The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
By Edward Gibbon
With extra notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman
1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)
Chapter XLI
When Justinian ascended the throne, about fifty years after
the fall of the Western empire, the kingdoms of the Goths
and Vandals had obtained a solid, and, as it might seem, a
legal establishment both in Europe and Africa. The titles,
which Roman 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 had 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 indefeasible dominion, which her soldiers
could no longer maintain, was firmly asserted by her
statesmen and lawyers, whose opinions have 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
sole and sacred sceptre of the monarchy; demanded, as their
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
Justinian. During the five first 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 four hundred and forty thousand
pounds 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 employ his forces against the
Vandals; and the internal state of Africa afforded an
honorable motive, and promised a powerful support, to the
Roman arms. (1)
According to the testament of the founder, the African
kingdom had lineally 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
counsels of clemency and peace; and his accession was marked
by the salutary edict, which restored two hundred bishops to
their churches, and allowed the free profession of the
Athanasian creed. (2) But the Catholics accepted, with cold
and transient gratitude, a favor so inadequate to their
pretensions, and the virtues of Hilderic offended the
prejudices of his countrymen. The Arian 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, (3) 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 the succession: he assumed, with the consent of the
nation, the reins of government; and his unfortunate
sovereign sunk without a struggle from the throne to a
dungeon, where he was strictly guarded with a faithful
counsellor, 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
favor 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 succession,
and to suffer an infirm old man peaceably 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
expostulation, the captive monarch was more rigorously
treated, 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 revenge his friend,
Gelimer to maintain his usurpation; and the war was
preceded, according to the practice of civilized nations, by
the most solemn protestations, 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 Basiliscus. 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. Inspired 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 council the inclinations of his master. He
confessed, that a victory of such importance could not be
too dearly purchased; but he represented in a grave
discourse the certain difficulties and the uncertain event.
"You undertake," said the praefect, "to besiege Carthage: by
land, the distance is not less than one hundred and forty
days' journey; on the sea, a whole year (4) 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 obligations of new labors; a single misfortune will
attract the Barbarians into the heart of your exhausted
empire." Justinian felt the weight of this salutary advice;
he was confounded by the unwonted 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 counsellors
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 intrusted 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, (5) 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.
(6) The Mirranes of Persia advanced, with forty thousand of
her best troops, to raze 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 only to 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 in 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
centre 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 skilful
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 hundred warriors,
were oppressed by superior numbers; the flight of the
Isaurians 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. (A) They turned their backs to the Euphrates, and
their faces to the enemy: innumerable arrows glanced without
effect from the compact and shelving order of their
bucklers; an impenetrable line of pikes was opposed to the
repeated assaults of the Persian cavalry; and after a
resistance of many hours, the remaining troops were
skilfully 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 with 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
in all the hardships and dangers of a military life. (7)
The preparations for 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 whatever 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 Pharas;
their untractable valor was more highly prized than the tame
submission of the Greeks and Syrians; and of such importance
was it deemed to procure a reenforcement of six hundred
Massagetae, 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 Isauria, yielded to the more prevailing
use and reputation of the cavalry; and the Scythian bow was
the weapon on which the armies of Rome were now reduced to
place their principal dependence. From a laudable desire to
assert the dignity of his theme, Procopius defends the
soldiers of his own time against the morose critics, who
confined that respectable name to the heavy-armed warriors
of antiquity, and maliciously observed, that the word archer
is introduced by Homer (8) 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 the shield of a friend, drew the bow-string to
their breast, (9) 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 casque 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
bow-string not to the breast, but to the right ear, firm
indeed must be the armor that can resist 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; and the fair average will supply an
allowance, liberal, but not profuse, of about one hundred
thousand tons, (10) 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 oars, 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 a
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 the
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
Perinthus 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 midst of the Propontis; but as they struggled to
pass the Straits of the Hellespont, an unfavorable wind
detained them four days at Abydus, 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 dignity was resented by
their countrymen, who disclaimed the servile laws of the
empire, and asserted the free privilege of Scythia, 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 averse to
the example of disorder and impunity. But the rising
sedition was appeased by the authority and eloquence of the
general: and he represented to 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. (11) In the
navigation from the Hellespont to Peloponnesus, which the
Greeks, after the siege of Troy, had performed in four days,
(12) 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 of Malea and
Taenarium, 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 at Methone on the Messenian coast,
to repose themselves for a while after the fatigues of the
sea. In this place they experienced how avarice, invested
with authority, may sport with the lives of thousands which
are bravely exposed for the public service. According to
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
praefect John of Cappadocia had given orders that the flour
should be slightly baked by the same fire which warmed the
baths of Constantinople; and when the sacks were opened, a
soft and mouldy 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 five hundred soldiers. Their health was restored by
the diligence of Belisarius, who provided fresh bread at
Methone, 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 of
Methone, the pilots steered along the western coast of
Peloponnesus, as far as the Isle of Zacynthus, or Zante,
before they undertook the voyage (in their eyes a most
arduous voyage) of one hundred leagues over the Ionian Sea.
As the fleet was surprised by a calm, sixteen 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 in 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 Caucana, (13) on the southern side of Sicily,
afforded a secure and hospitable shelter. The Gothic
officers who governed 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, (14) 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 north-east, and finally
cast anchor at the promontory of Caput Vada, about five
days' journey to the south of Carthage. (15)
If Gelimer had been informed of the approach of the enemy,
he must have delayed the conquest of Sardinia for the
immediate defence of his person and kingdom. A detachment
of five thousand soldiers, and one hundred and twenty
galleys, would have joined the remaining forces of the
Vandals; and the descendant of Genseric might have surprised
and oppressed a fleet of deep laden 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 winds, the waves, and the Barbarians. (16) 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. (B) Three months after their departure from
Constantinople, the men and horses, the arms and military
stores, were safely disembarked, and five soldiers were left
as a guard on board each of the ships, which were disposed
in the form of a semicircle. The remainder of the troops
occupied a camp on the sea- shore, 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, of inculcating the maxims 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 on
the friendly disposition of the natives, and their immortal
hatred to the Vandals. You alone can deprive me of this
hope; if you continue to extort by rapine what 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 a 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: and the clergy, from motives of conscience and
interest, assiduously labored to promote the cause of a
Catholic emperor. The small town of Sullecte, (17) 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 the distance of fifty 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, or the
historian. In three generations, prosperity and a warm
climate had dissolved the hardy 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, (18) they enjoyed a cool and elegant repose; and,
after the daily use of the bath, the Barbarians were seated
at a table profusely spread with the delicacies of the land
and sea. Their silken robes loosely flowing, after the
fashion of the Medes, were embroidered with gold; love and
hunting were the labors of their life, and their vacant
hours were amused by pantomimes, chariot-races, and the
music and dances of the theatre.
In a march of ten or twelve days, the vigilance 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 three hundred
horse; six hundred Massagetae covered at a certain distance
the left flank; and the whole fleet, steering along the
coast, seldom lost sight of the army, which moved each day
about twelve 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 fifty thousand,
were multiplied, without including their women and children,
to one hundred and sixty thousand fighting men: (C) and 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, of Belisarius; and many a proud Barbarian
disguised his aversion 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
despatched to his brother Ammatas, 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 two thousand 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 Ammatas 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 Massagetae: they did not
equal the third part of his numbers; but each Scythian 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 mean
while, 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 Ammatas 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 vain, though pious, 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 forwards with his guards and the remainder of
the cavalry to rally his flying troops, and to restore the
fortune of the day. Much room could not be found, in this
disorderly battle, for the talents of a general; but the
king fled before the hero; and the Vandals, accustomed only
to a Moorish enemy, were incapable of withstanding the arms
and discipline of the Romans. Gelimer retired with hasty
steps towards 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.
As soon as the tumult had subsided, the several parts of the
army informed each other of the accidents of the day; and
Belisarius pitched his camp on the field of victory, to
which the tenth mile-stone 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 Arians, conscious that their reign 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 suppliant Vandals, who had so lately indulged
the vices of conquerors, sought an 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 sails 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 skilful 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 of the port; and the adjacent
harbor and suburb of Mandracium 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 Goletta, and
occupied, in the deep and capacious lake of Tunis, a secure
station about five miles from the capital. (19) No sooner was
Belisarius informed of their arrival, than he despatched
orders that the greatest part of the mariners should be
immediately landed 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 close
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; seated himself on the throne of Genseric; accepted
and distributed the Barbaric spoil; granted their lives to
the suppliant Vandals; and labored to repair the damage
which the suburb of Mandracium had sustained in the
preceding night. At supper he entertained his principal
officers with the form and magnificence of a royal banquet.
(20) 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 was given to these
pompous scenes, which may not be despised as useless, if
they attracted the popular veneration; but the active 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 chance of arms, or the favor of the
people. The fortifications of Carthage (D) had alone been
exempted from the general proscription; but in the reign of
ninety-five years they were suffered to decay by the
thoughtless and indolent Vandals. A wiser conqueror
restored, with incredible despatch, 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 Gelimer, 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 Gelimer. He encamped in the fields of Bulla,
four days' journey 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 Arian 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, (E) 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 Gelimer, "Heaven has declared against our
unhappy nation. While you have subdued Sardinia, we have
lost Africa. No sooner did Belisarius appear with a handful
of soldiers, than courage and prosperity deserted the cause
of the Vandals. Your nephew Gibamund, your brother Ammatas,
have 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 fields of Bulla, and the hope of your
valor. Abandon Sardinia; fly to our relief; restore our
empire, or perish by our side." On the receipt of this
epistle, Zano imparted his grief to the principal Vandals;
but the intelligence was prudently concealed from the
natives of the island. The troops embarked in one hundred
and twenty galleys at the port of Caghari, cast anchor the
third day on the confines of Mauritania, and hastily pursued
their march to join the royal standard in the camp of Bulla.
Mournful 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 Zano, 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 Tricameron,
about twenty miles from Carthage, they might boast, perhaps
with some exaggeration, that they surpassed, in a tenfold
proportion, the diminutive powers 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; the cavalry formed the first line, which Belisarius
supported in the centre, 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 Massagetae, who secretly
reserved their aid for the conquerors. The historian has
inserted, and the reader may easily supply, the speeches (21)
of the commanders, who, by arguments the most apposite to
their situation, inculcated the importance of victory, and
the contempt of life. Zano, with the troops which had
followed him to the conquest of Sardinia, was placed in the
centre; and the throne of Genseric 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 passed the rivulet; they were thrice 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 a 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
vanquished, 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; and avarice itself was
almost satiated with the treasures of gold and silver, the
accumulated fruits of conquest or economy in a long period
of prosperity and peace. In this frantic search, the
troops, even of Belisarius, forgot their caution and
respect. Intoxicated with lust and rapine, they explored,
in small parties, or alone, the adjacent fields, the woods,
the rocks, and the caverns, that 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
guardians 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
prostrate, Barbarian; and the suppliant 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 despatching a light detachment to tread the
footsteps of Gelimer, he advanced, with his whole army,
about ten days' march, as far as Hippo Regius, which no
longer possessed the relics of St. Augustin. (22) The season,
and the certain intelligence that the Vandal had fled to an
inaccessible country of the Moors, determined Belisarius to
relinquish the vain pursuit, and to fix his winter quarters
at Carthage. From thence he despatched 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; and the Isles of Majorca,
Minorca, and Yvica consented to remain an humble appendage
of the African kingdom. Caesarea, a royal city, which in
looser 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 the 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 Septem or Ceuta, (23) 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
Pandects of the Roman laws; and the devout or jealous
emperor celebrated the divine goodness, and confessed, in
silence, the merit of his successful general. (24) 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 immunites, perhaps the most essential part of
episcopal religion, were restored and amplified with a
liberal hand; the Arian worship was suppressed; the Donatist
meetings were proscribed; (25) and the synod of Carthage, by
the voice of two hundred and seventeen bishops, (26)
applauded the just measure of pious retaliation. On such an
occasion, it may not be presumed, that many orthodox
prelates 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. While Justinian approved himself the
defender of the faith, 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, Leptis,
Cirta, Caesarea, and Sardinia, and to compute the military
force of palatines or borderers that might be sufficient for
the defence of Africa. The kingdom of the Vandals was not
unworthy of the presence of a Praetorian praefect; and four
consulars, 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; three hundred and
ninety-six for the praefect himself, fifty for each of his
vicegerents; 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 subtile 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 praefect was intrusted to a soldier; the civil
and military powers were united, according to the practice
of Justinian, in the chief governor; and the representative
of the emperor in Africa, as well as in Italy, was soon
distinguished by the appellation of Exarch. (27)
Yet the conquest of Africa was imperfect till her former
sovereign was delivered, either alive or dead, 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 sea-shore, and chased the unfortunate
monarch, with some faithful followers, to the inaccessible
mountain of Papua, (28) in the inland country of Numidia. He
was immediately besieged by Pharas, 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
intrusted this important charge and, after a bold attempt to
scale the mountain, in which he lost a hundred and ten
soldiers, Pharas 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, (29) supportable only to
themselves by their 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 sheep-skin, with their wives, their
children, and their cattle. Sordid and scanty were their
garments; the use of bread and wine was unknown; and their
oaten 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
unwonted hardships, from whatsoever cause they had been
endured; but his actual misery was imbittered by the
recollection 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 rights of
hospitality. The knowledge of his situation dictated the
humane and friendly epistle of Pharas. "Like yourself,"
said the chief of the Heruli, "I am an illiterate 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 dearest Gelimer, are you
not already the worst of slaves, the slave 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 undoubted monarch of the mountain of
Papua? Do you think it 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. So long as Heaven has condemned us to
suffer, patience is a virtue; but if we reject the proffered
deliverance, it degenerates into 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 whence, a certain Belisarius, who has cast me
headlong from the throne into his abyss of misery. 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 Pharas, send
me, a lyre, (30) a sponge, and a loaf of bread." From the
Vandal messenger, Pharas was informed of the motives of this
singular request. It was long since the king of Africa had
tasted bread; a defluxion had fallen on his eyes, the effect
of fatigue or incessant weeping; and he wished to solace the
melancholy hours, by singing to the lyre the sad story of
his own misfortunes. The humanity of Pharas was moved; he
sent 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
obstinacy 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 vain and transitory scenes
of human greatness are unworthy of a serious thought. (31)
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
despatches maliciously affirmed, that the conqueror of
Africa, strong in his reputation and the public love,
conspired to seat himself on the throne of the Vandals.
Justinian listened with too patient an ear; and his 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, and which ancient Rome, since
the reign of Tiberius, had reserved for the auspicious arms
of the Caesars. (32) From the palace of Belisarius, the
procession was conducted through the principal streets to
the hippodrome; and this memorable day seemed to avenge the
injuries of Genseric, and to expiate the shame of the
Romans. The wealth of nations was displayed, the trophies of
martial or effeminate 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 respectfully 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 from his eyes, not a sigh was heard; but
his pride or piety derived some secret consolation from the
words of Solomon, (33) 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 an honor too
conspicuous for a subject; and his magnanimity might justly
disdain what had been so often sullied by the vilest 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 and
Theodora were seated to receive 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 theatre; some gentle violence was used to bend the
stubborn spirit of the grandson of Genseric; 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 curule chair was borne
aloft on the shoulders of captive Vandals; and the spoils of
war, gold cups, and rich girdles, were profusely scattered
among the populace.
But the purest reward of Belisarius was in the faithful
execution of a treaty for which his honour 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. (34) The daughters
of Hilderic were entertained with the respectful tenderness
due to their age and misfortune; and Justinian and Theodora
accepted the honour of educating and enriching the female
descendants of the great Theo-dosius. 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 valour,
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 traveller has discovered the white complexion and
long flaxen hair of a northern race;(35) 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.(36)
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 Elbe, where their brethren, of a spirit
less adventurous, still wandered in their native forests. It
was impossible for cowards te 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 a share of the humble
inheritance which, in a happier hour, they had almost
unanimously renounced.(37) In the country between the Elbe
and the Oder several populous 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
descendant of their ancient kings, who in his garb and
present fortune is confounded with the meanest of his
vassals.(38) 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. (39)
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 barbarous than the Vandals. The origin of the
Moors is involved in darkness: they were ignorant of the use
of letters.(40) 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.(41)
During the vigour of the Roman power they observed a
respectful distance from Carthage and the sea-shore; under
the feeble reign of the Vandals they invaded the cities of
Numidia, occupied the sea-coast from Tangier to Caesarea,
and pitched their camps, with impunity, in the fertile
province of Pyzacium. 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 regal dignity.(42) 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 sail 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 intrusted the command of Africa to the eunuch Solomon,(43)
who proved himself not unworthy to be the
F.........J...........................................................M........M
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 depended 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.(44) 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
discomfited by a 'beardless' antagonist. The victorious
eunuch advanced thirteen days' journey from Carthage to
besiege Mount Aurasius,(45) the citadel, and at the same time
the gar den, of Numidia. That range of hills, a branch of
the great Atlas, contains, within a circumference of one
hundred and twenty miles, a rare variety of soil and
climate; the intermediate valleys and elevated plains abound
with rich pastures, perpetual streams, and fruits of a
delicious taste and uncommon magnitude. This fair solitude
is decorated with the ruins of Lambesa, a Roman city, once
the seat of a legion, and the residence of forty thousand
inhabitants. The Ionic temple of Aesculapius is encompassed
with Moorish huts; and the cattle now graze in the midst of
an amphitheatre, under the shade of Corinthian columns. A
sharp perpendicular rock rises above the level of the
mountain, where the African princes deposited their wives
and 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 Aurasius. 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 must again 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 Geminian 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 Sitifi 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
counsels 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 royal line, Theudes, a
valiant and powerful chief, ascended the throne of Spain
which he had formerly administered in the name of Theodoric
and his infant grandson. Under his command the Visigoths
besieged the fortress of Ceuta, 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.(46) It was
not long before his pride and resentment were gratified by a
suppliant embassy from the unfortunate Gelimer, 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, Theudes amused the
ambassadors till he was secretly informed of the loss of
Carthage, and then dismissed them, with obscure and
contemptuous advice, to seek in their native country a true
knowledge of the state of the Vandals.(47) The long
continuance of the Italian war delayed the punishment of the
Visigoths, and the eyes of Theudes were closed before they
tasted the fruits of his mistaken policy. After his death
the sceptre 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,
were ceded 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.(48) 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 Thrasimond the African king: (49) on this
occasion the fortress of Lilybaeum,(50) 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 signalised their valour in the
Moorish wars. Their merit was over-rated 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 in the ports of
Sicily, and were speedily delighted or alarmed by the
surprising intelligence that their 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 a nuptial 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
Lilybaeum," said the Roman general, " belonged to the
Vandals, and I claim them by the right of conquest. Your
submission may deserve the favour 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
the possession of a single city, but to deprive you of all
the provinces which you unjustly withhold from their lawful
sovereign." A nation of two hundred thousand 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.(51)
The birth of Amalasontha, the regent and queen of Italy,(52)
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,(53) and the
regal succession of the Amali was illustrated in the
eleventh 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 Eutharic was suddenIy
exalted to the rank of a consul and a prince. He enjoyed
only a short time the charms of Amalasontha and the hopes of
the succes sion; and his widow, after the death of her
husband and father, was left the guardian of her son
Athalaric and the kingdom of Italy. At the age of about
twenty-eight 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, the Latin, and the Gothic
tongues, the daughter of Theodoric maintained in her
counsels 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 paternal inheritance; her extreme lenity never
consented to inflict any corporal or pecuniary penalties on
her Roman subjects; and she generously despised the clamours
of the Goths, who, at the end of forty 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; and
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 the chief of a barbarian camp and the first
magistrate of a civilised nation. From the age of ten years
(54) Athalaric was diligently instructed in the arts and
sciences either useful or ornamental for a Roman prince, and
three venerable Goths were chosen to instil the principles
of honour and virtue into the mind of their young king. But
the pupil who is insensible of the benefits must abhor the
restraints of education; and the solicitude of the queen,
which affection rendered anxious and severe, offended the
untractable 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 and 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 socicty of his equals and the
glorious ignorance of his ancestors. To this rude clamour,
importunately urged as the voice of the nation, Amalasontha
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 ungrateful youth betrayed the mischievous designs of his
favourites and her enemies. Encompassed with domestic foes,
she entered into a secret negotiation with the emperor
Justinian, obtained the assurance of a friendly reception,
and had actually deposited at Dyrrachium, in Epirus, 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 splendour of
Constantinople. But the mind of Amalasontha 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 pretence 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 had lamented the disorders of her
son, she soon wept his irreparable loss; and the death of
Athalaric, 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 lance to the
distaff, the daughter of Theodoric conceived the
impracticable 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 affected
gratitude; and the eloquent Cassiodorus announced to the
senate and the emperor that Amalasontha and Theodatus 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 Amalasontha was more strongly
directed by her contempt of his avarice and pusillanimity,
which had deprived him of the love of the Italians and the
esteem of the barbarians. But Theodatus was exasperated by
the contempt which he deserved: her justice had repressed
and reproached the oppression which he exercised against his
Tuscan neighbours; and the principal Goths, united by common
guilt and resentment, conspired to instigate his slow and
timid disposition. The letters of congratulation were
scarcely dispatched before the queen of Italy was imprisoned
in a small island of the lake of Bolsena,(55) where, after a
short confinement, she was strangled in the bath, by the
order or with 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 Lilybaeum, ten
barbarian fugitives, and a just compensation for the pillage
of a small town on the Illyrian borders; but they secretly
negotiated with Theodatus to betray the province of Tuscany,
and tempted Amalasontha to extricate herself from danger and
perplexity by a free surrender of the kingdom of Italy. A
false and servile epistle was subscribed by 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: he prompted, with artful and ambiguous hints, the
execution of a crime so useful to the Romans,(56) 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 a 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 troop of guards, who served
on horseback and were armed with lances and bucklers,
attended the person of Belisarius; his cavalry was composed
of two hundred Huns, three hundred Moors, and four thousand
'confederates', and the infantry consisted only of three
thousand Isaurians. 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
peaceably 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 defence of the island to the inhabitants, had some
reason to complain that their confidence was ungratefully
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.(57) 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 harbour; 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;(58) 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 whom 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 a sedition which was
kindled during his absence in his own camp.(59) Disorder and
disobedi ence were the common malady of the times: the
genius to command and the virtue to obey resided only in the
mind of Belisarius.
Although Theodatus descended from a race of heroes, he was
ignorant of the art, and averse to the dangers, of war.
Although he had studied the writings of Plato and Tully,
philosophy was incapable of purifying his mind from the
basest passions, avarice and fear. He had purchased a
sceptre by ingratitude and murder: at the first menace of an
enemy, he degraded his own majesty and that of a nation,
which already disdained their unworthy sovereign.
Astonished by the recent example of Gelimer, he saw himself
dragged in chains through the streets of Constantinople: 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 be always proclaimed
before that of the Gothic king; and that as often as the
statue of Theodatus was erected in brass on 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 three hundred pounds; and
promised to supply, at the requisition of his sovereign,
three thousand Gothic auxiliaries, 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 Alban
villa, (60) than he was recalled by the anxiety of Theodatus;
and the dialogue which passed between the king and the
ambassador deserves to be represented in its original
simplicity. "Are you of 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: every to his character. What is
your meaning? You are a philosopher - Justinian is emperor
of the Romans: it would all 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 provinces of his empire." This
reasoning might not convince, but it was sufficient to alarm
and subdue the weakness of Theodatus; and he soon descended
to his last offer, that for the poor equivalent of a pension
of forty-eight thousand pounds 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 intrusted 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 referred 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, Theodatus capriciously rose to groundless
and fatal presumption, (61) 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 (62) was employed in the
reduction of Sicily, the invasion of Italy is applied by
Procopius to the second year of the Gothic war. (63)
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 Rhegium.
A Gothic prince, who had married the daughter of Theodatus,
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
Ebermor deserted with his followers to the Roman camp, and
was dismissed to enjoy the servile honors of the Byzantine
court. (64) From Rhegium to Naples, the fleet and army of
Belisarius, almost always in view of each other, advanced
near three hundred miles along the sea-coast. The people of
Bruttium, Lucania, and Campania, who abhorred the name and
religion of the Goths, embraced the specious excuse, that
their ruined walls were incapable of defence: the soldiers
paid a just equivalent for a plentiful market; and curiosity
alone interrupted the peaceful occupations of the husbandman
or artificer. Naples, which has swelled to a great and
populous capital, long cherished the language and manners of
a Grecian colony; (65) and the choice of Virgil had ennobled
this elegant retreat, which attracted the lovers of repose
and study, elegant retreat, which attracted the lovers of
repose and study, from the noise, the smoke, and the
laborious opulence of Rome. (66) 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
eight hundred Barbarians, whose wives and children were
detained at Ravenna as the 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 of Naples (67)
measured only two thousand three hundred and sixty three
paces: (68) 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
Isaurian, 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 his secret by a last and
fruitless admonition of the impending danger. In the
darkness of the night, four hundred Romans entered the
aqueduct, raised themselves by a rope, which they fastened
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 practised 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
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 you,
generosity of what friends they have obstinately deprived
themselves." The city was saved by the virtue and authority
of its conqueror; (69) and when the Neapolitans returned to
their houses, they found some consolation in the secret
enjoyment of their hidden treasures. The Barbarian garrison
enlisted in the service of the emperor; Apulia and Calabria,
delivered from the odious presence of the Goths,
acknowledged his dominion; and the tusks of the Calydonian
boar, which were still shown at Beneventum, are curiously
described by the historian of Belisarius. (70)
The faithful soldiers and citizens of Naples had expected
their deliverance from a prince, who remained the inactive
and almost indifferent spectator of their ruin. Theodatus
secured his person within the walls of Rome, whilst his
cavalry advanced forty miles on the Appian way, and encamped
in the Pomptine marshes; which, by a canal of nineteen miles
in length, had been recently drained and converted into
excellent pastures. (71) 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. (72) The most abject slaves have arraigned the
guilt or weakness of an unfortunate master. The character of
Theodatus 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 Vitiges, 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 Theodatus on the
Flaminian 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 the 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
Vitiges impatiently wished to return to Ravenna, where he
might seize, with the reluctant hand of the daughter of
Amalasontha, 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. Leuderis, an ancient 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 fondly hailed the restoration of a
Roman emperor as a new aera 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
Cumae, he advanced about twenty miles to the banks of the
Vulturnus, contemplated the decayed grandeur of Capua, and
halted at the separation of the Latin and Appian ways. The
work of the censor, after the incessant use of nine
centuries, still preserved its primaeval beauty, and not a
flaw could be discovered in the large polished stones, of
which that solid, though narrow road, was so firmly
compacted. (73) Belisarius, however, preferred the Latin way,
which, at a distance from the sea and the marshes, skirted
in a space of one hundred and twenty miles along the foot of
the mountains. His enemies had disappeared: when he made
his entrance through the Asinarian gate, the garrison
departed without molestation along the Flaminian way; and
the city, after sixty years' servitude, was delivered from
the yoke of the Barbarians. Leuderis 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. (74)
The first days, which coincided with the old Saturnalia,
were devoted to mutual congratulation and the public joy;
and the Catholics prepared to celebrate, without a rival,
the approaching festival 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
tranquillity and justice. They applauded the rapid success
of his arms, which overran the adjacent country, as far as
Narni, Perusia, 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 Vitiges were executed, during the
winter season, with diligence and effect. From their rustic
habitations, from their distant garrisons, the Goths
assembled at Ravenna for the defence of their country; and
such were their numbers, that, after an army had been
detached for the relief of Dalmatia, one hundred and fifty
thousand 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 Flaminian way, declined the
useless sieges of Perusia and Spoleto, respected he
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 Belisarius had computed the
value of the twenty 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 one thousand horse,
the Roman general sallied from the Flaminian 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 Tyber, he was suddenly encompassed and
assaulted by their numerous squadrons. The fate of Italy
depended on his life; and the deserters pointed to the
conspicuous horse a bay, (75) with a white face, which he
rode 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 were 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 Visandus, the standard-bearer,
(76) who maintained his foremost station, till he was pierced
with thirteen 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 precipitate
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 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; and 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 Tyber, and formed the
siege of the city, which continued above a year, till their
final departure. Whatever fancy may conceive, the severe
compass of the geographer defines the circumference of Rome
within a line of twelve miles and three hundred and
forty-five paces; and that circumference, except in the
Vatican, has invariably been the same from the triumph of
Aurelian to the peaceful but obscure reign of the modern
popes. (77) But in the day of her greatness, the space within
her walls was crowded with habitations and inhabitants; and
the populous suburbs, that stretched along the public roads,
were darted like so many rays from one common centre.
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 thirty thousand males of a military age; (78)
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 defence of their
country and religion. The prudence of Belisarius did not
neglect this important resource. His soldiers were relieved
by the zeal and diligence of the people, who watched while
they slept, and labored while they reposed: 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
which 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 band was reduced to five thousand men,
he undertook, with such contemptible numbers, to defend a
circle of twelve miles, against an army of one hundred and
fifty thousand Barbarians. In the walls of Rome, which
Belisarius constructed or restored, the materials of ancient
architecture may be discerned; (79) and the whole
fortification was completed, except in a chasm still extant
between the Pincian and Flaminian gates, which the
prejudices of the Goths and Romans left under the effectual
guard of St. Peter the apostle. (80)
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 balistri, a powerful cross-bow, which darted
short but massy arrows; the onagri, or wild asses, which, on
the principle of a sling, threw stones and bullets of an
enormous size. (81) A chain was drawn across the Tyber; the
arches of the aqueducts were made impervious, and the mole
or sepulchre of Hadrian (82) 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 by the statues of
gods and heroes; and the lover of the arts must read with a
sigh, that the works of Praxiteles or Lysippus were torn
from their lofty pedestals, and hurled into the ditch on the
heads of the besiegers. (83) To each of his lieutenants
Belisarius assigned the defence of a gate, with the wise and
peremptory instruction, that, whatever might be the alarm,
they should steadily adhere to their 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 fourteen gates, seven only were
invested from the Proenestine to the Flaminian way; and
Vitiges divided his troops into six camps, each of which was
fortified with a ditch and rampart. On the Tuscan side of
the river, a seventh encampment was formed in the field or
circus of the Vatican, for the important purpose of
commanding the Milvian bridge and the course of the Tyber;
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. (84) Domestic
war now rendered the admonition 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 of brass; and a fruitless effort to turn
them on their rusty hinges revealed the scandalous secret
that some Romans were still attached 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 of the level of the rampart. On the
morning of the nineteenth day, a general attack was made
from the Praenestine 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.
As shout of applause and victory was reechoed 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, Vitiges still continued, or feigned 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 Praenestine gate and
the sepulchre of Hadrian, at the distance of three miles
from each other. Near the former, the double walls of the
Vivarium (85) 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 had given way, the Romans, and Rome itself, were
irrecoverably lost. This perilous day was the most glorious
in the life of Belisarius. Amidst tumult and dismay, the
whole plan of the attack and defence 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
were not 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 incessantly harassed by the Roman general,
who, in frequent skirmishes, destroyed above five thousand
of their bravest troops. Their cavalry was unpractised 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 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, (86) 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 to 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,
aspired to the ancient honors of the Roman legion.
Belisarius praised the spirit of his troops, condemned their
presumption, yielded to their clamors, and prepared the
remedies of a 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 Tyber, Belisarius
advanced from the Pincian and Salarian gates. But his army,
four thousand soldiers perhaps, was lost in a 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 affright from the formidable
aspect of an armed rampart. The reputation of Belisarius
was unsullied 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.
From the moment that Belisarius had determined to sustain a
siege, his assiduous care provided Rome against the danger
of famine, more dreadful than the Gothic arms. An
extraordinary supply of corn was imported from Sicily: the
harvests of Campania and Tuscany were forcibly swept for the
use of the city; and the rights of private property were
infringed by the strong plea of the public safety. It might
easily be foreseen that the enemy would intercept the
aqueducts; and the cessation of the water-mills was the
first inconvenience, which was speedily removed by mooring
large vessels, and fixing mill-stones in the current of the
river. The stream was soon embarrassed by the trunks of
trees, and polluted with dead bodies; yet so effectual were
the precautions of the Roman general, that the waters of the
Tyber still continued to give motion to the mills and drink
to the inhabitants: the more distant quarters were supplied
from domestic wells; and a besieged city might support,
without impatience, the privation of her public baths. A
large portion of Rome, from the Praenestine gate to the
church of St. Paul, was never invested by the Goths; their
excursions were restrained by the activity of the Moorish
troops: the navigation of the Tyber, and the Latin, Appian,
and Ostian ways, were left free and unmolested for the
introduction of corn and cattle, or the retreat of the
inhabitants, who sought refuge in Campania or Sicily.
Anxious to relieve himself from a useless and devouring
multitude, Belisarius issued his peremptory orders for the
instant departure of the women, the children, and slaves;
required his soldiers to dismiss their male and female
attendants, and regulated their allowance that one moiety
should be given in provisions, and the other in money. His
foresight was justified by the increase of the public
distress, as soon as the Goths had occupied two important
posts in the neighborhood of Rome. By the loss of the port,
or, as it is now called, the city of Porto, he was deprived
of the country on the right of the Tyber, and the best
communication with the sea; and he reflected, with grief and
anger, that three hundred men, could he have spared such a
feeble band, might have defended its impregnable works.
Seven miles from the capital, between the Appian and the
Latin ways, two principal aqueducts crossing, and again
crossing each other: enclosed within their solid and lofty
arches a fortified space, (87) where Vitiges established a
camp of seven thousand Goths to intercept the convoy of
Sicily and Campania. The granaries of Rome were insensibly
exhausted, the adjacent country had been wasted with fire
and sword; such scanty supplies as might yet be obtained by
hasty excursions were the reward of valor, and the purchase
of wealth: the forage of the horses, and the bread of the
soldiers, never failed: but in the last months of the siege,
the people were exposed to the miseries of scarcity,
unwholesome food, (88) and contagious disorders. Belisarius
saw and pitied their sufferings; but he had foreseen, and he
watched the decay of their loyalty, and the progress of
their discontent. Adversity had awakened the Romans from
the dreams of grandeur and freedom, and taught them the
humiliating lesson, that it was of small moment to their
real happiness, whether the name of their master was derived
from the Gothic or the Latin language. The lieutenant of
Justinian listened to their just complaints, but he rejected
with disdain the idea of flight or capitulation; repressed
their clamorous impatience for battle; amused them with the
prospect of a sure and speedy relief; and secured himself
and the city from the effects of their despair or treachery.
Twice in each month he changed the station of the officers
to whom the custody of the gates was committed: the various
precautions of patroles, watch words, lights, and music,
were repeatedly employed to discover whatever passed on the
ramparts; out-guards were posted beyond the ditch, and the
trusty vigilance of dogs supplied the more doubtful fidelity
of mankind. A letter was intercepted, which assured the
king of the Goths that the Asinarian gate, adjoining to the
Lateran church, should be secretly opened to his troops. On
the proof or suspicion of treason, several senators were
banished, and the pope Sylverius was summoned to attend the
representative of his sovereign, at his head-quarters in the
Pincian palace. (89) The ecclesiastics, who followed their
bishop, were detained in the first or second apartment, (90)
and he alone was admitted to the presence of Belisarius. The
conqueror of Rome and Carthage was modestly seated at the
feet of Antonina, who reclined on a stately couch: the
general was silent, but the voice of reproach and menace
issued from the mouth of his imperious wife. Accused by
credible witnesses, and the evidence of his own
subscription, the successor of St. Peter was despoiled of
his pontifical ornaments, clad in the mean habit of a monk,
and embarked, without delay, for a distant exile in the
East. (F) At the emperor's command, the clergy of Rome
proceeded to the choice of a new bishop; and after a solemn
invocation of the Holy Ghost, elected the deacon Vigilius,
who had purchased the papal throne by a bribe of two hundred
pounds of gold. The profit, and consequently the guilt, of
this simony, was imputed to Belisarius: but the hero obeyed
the orders of his wife; Antonina served the passions of the
empress; and Theodora lavished her treasures, in the vain
hope of obtaining a pontiff hostile or indifferent to the
council of Chalcedon. (91)
The epistle of Belisarius to the emperor announced his
victory, his danger, and his resolution. "According to your
commands, we have entered the dominions of the Goths, and
reduced to your obedience Sicily, Campania, and the city of
Rome; but the loss of these conquests will be more
disgraceful than their acquisition was glorious. Hitherto
we have successfully fought against the multitudes of the
Barbarians, but their multitudes may finally prevail.
Victory is the gift of Providence, but the reputation of
kings and generals depends on the success or the failure of
their designs. Permit me to speak with freedom: if you wish
that we should live, send us subsistence; if you desire that
we should conquer, send us arms, horses, and men. The
Romans have received us as friends and deliverers: but in
our present distress, they will be either betrayed by their
confidence, or we shall be oppressed by their treachery and
hatred. For myself, my life is consecrated to your service:
it is yours to reflect, whether my death in this situation
will contribute to the glory and prosperity of your reign."
Perhaps that reign would have been equally prosperous if the
peaceful master of the East had abstained from the conquest
of Africa and Italy: but as Justinian was ambitious of fame,
he made some efforts (they were feeble and languid) to
support and rescue his victorious general. A reenforcement
of sixteen hundred Sclavonians and Huns was led by Martin
and Valerian; and as they reposed during the winter season
in the harbors of Greece, the strength of the men and horses
was not impaired by the fatigues of a sea-voyage; and they
distinguished their valor in the first sally against the
besiegers. About the time of the summer solstice, Euthalius
landed at Terracina with large sums of money for the payment
of the troops: he cautiously proceeded along the Appian way,
and this convoy entered Rome through the gate Capena, (92)
while Belisarius, on the other side, diverted the attention
of the Goths by a vigorous and successful skirmish. These
seasonable aids, the use and reputation of which were
dexterously managed by the Roman general, revived the
courage, or at least the hopes, of the soldiers and people.
The historian Procopius was despatched with an important
commission to collect the troops and provisions which
Campania could furnish, or Constantinople had sent; and the
secretary of Belisarius was soon followed by Antonina
herself, (93) who boldly traversed the posts of the enemy,
and returned with the Oriental succors to the relief of her
husband and the besieged city. A fleet of three thousand
Isaurians cast anchor in the Bay of Naples and afterwards at
Ostia. Above two thousand horse, of whom a part were
Thracians, landed at Tarentum; and, after the junction of
five hundred soldiers of Campania, and a train of wagons
laden with wine and flour, they directed their march on the
Appian way, from Capua to the neighborhood of Rome. The
forces that arrived by land and sea were united at the mouth
of the Tyber. Antonina convened a council of war: it was
resolved to surmount, with sails and oars, the adverse
stream of the river; and the Goths were apprehensive of
disturbing, by any rash hostilities, the negotiation to
which Belisarius had craftily listened. They credulously
believed that they saw no more than the vanguard of a fleet
and army, which already covered the Ionian Sea and the
plains of Campania; and the illusion was supported by the
haughty language of the Roman general, when he gave audience
to the ambassadors of Vitiges. After a specious discourse to
vindicate the justice of his cause, they declared, that, for
the sake of peace, they were disposed to renounce the
possession of Sicily. "The emperor is not less generous,"
replied his lieutenant, with a disdainful smile, "in return
for a gift which you no longer possess: he presents you with
an ancient province of the empire; he resigns to the Goths
the sovereignty of the British island." Belisarius rejected
with equal firmness and contempt the offer of a tribute; but
he allowed the Gothic ambassadors to seek their fate from
the mouth of Justinian himself; and consented, with seeming
reluctance, to a truce of three months, from the winter
solstice to the equinox of spring. Prudence might not
safely trust either the oaths or hostages of the Barbarians,
and the conscious superiority of the Roman chief was
expressed in the distribution of his troops. As soon as
fear or hunger compelled the Goths to evacuate Alba, Porto,
and Centumcellae, their place was instantly supplied; the
garrisons of Narni, Spoleto, and Perusia, were reenforced,
and the seven camps of the besiegers were gradually
encompassed with the calamities of a siege. The prayers and
pilgrimage of Datius, bishop of Milan, were not without
effect; and he obtained one thousand Thracians and
Isaurians, to assist the revolt of Liguria against her Arian
tyrant. At the same time, John the Sanguinary, (94) the
nephew of Vitalian, was detached with two thousand chosen
horse, first to Alba, on the Fucine Lake, and afterwards to
the frontiers of Picenum, on the Hadriatic Sea. "In the
province," said Belisarius, "the Goths have deposited their
families and treasures, without a guard or the suspicion of
danger. Doubtless they will violate the truce: let them feel
your presence, before they hear of your motions. Spare the
Italians; suffer not any fortified places to remain hostile
in your rear; and faithfully reserve the spoil for an equal
and common partition. It would not be reasonable," he added
with a laugh, "that whilst we are toiling to the destruction
of the drones, our more fortunate brethren should rifle and
enjoy the honey."
The whole nation of the Ostrogoths had been assembled for
the attack, and was almost entirely consumed in the siege of
Rome. If any credit be due to an intelligent spectator, one
third at least of their enormous host was destroyed, in
frequent and bloody combats under the walls of the city.
The bad fame and pernicious qualities of the summer air
might already be imputed to the decay of agriculture and
population; and the evils of famine and pestilence were
aggravated by their own licentiousness, and the unfriendly
disposition of the country. While Vitiges struggled with his
fortune, while he hesitated between shame and ruin, his
retreat was hastened by domestic alarms. The king of the
Goths was informed by trembling messengers, that John the
Sanguinary spread the devastations of war from the Apennine
to the Hadriatic; that the rich spoils and innumerable
captives of Picenum were lodged in the fortifications of
Rimini; and that this formidable chief had defeated his
uncle, insulted his capital, and seduced, by secret
correspondence, the fidelity of his wife, the imperious
daughter of Amalasontha. Yet, before he retired, Vitiges
made a last effort, either to storm or to surprise the city.
A secret passage was discovered in one of the aqueducts; two
citizens of the Vatican were tempted by bribes to intoxicate
the guards of the Aurelian gate; an attack was meditated on
the walls beyond the Tyber, in a place which was not
fortified with towers; and the Barbarians advanced, with
torches and scaling-ladders, to the assault of the Pincian
gate. But every attempt was defeated by the intrepid
vigilance of Belisarius and his band of veterans, who, in
the most perilous moments, did not regret the absence of
their companions; and the Goths, alike destitute of hope and
subsistence, clamorously urged their departure before the
truce should expire, and the Roman cavalry should again be
united. One year and nine days after the commencement of
the siege, an army, so lately strong and triumphant, burnt
their tents, and tumultuously repassed the Milvian bridge.
They repassed not with impunity: their thronging multitudes,
oppressed in a narrow passage, were driven headlong into the
Tyber, by their own fears and the pursuit of the enemy; and
the Roman general, sallying from the Pincian gate, inflicted
a severe and disgraceful wound on their retreat. The slow
length of a sickly and desponding host was heavily dragged
along the Flaminian way; from whence the Barbarians were
sometimes compelled to deviate, lest they should encounter
the hostile garrisons that guarded the high road to Rimini
and Ravenna. Yet so powerful was this flying army, that
Vitiges spared ten thousand men for the defence of the
cities which he was most solicitous to preserve, and
detached his nephew Uraias, with an adequate force, for the
chastisement of rebellious Milan. At the head of his
principal army, he besieged Rimini, only thirty-three miles
distant from the Gothic capital. A feeble rampart, and a
shallow ditch, were maintained by the skill and valor of
John the Sanguinary, who shared the danger and fatigue of
the meanest soldier, and emulated, on a theatre less
illustrious, the military virtues of his great commander.
The towers and battering-engines of the Barbarians were
rendered useless; their attacks were repulsed; and the
tedious blockade, which reduced the garrison to the last
extremity of hunger, afforded time for the union and march
of the Roman forces. A fleet, which had surprised Ancona,
sailed along the coast of the Hadriatic, to the relief of
the besieged city. The eunuch Narses landed in Picenum with
two thousand Heruli and five thousand of the bravest troops
of the East. The rock of the Apennine was forced; ten
thousand veterans moved round the foot of the mountains,
under the command of Belisarius himself; and a new army,
whose encampment blazed with innumerable lights, appeared to
advance along the Flaminian way. Overwhelmed with
astonishment and despair, the Goths abandoned the siege of
Rimini, their tents, their standards, and their leaders; and
Vitiges, who gave or followed the example of flight, never
halted till he found a shelter within the walls and morasses
of Ravenna. To these walls, and to some fortresses destitute
of any mutual support, the Gothic monarchy was now reduced.
The provinces of Italy had embraced the party of the emperor
and his army, gradually recruited to the number of twenty
thousand men, must have achieved an easy and rapid conquest,
if their invincible powers had not been weakened by the
discord of the Roman chiefs. Before the end of the siege, an
act of blood, ambiguous and indiscreet, sullied the fair
fame of Belisarius. Presidius, a loyal Italian, as he fled
from Ravenna to Rome, was rudely stopped by Constantine, the
military governor of Spoleto, and despoiled, even in a
church, of two daggers richly inlaid with gold and precious
stones. As soon as the public danger had subsided,
Presidius complained of the loss and injury: his complaint
was heard, but the order of restitution was disobeyed by the
pride and avarice of the offender. Exasperated by the delay,
Presidius boldly arrested the general's horse as he passed
through the forum; and, with the spirit of a citizen,
demanded the common benefit of the Roman laws. The honor of
Belisarius was engaged; he summoned a council; claimed the
obedience of his subordinate officer; and was provoked, by
an insolent reply, to call hastily for the presence of his
guards. Constantine, viewing their entrance as the signal
of death, drew his sword, and rushed on the general, who
nimbly eluded the stroke, and was protected by his friends;
while the desperate assassin was disarmed, dragged into a
neighboring chamber, and executed, or rather murdered, by
the guards, at the arbitrary command of Belisarius. (95) In
this hasty act of violence, the guilt of Constantine was no
longer remembered; the despair and death of that valiant
officer were secretly imputed to the revenge of Antonina;
and each of his colleagues, conscious of the same rapine,
was apprehensive of the same fate. The fear of a common
enemy suspended the effects of their envy and discontent;
but in the confidence of approaching victory, they
instigated a powerful rival to oppose the conqueror of Rome
and Africa. From the domestic service of the palace, and
the administration of the private revenue, Narses the eunuch
was suddenly exalted to the head of an army; and the spirit
of a hero, who afterwards equalled the merit and glory of
Belisarius, served only to perplex the operations of the
Gothic war. To his prudent counsels, the relief of Rimini
was ascribed by the leaders of the discontented faction, who
exhorted Narses to assume an independent and separate
command. The epistle of Justinian had indeed enjoined his
obedience to the general; but the dangerous exception, "as
far as may be advantageous to the public service," reserved
some freedom of judgment to the discreet favorite, who had
so lately departed from the sacred and familiar conversation
of his sovereign. In the exercise of this doubtful right,
the eunuch perpetually dissented from the opinions of
Belisarius; and, after yielding with reluctance to the siege
of Urbino, he deserted his colleague in the night, and
marched away to the conquest of the Aemilian province. The
fierce and formidable bands of the Heruli were attached to
the person of Narses; (96) ten thousand Romans and
confederates were persuaded to march under his banners;
every malecontent embraced the fair opportunity of revenging
his private or imaginary wrongs; and the remaining troops of
Belisarius were divided and dispersed from the garrisons of
Sicily to the shores of the Hadriatic. His skill and
perseverance overcame every obstacle: Urbino was taken, the
sieges of Faesulae Orvieto, and Auximum, were undertaken and
vigorously prosecuted; and the eunuch Narses was at length
recalled to the domestic cares of the palace. All
dissensions were healed, and all opposition was subdued, by
the temperate authority of the Roman general, to whom his
enemies could not refuse their esteem; and Belisarius
inculcated the salutary lesson that the forces of the state
should compose one body, and be animated by one soul. But
in the interval of discord, the Goths were permitted to
breathe; an important season was lost, Milan was destroyed,
and the northern provinces of Italy were afflicted by an
inundation of the Franks.
When Justinian first meditated the conquest of Italy, he
sent ambassadors to the kings of the Franks, and adjured
them, by the common ties of alliance and religion, to join
in the holy enterprise against the Arians. The Goths, as
their want were more urgent, employed a more effectual mode
of persuasion, and vainly strove, by the gift of lands and
money, to purchase the friendship, or at least the
neutrality, of a light and perfidious nation. (97) But the
arms of Belisarius, and the revolt of the Italians, had no
sooner shaken the Gothic monarchy, than Theodebert of
Austrasia, the most powerful and warlike of the Merovingian
kings, was persuaded to succor their distress by an indirect
and seasonable aid. Without expecting the consent of their
sovereign, the thousand Burgundians, his recent subjects,
descended from the Alps, and joined the troops which Vitiges
had sent to chastise the revolt of Milan. After an
obstinate siege, the capital of Liguria was reduced by
famine; but no capitulation could be obtained, except for
the safe retreat of the Roman garrison. Datius, the
orthodox bishop, who had seduced his countrymen to rebellion
(98) and ruin, escaped to the luxury and honors of the
Byzantine court; (99) but the clergy, perhaps the Arian
clergy, were slaughtered at the foot of their own altars by
the defenders of the Catholic faith. Three hundred thousand
males were reported to be slain; (100) the female sex, and
the more precious spoil, was resigned to the Burgundians;
and the houses, or at least the walls, of Milan, were
levelled with the ground. The Goths, in their last moments,
were revenged by the destruction of a city, second only to
Rome in size and opulence, in the splendor of its buildings,
or the number of its inhabitants; and Belisarius sympathized
alone in the fate of his deserted and devoted friends.
Encouraged by this successful inroad, Theodebert himself, in
the ensuing spring, invaded the plains of Italy with an army
of one hundred thousand Barbarians. (101) The king, and some
chosen followers, were mounted on horseback, and armed with
lances; the infantry, without bows or spears, were satisfied
with a shield, a sword, and a double-edged battle-axe,
which, in their hands, became a deadly and unerring weapon.
Italy trembled at the march of the Franks; and both the
Gothic prince and the Roman general, alike ignorant of their
designs, solicited, with hope and terror, the friendship of
these dangerous allies. Till he had secured the passage of
the Po on the bridge of Pavia, the grandson of Clovis
dissembled his intentions, which he at length declared, by
assaulting, almost at the same instant, the hostile camps of
the Romans and Goths. Instead of uniting their arms, they
fled with equal precipitation; and the fertile, though
desolate provinces of Liguria and Aemilia, were abandoned to
a licentious host of Barbarians, whose rage was not
mitigated by any thoughts of settlement or conquest. Among
the cities which they ruined, Genoa, not yet constructed of
marble, is particularly enumerated; and the deaths of
thousands, according to the regular practice of war, appear
to have excited less horror than some idolatrous sacrifices
of women and children, which were performed with impunity in
the camp of the most Christian king. If it were not a
melancholy truth, that the first and most cruel sufferings
must be the lot of the innocent and helpless, history might
exult in the misery of the conquerors, who, in the midst of
riches, were left destitute of bread or wine, reduced to
drink the waters of the Po, and to feed on the flesh of
distempered cattle. The dysentery swept away one third of
their army; and the clamors of his subjects, who were
impatient to pass the Alps, disposed Theodebert to listen
with respect to the mild exhortations of Belisarius. The
memory of this inglorious and destructive warfare was
perpetuated on the medals of Gaul; and Justinian, without
unsheathing his sword, assumed the title of conqueror of the
Franks. The Merovingian prince was offended by the vanity
of the emperor; he affected to pity the fallen fortunes of
the Goths; and his insidious offer of a foederal union was
fortified by the promise or menace of descending from the
Alps at the head of five hundred thousand men. His plans of
conquest were boundless, and perhaps chimerical. The king
of Austrasia threatened to chastise Justinian, and to march
to the gates of Constantinople: (102) he was overthrown and
slain (103) by a wild bull, (104) as he hunted in the Belgic
or German forests.
As soon as Belisarius was delivered from his foreign and
domestic enemies, he seriously applied his forces to the
final reduction of Italy. In the siege of Osimo, the
general was nearly transpierced with an arrow, if the mortal
stroke had not been intercepted by one of his guards, who
lost, in that pious office, the use of his hand. The Goths
of Osimo, (G) four thousand warriors, with those of Faesulae
and the Cottian Alps, were among the last who maintained
their independence; and their gallant resistance, which
almost tired the patience, deserved the esteem, of the
conqueror. His prudence refused to subscribe the safe
conduct which they asked, to join their brethren of Ravenna;
but they saved, by an honorable capitulation, one moiety at
least of their wealth, with the free alternative of retiring
peaceably to their estates, or enlisting to serve the
emperor in his Persian wars. The multitudes which yet
adhered to the standard of Vitiges far surpassed the number
of the Roman troops; but neither prayers nor defiance, nor
the extreme danger of his most faithful subjects, could
tempt the Gothic king beyond the fortifications of Ravenna.
These fortifications were, indeed, impregnable to the
assaults of art or violence; and when Belisarius invested
the capital, he was soon convinced that famine only could
tame the stubborn spirit of the Barbarians. The sea, the
land, and the channels of the Po, were guarded by the
vigilance of the Roman general; and his morality extended
the rights of war to the practice of poisoning the waters,
(105) and secretly firing the granaries (106) of a besieged
city. (107) While he pressed the blockade of Ravenna, he was
surprised by the arrival of two ambassadors from
Constantinople, with a treaty of peace, which Justinian had
imprudently signed, without deigning to consult the author
of his victory. By this disgraceful and precarious
agreement, Italy and the Gothic treasure were divided, and
the provinces beyond the Po were left with the regal title
to the successor of Theodoric. The ambassadors were eager
to accomplish their salutary commission; the captive Vitiges
accepted, with transport, the unexpected offer of a crown;
honor was less prevalent among the Goths, than the want and
appetite of food; and the Roman chiefs, who murmured at the
continuance of the war, professed implicit submission to the
commands of the emperor. If Belisarius had possessed only
the courage of a soldier, the laurel would have been
snatched from his hand by timid and envious counsels; but in
this decisive moment, he resolved, with the magnanimity of a
statesman, to sustain alone the danger and merit of generous
disobedience. Each of his officers gave a written opinion
that the siege of Ravenna was impracticable and hopeless:
the general then rejected the treaty of partition, and
declared his own resolution of leading Vitiges in chains to
the feet of Justinian. The Goths retired with doubt and
dismay: this peremptory refusal deprived them of the only
signature which they could trust, and filled their minds
with a just apprehension, that a sagacious enemy had
discovered the full extent of their deplorable state. They
compared the fame and fortune of Belisarius with the
weakness of their ill- fated king; and the comparison
suggested an extraordinary project, to which Vitiges, with
apparent resignation, was compelled to acquiesce. Partition
would ruin the strength, exile would disgrace the honor, of
the nation; but they offered their arms, their treasures,
and the fortifications of Ravenna, if Belisarius would
disclaim the authority of a master, accept the choice of the
Goths, and assume, as he had deserved, the kingdom of Italy.
If the false lustre of a diadem could have tempted the
loyalty of a faithful subject, his prudence must have
foreseen the inconstancy of the Barbarians, and his rational
ambition would prefer the safe and honorable station of a
Roman general. Even the patience and seeming satisfaction
with which he entertained a proposal of treason, might be
susceptible of a malignant interpretation. But the
lieutenant of Justinian was conscious of his own rectitude;
he entered into a dark and crooked path, as it might lead to
the voluntary submission of the Goths; and his dexterous
policy persuaded them that he was disposed to comply with
their wishes, without engaging an oath or a promise for the
performance of a treaty which he secretly abhorred. The day
of the surrender of Ravenna was stipulated by the Gothic
ambassadors: a fleet, laden with provisions, sailed as a
welcome guest into the deepest recess of the harbor: the
gates were opened to the fancied king of Italy; and
Belisarius, without meeting an enemy, triumphantly marched
through the streets of an impregnable city. (108) The Romans
were astonished by their success; the multitudes of tall and
robust Barbarians were confounded by the image of their own
patience and the masculine females, spitting in the faces of
their sons and husbands, most bitterly reproached them for
betraying their dominion and freedom to these pygmies of the
south, contemptible in their numbers, diminutive in their
stature. Before the Goths could recover from the first
surprise, and claim the accomplishment of their doubtful
hopes, the victor established his power in Ravenna, beyond
the danger of repentance and revolt.
Vitiges, who perhaps had attempted to escape, was honorably
guarded in his palace; (109) the flower of the Gothic youth
was selected for the service of the emperor; the remainder
of the people was dismissed to their peaceful habitations in
the southern provinces; and a colony of Italians was invited
to replenish the depopulated city. The submission of the
capital was imitated in the towns and villages of Italy,
which had not been subdued, or even visited, by the Romans;
and the independent Goths, who remained in arms at Pavia and
Verona, were ambitious only to become the subjects of
Belisarius. But his inflexible loyalty rejected, except as
the substitute of Justinian, their oaths of allegiance; and
he was not offended by the reproach of their deputies, that
he rather chose to be a slave than a king.
After the second victory of Belisarius, envy again
whispered, Justinian listened, and the hero was recalled.
"The remnant of the Gothic war was no longer worthy of his
presence: a gracious sovereign was impatient to reward his
services, and to consult his wisdom; and he alone was
capable of defending the East against the innumerable armies
of Persia." Belisarius understood the suspicion, accepted
the excuse, embarked at Ravenna his spoils and trophies; and
proved, by his ready obedience, that such an abrupt removal
from the government of Italy was not less unjust than it
might have been indiscreet. The emperor received with
honorable courtesy both Vitiges and his more noble consort;
and as the king of the Goths conformed to the Athanasian
faith, he obtained, with a rich inheritance of land in Asia,
the rank of senator and patrician. (110) Every spectator
admired, without peril, the strength and stature of the
young Barbarians: they adored the majesty of the throne, and
promised to shed their blood in the service of their
benefactor. Justinian deposited in the Byzantine palace the
treasures of the Gothic monarchy. A flattering senate was
sometime admitted to gaze on the magnificent spectacle; but
it was enviously secluded from the public view: and the
conqueror of Italy renounced, without a murmur, perhaps
without a sigh, the well-earned honors of a second triumph.
His glory was indeed exalted above all external pomp; and
the faint and hollow praises of the court were supplied,
even in a servile age, by the respect and admiration of his
country. Whenever he appeared in the streets and public
places of Constantinople, Belisarius attracted and satisfied
the eyes of the people. His lofty stature and majestic
countenance fulfilled their expectations of a hero; the
meanest of his fellow-citizens were emboldened by his gentle
and gracious demeanor; and the martial train which attended
his footsteps left his person more accessible than in a day
of battle. Seven thousand horsemen, matchless for beauty
and valor, were maintained in the service, and at the
private expense, of the general. (111) Their prowess was
always conspicuous in single combats, or in the foremost
ranks; and both parties confessed that in the siege of Rome,
the guards of Belisarius had alone vanquished the Barbarian
host. Their numbers were continually augmented by the
bravest and most faithful of the enemy; and his fortunate
captives, the Vandals, the Moors, and the Goths, emulated
the attachment of his domestic followers. By the union of
liberality and justice, he acquired the love of the
soldiers, without alienating the affections of the people.
The sick and wounded were relieved with medicines and money;
and still more efficaciously, by the healing visits and
smiles of their commander. The loss of a weapon or a horse
was instantly repaired, and each deed of valor was rewarded
by the rich and honorable gifts of a bracelet or a collar,
which were rendered more precious by the judgment of
Belisarius. He was endeared to the husbandmen by the peace
and plenty which they enjoyed under the shadow of his
standard. Instead of being injured, the country was enriched
by the march of the Roman armies; and such was the rigid
discipline of their camp, that not an apple was gathered
from the tree, not a path could be traced in the fields of
corn. Belisarius was chaste and sober. In the license of a
military life, none could boast that they had seen him
intoxicated with wine: the most beautiful captives of Gothic
or Vandal race were offered to his embraces; but he turned
aside from their charms, and the husband of Antonina was
never suspected of violating the laws of conjugal fidelity.
The spectator and historian of his exploits has observed,
that amidst the perils of war, he was daring without
rashness, prudent without fear, slow or rapid according to
the exigencies of the moment; that in the deepest distress
he was animated by real or apparent hope, but that he was
modest and humble in the most prosperous fortune. By these
virtues, he equalled or excelled the ancient masters of the
military art. Victory, by sea and land, attended his arms.
He subdued Africa, Italy, and the adjacent islands; led away
captives the successors of Genseric and Theodoric; filled
Constantinople with the spoils of their palaces; and in the
space of six years recovered half the provinces of the
Western empire. In his fame and merit, in wealth and power,
he remained without a rival, the first of the Roman
subjects; the voice of envy could only magnify his dangerous
importance; and the emperor might applaud his own discerning
spirit, which had discovered and raised the genius of
Belisarius.
It was the custom of the Roman triumphs, that a slave should
be placed behind the chariot to remind the conqueror of the
instability of fortune, and the infirmities of human nature.
Procopius, in his Anecdotes, has assumed that servile and
ungrateful office. The generous reader may cast away the
libel, but the evidence of facts will adhere to his memory;
and he will reluctantly confess, that the fame, and even the
virtue, of Belisarius, were polluted by the lust and cruelty
of his wife; and that hero deserved an appellation which may
not drop from the pen of the decent historian. The mother
of Antonina (112) was a theatrical prostitute, and both her
father and grandfather exercised, at Thessalonica and
Constantinople, the vile, though lucrative, profession of
charioteers. In the various situations of their fortune she
became the companion, the enemy, the servant, and the
favorite of the empress Theodora: these loose and ambitious
females had been connected by similar pleasures; they were
separated by the jealousy of vice, and at length reconciled
by the partnership of guilt. Before her marriage with
Belisarius, Antonina had one husband and many lovers:
Photius, the son of her former nuptials, was of an age to
distinguish himself at the siege of Naples; and it was not
till the autumn of her age and beauty (113) that she indulged
a scandalous attachment to a Thracian youth. Theodosius had
been educated in the Eunomian heresy; the African voyage was
consecrated by the baptism and auspicious name of the first
soldier who embarked; and the proselyte was adopted into the
family of his spiritual parents, (114) Belisarius and
Antonina. Before they touched the shores of Africa, this
holy kindred degenerated into sensual love: and as Antonina
soon overleaped the bounds of modesty and caution, the Roman
general was alone ignorant of his own dishonor. During their
residence at Carthage, he surprised the two lovers in a
subterraneous chamber, solitary, warm, and almost naked.
Anger flashed from his eyes. "With the help of this young
man," said the unblushing Antonina, "I was secreting our
most precious effects from the knowledge of Justinian." The
youth resumed his garments, and the pious husband consented
to disbelieve the evidence of his own senses. From this
pleasing and perhaps voluntary delusion, Belisarius was
awakened at Syracuse, by the officious information of
Macedonia; and that female attendant, after requiring an
oath for her security, produced two chamberlains, who, like
herself, had often beheld the adulteries of Antonina. A
hasty flight into Asia saved Theodosius from the justice of
an injured husband, who had signified to one of his guards
the order of his death; but the tears of Antonina, and her
artful seductions, assured the credulous hero of her
innocence: and he stooped, against his faith and judgment,
to abandon those imprudent friends, who had presumed to
accuse or doubt the chastity of his wife. The revenge of a
guilty woman is implacable and bloody: the unfortunate
Macedonia, with the two witnesses, were secretly arrested by
the minister of her cruelty; their tongues were cut out,
their bodies were hacked into small pieces, and their
remains were cast into the Sea of Syracuse. A rash though
judicious saying of Constantine, "I would sooner have
punished the adulteress than the boy," was deeply remembered
by Antonina; and two years afterwards, when despair had
armed that officer against his general, her sanguinary
advice decided and hastened his execution. Even the
indignation of Photius was not forgiven by his mother; the
exile of her son prepared the recall of her lover; and
Theodosius condescended to accept the pressing and humble
invitation of the conqueror of Italy. In the absolute
direction of his household, and in the important commissions
of peace and war, (115) the favorite youth most rapidly
acquired a fortune of four hundred thousand pounds sterling;
and after their return to Constantinople, the passion of
Antonina, at least, continued ardent and unabated. But
fear, devotion, and lassitude perhaps, inspired Theodosius
with more serious thoughts. He dreaded the busy scandal of
the capital, and the indiscreet fondness of the wife of
Belisarius; escaped from her embraces, and retiring to
Ephesus, shaved his head, and took refuge in the sanctuary
of a monastic life. The despair of the new Ariadne could
scarcely have been excused by the death of her husband. She
wept, she tore her hair, she filled the palace with her
cries; "she had lost the dearest of friends, a tender, a
faithful, a laborious friend!" But her warm entreaties,
fortified by the prayers of Belisarius, were insufficient to
draw the holy monk from the solitude of Ephesus. It was not
till the general moved forward for the Persian war, that
Theodosius could be tempted to return to Constantinople; and
the short interval before the departure of Antonina herself
was boldly devoted to love and pleasure.
A philosopher may pity and forgive the infirmities of female
nature, from which he receives no real injury: but
contemptible is the husband who feels, and yet endures, his
own infamy in that of his wife. Antonina pursued her son
with implacable hatred; and the gallant Photius (116) was
exposed to her secret persecutions in the camp beyond the
Tigris. Enraged by his own wrongs, and by the dishonor of
his blood, he cast away in his turn the sentiments of
nature, and revealed to Belisarius the turpitude of a woman
who had violated all the duties of a mother and a wife.
From the surprise and indignation of the Roman general, his
former credulity appears to have been sincere: he embraced
the knees of the son of Antonina, adjured him to remember
his obligations rather than his birth, and confirmed at the
altar their holy vows of revenge and mutual defence. The
dominion of Antonina was impaired by absence; and when she
met her husband, on his return from the Persian confines,
Belisarius, in his first and transient emotions, confined
her person, and threatened her life. Photius was more
resolved to punish, and less prompt to pardon: he flew to
Ephesus; extorted from a trusty eunuch of his another the
full confession of her guilt; arrested Theodosius and his
treasures in the church of St. John the Apostle, and
concealed his captives, whose execution was only delayed, in
a secure and sequestered fortress of Cilicia. Such a daring
outrage against public justice could not pass with impunity;
and the cause of Antonina was espoused by the empress, whose
favor she had deserved by the recent services of the
disgrace of a praefect, and the exile and murder of a pope.
At the end of the campaign, Belisarius was recalled; he
complied, as usual, with the Imperial mandate. His mind was
not prepared for rebellion: his obedience, however adverse
to the dictates of honor, was consonant to the wishes of his
heart; and when he embraced his wife, at the command, and
perhaps in the presence, of the empress, the tender husband
was disposed to forgive or to be forgiven. The bounty of
Theodora reserved for her companion a more precious favor.
"I have found," she said, "my dearest patrician, a pearl of
inestimable value; it has not yet been viewed by any mortal
eye; but the sight and the possession of this jewel are
destined for my friend." (H) As soon as the curiosity and
impatience of Antonina were kindled, the door of a
bed-chamber was thrown open, and she beheld her lover, whom
the diligence of the eunuchs had discovered in his secret
prison. Her silent wonder burst into passionate exclamations
of gratitude and joy, and she named Theodora her queen, her
benefactress, and her savior. The monk of Ephesus was
nourished in the palace with luxury and ambition; but
instead of assuming, as he was promised, the command of the
Roman armies, Theodosius expired in the first fatigues of an
amorous interview. (I) The grief of Antonina could only be
assuaged by the sufferings of her son. A youth of consular
rank, and a sickly constitution, was punished, without a
trial, like a malefactor and a slave: yet such was the
constancy of his mind, that Photius sustained the tortures
of the scourge and the rack, (J)! without violating the faith
which he had sworn to Belisarius. After this fruitless
cruelty, the son of Antonina, while his mother feasted with
the empress, was buried in her subterraneous prisons, which
admitted not the distinction of night and day. He twice
escaped to the most venerable sanctuaries of Constantinople,
the churches of St. Sophia, and of the Virgin: but his
tyrants were insensible of religion as of pity; and the
helpless youth, amidst the clamors of the clergy and people,
was twice dragged from the altar to the dungeon. His third
attempt was more successful. At the end of three years, the
prophet Zachariah, or some mortal friend, indicated the
means of an escape: he eluded the spies and guards of the
empress, reached the holy sepulchre of Jerusalem, embraced
the profession of a monk; and the abbot Photius was
employed, after the death of Justinian, to reconcile and
regulate the churches of Egypt. The son of Antonina
suffered all that an enemy can inflict: her patient husband
imposed on himself the more exquisite misery of violating
his promise and deserting his friend.
In the succeeding campaign, Belisarius was again sent
against the Persians: he saved the East, but he offended
Theodora, and perhaps the emperor himself. The malady of
Justinian had countenanced the rumor of his death; and the
Roman general, on the supposition of that probable event
spoke the free language of a citizen and a soldier. His
colleague Buzes, who concurred in the same sentiments, lost
his rank, his liberty, and his health, by the persecution of
the empress: but the disgrace of Belisarius was alleviated
by the dignity of his own character, and the influence of
his wife, who might wish to humble, but could not desire to
ruin, the partner of her fortunes. Even his removal was
colored by the assurance, that the sinking state of Italy
would be retrieved by the single presence of its conqueror.
But no sooner had he returned, alone and defenceless, than a
hostile commission was sent to the East, to seize his
treasures and criminate his actions; the guards and
veterans, who followed his private banner, were distributed
among the chiefs of the army, and even the eunuchs presumed
to cast lots for the partition of his martial domestics.
When he passed with a small and sordid retinue through the
streets of Constantinople, his forlorn appearance excited
the amazement and compassion of the people. Justinian and
Theodora received him with cold ingratitude; the servile
crowd, with insolence and contempt; and in the evening he
retired with trembling steps to his deserted palace. An
indisposition, feigned or real, had confined Antonina to her
apartment; and she walked disdainfully silent in the
adjacent portico, while Belisarius threw himself on his bed,
and expected, in an agony of grief and terror, the death
which he had so often braved under the walls of Rome. Long
after sunset a messenger was announced from the empress: he
opened, with anxious curiosity, the letter which contained
the sentence of his fate. "You cannot be ignorant how much
you have deserved my displeasure. I am not insensible of the
services of Antonina. To her merits and intercession I have
granted your life, and permit you to retain a part of your
treasures, which might be justly forfeited to the state.
Let your gratitude, where it is due, be displayed, not in
words, but in your future behavior." I know not how to
believe or to relate the transports with which the hero is
said to have received this ignominious pardon. He fell
prostrate before his wife, he kissed the feet of his savior,
and he devoutly promised to live the grateful and submissive
slave of Antonina. A fine of one hundred and twenty
thousand pounds sterling was levied on the fortunes of
Belisarius; and with the office of count, or master of the
royal stables, he accepted the conduct of the Italian war.
At his departure from Constantinople, his friends, and even
the public, were persuaded that as soon as he regained his
freedom, he would renounce his dissimulation, and that his
wife, Theodora, and perhaps the emperor himself, would be
sacrificed to the just revenge of a virtuous rebel. Their
hopes were deceived; and the unconquerable patience and
loyalty of Belisarius appear either below or above the
character of a man. (117)
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