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A. D. 552.

of the court. Theodora had injured him in the the command of the Roman armies was rights of a private citizen, the marriage of his chil-given to a eunuch. But the eunuch dren, and the testament of his brother; and although Narses' is ranked among the few who his conduct was pure and blameless, Justinian was have rescued that unhappy name from displeased that he should be thought worthy of the the contempt and hatred of mankind. A feeble confidence of the malcontents. The life of Ger- diminutive body concealed the soul of a statesman manus was a lesson of implicit obedience: he nobly and a warrior. His youth had been employed in the refused to prostitute his name and character in the management of the loom and distaff, in the cares of factions of the circus: the gravity of his manners the household, and the service of female luxury; was tempered by innocent cheerfulness; and his but while his hands were busy, he secretly exerriches were lent without interest to indigent or cised the faculties of a vigorous and discerning deserving friends. His valour had formerly tri- mind. A stranger to the schools and the camp, he umphed over the Sclavonians of the Danube and studied in the palace to dissemble, to flatter, and to the rebels of Africa: the first report of his promo- persuade; and as soon as he approached the person tion revived the hopes of the Italians; and he was of the emperor, Justinian listened with surprise and privately assured, that a crowd of Roman deserters pleasure to the manly counsels of his chamberlain would abandon, on his approach, the standard of and private treasurer. The talents of Narses were Totila. His second marriage with Malasontha, the tried and improved in frequent embassies; he led grand-daughter of Theodoric, endeared Germanus an army into Italy, acquired a practical knowledge to the Goths themselves; and they marched with of the war and the country, and presumed to strive reluctance against the father of a royal infant, the with the genius of Belisarius. Twelve years after last offspring of the line of Amali. A splendid his return, the eunuch was chosen to achieve the allowance was assigned by the emperor: the general conquest, which had been left imperfect by the first contributed his private fortune; his two sons were of the Roman generals. Instead of being dazzled popular and active; and he surpassed, in the by vanity or emulation, he seriously declared, that promptitude and success of his levies, the expecta- unless he were armed with an adequate force, he tion of mankind. He was permitted to select some would never consent to risk his own glory, and that squadrons of Thracian cavalry: the veterans, as of his sovereign. Justinian granted to the favourite, well as the youth, of Constantinople and Europe, what he might have denied to the hero: the Gothic engaged their voluntary service; and as far as the war was rekindled from its ashes, and the preparaheart of Germany, his fame and liberality attracted tions were not unworthy of the ancient majesty of the aid of the barbarians. The Romans advanced the empire. The key of the public treasure was put to Sardica; an army of Sclavonians fled before into his hand, to collect magazines, to levy soldiers, their march; but within two days of their final to purchase arms and horses, to discharge the ardeparture, the designs of Germanus were terminated rears of pay, and to tempt the fidelity of the fugiby his malady and death. Yet the impulse which tives and deserters. The troops of Germanus were he had given to the Italian war still continued to still in arms; they halted at Salona in the expectaact with energy and effect. The maritime towns, tion of a new leader; and legions of subjects and Ancona, Crotona, Centumcellæ, resisted the as- allies were created by the well-known liberality of saults of Totila. Sicily was reduced by the zeal of the eunuch Narses. The king of the Lombards Artaban, and the Gothic navy was defeated near satisfied or surpassed the obligations of a treaty, by the coast of the Hadriatic. The two fleets were lending two thousand two hundred of his bravest almost equal, forty-seven to fifty galleys: the victory warriors, who were followed by three thousand of was decided by the knowledge and dexterity of the their martial attendants. Three thousand Heruli Greeks; but the ships were so closely grappled, fought on horseback under Philemuth, their native that only twelve of the Goths escaped from this un- chief; and the noble Aratus, who adopted the manfortunate conflict. They affected to depreciate an ners and discipline of Rome, conducted a band of element in which they were unskilled, but their own veterans of the same nation. Dagistheus was reexperience confirmed the truth of a maxim, that leased from prison to command the Huns; and the master of the sea will always acquire the Kobad, the grandson and nephew of the great king, dominion of the land.e was conspicuous by the regal tiara at the head of his faithful Persians, who had devoted themselves to the fortunes of their prince. Absolute in the scription on the Salarian bridge he is entitled Ex-consul, Ex-præpositus, Cubiculi Patricius. (Mascou, Hist. of the Germans, I. xiii. c. 25.) The law of Theodosius against eunuchs was obsolete or abolished, (Annotation xx.) but the foolish prophecy of the Romans subsisted in full vigour. (Procop. 1. iv. c. 21.)

Gal

After the loss of Germanus, the nations were provoked to smile, by the strange intelligence, that d Conjuncta Aniciorum gens cum Amalâ stirpe spem adhuc utriusque generis promittit. (Jornandes, c. 60. p. 703.) He wrote at Ravenna before the death of Totila.

The third book of Procopius is terminated by the death of Ger. manus. (Add. I. iv. c. 23, 24, 25, 26.)

f Procopius relates the whole series of this second Gothic war and the victory of Narses, (1. iv. c. 21. 26-35.) A splendid scene! Among the six subjects of epic poetry which Tasso revolved in his mind, he hesitated between the conquests of Italy by Belisarius and by Narses. (Hayley's Works, vol. iv. p. 70.)

The country of Narses is unknown, since he must not be confounded with the Persarmenian. Procopius styles him (Goth. 1. ii. c. 13.) Βασιλικών χρημάτων ταμίας; Paul Warnefrid, (I. ii. c. 3. p. 776.) Chartularias; Marcellinus adds the name of Cubicularius. In an in

h Paul Warnefrid, the Lombard, records with complacency the succour, service, and honourable dismission of his countrymen-reipub. licæ Romanæ adversus æmulos adjutores fuerant, (l. ii. c. i. p. 774. edit. Grot.) I am surprised that Alboin, their martial king, did not lead his subjects in person.

i He was, if not an impostor, the son of the blind Zames, saved by compassion, and educated in the Byzantine court by the various motives of policy, pride, and generosity. (Procop, Persic. I. i. c. 23.)

exercise of his authority, more absolute in the affec- peace, but of pardon. The answer of the Gothic tion of his troops, Narses led a numerous and king declared his resolution, to die or conquer. gallant army from Philippopolis to Salona, from "What day," said the messenger, "will you fix for whence he coasted the eastern side of the Hadriatic the combat?" "The eighth day," replied Totila: as far as the confines of Italy. His progress was but early the next morning he attempted to surprise checked. The east could not supply vessels capa- a foe, suspicious of deceit, and prepared for battle. ble of transporting such multitudes of men and Ten thousand Heruli and Lombards, of approved horses. The Franks, who, in the general confusion, valour and doubtful faith, were placed in the centre. had usurped the greater part of the Venetian pro- Each of the wings was composed of eight thousand Romans; the right was guarded by the cavalry of vince, refused a free passage to the friends of the Lombards. The station of Verona was occupied by the Huns, the left was covered by fifteen hundred Teias, with the flower of the Gothic forces; and that chosen horse, destined, according to the emergencies skilful commander had overspread the adjacent of action, to sustain the retreat of their friends, or to country with the fall of woods and the inundation encompass the flank of the enemy. From his proper of waters.k In this perplexity, an officer of expe- station at the head of the right wing, the eunuch rience proposed a measure, secure by the appear- rode along the line, expressing by his voice and ance of rashness; that the Roman army should countenance the assurance of victory; exciting the cautiously advance along the sea-shore, while the soldiers of the emperor to punish the guilt and madfleet preceded their march, and successively cast a ness of a band of robbers; and exposing to their view gold chains, collars, and bracelets, the rewards bridge of boats over the mouths of the rivers, the Timavus, the Brenta, the Adige, and the Po, that of military virtue. From the event of a single comfall into the Hadriatic to the north of Ravenna. bat, they drew an omen of success; and they beheld Nine days he reposed in the city, collected the frag-with pleasure the courage of fifty archers, who mainments of the Italian army, and marched towards Rimini to meet the defiance of an insulting enemy. The prudence of Narses impelled Defeat and death of Totila, him to speedy and decisive action. A. D. 552. July. 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 But he was contempered the ardour of Totila. scious, 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 re-entered the Flaminian way, nine miles beyond the perforated rock, an obstacle of art and nature which might have stopped or retarded his progress.' The Goths were assembled in the neighbourhood 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 TaginaTM and the sepulchres of the Gauls." The haughty message of Narses was an offer, not of

k In the time of Augustus, and in the middle ages, the whole waste from Aquileia to Ravenna was covered with woods, lakes, and morasses. Man has subdued nature, and the land has been cultivated, since the waters are confined and embanked. See the learned researches of Muratori, (Antiquitat. Italiæ medii Evi, tom. i. dissert. xxi. p. 253, 254.) from Vitruvius, Strabo, Herodian, old charters, and local knowledge.

The Flaminian way, as it is corrected from the Itineraries, and the best modern maps, by D'Anville, (Analyse de l'Italie, p. 147–162.) may be thus stated: ROME to Narni, 51 Roman miles; Terni, 57; Spoleto, 75; Foligno, 88; Nocera, 103; Cagli, 142; Intercisa, 157; Fossombrone, 160; Fano, 176; Pesaro, 184; RIMINI, 208-about 189 English miles. He takes no notice of the death of Totila; but Wesseling, (Itinerar. p. 614.) exchanges, for the field of Taginas, the unknown appellation of Ptanias, eight miles from Nocera.

His armour

tained 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 ne-
cessary food, without unloosening 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 succours of two thou-
sand Goths. While he consumed the hours in
fruitless treaty, the king exhibited in a narrow space
the strength and agility of a warrior.
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 ma-
naged a fiery steed in all the paces and evolutions
As soon as the succours
of the equestrian school.
had arrived, he retired to his tent, assumed the
dress and arms of a private soldier, and gave the
signal of 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 ardour, 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

Taginæ, or rather Tadinæ, is mentioned by Pliny: but the bishopric of that obscure town, a mile from Gualdo, in the plain, was united, in the year 1007, with that of Nocera. The signs of antiquity are preserved in the local appellations, Fossato, the camp; Capraia, Caprea; Bastia, Busta Gallorum. See Cluverius, (Italia Antiqua, 1. ii. c. 6. p. 615, 616, 617.) Lucas Holstenius, (Annotat. ad Cluver. p. 85, 86.) Guazzesi, (Dissertat. p. 177-217. a professed inquiry,) and the maps of the ecclesiastical state and the march of Ancona, by Le Maire and Magini.

The battle was fought in the year of Rome 458; and the consul Decius, by devoting his own life, assured the triumph of his country and his colleague Fabius. (T. Liv. x. 28, 29.) Procopius ascribes to Camillus the victory of the Busta Gallorum; and his error is brand. ed by Cluverius with the national reproach of Græcorum nugamenta,

instruments of war. A generous emulation inspired | 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' blood. After a period of thirteen centuries, the institution of Romulus expired; and if the nobles of Rome still assumed the titles 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!

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 Gepida; "Spare the king of Italy," 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.

Conquest of
Rome by
Narses.

Defeat and death

March.

The Gothic war was yet alive. The bravest of the nation retired beyond of Teias, the last the Po; and Teias was unanimously king of the Goths, chosen to succeed and revenge their A. D. 553. 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 Cumæ 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, 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 sub

As soon as Narses had paid his devotions to the Author of victory, and the blessed Virgin, his peculiar patroness, 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 Jus-sistence. tinian once more received the keys of Rome, which, under his reign, had been five times taken and recovered. 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

Theophanes, Chron. p. 193. Hist. Miscell. 1. xvi. p. 103.

p Evagrius, 1. iv. c. 24. The inspiration of the Virgin revealed to Narses the day, and the word, of battle. (Paul Diacon. 1. ii. c. 3. p. 776.) 9. Επι τουτου βασιλεύοντος το πεμπτον ξάλω. In the year 536 by Belisarius, in 546 by Totila, in 547 by Belisarius, in 549 by Totila, and in 552 by Narses. Maltretus had inadvertently translated sextum; a mistake which he afterwards retracts; but the mischief was done; and Cousin, with a train of French and Latin readers, have fallen into the

snare.

Compare two passages of Procopius, (l. iii. c. 26. 1. iv. c. 24.) which, with some collateral hints from Marcellinus and Jornandes, illustrate the state of the expiring senate.

See, in the example of Prusias, as it is delivered in the fragments of

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." 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;

Polybius, (Excerpt. Legat. xcvii. p. 927, 928.) a curious picture of a royal slave.

The Apaxor of Procopius (Goth. I. iv. c. 35.) is evidently the Sarnus. The text is accused or altered by the rash violence of Cluverius: (l. iv. c. 3. p. 1156.) but Camillo Pellegrini of Naples (Discorsi sopra la Campania Felice, p. 330, 331.) has proved from old records, that as early as the year 822 that river was called the Dracontio, or Dracon. cello.

u Galen (de Method. Medendi, 1. v. apud Cluver. 1. iv. c. 3. p. 1159, 1160.) describes the lofty site, pure air, and rich milk, of mount Lacta rius, whose medicinal benefits were equally known and sought in the time of Symmachus, (1. vi. epist. 18.) and Cassiodorius. (Var. xi. 10.) Nothing is now left except the name of the town of Lettere.