but a spirit of discord and disaffection prevailed in Italy, and the Goths supported with reluctance the indignity of a female reign. The birth of Amalassanta, the regent and queen of Italy, united the two most illustrious families of the barbarians. Her mother, the sister of Clovis, was descended from the long-haired kings of the Merovingian race, and the regal succession of the Elamai was illustrated in the 11th generation by her father, the Great Theodoric, whose merit might have ennobled a plebeian origin. The sex of his daughter excluded her from the Gothic throne, but his vigilant tenderness for his family and his people discovered the last heir of the royal line, whose ancestors had taken refuge in Spain, and the fortunate Euthyric was suddenly exalted to the rank of a consul and a prince. He enjoyed, only a short time, the charms of Amalassanta, and the hopes of the succession, and his widow, after the death of her husband and father, was left the guardian for son Athalaric and the kingdom of Italy. At the age of about 28 years, the endowments of her mind and person had attained their perfect maturity. Her beauty, which, in the apprehension of Theodora herself, might have disputed the conquest of an emperor, was animated by manly sense, activity, and resolution. Education and experience had cultivated her talents. Her philosophic studies were exempt from vanity, and though she expressed herself with equal elegance and ease in the Greek, Latin, and the Gothic tongue, the daughter of Theodoric maintained in her councils a discreet and impenetrable silence. By a faithful imitation of the virtues, she revived the prosperity of his reign, while she strove with pious care to expiate the faults and to obliterate the darker memory of his declining age. The children of Boethius and Symmachus were restored to their parental inheritance. Her extreme lenity never consented to inflict any corporal or pecuniary penalties on her Roman subjects, and she generously despised the clamors of the Goths, who, at the end of 40 years, still considered the people of Italy as their slaves or their enemies. Her salutary measures were directed by the wisdom and celebrated by the eloquence of Cassiodorus. She solicited and deserved the friendship of the emperor. In the kingdoms of Europe respected, both in peace and war, the majesty of the Gothic throne. But the future happiness of the Queen of Italy depended on the education of her son, who was destined by his birth to support the different and almost incompatible characters of a chief of a barbarian camp and the first magistrate of a civilized nation. From the age of 10 years, Ethelaric was diligently instructed in the arts and sciences either useful or ornamental for a Roman prince, and three venerable Goths were chosen to instill the principles of honor and virtue into the mind of their young king. But the pupil whose insensible of the benefits must habore the restraints of education, and the solicitude of the Queen, which affection rendered anxious and severe, offended the intractable nature of her son and his subjects. On a solemn festival, when the Goths were assembled in the Palace of Ravenna, the royal youth escaped from his mother's apartment and, with tears of pride and anger, complained of a blow which his stubborn disobedience had provoked her to inflict. The barbarians resented the indignity which had been offered to their king, accused the regent of conspiring against his life in crown, and imperiously demanded that the grandson of Theodoric should be rescued from the dastardly discipline of women and pedants and educated, like a valiant Goth in the society of his equals and the glorious ignorance of his ancestors. To this rude clamor, importunately urged by the voice of the nation, Amalassanta was compelled to yield her reason and the dearest wishes of her heart. The king of Italy was abandoned to wine, to women, and to rustic sports, and the indiscreet contempt of the ingrateful youth betrayed the mischievous designs of his favorites and her enemies. Encompassed with domestic foes, she entered into a secret negotiation with the emperor Justinian, attained the insurance of a friendly reception, and had actually deposited, at Dyrachium, in a pyrus, a treasure of forty thousand pounds of gold. Happy would it have been for her fame and safety if she had calmly retired from barbarous faction to the peace and splendor of Constantinople. But the mind of Amalassanta was inflamed by ambition and revenge, and while her ships lay at anchor in the port, she waited for the success of a crime which her passions excused or applauded as an act of justice. Three of the most dangerous malcontents had been separately removed under the pretense of trust and command to the frontiers of Italy. They were assassinated by her private emissaries, and the blood of these noble Goths rendered the queen mother absolute in the court of Ravenna, and justly odious to a free people. But if she lamented the disorders of her son, she soon wept his irreparable loss, and the death of Athelaric, who at the age of sixteen was consumed by premature intemperance, left her destitute of any firm support or legal authority. Instead of submitting to the laws of her country, which held as a fundamental maxim that the succession could never pass from the lands to the distaff, the daughter of Theodoric conceived the impractical design of sharing with one of her cousins the regal title, and of reserving in her own hands the substance of supreme power. He received the proposal with profound respect and effected gratitude, and the eloquent Cassiodorus announced to the senate and the emperor that Amalassanta and Theodotus had ascended the throne of Italy. His birth, for his mother was the sister of Theodoric, might be considered as an imperfect title, and the choice of Amalassanta was more strongly directed by her contempt of his avarice and pusillanimity, which deprived him of the love of the Italians and the esteem of the barbarians. But Theodotus was exasperated by the contempt which he deserved. Her justice had repressed and reproached the oppression which he exercised against his Tuscan neighbors, and the principal goths, united by common guilt and resentment, conspired to instigate his slow, intimate disposition. The letters of congratulation were scarcely dispatched before the queen of Italy was imprisoned in a small island of the lake of Balsana, where, after a short confinement, she was strangled in the bath by the order or the connivance of the new king, who instructed his turbulent subjects to shed the blood of their sovereigns. Justinian beheld with joy the dissensions of the goths, and the mediation of an ally concealed and promoted the ambitious views of the conqueror. His ambassadors, in their public audience, demanded the fortress of Lillebiam, ten barbarian fugitives, and a just compensation for the pillage of a small town on the Illyrian borders. But they secretly negotiated with Theodotus to betray the province of Tuscany, and tempted Amalisanta to extricate herself from danger and perplexity by a free surrender of the kingdom of Italy. A false and servile epistle was subscribed to the reluctant hand of the captive queen. But the confession of the Roman senators who were sent to Constantinople revealed the truth of her deplorable situation, and Justinian, by the voice of a new ambassador, most powerfully interceded for her life and liberty. Yet the secret instructions of the same minister were adapted to serve the cruel jealousy of Theodora, who dreaded the presence and superior charms of a rival. With artful and ambiguous hints, the execution of a crime so useful to the Romans received the intelligence of her death with grief and indignation, and denounced, in his master's name, immortal war against the perfidious assassin. In Italy, as well as in Africa, the guilt of usurper appeared to justify the arms of Justinian. But the forces which he prepared were insufficient for the subversion of a mighty kingdom, if their feeble numbers had not been multiplied by the name, the spirit, and the conduct of a hero. A chosen troops of guards, who served on horseback and were armed with lances and bucklers, attended the person of Belisarius. His cavalry was composed of 200 Huns, 300 Moors, and 4,000 Confederates, and the infantry consisted only of 3,000 Isorians. Steering the same course as in his former expedition, the Roman consul cast anchor before Catana in Sicily to survey the strength of the island and to decide whether he should attempt the conquest or peacefully pursue his voyage for the African coast. He found a fruitful land and a friendly people, notwithstanding the decay of agriculture, Sicily still supplied the granaries of Rome. The farmers were graciously exempted from the oppression of military quarters, and the Goths, who trusted the defense of their island to the inhabitants, had some reason to complain that their confidence was ungrateful and deeply betrayed. Instead of soliciting and expecting the aid of the king of Italy, they yielded to the first summons a cheerful obedience, and this province, the first fruits of the Punic Wars, was again after a long separation united to the Roman Empire. The Gothic garrison of Palermo, which alone attempted to resist, was reduced after a short siege by a singular stratagem. Belisarius introduced his ships into the deepest recess of the harbor, and their boats were laboriously hoisted with ropes and pulleys to the top-mast head, and he filled them with archers, who, from that superior station, commanded the ramparts of the city. After this easy, though successful campaign, the conqueror entered Syracuse in triumph at the head of his victorious bands, distributing gold medals to the people, on the day which so gloriously terminated the year of the consulship. He passed the winter season in the palace of ancient kings, amidst the ruins of a Grecian colony which once extended to a circumference of two and twenty miles. But in the spring, about the festival of Easter, the prosecution of his designs was interrupted by a dangerous revolt of the African forces. Carthage was saved by the presence of Belisarius, who suddenly landed with a thousand guards. Two thousand soldiers of doubtful faith returned to the standard of their old commander, and he marched without hesitation, above fifty miles, to seek an enemy who he affected to pity and despise. Eight thousand rebels trembled at his approach. They were routed at the first onset by the dexterity of their master, and this ignoble victory would have restored the peace of Africa, if the conqueror had not been hastily recalled to Sicily, to appease this addition which had been kindled during his absence in his own camp. Disorder and disobedience were the common malady of the times. The genius to command and the virtue to obey resided only in the mind of Belisarius. Although Theodotus descended from a race of heroes, he was ignorant of the art and adverse to the dangers of war. Although he had studied the writings of Plato and Tully, philosophy was incapable of purifying his mind from the basis passions, avarice and fear. He had purchased a scepter by ingratitude and murder. At the first menace of an enemy, he degraded his own majesty, and that of a nation which already disdain their unworthy sovereign. Astonished by the recent example of Gelimer, he saw himself dragged in chains through the streets of Constance and Opal. The terrors which Belisarius inspired were heightened by the eloquence of Peter, the Byzantine ambassador, and that bold and subtle advocate persuaded him to sign a treaty, too ignominious to become the foundation of a lasting peace. It was stipulated that in the acclamations of the Roman people, the name of the emperor should always be proclaimed before that of the Gothic king, and that as often as the statue of Theodotus was erected in brass or marble, the divine image of Justinian should be placed on its right hand. Instead of conferring, the king of Italy was reduced to solicit the honors of the senate, and the consent of the emperor was made indispensable before he could execute against a priest or senator the sentence either of death or confiscation. The feeble monarch resigned the possession of Sicily, offered, as the annual mark of his dependence, a crown of gold of the weight of 300 pounds, and a promise to supply, at the requisition of a sovereign, 3,000 Gothic axiliaries for the service of the empire. Satisfied with these extraordinary concessions, the successful agent of Justinian hastened his journey to Constantinople, but no sooner had he reached the albin villa than he was recalled by the anxiety of Theodotus, and the dialogue which passed between the king and the ambassador deserves to be represented in its original simplicity. Are you of the opinion that the emperor will ratify this treaty? Perhaps. If he refuses, what consequence will ensue? War. Will such a war be just or reasonable? Most assuredly, everyone should act according to his character. What is your meaning? You are a philosopher. Justinian is the emperor of the Romans. It would ill become the disciple of Plato to shed the blood of thousands in his private quarrel. The successor of Augustus should vindicate his rights and recover by arms the ancient possessions of his empire. This reasoning might not convince, but it was sufficient to alarm and subdue the weakness of Theodotus, and he soon descended to his last offer, that for the poor equivalent of a pension, a 48,000 pound sterling, he would resign the kingdom of the Goths and Italians and spend the remainder of his days in the innocent pleasures of philosophy and agriculture. Both treaties were entrusted to the hands of the ambassador on the frail security of an oath not to produce the second till the first had been positively rejected. The event may be easily foreseen. Justinian required and accepted the abdication of the Gothic King. His indefatigable agent returned from Constantinople to Ravenna with ample instructions and a fair epistle, which praised the wisdom and generosity of the royal philosopher, granted his pension with the assurance of such honors as a subject and a Catholic might enjoy and wisely refer the final execution of the treaty to the presence and authority of Belisarius. But in the interval of suspense, two Roman generals who had entered the province of Dalmatia were defeated and slain by the Gothic troops. From blind and abject despair, Theodotus capriciously rose to groundless and fatal presumption and dared to receive with menace and contempt the ambassador of Justinian who claimed his promise solicited the allegiance of his subjects and boldly asserted the inviolable privilege of his own character. The march of Belisarius dispelled this visionary pride and as the first campaign was employed in the reduction of Sicily, the invasion of Italy is applied by Procopius to the second year of the Gothic war. After Belisarius had left sufficient garrisons in Palermo and Syracuse, he embarked his troops at Messina and landed them without resistance on the opposite shores of Regium. A Gothic prince who had married the daughter of Theodotus was stationed with an army to guard the entrance of Italy, but he imitated without scruple the example of a sovereign faithless to his public and private duties. The perfidious Ebomor deserted with his followers to the Roman camp and was dismissed to enjoy the servile honors of the Byzantine court. From Regium to Naples, the fleet and army of Belisarius, almost always in view of each other, advanced near 300 miles along the sea coast. The people of Brutium, Lucania and Campania, who aboard the name and religion of the Goths, embraced the specious excuse that their ruined wars were incapable of defense. The soldiers paid a just equivalent for a plentiful market and curiosity alone interrupted the peaceful occupations of the husbandmen or autophyser. Naples, which had swelled to a great and populist capital, long cherished the language and manners of a Grecian colony, and the choice of Virgil had ennobled this elegant retreat, which attracted the lovers of repose and study from the noise, the smoke, and the laborious opulence of Rome. As soon as the place was invested by sea and land, Belisarius gave audience to the deputies of the people who exhorted him to disregard a conquest unworthy of his arms, to seek the Gothic king in a field of battle, and after his victory to claim, as the sovereign of Rome, the allegiance of the dependent cities. When I treat with my enemies, replied the Roman chief with a haughty smile, I am more accustomed to give than to receive counsel, but I hold in one hand inevitable ruin, and in the other peace and freedom such as Sicily now enjoys. The impatience of delay urged him to grant the most liberal terms, his honor secured their performance, but Naples was divided into two factions, and the Greek democracy was inflamed by their orators, who, with much spirit and some truth represented to the multitude, that the Goths would punish their defection, and that Belisarius himself must esteem their loyalty and valor. Their deliberations, however, were not perfectly free. The city was commanded by 800 barbarians whose wives and children were detained at Ravenna, as a pledge of their fidelity, and even the Jews, who were rich and numerous, resisted with desperate enthusiasm the intolerant laws of Justinian. In a much later period, the circumference in Naples measured only 2,363 paces. The fortifications were defended by precipices, or the sea. When the aqueducts were intercepted, a supply of water might be drawn from wells and fountains, and the stock of provisions was sufficient to consume the patience of the besiegers. At the end of twenty days, that of Belisarius was almost exhausted, and he had reconciled himself to the disgrace of abandoning the siege, that he might march before the winter season against Rome and the Gothic king. But his anxiety was relieved by the bold curiosity of an Isorian, who explored the dry channel of an aqueduct, and secretly reported that a passage might be perforated to introduce a file of armed soldiers into the heart of the city. When the work had been silently executed, the humane general risked the discovery of a secret by a last and fruitless ammunition of the impending danger. In the darkness of the night, four hundred Romans entered the aqueduct, raised themselves by a rope, which they fashioned to an olive tree, into the house or garden of a solitary matron, sounded their trumpets, surprised the sentinels, and gave admittance to their companions, who, on all sides, scaled the walls and burst open the gates of the city. Every crime, which is punished by social justice, was practiced as the rights of war. The Huns were distinguished by cruelty and sacrilege, and Belisarius alone appeared in the streets and churches of Naples to moderate the calamities which he had predicted. The gold and silver, he repeatedly exclaimed, are the just rewards of your valor, but spare the inhabitants. They are Christians. They are suppliants. They are now your fellow subjects. Restore the children to their parents, the wives to their husbands, and show them by your generosity of what friends they have obstinately deprived themselves. The city was saved by the virtue and authority of its conqueror. And when the Neopolitans returned to their homes, they found some consolation in the secret enjoyment of their hidden treasures. The barbarian garrison enlisted in the service of the Emperor. Apulia, in Calabria, delivered from the odious presence of the Goths, acknowledged his dominion, and the tusks of the Caledonian bore, which were still shown at Beneventum, are curiously described by the historian of Belisarius. The faithful soldiers and citizens of Naples had expected their deliverance from a prince who remained the inactive and almost indifferent spectator of the ruin. Theodotus secured his person within the walls of Rome, while his cavalry advanced 40 miles on the Appian Way, and encamped in the Pompteen Marshes, which, by a canal of 19 miles in length, had been recently drained and converted into excellent pastures. But the principal forces of the Goths were dispersed in Dalmatia, Venetia, and Gaul, and the feeble mind of their king was confounded by the unsuccessful event of a divination which seemed to presage the downfall of his empire. The most abject slaves have arraigned the guilt or weakness of an unfortunate master. The character of Theodotus was rigorously scrutinized by a free and idle camp of barbarians, conscious of their privilege and power. He was declared unworthy of his race, his nation and his throne, and their general Vittiges, whose valor had been signalized in the Illyrian War, was raised with unanimous applause on the bucklers of his companions. On the first rumor, the abdicated monarch fled from the justice of his country, but he was pursued by private revenge. A Goth whom he had injured in his love overtook Theodotus on the Flominian way, and, regardless of his unmanly cries, slaughtered him as he lay prostrate on the ground like a victim, says the historian, at the foot of an altar. The choice of the people is the best and purest title to reign over them, yet such is the prejudice of every age that Vittiges impatiently wished to return to Ravenna, where he might seize with the reluctant hand of the daughter of Amalassantha some faint shadow of hereditary right. A national council was immediately held, and the new monarch reconciled the impatient spirit of the barbarians to a measure of disgrace, which the misconduct of his predecessor rendered wise and indispensable. The Goths consented to retreat in the presence of a victorious enemy to delay till the next spring the operations of offensive war, to summon their scattered forces, to relinquish their distant possessions, and to trust even Rome itself to the faith of its inhabitants. Lateris, an aged warrior, was left in the capital with four thousand soldiers, a feeble garrison, which might have seconded the zeal, though it was incapable of opposing the wishes of the Romans. But a momentary enthusiasm of religion and patriotism was kindled in their minds. They furiously exclaimed that the apostolic throne should no longer be profaned by the triumph or toleration of Arianism, that the tombs of the Caesars should no longer be trampled by the savages of the North, and without reflecting that Italy must sink into a province of Constantinople, they finally hailed the restoration of a Roman emperor as a new era of freedom and prosperity. The deputies of the Pope and clergy of the Senate and people invited the lieutenant of Justinian to accept their voluntary allegiance, and to enter the city whose gates would be thrown open for his reception. As soon as Belisarius had fortified his new conquests, Naples and Kumai, he advanced about 20 miles to the banks of the Volturnus, contemplated the decayed grandeur of Capua, and halted at the separation of the Latin and Appian ways. The work of the censor, after an incessant use of nine centuries, still preserved its primeval beauty, and not a flaw could be discovered in the large polished stones of which that solid, though narrow road, was so firmly compacted. Belisarius, however, preferred the Latin way, which, at a distance from the sea and the marshes, skirted in a space of 120 miles along the foot of the mountains. His enemies had disappeared, when he made his entrance through the Asenarian gate, the garrison departed without molestation along the Fulminian way, and the city, after 60 years' servitude, was delivered from the yoke of the barbarians. Lloydris alone, from a motive of pride or discontent, refused to accompany the fugitives, and the Gothic chief, himself a trophy of the victory, was sent with the keys of Rome to the throne of the emperor Justinian. The first days, which coincided with the old Saturnalia, was devoted to mutual congratulations and the public joy, and the Catholics prepared to celebrate, without a rival, the approaching festivity of the nativity of Christ. In the familiar conversation of a hero, the Romans acquired some notion of the virtues, which history ascribed to their ancestors. They were edified by the apparent respect of Belisarius, for the successor of St. Peter, and his rigid discipline secured, in the midst of war, the blessings of tranquility and peace. They applauded the rapid success of his arms, which overran the adjacent country as far as Narni, Peruzia and Spoleto, but they trembled the Senate, the clergy, and the unwarlike people, as soon as they understood that he had resolved and would speedily be reduced to sustain a siege against the powers of the Gothic monarchy. The designs of Vitigay's was executed during the winter season with diligence and effect. From their rustic habitations, from their distant garrisons, the Goths assembled at Ravenna for the defense of their country, and such were their numbers that, after an army had been detached for the relief of Dalmatia, 150,000 fighting men marched under the royal standard. According to the degrees of rank or merit, the Gothic king distributed arms and horses, rich gifts and liberal promises. He moved along the Flominian way, declined the useless sieges of Peruzia and Spoleto, respected the impregnable rock of Narni, and arrived within two miles of Rome at the foot of the Milvian Bridge. The narrow passage was fortified with a tower, and Bellisarius had computed the value of 20 days, which must be lost in the construction of another bridge. But the consternation of the soldiers of the tower, who either fled or deserted, disappointed his hopes and betrayed his person into the most imminent danger. At the head of 1,000 horse, the Roman general sallied from the Flominian gate to mark the ground of an advantageous position, and to survey the camp of the Barbarians. But while he still believed them on the other side of the Tiber, he was suddenly encompassed and insulted by their innumerable squadrons. The fate of Italy depended on his life, and the deserters pointed to his conspicuous horse, a bay with a white face, which he wrote on that memorable day. Aim at the bay horse was the universal cry. Every bow was bent, every javelin was directed against that fatal object, and the command was repeated and obeyed by thousands who are ignorant of its real motive. The bolder Barbarians advanced to the more honorable combat of swords and spears, and the praise of an enemy has graced the fall of Vesandus, the standard bearer, who maintained his foremost station till he was pierced by 13 wounds, perhaps by the hand of Belisarius himself. The Roman general was strong, active and dexterous. On every side he discharged his weighty and mortal strokes. His faithful guards imitated his valor and defended his person, and the Goths, after the loss of a thousand men, fled before the arms of a hero. They were rashly pursued to their camp, and the Romans, oppressed by multitudes, made a gradual and at length a precipitant retreat to the gates of the city. The gates were shut against the fugitives, and the public terror was increased by the report that Belisarius was slain. His countenance was indeed disfigured by sweat, dust and blood. His voice was hoarse, his strength was almost exhausted, but his unconquerable spirit still remained. He imparted that spirit to his desponding companions, and their last desperate charge was felt by the flying barbarians, as if a new army, vigorous and entire, had been poured from the city. The Flaminian gate was thrown open to a real triumph, but it was not before Belisarius had had visited every post and provided for the public safety that he could be persuaded by his wife and friends to taste the needful refreshments of food and sleep. In the more improved state of the art of war, a general is seldom required or even permitted to display the personal prowess of a soldier. In the example of Belisarius may be added to the rare examples of Henry IV, of Pyrrhus, and of Alexander. After this first and unsuccessful trial of their enemies, the whole army of the Goths passed the Tiber and formed the siege of the city, which continued above a year to their final departure. Whatever fancy may conceive, the severe compass of the geographer defines the circumference of Rome within a line of 12 miles and 345 paces, and that circumference, except in the Vatican, has invariably been the same from the triumph of Aurelian to the peaceful but obscure reigns of the modern popes. But in the day of her greatness, the space within her walls was crowded with habitations and inhabitants, and the popular suburbs that stretched along the public roads were darted like so many rays from one common center. Adversity swept away these extraneous ornaments and left naked and desolate a considerable part even of the Seven Hills. Yet Rome, in its present state, could send into the field about 30,000 males of a military age, and notwithstanding the want of discipline and exercise, the far greater part, inured to the hardships of poverty, might be capable of bearing arms for the defense of their country and religion. The prudence of Bellissarius did not neglect this important resource. His soldiers were relieved by the zeal and diligence of the people who watched why they slept, who labored while they were posed. He accepted the voluntary service of the bravest and most indigent of the Roman youth, and the companies of townsmen sometimes represented in a vacant post the presence of the troops who had been drawn away to more essential duties. But his just confidence was placed in the veterans who had fought under his banner in the Persian and African wars, and although that gallant ban was reduced to 5,000 men, he undertook, with such contemptible numbers, to defend a circle of 12 miles against an army of 150,000 barbarians. In the walls of Rome, which Bellissarius constructed or restored, the materials of ancient architecture may be discerned, and the whole fortification was completed, except then to Chasm, still extant between the Pinkian and Flominian gates, which the prejudices of the Goths and Romans left under the effectual guard of Saint Peter, the Apostle. The battlements or bastions were shaped in sharp angles. A ditch, broad and deep, protected the foot of the rampart, and the archers on the rampart were assisted by military engines. The Ballista, a powerful crossbow, which started short but massy arrows, the inaugural or wild asses, which, on the principle of a sling, threw stones and bullets of an enormous size. A chain was drawn across the Tiber, the arches of the aqueducts were made impervious, and the maul or sepulcher of Hadrian was converted for the first time to the uses of a citadel. That venerable structure, which contained the ashes of the Antonines, was a circular turret rising from a quadrangular basis. It was covered with the white marble of Paros and decorated with the statues of gods and heroes, and the lover of the arts must read with a sigh that the works of praxilities or Lysipis were torn from their lofty pedestals and hurled into the ditch on the heads of the besiegers. To each of his lieutenants, Bellisarius assigned the defensive a gate with the wise and prempary instruction that whatever might be the alarm, they should steadily adhere to the respective posts and trust their general for the safety of Rome. The formidable host of the Goths was insufficient to embrace the ample measure of the city. Of the 14 gates, seven only were invested, from the Prinestine to the Flominian Way, and Vittiges divided his troops into six camps. Egevus was fortified with a ditch and rampart. On the Tuscan side of the river, a seven-the-cambit was formed in the field or circus of the Vatican, for the important purpose of commanding the Milvian bridge and the course of the Tiber. But they approached with devotion the adjacent church of St. Peter, and the threshold of the Holy Apostles was respected during the siege by a Christian enemy. In the ages of victory, as often as the Senate decreed some distant conquest, the consul denounced hostilities by unbarring in solemn pomp the gates of the Temple of Janus. Domestic war now rendered the ammunition superfluous and the ceremony was superseded by the establishment of a new religion. But the Brazen Temple of Janus was left standing in the forum of a size sufficient only to contain the statue of the God, five cubits in height, of a human form, but with two faces directed to the east and west. The double gates were likewise a brass, and a fruitless effort to turn them on their rusty hinges revealed the scandalous secret that some Romans were still attracted to the superstition of their ancestors. Eighteen days were employed by the besiegers to provide all the instruments of attack which antiquity had invented. Fascines were prepared to fill the ditches, scaling ladders to ascend the walls. The largest trees of the forest supplied the timbers of four battering rams. Their heads were armed with iron. They were suspended by ropes, and each of them was worked by the labor of fifty men. The lofty wooden turrets moved on wheels or rollers and formed a spacious platform on the level of the rampart. On the morning of the 19th day, a general attack was made from the Prenestine Gate to the Vatican. Seven gothic columns with their military engines advanced to the assault. And the Romans who lined the ramparts listened with doubt and anxiety to the cheerful assurances of their commander. As soon as the enemy approached the ditch, Belisarius himself drew the first arrow and such was his strength and dexterity that he transfixed the foremost of the barbarian leaders. A shot of applause and victory was breech-o'd along the wall. He drew a second arrow and the stroke was followed with the same success and the same acclamation. The Roman general then gave the word that the archers should aim at the teams of oxen. They were instantly covered with mortal wounds. The towers which they drew remained useless and immovable and a single moment disconcerted the laborious projects of the King of the Goths. After this disappointment, Vitigy's still continued or ifane to continue the assault of the Salarian gate that he might divert the attention of his adversary while his principal forces more strenuously attacked the Prenestine gate in the Cypherker of Hadrian at the distance of three miles from each other. Near the former, the double walls of the vivarium were low or broken. The fortifications of the latter were feebly guarded. The vigor of the Goths was excited by the hope of victory and spoil and if a single post was given away, the Romans and Rome itself were irrecoverably lost. This perilous day was the most glorious in the life of Bellisarius. Amidst tumult and dismay, the whole plan of the attack and defense was distinctly present to his mind. He observed the changes of each instant, weighed every possible advantage, transported his person to the scenes of danger and communicated his spirit in calm and decisive orders. The contest was fiercely maintained from the morning to the evening. The Goths were repulsed on all sides and each Roman might boast that he had vanquished thirty barbarians if the strange disproportion of numbers had not been counterbalanced by the merit of one man. Thirty thousand Goths, according to the confession of their own chiefs, perished in this bloody action and the multitude of the wounded was equal to that of the slain. When they advanced to the assault, their close disorder suffered not a javelin to fall without effect. And as they retired, the populace of the city joined the pursuit and slaughtered with impunity the backs of their flying enemies. Belisarius instantly sallied from the gates and while the soldiers chanted his name and victory, the hostile engines of war were reduced to ashes. Such was the loss and consternation of the Goths that from this day the siege of Rome degenerated into a tedious and indolent blockade and they were insensibly harassed by the Roman general who, in frequent skirmishes, destroyed above five thousand of their bravest troops. Their cavalry was unpracticed in the use of the bow. Their archers served on foot and this divided force was incapable of contending with their adversaries whose lances and arrows at a distance or at hand were alike formidable. The consummate's skill of Belisarius embraced the favorable opportunities and as he chose the ground and the moment as he pressed the charge or sounded the retreat the squadrons which he detached were seldom unsuccessful. These partial advantages diffused an impatient ardor among the soldiers and people who began to feel the hardships of a siege and the disregard the dangers of a general engagement. The consummate's skill of Belisarius embraced the favorable opportunities and as he chose the ground and the moment as he pressed the charge or sounded the retreat the squadrons which he detached were seldom unsuccessful. These partial advantages diffused an impatient ardor among the soldiers and people who began to feel the hardships of a siege and the disregard the dangers of a general engagement. Each plebeian conceived himself to be a hero and the infantry who since the decay of discipline were rejected from the line of battle aspire to the ancient honors of the Roman Legion. Belisarius praised the spirit of his troops condemned their presumption and yielded to their clamors and prepared the remedies of defeat the possibility of which he alone had courage to suspect. In the quarter of the Vatican the Romans prevailed and if the irreparable moments had not been wasted in the pillage of the camp they might have occupied the Milvian Bridge and charged in the rear of the Gothic host. On the other side of the Tiber Belisarius advanced from the Pinkian and Celerian gates. But his army four thousand soldiers perhaps was lost in the spacious plain. They were encompassed and oppressed by fresh multitudes who continually relieved the broken ranks of the barbarians. The valiant leaders of the infantry were unskilled to conquer. They died. The retreat a hasty retreat was covered by the prudence of the general and the victors started back with a fright from the formidable aspect of an armed rampart. The reputation of Belisarius was uncelled by a defeat and the vain confidence of the Goths was not less serviceable to his designs than the repentance and modesty of the Roman troops. End of chapter 41 Part 3