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The review of the nations from the Danube to the Nile has
exposed, on every side, the weakness of the Romans; and our
wonder is reasonably excited that they should presume to
enlarge an empire whose ancient limits they were incapable
of defending. But the wars, the conquests, and the triumphs
of Justinian, are the feeble and pernicious efforts of old
age, which exhaust the remains of strength, and accelerate
the decay of the powers of life. He exulted in the glorious
act of restoring Africa and Italy to the republic; but the
calamities which followed the departure of Belisarius
betrayed the impotence of the conqueror, and accomplished
the ruin of those unfortunate countries.
From his new acquisitions, Justinian expected that his
avarice, as well as pride, should be richly gratified. A
rapacious minister of the finances closely pursued the
footsteps of Belisarius; and as the old registers of tribute
had been burnt by the Vandals, he indulged his fancy in a
liberal calculation and arbitrary assessment of the wealth
of Africa. (1) The increase of taxes, which were drawn away
by a distant sovereign, and a general resumption of the
patrimony or crown lands, soon dispelled the intoxication of
the public joy: but the emperor was insensible to the modest
complaints of the people, till he was awakened and alarmed
by the clamors of military discontent. Many of the Roman
soldiers had married the widows and daughters of the
Vandals. As their own, by the double right of conquest and
inheritance, they claimed the estates which Genseric had
assigned to his victorious troops. They heard with disdain
the cold and selfish representations of their officers, that
the liberality of Justinian had raised them from a savage or
servile condition; that they were already enriched by the
spoils of Africa, the treasure, the slaves, and the movables
of the vanquished Barbarians; and that the ancient and
lawful patrimony of the emperors would be applied only to
the support of that government on which their own safety and
reward must ultimately depend. The mutiny was secretly
inflamed by a thousand soldiers, for the most part Heruli,
who had imbibed the doctrines, and were instigated by the
clergy, of the Arian sect; and the cause of perjury and
rebellion was sanctified by the dispensing powers of
fanaticism. The Arians deplored the ruin of their church,
triumphant above a century in Africa; and they were justly
provoked by the laws of the conqueror, which interdicted the
baptism of their children, and the exercise of all religious
worship. Of the Vandals chosen by Belisarius, the far
greater part, in the honors of the Eastern service, forgot
their country and religion. But a generous band of four
hundred obliged the mariners, when they were in sight of the
Isle of Lesbos, to alter their course: they touched on
Peloponnesus, ran ashore on a desert coast of Africa, and
boldly erected, on Mount Aurasius, the standard of
independence and revolt. While the troops of the provinces
disclaimed the commands of their superiors, a conspiracy was
formed at Carthage against the life of Solomon, who filled
with honor the place of Belisarius; and the Arians had
piously resolved to sacrifice the tyrant at the foot of the
altar, during the awful mysteries of the festival of Easter.
Fear or remorse restrained the daggers of the assassins, but
the patience of Solomon emboldened their discontent; and, at
the end of ten days, a furious sedition was kindled in the
Circus, which desolated Africa above ten years. The pillage
of the city, and the indiscriminate slaughter of its
inhabitants, were suspended only by darkness, sleep, and
intoxication: the governor, with seven companions, among
whom was the historian Procopius, escaped to Sicily: two
thirds of the army were involved in the guilt of treason;
and eight thousand insurgents, assembling in the field of
Bulla, elected Stoza for their chief, a private soldier, who
possessed in a superior degree the virtues of a rebel.
Under the mask of freedom, his eloquence could lead, or at
least impel, the passions of his equals. He raised himself
to a level with Belisarius, and the nephew of the emperor,
by daring to encounter them in the field; and the victorious
generals were compelled to acknowledge that Stoza deserved a
purer cause, and a more legitimate command. Vanquished in
battle, he dexterously employed the arts of negotiation; a
Roman army was seduced from their allegiance, and the chiefs
who had trusted to his faithless promise were murdered by
his order in a church of Numidia. When every resource,
either of force or perfidy, was exhausted, Stoza, with some
desperate Vandals, retired to the wilds of Mauritania,
obtained the daughter of a Barbarian prince, and eluded the
pursuit of his enemies, by the report of his death. The
personal weight of Belisarius, the rank, the spirit, and the
temper, of Germanus, the emperor's nephew, and the vigor and
success of the second administration of the eunuch Solomon,
restored the modesty of the camp, and maintained for a while
the tranquillity of Africa. But the vices of the Byzantine
court were felt in that distant province; the troops
complained that they were neither paid nor relieved, and as
soon as the public disorders were sufficiently mature, Stoza
was again alive, in arms, and at the gates of Carthage. He
fell in a single combat, but he smiled in the agonies of
death, when he was informed that his own javelin had reached
the heart of his antagonist. (A) The example of Stoza, and
the assurance that a fortunate soldier had been the first
king, encouraged the ambition of Gontharis, and he promised,
by a private treaty, to divide Africa with the Moors, if,
with their dangerous aid, he should ascend the throne of
Carthage. The feeble Areobindus, unskilled in the affairs
of peace and war, was raised, by his marriage with the niece
of Justinian, to the office of exarch. He was suddenly
oppressed by a sedition of the guards, and his abject
supplications, which provoked the contempt, could not move
the pity, of the inexorable tyrant. After a reign of thirty
days, Gontharis himself was stabbed at a banquet by the hand
of Artaban; (B)* and it is singular enough, that an Armenian
prince, of the royal family of Arsaces, should reestablish
at Carthage the authority of the Roman empire. In the
conspiracy which unsheathed the dagger of Brutus against the
life of Caesar, every circumstance is curious and important
to the eyes of posterity; but the guilt or merit of these
loyal or rebellious assassins could interest only the
contemporaries of Procopius, who, by their hopes and fears,
their friendship or resentment, were personally engaged in
the revolutions of Africa. (2)
That country was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism
from whence it had been raised by the Phoenician colonies
and Roman laws; and every step of intestine discord was
marked by some deplorable victory of savage man over
civilized society. The Moors, (3) though ignorant of justice,
were impatient of oppression: their vagrant life and
boundless wilderness disappointed the arms, and eluded the
chains, of a conqueror; and experience had shown, that
neither oaths nor obligations could secure the fidelity of
their attachment. The victory of Mount Auras had awed them
into momentary submission; but if they respected the
character of Solomon, they hated and despised the pride and
luxury of his two nephews, Cyrus and Sergius, on whom their
uncle had imprudently bestowed the provincial governments of
Tripoli and Pentapolis. A Moorish tribe encamped under the
walls of Leptis, to renew their alliance, and receive from
the governor the customary gifts. Fourscore of their
deputies were introduced as friends into the city; but on
the dark suspicion of a conspiracy, they were massacred at
the table of Sergius, and the clamor of arms and revenge was
reechoed through the valleys of Mount Atlas from both the
Syrtes to the Atlantic Ocean. A personal injury, the unjust
execution or murder of his brother, rendered Antalas the
enemy of the Romans. The defeat of the Vandals had formerly
signalized his valor; the rudiments of justice and prudence
were still more conspicuous in a Moor; and while he laid
Adrumetum in ashes, he calmly admonished the emperor that
the peace of Africa might be secured by the recall of
Solomon and his unworthy nephews. The exarch led forth his
troops from Carthage: but, at the distance of six days'
journey, in the neighborhood of Tebeste, (4) he was
astonished by the superior numbers and fierce aspect of the
Barbarians. He proposed a treaty; solicited a
reconciliation; and offered to bind himself by the most
solemn oaths. "By what oaths can he bind himself?"
interrupted the indignant Moors. "Will he swear by the
Gospels, the divine books of the Christians? It was on those
books that the faith of his nephew Sergius was pledged to
eighty of our innocent and unfortunate brethren. Before we
trust them a second time, let us try their efficacy in the
chastisement of perjury and the vindication of their own
honor." Their honor was vindicated in the field of Tebeste,
by the death of Solomon, and the total loss of his army. (C)
The arrival of fresh troops and more skilful commanders soon
checked the insolence of the Moors: seventeen of their
princes were slain in the same battle; and the doubtful and
transient submission of their tribes was celebrated with
lavish applause by the people of Constantinople. Successive
inroads had reduced the province of Africa to one third of
the measure of Italy; yet the Roman emperors continued to
reign above a century over Carthage and the fruitful coast
of the Mediterranean. But the victories and the losses of
Justinian were alike pernicious to mankind; and such was the
desolation of Africa, that in many parts a stranger might
wander whole days without meeting the face either of a
friend or an enemy. The nation of the Vandals had
disappeared: they once amounted to a hundred and sixty
thousand warriors, without including the children, the
women, or the slaves. Their numbers were infinitely
surpassed by the number of the Moorish families extirpated
in a relentless war; and the same destruction was retaliated
on the Romans and their allies, who perished by the climate,
their mutual quarrels, and the rage of the Barbarians. When
Procopius first landed, he admired the populousness of the
cities and country, strenuously exercised in the labors of
commerce and agriculture. In less than twenty years, that
busy scene was converted into a silent solitude; the wealthy
citizens escaped to Sicily and Constantinople; and the
secret historian has confidently affirmed, that five
millions of Africans were consumed by the wars and
government of the emperor Justinian. (5)
The jealousy of the Byzantine court had not permitted
Belisarius to achieve the conquest of Italy; and his abrupt
departure revived the courage of the Goths, (6) who respected
his genius, his virtue, and even the laudable motive which
had urged the servant of Justinian to deceive and reject
them. They had lost their king, (an inconsiderable loss,)
their capital, their treasures, the provinces from Sicily to
the Alps, and the military force of two hundred thousand
Barbarians, magnificently equipped with horses and arms. Yet
all was not lost, as long as Pavia was defended by one
thousand Goths, inspired by a sense of honor, the love of
freedom, and the memory of their past greatness. The
supreme command was unanimously offered to the brave Uraias;
and it was in his eyes alone that the disgrace of his uncle
Vitiges could appear as a reason of exclusion. His voice
inclined the election in favor of Hildibald, whose personal
merit was recommended by the vain hope that his kinsman
Theudes, the Spanish monarch, would support the common
interest of the Gothic nation. The success of his arms in
Liguria and Venetia seemed to justify their choice; but he
soon declared to the world that he was incapable of
forgiving or commanding his benefactor. The consort of
Hildibald was deeply wounded by the beauty, the riches, and
the pride, of the wife of Uraias; and the death of that
virtuous patriot excited the indignation of a free people. A
bold assassin executed their sentence by striking off the
head of Hildibald in the midst of a banquet; the Rugians, a
foreign tribe, assumed the privilege of election: and
Totila, (D) the nephew of the late king, was tempted, by
revenge, to deliver himself and the garrison of Trevigo into
the hands of the Romans. But the gallant and accomplished
youth was easily persuaded to prefer the Gothic throne
before the service of Justinian; and as soon as the palace
of Pavia had been purified from the Rugian usurper, he
reviewed the national force of five thousand soldiers, and
generously undertook the restoration of the kingdom of
Italy.
The successors of Belisarius, eleven generals of equal rank,
neglected to crush the feeble and disunited Goths, till they
were roused to action by the progress of Totila and the
reproaches of Justinian. The gates of Verona were secretly
opened to Artabazus, at the head of one hundred Persians in
the service of the empire. The Goths fled from the city.
At the distance of sixty furlongs the Roman generals halted
to regulate the division of the spoil. While they disputed,
the enemy discovered the real number of the victors: the
Persians were instantly overpowered, and it was by leaping
from the wall that Artabazus preserved a life which he lost
in a few days by the lance of a Barbarian, who had defied
him to single combat. Twenty thousand Romans encountered
the forces of Totila, near Faenza, and on the hills of
Mugello, of the Florentine territory. The ardor of
freedmen, who fought to regain their country, was opposed to
the languid temper of mercenary troops, who were even
destitute of the merits of strong and well-disciplined
servitude. On the first attack, they abandoned their
ensigns, threw down their arms, and dispersed on all sides
with an active speed, which abated the loss, whilst it
aggravated the shame, of their defeat. The king of the
Goths, who blushed for the baseness of his enemies, pursued
with rapid steps the path of honor and victory. Totila
passed the Po, (E) traversed the Apennine, suspended the
important conquest of Ravenna, Florence, and Rome, and
marched through the heart of Italy, to form the siege or
rather the blockade, of Naples. The Roman chiefs,
imprisoned in their respective cities, and accusing each
other of the common disgrace, did not presume to disturb his
enterprise. But the emperor, alarmed by the distress and
danger of his Italian conquests, despatched to the relief of
Naples a fleet of galleys and a body of Thracian and
Armenian soldiers. They landed in Sicily, which yielded its
copious stores of provisions; but the delays of the new
commander, an unwarlike magistrate, protracted the
sufferings of the besieged; and the succors, which he
dropped with a timid and tardy hand, were successively
intercepted by the armed vessels stationed by Totila in the
Bay of Naples. The principal officer of the Romans was
dragged, with a rope round his neck, to the foot of the
wall, from whence, with a trembling voice, he exhorted the
citizens to implore, like himself, the mercy of the
conqueror. They requested a truce, with a promise of
surrendering the city, if no effectual relief should appear
at the end of thirty days. Instead of one month, the
audacious Barbarian granted them three, in the just
confidence that famine would anticipate the term of their
capitulation. After the reduction of Naples and Cumae, the
provinces of Lucania, Apulia, and Calabria, submitted to the
king of the Goths. Totila led his army to the gates of
Rome, pitched his camp at Tibur, or Tivoli, within twenty
miles of the capital, and calmly exhorted the senate and
people to compare the tyranny of the Greeks with the
blessings of the Gothic reign.
The rapid success of Totila may be partly ascribed to the
revolution which three years' experience had produced in the
sentiments of the Italians. At the command, or at least in
the name, of a Catholic emperor, the pope, (7) their
spiritual father, had been torn from the Roman church, and
either starved or murdered on a desolate island. (8) The
virtues of Belisarius were replaced by the various or
uniform vices of eleven chiefs, at Rome, Ravenna, Florence,
Perugia, Spoleto, &c., who abused their authority for the
indulgence of lust or avarice. The improvement of the
revenue was committed to Alexander, a subtle scribe, long
practised in the fraud and oppression of the Byzantine
schools, and whose name of Psalliction, the scissors, (9) was
drawn from the dexterous artifice with which he reduced the
size without defacing the figure, of the gold coin. Instead
of expecting the restoration of peace and industry, he
imposed a heavy assessment on the fortunes of the Italians.
Yet his present or future demands were less odious than a
prosecution of arbitrary rigor against the persons and
property of all those who, under the Gothic kings, had been
concerned in the receipt and expenditure of the public
money. The subjects of Justinian, who escaped these partial
vexations, were oppressed by the irregular maintenance of
the soldiers, whom Alexander defrauded and despised; and
their hasty sallies in quest of wealth, or subsistence,
provoked the inhabitants of the country to await or implore
their deliverance from the virtues of a Barbarian. Totila
(10) was chaste and temperate; and none were deceived, either
friends or enemies, who depended on his faith or his
clemency. To the husbandmen of Italy the Gothic king issued
a welcome proclamation, enjoining them to pursue their
important labors, and to rest assured, that, on the payment
of the ordinary taxes, they should be defended by his valor
and discipline from the injuries of war. The strong towns
he successively attacked; and as soon as they had yielded to
his arms, he demolished the fortifications, to save the
people from the calamities of a future siege, to deprive the
Romans of the arts of defence, and to decide the tedious
quarrel of the two nations, by an equal and honorable
conflict in the field of battle. The Roman captives and
deserters were tempted to enlist in the service of a liberal
and courteous adversary; the slaves were attracted by the
firm and faithful promise, that they should never be
delivered to their masters; and from the thousand warriors
of Pavia, a new people, under the same appellation of Goths,
was insensibly formed in the camp of Totila. He sincerely
accomplished the articles of capitulation, without seeking
or accepting any sinister advantage from ambiguous
expressions or unforeseen events: the garrison of Naples had
stipulated that they should be transported by sea; the
obstinacy of the winds prevented their voyage, but they were
generously supplied with horses, provisions, and a
safe-conduct to the gates of Rome. The wives of the
senators, who had been surprised in the villas of Campania,
were restored, without a ransom, to their husbands; the
violation of female chastity was inexorably chastised with
death; and in the salutary regulation of the edict of the
famished Neapolitans, the conqueror assumed the office of a
humane and attentive physician. The virtues of Totila are
equally laudable, whether they proceeded from true policy,
religious principle, or the instinct of humanity: he often
harangued his troops; and it was his constant theme, that
national vice and ruin are inseparably connected; that
victory is the fruit of moral as well as military virtue;
and that the prince, and even the people, are responsible
for the crimes which they neglect to punish.
The return of Belisarius to save the country which he had
subdued, was pressed with equal vehemence by his friends and
enemies; and the Gothic war was imposed as a trust or an
exile on the veteran commander. A hero on the banks of the
Euphrates, a slave in the palace of Constantinople, he
accepted with reluctance the painful task of supporting his
own reputation, and retrieving the faults of his successors.
The sea was open to the Romans: the ships and soldiers were
assembled at Salona, near the palace of Diocletian: he
refreshed and reviewed his troops at Pola in Istria, coasted
round the head of the Adriatic, entered the port of Ravenna,
and despatched orders rather than supplies to the
subordinate cities. His first public oration was addressed
to the Goths and Romans, in the name of the emperor, who had
suspended for a while the conquest of Persia, and listened
to the prayers of his Italian subjects. He gently touched
on the causes and the authors of the recent disasters;
striving to remove the fear of punishment for the past, and
the hope of impunity for the future, and laboring, with more
zeal than success, to unite all the members of his
government in a firm league of affection and obedience.
Justinian, his gracious master, was inclined to pardon and
reward; and it was their interest, as well as duty, to
reclaim their deluded brethren, who had been seduced by the
arts of the usurper. Not a man was tempted to desert the
standard of the Gothic king. Belisarius soon discovered,
that he was sent to remain the idle and impotent spectator
of the glory of a young Barbarian; and his own epistle
exhibits a genuine and lively picture of the distress of a
noble mind. "Most excellent prince, we are arrived in
Italy, destitute of all the necessary implements of war,
men, horses, arms, and money. In our late circuit through
the villages of Thrace and Illyricum, we have collected,
with extreme difficulty, about four thousand recruits,
naked, and unskilled in the use of weapons and the exercises
of the camp. The soldiers already stationed in the province
are discontented, fearful, and dismayed; at the sound of an
enemy, they dismiss their horses, and cast their arms on the
ground. No taxes can be raised, since Italy is in the hands
of the Barbarians; the failure of payment has deprived us of
the right of command, or even of admonition. Be assured,
dread Sir, that the greater part of your troops have already
deserted to the Goths. If the war could be achieved by the
presence of Belisarius alone, your wishes are satisfied;
Belisarius is in the midst of Italy. But if you desire to
conquer, far other preparations are requisite: without a
military force, the title of general is an empty name. It
would be expedient to restore to my service my own veteran
and domestic guards. Before I can take the field, I must
receive an adequate supply of light and heavy armed troops;
and it is only with ready money that you can procure the
indispensable aid of a powerful body of the cavalry of the
Huns." (11) An officer in whom Belisarius confided was sent
from Ravenna to hasten and conduct the succors; but the
message was neglected, and the messenger was detained at
Constantinople by an advantageous marriage. After his
patience had been exhausted by delay and disappointment, the
Roman general repassed the Adriatic, and expected at
Dyrrachium the arrival of the troops, which were slowly
assembled among the subjects and allies of the empire. His
powers were still inadequate to the deliverance of Rome,
which was closely besieged by the Gothic king. The Appian
way, a march of forty days, was covered by the Barbarians;
and as the prudence of Belisarius declined a battle, he
preferred the safe and speedy navigation of five days from
the coast of Epirus to the mouth of the Tyber.
After reducing, by force, or treaty, the towns of inferior
note in the midland provinces of Italy, Totila proceeded,
not to assault, but to encompass and starve, the ancient
capital. Rome was afflicted by the avarice, and guarded by
the valor, of Bessas, a veteran chief of Gothic extraction,
who filled, with a garrison of three thousand soldiers, the
spacious circle of her venerable walls. From the distress
of the people he extracted a profitable trade, and secretly
rejoiced in the continuance of the siege. It was for his
use that the granaries had been replenished: the charity of
Pope Vigilius had purchased and embarked an ample supply of
Sicilian corn; but the vessels which escaped the Barbarians
were seized by a rapacious governor, who imparted a scanty
sustenance to the soldiers, and sold the remainder to the
wealthy Romans. The medimnus, or fifth part of the quarter
of wheat, was exchanged for seven pieces of gold; fifty
pieces were given for an ox, a rare and accidental prize;
the progress of famine enhanced this exorbitant value, and
the mercenaries were tempted to deprive themselves of the
allowance which was scarcely sufficient for the support of
life. A tasteless and unwholesome mixture, in which the
bran thrice exceeded the quantity of flour, appeased the
hunger of the poor; they were gradually reduced to feed on
dead horses, dogs, cats, and mice, and eagerly to snatch the
grass, and even the nettles, which grew among the ruins of
the city. A crowd of spectres, pale and emaciated, their
bodies oppressed with disease, and their minds with despair,
surrounded the palace of the governor, urged, with
unavailing truth, that it was the duty of a master to
maintain his slaves, and humbly requested that he would
provide for their subsistence, to permit their flight, or
command their immediate execution. Bessas replied, with
unfeeling tranquillity, that it was impossible to feed,
unsafe to dismiss, and unlawful to kill, the subjects of the
emperor. Yet the example of a private citizen might have
shown his countrymen that a tyrant cannot withhold the
privilege of death. Pierced by the cries of five children,
who vainly called on their father for bread, he ordered them
to follow his steps, advanced with calm and silent despair
to one of the bridges of the Tyber, and, covering his face,
threw himself headlong into the stream, in the presence of
his family and the Roman people. To the rich and
pusillammous, Bessas (12) sold the permission of departure;
but the greatest part of the fugitives expired on the public
highways, or were intercepted by the flying parties of
Barbarians. In the mean while, the artful governor soothed
the discontent, and revived the hopes of the Romans, by the
vague reports of the fleets and armies which were hastening
to their relief from the extremities of the East. They
derived more rational comfort from the assurance that
Belisarius had landed at the port; and, without numbering
his forces, they firmly relied on the humanity, the courage,
and the skill of their great deliverer.
The foresight of Totila had raised obstacles worthy of such
an antagonist. Ninety furlongs below the city, in the
narrowest part of the river, he joined the two banks by
strong and solid timbers in the form of a bridge, on which
he erected two lofty towers, manned by the bravest of his
Goths, and profusely stored with missile weapons and engines
of offence. The approach of the bridge and towers was
covered by a strong and massy chain of iron; and the chain,
at either end, on the opposite sides of the Tyber, was
defended by a numerous and chosen detachment of archers.
But the enterprise of forcing these barriers, and relieving
the capital, displays a shining example of the boldness and
conduct of Belisarius. His cavalry advanced from the port
along the public road, to awe the motions, and distract the
attention of the enemy. His infantry and provisions were
distributed in two hundred large boats; and each boat was
shielded by a high rampart of thick planks, pierced with
many small holes for the discharge of missile weapons. In
the front, two large vessels were linked together to sustain
a floating castle, which commanded the towers of the bridge,
and contained a magazine of fire, sulphur, and bitumen. The
whole fleet, which the general led in person, was
laboriously moved against the current of the river. The
chain yielded to their weight, and the enemies who guarded
the banks were either slain or scattered. As soon as they
touched the principal barrier, the fire- ship was instantly
grappled to the bridge; one of the towers, with two hundred
Goths, was consumed by the flames; the assailants shouted
victory; and Rome was saved, if the wisdom of Belisarius had
not been defeated by the misconduct of his officers. He had
previously sent orders to Bessas to second his operations by
a timely sally from the town; and he had fixed his
lieutenant, Isaac, by a peremptory command, to the station
of the port. But avarice rendered Bessas immovable; while
the youthful ardor of Isaac delivered him into the hands of
a superior enemy. The exaggerated rumor of his defeat was
hastily carried to the ears of Belisarius: he paused;
betrayed in that single moment of his life some emotions of
surprise and perplexity; and reluctantly sounded a retreat
to save his wife Antonina, his treasures, and the only
harbor which he possessed on the Tuscan coast. The vexation
of his mind produced an ardent and almost mortal fever; and
Rome was left without protection to the mercy or indignation
of Totila. The continuance of hostilities had imbittered
the national hatred: the Arian clergy was ignominiously
driven from Rome; Pelagius, the archdeacon, returned without
success from an embassy to the Gothic camp; and a Sicilian
bishop, the envoy or nuncio of the pope, was deprived of
both his hands, for daring to utter falsehoods in the
service of the church and state.
Famine had relaxed the strength and discipline of the
garrison of Rome. They could derive no effectual service
from a dying people; and the inhuman avarice of the merchant
at length absorbed the vigilance of the governor. Four
Isaurian sentinels, while their companions slept, and their
officers were absent, descended by a rope from the wall, and
secretly proposed to the Gothic king to introduce his troops
into the city. The offer was entertained with coldness and
suspicion; they returned in safety; they twice repeated
their visit; the place was twice examined; the conspiracy
was known and disregarded; and no sooner had Totila
consented to the attempt, than they unbarred the Asinarian
gate, and gave admittance to the Goths. Till the dawn of
day, they halted in order of battle, apprehensive of
treachery or ambush; but the troops of Bessas, with their
leader, had already escaped; and when the king was pressed
to disturb their retreat, he prudently replied, that no
sight could be more grateful than that of a flying enemy.
The patricians, who were still possessed of horses, Decius,
Basilius, &c. accompanied the governor; their brethren,
among whom Olybrius, Orestes, and Maximus, are named by the
historian, took refuge in the church of St. Peter: but the
assertion, that only five hundred persons remained in the
capital, inspires some doubt of the fidelity either of his
narrative or of his text. As soon as daylight had displayed
the entire victory of the Goths, their monarch devoutly
visited the tomb of the prince of the apostles; but while he
prayed at the altar, twenty-five soldiers, and sixty
citizens, were put to the sword in the vestibule of the
temple. The archdeacon Pelagius (13) stood before him, with
the Gospels in his hand. "O Lord, be merciful to your
servant." "Pelagius," said Totila, with an insulting smile,
"your pride now condescends to become a suppliant." "I am a
suppliant," replied the prudent archdeacon; "God has now
made us your subjects, and as your subjects, we are entitled
to your clemency." At his humble prayer, the lives of the
Romans were spared; and the chastity of the maids and
matrons was preserved inviolate from the passions of the
hungry soldiers. But they were rewarded by the freedom of
pillage, after the most precious spoils had been reserved
for the royal treasury. The houses of the senators were
plentifully stored with gold and silver; and the avarice of
Bessas had labored with so much guilt and shame for the
benefit of the conqueror. In this revolution, the sons and
daughters of Roman consuls lasted the misery which they had
spurned or relieved, wandered in tattered garments through
the streets of the city and begged their bread, perhaps
without success, before the gates of their hereditary
mansions. The riches of Rusticiana, the daughter of
Symmachus and widow of Boethius, had been generously devoted
to alleviate the calamities of famine. But the Barbarians
were exasperated by the report, that she had prompted the
people to overthrow the statues of the great Theodoric; and
the life of that venerable matron would have been sacrificed
to his memory, if Totila had not respected her birth, her
virtues, and even the pious motive of her revenge. The next
day he pronounced two orations, to congratulate and admonish
his victorious Goths, and to reproach the senate, as the
vilest of slaves, with their perjury, folly, and
ingratitude; sternly declaring, that their estates and
honors were justly forfeited to the companions of his arms.
Yet he consented to forgive their revolt; and the senators
repaid his clemency by despatching circular letters to their
tenants and vassals in the provinces of Italy, strictly to
enjoin them to desert the standard of the Greeks, to
cultivate their lands in peace, and to learn from their
masters the duty of obedience to a Gothic sovereign. Against
the city which had so long delayed the course of his
victories, he appeared inexorable: one third of the walls,
in different parts, were demolished by his command; fire and
engines prepared to consume or subvert the most stately
works of antiquity; and the world was astonished by the
fatal decree, that Rome should be changed into a pasture for
cattle. The firm and temperate remonstrance of Belisarius
suspended the execution; he warned the Barbarian not to
sully his fame by the destruction of those monuments which
were the glory of the dead, and the delight of the living;
and Totila was persuaded, by the advice of an enemy, to
preserve Rome as the ornament of his kingdom, or the fairest
pledge of peace and reconciliation. When he had signified to
the ambassadors of Belisarius his intention of sparing the
city, he stationed an army at the distance of one hundred
and twenty furlongs, to observe the motions of the Roman
general. With the remainder of his forces he marched into
Lucania and Apulia, and occupied on the summit of Mount
Garganus (14) one of the camps of Hannibal. (15) The senators
were dragged in his train, and afterwards confined in the
fortresses of Campania: the citizens, with their wives and
children, were dispersed in exile; and during forty days
Rome was abandoned to desolate and dreary solitude. (16)
The loss of Rome was speedily retrieved by an action, to
which, according to the event, the public opinion would
apply the names of rashness or heroism. After the departure
of Totila, the Roman general sallied from the port at the
head of a thousand horse, cut in pieces the enemy who
opposed his progress, and visited with pity and reverence
the vacant space of the eternal city. Resolved to maintain a
station so conspicuous in the eyes of mankind, he summoned
the greatest part of his troops to the standard which he
erected on the Capitol: the old inhabitants were recalled by
the love of their country and the hopes of food; and the
keys of Rome were sent a second time to the emperor
Justinian. The walls, as far as they had been demolished by
the Goths, were repaired with rude and dissimilar materials;
the ditch was restored; iron spikes (17) were profusely
scattered in the highways to annoy the feet of the horses;
and as new gates could not suddenly be procured, the
entrance was guarded by a Spartan rampart of his bravest
soldiers. At the expiration of twenty-five days, Totila
returned by hasty marches from Apulia to avenge the injury
and disgrace. Belisarius expected his approach. The Goths
were thrice repulsed in three general assaults; they lost
the flower of their troops; the royal standard had almost
fallen into the hands of the enemy, and the fame of Totila
sunk, as it had risen, with the fortune of his arms.
Whatever skill and courage could achieve, had been performed
by the Roman general: it remained only that Justinian should
terminate, by a strong and seasonable effort, the war which
he had ambitiously undertaken. The indolence, perhaps the
impotence, of a prince who despised his enemies, and envied
his servants, protracted the calamities of Italy. After a
long silence, Belisarius was commanded to leave a sufficient
garrison at Rome, and to transport himself into the province
of Lucania, whose inhabitants, inflamed by Catholic zeal,
had cast away the yoke of their Arian conquerors. In this
ignoble warfare, the hero, invincible against the power of
the Barbarians, was basely vanquished by the delay, the
disobedience, and the cowardice of his own officers. He
reposed in his winter quarters of Crotona, in the full
assurance, that the two passes of the Lucanian hills were
guarded by his cavalry. They were betrayed by treachery or
weakness; and the rapid march of the Goths scarcely allowed
time for the escape of Belisarius to the coast of Sicily.
At length a fleet and army were assembled for the relief of
Ruscianum, or Rossano, (18) a fortress sixty furlongs from
the ruins of Sybaris, where the nobles of Lucania had taken
refuge. In the first attempt, the Roman forces were
dissipated by a storm. In the second, they approached the
shore; but they saw the hills covered with archers, the
landing-place defended by a line of spears, and the king of
the Goths impatient for battle. The conqueror of Italy
retired with a sigh, and continued to languish, inglorious
and inactive, till Antonina, who had been sent to
Constantinople to solicit succors, obtained, after the death
of the empress, the permission of his return.
The five last campaigns of Belisarius might abate the envy
of his competitors, whose eyes had been dazzled and wounded
by the blaze of his former glory. Instead of delivering
Italy from the Goths, he had wandered like a fugitive along
the coast, without daring to march into the country, or to
accept the bold and repeated challenge of Totila. Yet, in
the judgment of the few who could discriminate counsels from
events, and compare the instruments with the execution, he
appeared a more consummate master of the art of war, than in
the season of his prosperity, when he presented two captive
kings before the throne of Justinian. The valor of
Belisarius was not chilled by age: his prudence was matured
by experience; but the moral virtues of humanity and justice
seem to have yielded to the hard necessity of the times.
The parsimony or poverty of the emperor compelled him to
deviate from the rule of conduct which had deserved the love
and confidence of the Italians. The war was maintained by
the oppression of Ravenna, Sicily, and all the faithful
subjects of the empire; and the rigorous prosecution of
Herodian provoked that injured or guilty officer to deliver
Spoleto into the hands of the enemy. The avarice of
Antonina, which had been some times diverted by love, now
reigned without a rival in her breast. Belisarius himself
had always understood, that riches, in a corrupt age, are
the support and ornament of personal merit. And it cannot
be presumed that he should stain his honor for the public
service, without applying a part of the spoil to his private
emolument. The hero had escaped the sword of the
Barbarians. But the dagger of conspiracy (19) awaited his
return. In the midst of wealth and honors, Artaban, who had
chastised the African tyrant, complained of the ingratitude
of courts. He aspired to Praejecta, the emperor's niece,
who wished to reward her deliverer; but the impediment of
his previous marriage was asserted by the piety of Theodora.
The pride of royal descent was irritated by flattery; and
the service in which he gloried had proved him capable of
bold and sanguinary deeds. The death of Justinian was
resolved, but the conspirators delayed the execution till
they could surprise Belisarius disarmed, and naked, in the
palace of Constantinople. Not a hope could be entertained
of shaking his long-tried fidelity; and they justly dreaded
the revenge, or rather the justice, of the veteran general,
who might speedily assemble an army in Thrace to punish the
assassins, and perhaps to enjoy the fruits of their crime.
Delay afforded time for rash communications and honest
confessions: Artaban and his accomplices were condemned by
the senate, but the extreme clemency of Justinian detained
them in the gentle confinement of the palace, till he
pardoned their flagitious attempt against his throne and
life. If the emperor forgave his enemies, he must cordially
embrace a friend whose victories were alone remembered, and
who was endeared to his prince by the recent circumstances
of their common danger. Belisarius reposed from his toils,
in the high station of general of the East and count of the
domestics; and the older consuls and patricians respectfully
yielded the precedency of rank to the peerless merit of the
first of the Romans. (20) The first of the Romans still
submitted to be the slave of his wife; but the servitude of
habit and affection became less disgraceful when the death
of Theodora had removed the baser influence of fear.
Joannina, their daughter, and the sole heiress of their
fortunes, was betrothed to Anastasius, the grandson, or
rather the nephew, of the empress, (21) whose kind
interposition forwarded the consummation of their youthful
loves. But the power of Theodora expired, the parents of
Joannina returned, and her honor, perhaps her happiness,
were sacrificed to the revenge of an unfeeling mother, who
dissolved the imperfect nuptials before they had been
ratified by the ceremonies of the church. (22)
Before the departure of Belisarius, Perusia was besieged,
and few cities were impregnable to the Gothic arms.
Ravenna, Ancona, and Crotona, still resisted the Barbarians;
and when Totila asked in marriage one of the daughters of
France, he was stung by the just reproach that the king of
Italy was unworthy of his title till it was acknowledged by
the Roman people. Three thousand of the bravest soldiers had
been left to defend the capital. On the suspicion of a
monopoly, they massacred the governor, and announced to
Justinian, by a deputation of the clergy, that unless their
offence was pardoned, and their arrears were satisfied, they
should instantly accept the tempting offers of Totila. But
the officer who succeeded to the command (his name was
Diogenes) deserved their esteem and confidence; and the
Goths, instead of finding an easy conquest, encountered a
vigorous resistance from the soldiers and people, who
patiently endured the loss of the port and of all maritime
supplies. The siege of Rome would perhaps have been raised,
if the liberality of Totila to the Isaurians had not
encouraged some of their venal countrymen to copy the
example of treason. In a dark night, while the Gothic
trumpets sounded on another side, they silently opened the
gate of St. Paul: the Barbarians rushed into the city; and
the flying garrison was intercepted before they could reach
the harbor of Centumcellae. A soldier trained in the school
of Belisarius, Paul of Cilicia, retired with four hundred
men to the mole of Hadrian. They repelled the Goths; but
they felt the approach of famine; and their aversion to the
taste of horse-flesh confirmed their resolution to risk the
event of a desperate and decisive sally. But their spirit
insensibly stooped to the offers of capitulation; they
retrieved their arrears of pay, and preserved their arms and
horses, by enlisting in the service of Totila; their chiefs,
who pleaded a laudable attachment to their wives and
children in the East, were dismissed with honor; and above
four hundred enemies, who had taken refuge in the
sanctuaries, were saved by the clemency of the victor. He
no longer entertained a wish of destroying the edifices of
Rome, (23) which he now respected as the seat of the Gothic
kingdom: the senate and people were restored to their
country; the means of subsistence were liberally provided;
and Totila, in the robe of peace, exhibited the equestrian
games of the circus. Whilst he amused the eyes of the
multitude, four hundred vessels were prepared for the
embarkation of his troops. The cities of Rhegium and
Tarentum were reduced: he passed into Sicily, the object of
his implacable resentment; and the island was stripped of
its gold and silver, of the fruits of the earth, and of an
infinite number of horses, sheep, and oxen. Sardinia and
Corsica obeyed the fortune of Italy; and the sea-coast of
Greece was visited by a fleet of three hundred galleys. (24)
The Goths were landed in Corcyra and the ancient continent
of Epirus; they advanced as far as Nicopolis, the trophy of
Augustus, and Dodona, (25) once famous by the oracle of Jove.
In every step of his victories, the wise Barbarian repeated
to Justinian the desire of peace, applauded the concord of
their predecessors, and offered to employ the Gothic arms in
the service of the empire.
Justinian was deaf to the voice of peace: but he neglected
the prosecution of war; and the indolence of his temper
disappointed, in some degree, the obstinacy of his passions.
From this salutary slumber the emperor was awakened by the
pope Vigilius and the patrician Cethegus, who appeared
before his throne, and adjured him, in the name of God and
the people, to resume the conquest and deliverance of Italy.
In the choice of the generals, caprice, as well as judgment,
was shown. A fleet and army sailed for the relief of
Sicily, under the conduct of Liberius; but his youth (F) and
want of experience were afterwards discovered, and before he
touched the shores of the island he was overtaken by his
successor. In the place of Liberius, the conspirator
Artaban was raised from a prison to military honors; in the
pious presumption, that gratitude would animate his valor
and fortify his allegiance. Belisarius reposed in the shade
of his laurels, but the command of the principal army was
reserved for Germanus, (26) the emperor's nephew, whose rank
and merit had been long depressed by the jealousy of the
court. Theodora had injured him in the rights of a private
citizen, the marriage of his children, and the testament of
his brother; and although his conduct was pure and
blameless, Justinian was displeased that he should be
thought worthy of the confidence of the malecontents. The
life of Germanus was a lesson of implicit obedience: he
nobly refused to prostitute his name and character in the
factions of the circus: the gravity of his manners was
tempered by innocent cheerfulness; and his riches were lent
without interest to indigent or deserving friends. His
valor had formerly triumphed over the Sclavonians of the
Danube and the rebels of Africa: the first report of his
promotion revived the hopes of the Italians; and he was
privately assured, that a crowd of Roman deserters would
abandon, on his approach, the standard of Totila. His second
marriage with Malasontha, the granddaughter of Theodoric
endeared Germanus to the Goths themselves; and they marched
with reluctance against the father of a royal infant the
last offspring of the line of Amali. (27) A splendid
allowance was assigned by the emperor: the general
contribute his private fortune: his two sons were popular
and active and he surpassed, in the promptitude and success
of his levies the expectation of mankind. He was permitted
to select some squadrons of Thracian cavalry: the veterans,
as well as the youth of Constantinople and Europe, engaged
their voluntary service; and as far as the heart of Germany,
his fame and liberality attracted the aid of the Barbarians.
(G) The Romans advanced to Sardica; an army of Sclavonians
fled before their march; but within two days of their final
departure, the designs of Germanus were terminated by his
malady and death. Yet the impulse which he had given to the
Italian war still continued to act with energy and effect.
The maritime towns Ancona, Crotona, Centumcellae, resisted
the assaults of Totila Sicily was reduced by the zeal of
Artaban, and the Gothic navy was defeated near the coast of
the Adriatic. The two fleets were almost equal, forty-seven
to fifty galleys: the victory was decided by the knowledge
and dexterity of the Greeks; but the ships were so closely
grappled, that only twelve of the Goths escaped from this
unfortunate conflict. They affected to depreciate an
element in which they were unskilled; but their own
experience confirmed the truth of a maxim, that the master
of the sea will always acquire the dominion of the land. (28)
After the loss of Germanus, the nations were provoked to
smile, by the strange intelligence, that the command of the
Roman armies was given to a eunuch. But the eunuch Narses
(29) is ranked among the few who have rescued that unhappy
name from the contempt and hatred of mankind. A feeble,
diminutive body concealed the soul of a statesman and a
warrior. His youth had been employed in the management of
the loom and distaff, in the cares of the household, and the
service of female luxury; but while his hands were busy, he
secretly exercised the faculties of a vigorous and
discerning mind. A stranger to the schools and the camp, he
studied in the palace to dissemble, to flatter, and to
persuade; and as soon as he approached the person of the
emperor, Justinian listened with surprise and pleasure to
the manly counsels of his chamberlain and private treasurer.
(30) The talents of Narses were tried and improved in
frequent embassies: he led an army into Italy acquired a
practical knowledge of the war and the country, and presumed
to strive with the genius of Belisarius. Twelve years after
his return, the eunuch was chosen to achieve the conquest
which had been left imperfect by the first of the Roman
generals. Instead of being dazzled by vanity or emulation,
he seriously declared that, unless he were armed with an
adequate force, he would never consent to risk his own glory
and that of his sovereign. Justinian granted to the
favorite what he might have denied to the hero: the Gothic
war was rekindled from its ashes, and the preparations were
not unworthy of the ancient majesty of the empire. The key
of the public treasure was put into his hand, to collect
magazines, to levy soldiers, to purchase arms and horses, to
discharge the arrears of pay, and to tempt the fidelity of
the fugitives and deserters. The troops of Germanus were
still in arms; they halted at Salona in the expectation of a
new leader; and legions of subjects and allies were created
by the well-known liberality of the eunuch Narses. The king
of the Lombards (31) satisfied or surpassed the obligations
of a treaty, by lending two thousand two hundred of his
bravest warriors, (H)! who were followed by three thousand of
their martial attendants. Three thousand Heruli fought on
horseback under Philemuth, their native chief; and the noble
Aratus, who adopted the manners and discipline of Rome,
conducted a band of veterans of the same nation. Dagistheus
was released from prison to command the Huns; and Kobad, the
grandson and nephew of the great king, was conspicuous by
the regal tiara at the head of his faithful Persians, who
had devoted themselves to the fortunes of their prince. (32)
Absolute in the exercise of his authority, more absolute in
the affection of his troops, Narses led a numerous and
gallant army from Philippopolis to Salona, from whence he
coasted the eastern side of the Adriatic as far as the
confines of Italy. His progress was checked. The East
could not supply vessels capable of transporting such
multitudes of men and horses. The Franks, who, in the
general confusion, had usurped the greater part of the
Venetian province, refused a free passage to the friends of
the Lombards. The station of Verona was occupied by Teias,
with the flower of the Gothic forces; and that skilful
commander had overspread the adjacent country with the fall
of woods and the inundation of waters. (33) In this
perplexity, an officer of experience proposed a measure,
secure by the appearance of rashness; that the Roman army
should cautiously advance along the seashore, while the
fleet preceded their march, and successively cast a bridge
of boats over the mouths of the rivers, the Timavus, the
Brenta, the Adige, and the Po, that fall into the Adriatic
to the north of Ravenna. Nine days he reposed in the city,
collected the fragments of the Italian army, and marching
towards Rimini to meet the defiance of an insulting enemy.
The prudence of Narses impelled him to speedy and decisive
action. His powers were the last effort of the state; the
cost of each day accumulated the enormous account; and the
nations, untrained to discipline or fatigue, might be rashly
provoked to turn their arms against each other, or against
their benefactor. The same considerations might have
tempered the ardor of Totila. But he was conscious that the
clergy and people of Italy aspired to a second revolution:
he felt or suspected the rapid progress of treason; and he
resolved to risk the Gothic kingdom on the chance of a day,
in which the valiant would be animated by instant danger and
the disaffected might be awed by mutual ignorance. In his
march from Ravenna, the Roman general chastised the garrison
of Rimini, traversed in a direct line the hills of Urbino,
and reentered the Flaminian way, nine miles beyond the
perforated rock, an obstacle of art and nature which might
have stopped or retarded his progress. (34) The Goths were
assembled in the neighborhood of Rome, they advanced without
delay to seek a superior enemy, and the two armies
approached each other at the distance of one hundred
furlongs, between Tagina (35) and the sepulchres of the
Gauls. (36) The haughty message of Narses was an offer, not
of peace, but of pardon. The answer of the Gothic king
declared his resolution to die or conquer. "What day," said
the messenger, "will you fix for the combat?" "The eighth
day," replied Totila; but early the next morning he
attempted to surprise a foe, suspicious of deceit, and
prepared for battle. Ten thousand Heruli and Lombards, of
approved valor and doubtful faith, were placed in the
centre. Each of the wings was composed of eight thousand
Romans; the right was guarded by the cavalry of the Huns,
the left was covered by fifteen hundred chosen horse,
destined, according to the emergencies of action, to sustain
the retreat of their friends, or to encompass the flank of
the enemy. From his proper station at the head of the right
wing, the eunuch rode along the line, expressing by his
voice and countenance the assurance of victory; exciting the
soldiers of the emperor to punish the guilt and madness of a
band of robbers; and exposing to their view gold chains,
collars, and bracelets, the rewards of military virtue. From
the event of a single combat they drew an omen of success;
and they beheld with pleasure the courage of fifty archers,
who maintained a small eminence against three successive
attacks of the Gothic cavalry. At the distance only of two
bow-shots, the armies spent the morning in dreadful
suspense, and the Romans tasted some necessary food, without
unloosing the cuirass from their breast, or the bridle from
their horses. Narses awaited the charge; and it was delayed
by Totila till he had received his last succors of two
thousand Goths. While he consumed the hours in fruitless
treaty, the king exhibited in a narrow space the strength
and agility of a warrior. His armor was enchased with gold;
his purple banner floated with the wind: he cast his lance
into the air; caught it with the right hand; shifted it to
the left; threw himself backwards; recovered his seat; and
managed a fiery steed in all the paces and evolutions of the
equestrian school. As soon as the succors had arrived, he
retired to his tent, assumed the dress and arms of a private
soldier, and gave the signal of a battle. The first line of
cavalry advanced with more courage than discretion, and left
behind them the infantry of the second line. They were soon
engaged between the horns of a crescent, into which the
adverse wings had been insensibly curved, and were saluted
from either side by the volleys of four thousand archers.
Their ardor, and even their distress, drove them forwards to
a close and unequal conflict, in which they could only use
their lances against an enemy equally skilled in all the
instruments of war. A generous emulation inspired the
Romans and their Barbarian allies; and Narses, who calmly
viewed and directed their efforts, doubted to whom he should
adjudge the prize of superior bravery. The Gothic cavalry
was astonished and disordered, pressed and broken; and the
line of infantry, instead of presenting their spears, or
opening their intervals, were trampled under the feet of the
flying horse. Six thousand of the Goths were slaughtered
without mercy in the field of Tagina. Their prince, with
five attendants, was overtaken by Asbad, of the race of the
Gepidae. "Spare the king of Italy," (I) cried a loyal voice,
and Asbad struck his lance through the body of Totila. The
blow was instantly revenged by the faithful Goths: they
transported their dying monarch seven miles beyond the scene
of his disgrace; and his last moments were not imbittered by
the presence of an enemy. Compassion afforded him the
shelter of an obscure tomb; but the Romans were not
satisfied of their victory, till they beheld the corpse of
the Gothic king. His hat, enriched with gems, and his
bloody robe, were presented to Justinian by the messengers
of triumph. (37)
As soon as Narses had paid his devotions to the Author of
victory, and the blessed Virgin, his peculiar patroness, (38)
he praised, rewarded, and dismissed the Lombards. The
villages had been reduced to ashes by these valiant savages;
they ravished matrons and virgins on the altar; their
retreat was diligently watched by a strong detachment of
regular forces, who prevented a repetition of the like
disorders. The victorious eunuch pursued his march through
Tuscany, accepted the submission of the Goths, heard the
acclamations, and often the complaints, of the Italians, and
encompassed the walls of Rome with the remainder of his
formidable host. Round the wide circumference, Narses
assigned to himself, and to each of his lieutenants, a real
or a feigned attack, while he silently marked the place of
easy and unguarded entrance. Neither the fortifications of
Hadrian's mole, nor of the port, could long delay the
progress of the conqueror; and Justinian once more received
the keys of Rome, which, under his reign, had been five
times taken and recovered. (39) But the deliverance of Rome
was the last calamity of the Roman people. The Barbarian
allies of Narses too frequently confounded the privileges of
peace and war. The despair of the flying Goths found some
consolation in sanguinary revenge; and three hundred youths
of the noblest families, who had been sent as hostages
beyond the Po, were inhumanly slain by the successor of
Totila. The fate of the senate suggests an awful lesson of
the vicissitude of human affairs. Of the senators whom
Totila had banished from their country, some were rescued by
an officer of Belisarius, and transported from Campania to
Sicily; while others were too guilty to confide in the
clemency of Justinian, or too poor to provide horses for
their escape to the sea-shore. Their brethren languished
five years in a state of indigence and exile: the victory of
Narses revived their hopes; but their premature return to
the metropolis was prevented by the furious Goths; and all
the fortresses of Campania were stained with patrician (40)
blood. After a period of thirteen centuries, the
institution of Romulus expired; and if the nobles of Rome
still assumed the title of senators, few subsequent traces
can be discovered of a public council, or constitutional
order. Ascend six hundred years, and contemplate the kings
of the earth soliciting an audience, as the slaves or
freedmen of the Roman senate! (41)
The Gothic war was yet alive. The bravest of the nation
retired beyond the Po; and Teias was unanimously chosen to
succeed and revenge their departed hero. The new king
immediately sent ambassadors to implore, or rather to
purchase, the aid of the Franks, and nobly lavished, for the
public safety, the riches which had been deposited in the
palace of Pavia. The residue of the royal treasure was
guarded by his brother Aligern, at Cumaea, in Campania; but
the strong castle which Totila had fortified was closely
besieged by the arms of Narses. From the Alps to the foot
of Mount Vesuvius, the Gothic king, by rapid and secret
marches, advanced to the relief of his brother, eluded the
vigilance of the Roman chiefs, and pitched his camp on the
banks of the Sarnus or Draco, (42) which flows from Nuceria
into the Bay of Naples. The river separated the two armies:
sixty days were consumed in distant and fruitless combats,
and Teias maintained this important post till he was
deserted by his fleet and the hope of subsistence. With
reluctant steps he ascended the Lactarian mount, where the
physicians of Rome, since the time of Galen, had sent their
patients for the benefit of the air and the milk. (43) But
the Goths soon embraced a more generous resolution: to
descend the hill, to dismiss their horses, and to die in
arms, and in the possession of freedom. The king marched at
their head, bearing in his right hand a lance, and an ample
buckler in his left: with the one he struck dead the
foremost of the assailants; with the other he received the
weapons which every hand was ambitious to aim against his
life. After a combat of many hours, his left arm was
fatigued by the weight of twelve javelins which hung from
his shield. Without moving from his ground, or suspending
his blows, the hero called aloud on his attendants for a
fresh buckler; but in the moment while his side was
uncovered, it was pierced by a mortal dart. He fell; and
his head, exalted on a spear, proclaimed to the nations that
the Gothic kingdom was no more. But the example of his
death served only to animate the companions who had sworn to
perish with their leader. They fought till darkness
descended on the earth. They reposed on their arms. The
combat was renewed with the return of light, and maintained
with unabated vigor till the evening of the second day. The
repose of a second night, the want of water, and the loss of
their bravest champions, determined the surviving Goths to
accept the fair capitulation which the prudence of Narses
was inclined to propose. They embraced the alternative of
residing in Italy, as the subjects and soldiers of
Justinian, or departing with a portion of their private
wealth, in search of some independent country. (44) Yet the
oath of fidelity or exile was alike rejected by one thousand
Goths, who broke away before the treaty was signed, and
boldly effected their retreat to the walls of Pavia. The
spirit, as well as the situation, of Aligern prompted him to
imitate rather than to bewail his brother: a strong and
dexterous archer, he transpierced with a single arrow the
armor and breast of his antagonist; and his military conduct
defended Cumae (45) above a year against the forces of the
Romans. Their industry had scooped the Sibyl's cave (46) into
a prodigious mine; combustible materials were introduced to
consume the temporary props: the wall and the gate of Cumae
sunk into the cavern, but the ruins formed a deep and
inaccessible precipice. On the fragment of a rock Aligern
stood alone and unshaken, till he calmly surveyed the
hopeless condition of his country, and judged it more
honorable to be the friend of Narses, than the slave of the
Franks. After the death of Teias, the Roman general
separated his troops to reduce the cities of Italy; Lucca
sustained a long and vigorous siege: and such was the
humanity or the prudence of Narses, that the repeated
perfidy of the inhabitants could not provoke him to exact
the forfeit lives of their hostages. These hostages were
dismissed in safety; and their grateful zeal at length
subdued the obstinacy of their countrymen. (47)
Before Lucca had surrendered, Italy was overwhelmed by a new
deluge of Barbarians. A feeble youth, the grandson of
Clovis, reigned over the Austrasians or oriental Franks.
The guardians of Theodebald entertained with coldness and
reluctance the magnificent promises of the Gothic
ambassadors. But the spirit of a martial people outstripped
the timid counsels of the court: two brothers, Lothaire and
Buccelin, (48) the dukes of the Alemanni, stood forth as the
leaders of the Italian war; and seventy-five thousand
Germans descended in the autumn from the Rhaetian Alps into
the plain of Milan. The vanguard of the Roman army was
stationed near the Po, under the conduct of Fulcaris, a bold
Herulian, who rashly conceived that personal bravery was the
sole duty and merit of a commander. As he marched without
order or precaution along the Aemilian way, an ambuscade of
Franks suddenly rose from the amphitheatre of Parma; his
troops were surprised and routed; but their leader refused
to fly; declaring to the last moment, that death was less
terrible than the angry countenance of Narses. (J) The death
of Fulcaris, and the retreat of the surviving chiefs,
decided the fluctuating and rebellious temper of the Goths;
they flew to the standard of their deliverers, and admitted
them into the cities which still resisted the arms of the
Roman general. The conqueror of Italy opened a free passage
to the irresistible torrent of Barbarians. They passed under
the walls of Cesena, and answered by threats and reproaches
the advice of Aligern, (K) that the Gothic treasures could no
longer repay the labor of an invasion. Two thousand Franks
were destroyed by the skill and valor of Narses himself, who
sailed from Rimini at the head of three hundred horse, to
chastise the licentious rapine of their march. On the
confines of Samnium the two brothers divided their forces.
With the right wing, Buccelin assumed the spoil of Campania,
Lucania, and Bruttium; with the left, Lothaire accepted the
plunder of Apulia and Calabria. They followed the coast of
the Mediterranean and the Adriatic, as far as Rhegium and
Otranto, and the extreme lands of Italy were the term of
their destructive progress. The Franks, who were Christians
and Catholics, contented themselves with simple pillage and
occasional murder. But the churches which their piety had
spared, were stripped by the sacrilegious hands of the
Alamanni, who sacrificed horses' heads to their native
deities of the woods and rivers; (49) they melted or profaned
the consecrated vessels, and the ruins of shrines and altars
were stained with the blood of the faithful. Buccelin was
actuated by ambition, and Lothaire by avarice. The former
aspired to restore the Gothic kingdom; the latter, after a
promise to his brother of speedy succors, returned by the
same road to deposit his treasure beyond the Alps. The
strength of their armies was already wasted by the change of
climate and contagion of disease: the Germans revelled in
the vintage of Italy; and their own intemperance avenged, in
some degree, the miseries of a defenceless people. (L)
At the entrance of the spring, the Imperial troops, who had
guarded the cities, assembled, to the number of eighteen
thousand men, in the neighborhood of Rome. Their winter
hours had not been consumed in idleness. By the command, and
after the example, of Narses, they repeated each day their
military exercise on foot and on horseback, accustomed their
ear to obey the sound of the trumpet, and practised the
steps and evolutions of the Pyrrhic dance. From the Straits
of Sicily, Buccelin, with thirty thousand Franks and
Alamanni, slowly moved towards Capua, occupied with a wooden
tower the bridge of Casilinum, covered his right by the
stream of the Vulturnus, and secured the rest of his
encampment by a rampart of sharp stakes, and a circle of
wagons, whose wheels were buried in the earth. He
impatiently expected the return of Lothaire; ignorant, alas!
that his brother could never return, and that the chief and
his army had been swept away by a strange disease (50) on the
banks of the Lake Benacus, between Trent and Verona. The
banners of Narses soon approached the Vulturnus, and the
eyes of Italy were anxiously fixed on the event of this
final contest. Perhaps the talents of the Roman general
were most conspicuous in the calm operations which precede
the tumult of a battle. His skilful movements intercepted
the subsistence of the Barbarian deprived him of the
advantage of the bridge and river, and in the choice of the
ground and moment of action reduced him to comply with the
inclination of his enemy. On the morning of the important
day, when the ranks were already formed, a servant, for some
trivial fault, was killed by his master, one of the leaders
of the Heruli. The justice or passion of Narses was
awakened: he summoned the offender to his presence, and
without listening to his excuses, gave the signal to the
minister of death. If the cruel master had not infringed the
laws of his nation, this arbitrary execution was not less
unjust than it appears to have been imprudent. The Heruli
felt the indignity; they halted: but the Roman general,
without soothing their rage, or expecting their resolution,
called aloud, as the trumpets sounded, that unless they
hastened to occupy their place, they would lose the honor of
the victory. His troops were disposed (51) in a long front,
the cavalry on the wings; in the centre, the heavy-armed
foot; the archers and slingers in the rear. The Germans
advanced in a sharp-pointed column, of the form of a
triangle or solid wedge. They pierced the feeble centre of
Narses, who received them with a smile into the fatal snare,
and directed his wings of cavalry insensibly to wheel on
their flanks and encompass their rear. The host of the
Franks and Alamanni consisted of infantry: a sword and
buckler hung by their side; and they used, as their weapons
of offence, a weighty hatchet and a hooked javelin, which
were only formidable in close combat, or at a short
distance. The flower of the Roman archers, on horseback, and
in complete armor, skirmished without peril round this
immovable phalanx; supplied by active speed the deficiency
of number; and aimed their arrows against a crowd of
Barbarians, who, instead of a cuirass and helmet, were
covered by a loose garment of fur or linen. They paused,
they trembled, their ranks were confounded, and in the
decisive moment the Heruli, preferring glory to revenge,
charged with rapid violence the head of the column. Their
leader, Sinbal, and Aligern, the Gothic prince, deserved the
prize of superior valor; and their example excited the
victorious troops to achieve with swords and spears the
destruction of the enemy. Buccelin, and the greatest part of
his army, perished on the field of battle, in the waters of
the Vulturnus, or by the hands of the enraged peasants: but
it may seem incredible, that a victory, (52) which no more
than five of the Alamanni survived, could be purchased with
the loss of fourscore Romans. Seven thousand Goths, the
relics of the war, defended the fortress of Campsa till the
ensuing spring; and every messenger of Narses announced the
reduction of the Italian cities, whose names were corrupted
by the ignorance or vanity of the Greeks. (53) After the
battle of Casilinum, Narses entered the capital; the arms
and treasures of the Goths, the Franks, and the Alamanni,
were displayed; his soldiers, with garlands in their hands,
chanted the praises of the conqueror; and Rome, for the last
time, beheld the semblance of a triumph.
After a reign of sixty years, the throne of the Gothic kings
was filled by the exarchs of Ravenna, the representatives in
peace and war of the emperor of the Romans. Their
jurisdiction was soon reduced to the limits of a narrow
province: but Narses himself, the first and most powerful of
the exarchs, administered above fifteen years the entire
kingdom of Italy. Like Belisarius, he had deserved the
honors of envy, calumny, and disgrace: but the favorite
eunuch still enjoyed the confidence of Justinian; or the
leader of a victorious army awed and repressed the
ingratitude of a timid court. Yet it was not by weak and
mischievous indulgence that Narses secured the attachment of
his troops. Forgetful of the past, and regardless of the
future, they abused the present hour of prosperity and
peace. The cities of Italy resounded with the noise of
drinking and dancing; the spoils of victory were wasted in
sensual pleasures; and nothing (says Agathias) remained
unless to exchange their shields and helmets for the soft
lute and the capacious hogshead. (54) In a manly oration, not
unworthy of a Roman censor, the eunuch reproved these
disorderly vices, which sullied their fame, and endangered
their safety. The soldiers blushed and obeyed; discipline
was confirmed; the fortifications were restored; a duke was
stationed for the defence and military command of each of
the principal cities; (55) and the eye of Narses pervaded the
ample prospect from Calabria to the Alps. The remains of
the Gothic nation evacuated the country, or mingled with the
people; the Franks, instead of revenging the death of
Buccelin, abandoned, without a struggle, their Italian
conquests; and the rebellious Sinbal, chief of the Heruli,
was subdued, taken and hung on a lofty gallows by the
inflexible justice of the exarch. (56) The civil state of
Italy, after the agitation of a long tempest, was fixed by a
pragmatic sanction, which the emperor promulgated at the
request of the pope. Justinian introduced his own
jurisprudence into the schools and tribunals of the West; he
ratified the acts of Theodoric and his immediate successors,
but every deed was rescinded and abolished which force had
extorted, or fear had subscribed, under the usurpation of
Totila. A moderate theory was framed to reconcile the
rights of property with the safety of prescription, the
claims of the state with the poverty of the people, and the
pardon of offences with the interest of virtue and order of
society. Under the exarchs of Ravenna, Rome was degraded to
the second rank. Yet the senators were gratified by the
permission of visiting their estates in Italy, and of
approaching, without obstacle, the throne of Constantinople:
the regulation of weights and measures was delegated to the
pope and senate; and the salaries of lawyers and physicians,
of orators and grammarians, were destined to preserve, or
rekindle, the light of science in the ancient capital.
Justinian might dictate benevolent edicts, (57) and Narses
might second his wishes by the restoration of cities, and
more especially of churches. But the power of kings is most
effectual to destroy; and the twenty years of the Gothic war
had consummated the distress and depopulation of Italy. As
early as the fourth campaign, under the discipline of
Belisarius himself, fifty thousand laborers died of hunger
(58) in the narrow region of Picenum; (59) and a strict
interpretation of the evidence of Procopius would swell the
loss of Italy above the total sum of her present
inhabitants. (60)
I desire to believe, but I dare not affirm, that Belisarius
sincerely rejoiced in the triumph of Narses. Yet the
consciousness of his own exploits might teach him to esteem
without jealousy the merit of a rival; and the repose of the
aged warrior was crowned by a last victory, which saved the
emperor and the capital. The Barbarians, who annually
visited the provinces of Europe, were less discouraged by
some accidental defeats, than they were excited by the
double hope of spoil and of subsidy. In the thirty-second
winter of Justinian's reign, the Danube was deeply frozen:
Zabergan led the cavalry of the Bulgarians, and his standard
was followed by a promiscuous multitude of Sclavonians. (M)
The savage chief passed, without opposition, the river and
the mountains, spread his troops over Macedonia and Thrace,
and advanced with no more than seven thousand horse to the
long wall, which should have defended the territory of
Constantinople. But the works of man are impotent against
the assaults of nature: a recent earthquake had shaken the
foundations of the wall; and the forces of the empire were
employed on the distant frontiers of Italy, Africa, and
Persia. The seven schools, (61) or companies of the guards or
domestic troops, had been augmented to the number of five
thousand five hundred men, whose ordinary station was in the
peaceful cities of Asia. But the places of the brave
Armenians were insensibly supplied by lazy citizens, who
purchased an exemption from the duties of civil life,
without being exposed to the dangers of military service.
Of such soldiers, few could be tempted to sally from the
gates; and none could be persuaded to remain in the field,
unless they wanted strength and speed to escape from the
Bulgarians. The report of the fugitives exaggerated the
numbers and fierceness of an enemy, who had polluted holy
virgins, and abandoned new-born infants to the dogs and
vultures; a crowd of rustics, imploring food and protection,
increased the consternation of the city, and the tents of
Zabergan were pitched at the distance of twenty miles, (62)
on the banks of a small river, which encircles Melanthias,
and afterwards falls into the Propontis. (63) Justinian
trembled: and those who had only seen the emperor in his old
age, were pleased to suppose, that he had lost the alacrity
and vigor of his youth. By his command the vessels of gold
and silver were removed from the churches in the
neighborhood, and even the suburbs, of Constantinople; the
ramparts were lined with trembling spectators; the golden
gate was crowded with useless generals and tribunes, and the
senate shared the fatigues and the apprehensions of the
populace.
But the eyes of the prince and people were directed to a
feeble veteran, who was compelled by the public danger to
resume the armor in which he had entered Carthage and
defended Rome. The horses of the royal stables, of private
citizens, and even of the circus, were hastily collected;
the emulation of the old and young was roused by the name of
Belisarius, and his first encampment was in the presence of
a victorious enemy. His prudence, and the labor of the
friendly peasants, secured, with a ditch and rampart, the
repose of the night; innumerable fires, and clouds of dust,
were artfully contrived to magnify the opinion of his
strength; his soldiers suddenly passed from despondency to
presumption; and, while ten thousand voices demanded the
battle, Belisarius dissembled his knowledge, that in the
hour of trial he must depend on the firmness of three
hundred veterans. The next morning the Bulgarian cavalry
advanced to the charge. But they heard the shouts of
multitudes, they beheld the arms and discipline of the
front; they were assaulted on the flanks by two ambuscades
which rose from the woods; their foremost warriors fell by
the hand of the aged hero and his gnards; and the swiftness
of their evolutions was rendered useless by the close attack
and rapid pursuit of the Romans. In this action (so speedy
was their flight) the Bulgarians lost only four hundred
horse; but Constantinople was saved; and Zabergan, who felt
the hand of a master, withdrew to a respectful distance. But
his friends were numerous in the councils of the emperor,
and Belisarius obeyed with reluctance the commands of envy
and Justinian, which forbade him to achieve the deliverance
of his country. On his return to the city, the people,
still conscious of their danger, accompanied his triumph
with acclamations of joy and gratitude, which were imputed
as a crime to the victorious general. But when he entered
the palace, the courtiers were silent, and the emperor,
after a cold and thankless embrace, dismissed him to mingle
with the train of slaves. Yet so deep was the impression of
his glory on the minds of men, that Justinian, in the
seventy-seventh year of his age, was encouraged to advance
near forty miles from the capital, and to inspect in person
the restoration of the long wall. The Bulgarians wasted the
summer in the plains of Thrace; but they were inclined to
peace by the failure of their rash attempts on Greece and
the Chersonesus. A menace of killing their prisoners
quickened the payment of heavy ransoms; and the departure of
Zabergan was hastened by the report, that double-prowed
vessels were built on the Danube to intercept his passage.
The danger was soon forgotten; and a vain question, whether
their sovereign had shown more wisdom or weakness, amused
the idleness of the city. (64)
About two years after the last victory of Belisarius, the
emperor returned from a Thracian journey of health, or
business, or devotion. Justinian was afflicted by a pain in
his head; and his private entry countenanced the rumor of
his death. Before the third hour of the day, the bakers'
shops were plundered of their bread, the houses were shut,
and every citizen, with hope or terror, prepared for the
impending tumult. The senators themselves, fearful and
suspicious, were convened at the ninth hour; and the
praefect received their commands to visit every quarter of
the city, and proclaim a general illumination for the
recovery of the emperor's health. The ferment subsided; but
every accident betrayed the impotence of the government, and
the factious temper of the people: the guards were disposed
to mutiny as often as their quarters were changed, or their
pay was withheld: the frequent calamities of fires and
earthquakes afforded the opportunities of disorder; the
disputes of the blues and greens, of the orthodox and
heretics, degenerated into bloody battles; and, in the
presence of the Persian ambassador, Justinian blushed for
himself and for his subjects. Capricious pardon and
arbitrary punishment imbittered the irksomeness and
discontent of a long reign: a conspiracy was formed in the
palace; and, unless we are deceived by the names of
Marcellus and Sergius, the most virtuous and the most
profligate of the courtiers were associated in the same
designs. They had fixed the time of the execution; their
rank gave them access to the royal banquet; and their black
slaves (65) were stationed in the vestibule and porticos, to
announce the death of the tyrant, and to excite a sedition
in the capital. But the indiscretion of an accomplice saved
the poor remnant of the days of Justinian. The conspirators
were detected and seized, with daggers hidden under their
garments: Marcellus died by his own hand, and Sergius was
dragged from the sanctuary. (66) Pressed by remorse, or
tempted by the hopes of safety, he accused two officers of
the household of Belisarius; and torture forced them to
declare that they had acted according to the secret
instructions of their patron. (67) Posterity will not hastily
believe that a hero who, in the vigor of life, had disdained
the fairest offers of ambition and revenge, should stoop to
the murder of his prince, whom he could not long expect to
survive. His followers were impatient to fly; but flight
must have been supported by rebellion, and he had lived
enough for nature and for glory. Belisarius appeared before
the council with less fear than indignation: after forty
years' service, the emperor had prejudged his guilt; and
injustice was sanctified by the presence and authority of
the patriarch. The life of Belisarius was graciously
spared; but his fortunes were sequestered, and, from
December to July, he was guarded as a prisoner in his own
palace. At length his innocence was acknowledged; his
freedom and honor were restored; and death, which might be
hastened by resentment and grief, removed him from the world
in about eight months after his deliverance. The name of
Belisarius can never die but instead of the funeral, the
monuments, the statues, so justly due to his memory, I only
read, that his treasures, the spoil of the Goths and
Vandals, were immediately confiscated by the emperor. Some
decent portion was reserved, however for the use of his
widow: and as Antonina had much to repent, she devoted the
last remains of her life and fortune to the foundation of a
convent. Such is the simple and genuine narrative of the
fall of Belisarius and the ingratitude of Justinian. (68)
That he was deprived of his eyes, and reduced by envy to beg
his bread, (N) "Give a penny to Belisarius the general!" is a
fiction of later times, (69) which has obtained credit, or
rather favor, as a strange example of the vicissitudes of
fortune. (70)
If the emperor could rejoice in the death of Belisarius, he
enjoyed the base satisfaction only eight months, the last
period of a reign of thirty- eight years, and a life of
eighty-three years. It would be difficult to trace the
character of a prince who is not the most conspicuous object
of his own times: but the confessions of an enemy may be
received as the safest evidence of his virtues. The
resemblance of Justinian to the bust of Domitian, is
maliciously urged; (71) with the acknowledgment, however, of
a well-proportioned figure, a ruddy complexion, and a
pleasing countenance. The emperor was easy of access,
patient of hearing, courteous and affable in discourse, and
a master of the angry passions which rage with such
destructive violence in the breast of a despot. Procopius
praises his temper, to reproach him with calm and deliberate
cruelty: but in the conspiracies which attacked his
authority and person, a more candid judge will approve the
justice, or admire the clemency, of Justinian. He excelled
in the private virtues of chastity and temperance: but the
impartial love of beauty would have been less mischievous
than his conjugal tenderness for Theodora; and his
abstemious diet was regulated, not by the prudence of a
philosopher, but the superstition of a monk. His repasts
were short and frugal: on solemn fasts, he contented himself
with water and vegetables; and such was his strength, as
well as fervor, that he frequently passed two days, and as
many nights, without tasting any food. The measure of his
sleep was not less rigorous: after the repose of a single
hour, the body was awakened by the soul, and, to the
astonishment of his chamberlain, Justinian walked or studied
till the morning light. Such restless application prolonged
his time for the acquisition of knowledge (72) and the
despatch of business; and he might seriously deserve the
reproach of confounding, by minute and preposterous
diligence, the general order of his administration. The
emperor professed himself a musician and architect, a poet
and philosopher, a lawyer and theologian; and if he failed
in the enterprise of reconciling the Christian sects, the
review of the Roman jurisprudence is a noble monument of his
spirit and industry. In the government of the empire, he
was less wise, or less successful: the age was unfortunate;
the people was oppressed and discontented; Theodora abused
her power; a succession of bad ministers disgraced his
judgment; and Justinian was neither beloved in his life, nor
regretted at his death. The love of fame was deeply
implanted in his breast, but he condescended to the poor
ambition of titles, honors, and contemporary praise; and
while he labored to fix the admiration, he forfeited the
esteem and affection, of the Romans. The design of the
African and Italian wars was boldly conceived and executed;
and his penetration discovered the talents of Belisarius in
the camp, of Narses in the palace. But the name of the
emperor is eclipsed by the names of his victorious generals;
and Belisarius still lives, to upbraid the envy and
ingratitude of his sovereign. The partial favor of mankind
applauds the genius of a conqueror, who leads and directs
his subjects in the exercise of arms. The characters of
Philip the Second and of Justinian are distinguished by the
cold ambition which delights in war, and declines the
dangers of the field. Yet a colossal statue of bronze
represented the emperor on horseback, preparing to march
against the Persians in the habit and armor of Achilles. In
the great square before the church of St. Sophia, this
monument was raised on a brass column and a stone pedestal
of seven steps; and the pillar of Theodosius, which weighed
seven thousand four hundred pounds of silver, was removed
from the same place by the avarice and vanity of Justinian.
Future princes were more just or indulgent to his memory;
the elder Andronicus, in the beginning of the fourteenth
century, repaired and beautified his equestrian statue:
since the fall of the empire it has been melted into cannon
by the victorious Turks. (73)
I shall conclude this chapter with the comets, the
earthquakes, and the plague, which astonished or afflicted
the age of Justinian. I. In the fifth year of his reign,
and in the month of September, a comet (74) was seen during
twenty days in the western quarter of the heavens, and which
shot its rays into the north. Eight years afterwards, while
the sun was in Capricorn, another comet appeared to follow
in the Sagittary; the size was gradually increasing; the
head was in the east, the tail in the west, and it remained
visible above forty days. The nations, who gazed with
astonishment, expected wars and calamities from their
baleful influence; and these expectations were abundantly
fulfilled. The astronomers dissembled their ignorance of
the nature of these blazing stars, which they affected to
represent as the floating meteors of the air; and few among
them embraced the simple notion of Seneca and the Chaldeans,
that they are only planets of a longer period and more
eccentric motion. (75) Time and science have justified the
conjectures and predictions of the Roman sage: the telescope
has opened new worlds to the eyes of astronomers; (76) and,
in the narrow space of history and fable, one and the same
comet is already found to have revisited the earth in seven
equal revolutions of five hundred and seventy-five years.
The first, (77) which ascends beyond the Christian aera one
thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven years, is coeval with
Ogyges, the father of Grecian antiquity. And this appearance
explains the tradition which Varro has preserved, that under
his reign the planet Venus changed her color, size, figure,
and course; a prodigy without example either in past or
succeeding ages. (78) The second visit, in the year eleven
hundred and ninety-three, is darkly implied in the fable of
Electra, the seventh of the Pleiads, who have been reduced
to six since the time of the Trojan war. That nymph, the
wife of Dardanus, was unable to support the ruin of her
country: she abandoned the dances of her sister orbs, fled
from the zodiac to the north pole, and obtained, from her
dishevelled locks, the name of the comet. The third period
expires in the year six hundred and eighteen, a date that
exactly agrees with the tremendous comet of the Sibyl, and
perhaps of Pliny, which arose in the West two generations
before the reign of Cyrus. The fourth apparition,
forty-four years before the birth of Christ, is of all
others the most splendid and important. After the death of
Caesar, a long-haired star was conspicuous to Rome and to
the nations, during the games which were exhibited by young
Octavian in honor of Venus and his uncle. The vulgar
opinion, that it conveyed to heaven the divine soul of the
dictator, was cherished and consecrated by the piety of a
statesman; while his secret superstition referred the comet
to the glory of his own times. (79) The fifth visit has been
already ascribed to the fifth year of Justinian, which
coincides with the five hundred and thirty-first of the
Christian aera. And it may deserve notice, that in this, as
in the preceding instance, the comet was followed, though at
a longer interval, by a remarkable paleness of the sun. The
sixth return, in the year eleven hundred and six, is
recorded by the chronicles of Europe and China: and in the
first fervor of the crusades, the Christians and the
Mahometans might surmise, with equal reason, that it
portended the destruction of the Infidels. The seventh
phenomenon, of one thousand six hundred and eighty, was
presented to the eyes of an enlightened age. (80) The
philosophy of Bayle dispelled a prejudice which Milton's
muse had so recently adorned, that the comet, "from its
horrid hair shakes pestilence and war." (81) Its road in the
heavens was observed with exquisite skill by Flamstead and
Cassini: and the mathematical science of Bernoulli, Newton
(O), and Halley, investigated the laws of its revolutions. At
the eighth period, in the year two thousand three hundred
and fifty-five, their calculations may perhaps be verified
by the astronomers of some future capital in the Siberian or
American wilderness.
II. The near approach of a comet may injure or destroy the
globe which we inhabit; but the changes on its surface have
been hitherto produced by the action of volcanoes and
earthquakes. (82) The nature of the soil may indicate the
countries most exposed to these formidable concussions,
since they are caused by subterraneous fires, and such fires
are kindled by the union and fermentation of iron and
sulphur. But their times and effects appear to lie beyond
the reach of human curiosity; and the philosopher will
discreetly abstain from the prediction of earthquakes, till
he has counted the drops of water that silently filtrate on
the inflammable mineral, and measured the caverns which
increase by resistance the explosion of the imprisoned air.
Without assigning the cause, history will distinguish the
periods in which these calamitous events have been rare or
frequent, and will observe, that this fever of the earth
raged with uncommon violence during the reign of Justinian.
(83) Each year is marked by the repetition of earthquakes, of
such duration, that Constantinople has been shaken above
forty days; of such extent, that the shock has been
communicated to the whole surface of the globe, or at least
of the Roman empire. An impulsive or vibratory motion was
felt: enormous chasms were opened, huge and heavy bodies
were discharged into the air, the sea alternately advanced
and retreated beyond its ordinary bounds, and a mountain was
torn from Libanus, (84) and cast into the waves, where it
protected, as a mole, the new harbor of Botrys (85) in
Phoenicia. The stroke that agitates an ant-hill may crush
the insect-myriads in the dust; yet truth must extort
confession that man has industriously labored for his own
destruction. The institution of great cities, which include
a nation within the limits of a wall, almost realizes the
wish of Caligula, that the Roman people had but one neck.
Two hundred and fifty thousand persons are said to have
perished in the earthquake of Antioch, whose domestic
multitudes were swelled by the conflux of strangers to the
festival of the Ascension. The loss of Berytus (86) was of
smaller account, but of much greater value. That city, on
the coast of Phoenicia, was illustrated by the study of the
civil law, which opened the surest road to wealth and
dignity: the schools of Berytus were filled with the rising
spirits of the age, and many a youth was lost in the
earthquake, who might have lived to be the scourge or the
guardian of his country. In these disasters, the architect
becomes the enemy of mankind. The hut of a savage, or the
tent of an Arab, may be thrown down without injury to the
inhabitant; and the Peruvians had reason to deride the folly
of their Spanish conquerors, who with so much cost and labor
erected their own sepulchres. The rich marbles of a
patrician are dashed on his own head: a whole people is
buried under the ruins of public and private edifices, and
the conflagration is kindled and propagated by the
innumerable fires which are necessary for the subsistence
and manufactures of a great city. Instead of the mutual
sympathy which might comfort and assist the distressed, they
dreadfully experience the vices and passions which are
released from the fear of punishment: the tottering houses
are pillaged by intrepid avarice; revenge embraces the
moment, and selects the victim; and the earth often swallows
the assassin, or the ravisher, in the consummation of their
crimes. Superstition involves the present danger with
invisible terrors; and if the image of death may sometimes
be subservient to the virtue or repentance of individuals,
an affrighted people is more forcibly moved to expect the
end of the world, or to deprecate with servile homage the
wrath of an avenging Deity.
III. Aethiopia and Egypt have been stigmatized, in every
age, as the original source and seminary of the plague. (87)
In a damp, hot, stagnating air, this African fever is
generated from the putrefaction of animal substances, and
especially from the swarms of locusts, not less destructive
to mankind in their death than in their lives. The fatal
disease which depopulated the earth in the time of Justinian
and his successors, (88) first appeared in the neighborhood
of Pelusium, between the Serbonian bog and the eastern
channel of the Nile. From thence, tracing as it were a
double path, it spread to the East, over Syria, Persia, and
the Indies, and penetrated to the West, along the coast of
Africa, and over the continent of Europe. In the spring of
the second year, Constantinople, during three or four
months, was visited by the pestilence; and Procopius, who
observed its progress and symptoms with the eyes of a
physician, (89) has emulated the skill and diligence of
Thucydides in the description of the plague of Athens. (90)
The infection was sometimes announced by the visions of a
distempered fancy, and the victim despaired as soon as he
had heard the menace and felt the stroke of an invisible
spectre. But the greater number, in their beds, in the
streets, in their usual occupation, were surprised by a
slight fever; so slight, indeed, that neither the pulse nor
the color of the patient gave any signs of the approaching
danger. The same, the next, or the succeeding day, it was
declared by the swelling of the glands, particularly those
of the groin, of the armpits, and under the ear; and when
these buboes or tumors were opened, they were found to
contain a coal, or black substance, of the size of a lentil.
If they came to a just swelling and suppuration, the patient
was saved by this kind and natural discharge of the morbid
humor. But if they continued hard and dry, a mortification
quickly ensued, and the fifth day was commonly the term of
his life. The fever was often accompanied with lethargy or
delirium; the bodies of the sick were covered with black
pustules or carbuncles, the symptoms of immediate death; and
in the constitutions too feeble to produce an irruption, the
vomiting of blood was followed by a mortification of the
bowels. To pregnant women the plague was generally mortal:
yet one infant was drawn alive from his dead mother, and
three mothers survived the loss of their infected foetus.
Youth was the most perilous season; and the female sex was
less susceptible than the male: but every rank and
profession was attacked with indiscriminate rage, and many
of those who escaped were deprived of the use of their
speech, without being secure from a return of the disorder.
(91) The physicians of Constantinople were zealous and
skilful; but their art was baffled by the various symptoms
and pertinacious vehemence of the disease: the same remedies
were productive of contrary effects, and the event
capriciously disappointed their prognostics of death or
recovery. The order of funerals, and the right of
sepulchres, were confounded: those who were left without
friends or servants, lay unburied in the streets, or in
their desolate houses; and a magistrate was authorized to
collect the promiscuous heaps of dead bodies, to transport
them by land or water, and to inter them in deep pits beyond
the precincts of the city. Their own danger, and the
prospect of public distress, awakened some remorse in the
minds of the most vicious of mankind: the confidence of
health again revived their passions and habits; but
philosophy must disdain the observation of Procopius, that
the lives of such men were guarded by the peculiar favor of
fortune or Providence. He forgot, or perhaps he secretly
recollected, that the plague had touched the person of
Justinian himself; but the abstemious diet of the emperor
may suggest, as in the case of Socrates, a more rational and
honorable cause for his recovery. (92) During his sickness,
the public consternation was expressed in the habits of the
citizens; and their idleness and despondence occasioned a
general scarcity in the capital of the East.
Contagion is the inseparable symptom of the plague; which,
by mutual respiration, is transfused from the infected
persons to the lungs and stomach of those who approach them.
While philosophers believe and tremble, it is singular, that
the existence of a real danger should have been denied by a
people most prone to vain and imaginary terrors. (93) Yet the
fellow-citizens of Procopius were satisfied, by some short
and partial experience, that the infection could not be
gained by the closest conversation: (94) and this persuasion
might support the assiduity of friends or physicians in the
care of the sick, whom inhuman prudence would have condemned
to solitude and despair. But the fatal security, like the
predestination of the Turks, must have aided the progress of
the contagion; and those salutary precautions to which
Europe is indebted for her safety, were unknown to the
government of Justinian. No restraints were imposed on the
free and frequent intercourse of the Roman provinces: from
Persia to France, the nations were mingled and infected by
wars and emigrations; and the pestilential odor which lurks
for years in a bale of cotton was imported, by the abuse of
trade, into the most distant regions. The mode of its
propagation is explained by the remark of Procopius himself,
that it always spread from the sea-coast to the inland
country: the most sequestered islands and mountains were
successively visited; the places which had escaped the fury
of its first passage were alone exposed to the contagion of
the ensuing year. The winds might diffuse that subtile
venom; but unless the atmosphere be previously disposed for
its reception, the plague would soon expire in the cold or
temperate climates of the earth. Such was the universal
corruption of the air, that the pestilence which burst forth
in the fifteenth year of Justinian was not checked or
alleviated by any difference of the seasons. In time, its
first malignity was abated and dispersed; the disease
alternately languished and revived; but it was not till the
end of a calamitous period of fifty-two years, that mankind
recovered their health, or the air resumed its pure and
salubrious quality. No facts have been preserved to sustain
an account, or even a conjecture, of the numbers that
perished in this extraordinary mortality. I only find, that
during three months, five, and at length ten, thousand
persons died each day at Constantinople; that many cities of
the East were left vacant, and that in several districts of
Italy the harvest and the vintage withered on the ground.
The triple scourge of war, pestilence, and famine, afflicted
the subjects of Justinian; and his reign is disgraced by the
visible decrease of the human species, which has never been
repaired in some of the fairest countries of the globe. (95)