CHAP. XLIII. Conqueft of Rome by Narfes. As foon as Narfes had paid his devotions to the Author of victory, and the bleffed Virgin, his peculiar patronefs 3, he praised, rewarded, and difmiffed the Lombards. The villages had been reduced to afhes by these valiant favages; 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 diforders. The victorious eunuch pursued his march through Tuscany, accepted the fubmiffion of the Goths, heard the acclamations, and often the complaints of the Italians, and encompaffed the walls of Rome with the remainder of his formidable hoft. Round the wide circumference, Narfes affigned to himself, and to each of his lieutenants, a real or a feigned attack, while he filently marked the place of eafy and unguarded entrance. Neither the fortifications of Hadrian's mole, nor of the port, could long delay the progress of the conqueror; and Juftinian 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 Narfes too frequently confounded the privileges of peace and war: the defpair of the flying Goths found fome 3 Evagrius, 1. iv. c. 24. The inspiration of the Virgin revealed to Narfes the day, and the word, of battle (Paul Diacon. 1. ii. c. 3. P. 776.). 39 Επι τετε βασιλευοντας το πεμπτον ἐπλω. In the year 336 by Belisarius, in 546 by Totila, in 547 by Belisarius, in 549 by Totila, and in 552 by Narfes. Maltretus had inadvertently translated fextum, a miftake which he afterwards retracts: but the mischief was done; and Coufin with a train of French and Latin readers, have fallen into the fnare. confola 1 XLIII. confolation in fanguinary revenge: and three hun- CHAP. dred youths of the nobleft families, who had been fent as hoftages beyond the Po, were inhumanly flain by the fucceffor of Totila. The fate of the fenate fuggefts an awful leffon of the viciffitude of human affairs. Of the fenators whom Totila had banished from their country, fome were refcued by an officer of Belifarius, and tranfported from Campania to Sicily; while others were too guilty to confide in the clemency of Juftinian, or too poor to provide horses for their escape to the fea-fhore. Their brethren languished five years in a state of indigence and exile: the victory of Narfes revived their hopes; but their premature return to the metropolis was prevented by the furious Goths; and all the fortreffes of Campania were ftained with patrician blood. After a period of thirteen centuries, the inftitution of Romulus expired; and if the nobles of Rome ftill affumed the title of fenators, few fubfequent traces can be discovered of a public council, or conftitutional order. Ascend fix hundred years, and contemplate the kings of the earth foliciting an audience, as the flaves or freedmen of the Roman fenate **! 40 41 The Gothic war was yet alive. The braveft of the nation retired beyond the Po; and Teias was unanimously chosen to fucceed and revenge their 40 Compare two paffages of Procopius (l. iii. c. 26. 1. iv. c. 24.), which, with some collateral hints from Marcelliņus and Jornandes, illustrate the state of the expiring senate. 41 See, in the example of Prufias, as it is delivered in the fragments of Polybius (Excerpt. Legat. xcvii. p. 927, 928.), a curious picture of a royal flave. XLIII. the Goths, A. D. 553, CHAP. departed hero. The new king immediately fent ambaffadors to implore, or rather to purchase, the aid of the Franks, and nobly layished for the public fafety, the riches which had been deposited in the palace of Pavia. The refidue of the royal treasure was guarded by his brother Aligern at Cumæ in Campania; but the ftrong caftle which Totila had fortified, was closely befieged by the arms of Narfes. From the Alps to the foot of mount Vefuvius, the Gothic king, by rapid and fecret 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 feparated the two armies; fixty days were confumed in diftant and fruitlefs combats, and Teias maintained this important poft, till he was deferted by his fleet and the hope of fubfiftence. With reluctant steps he afcended the Lactarian mount, where the physicians of Rome, fince the time of Galen, had fent their patients for the benefit of the air and the milk 43, But the Goths foon embraced a more generous refolution: to defcend the hill, 42 The Apanav of Procopius (Goth. 1. iv. c. 35.) is evidently the Sarnus. The text is accufed or altered by the rash violence of Cluverius (1. iv. c. 3. p. 1156.): but Camillo Pellegrini of Naples (Discorsi fopra 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 Draconcello. 43. Galen (de Method. Medendi, 1. v. apud Cluver. 1. iv. c. 3. p. 1159, 1160.) defcribes the lofty fite, pure air, and rich milk of mount Lactarius, whose medicinal benefits were equally known and fought in the time of Symmachus (1. vi. epift. 18.), and Caffiodorius (Var. xi. 10.). Nothing is now left except the name of the town of Lettere. to XLIII. to dismiss their horfes, and to die in arms, and CHA P. in the poffeffion 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 ftruck dead the foremost of the affailants; 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 fhield. Without moving from his ground, or fufpending his blows, the hero called aloud on his attendants for a fresh buckler, but in the moment, while his fide was uncovered, it was pierced by a mortal dart. He fell and his head, exalted on a fpear, proclaimed to the nations, that the Gothic kingdom was no more, But the example of his death ferved only to animate the companions who had fworn to perish with their leader. They fought till darkness defcended on the earth. They reposed on their arms. The combat was renewed with the return of light, and maintained with unabated vigour till the evening of the fecond day. The repofe of a fecond night, the want of water, and the lofs of their braveft champions, determined the furviving Goths to accept the fair capitulation which the prudence of Narfes was inclined to propose. They embraced the alternative of residing in Italy as the fubjects and foldiers of Juftinian, or departing with a portion of their private wealth, in fearch of fome independent country **. Yet the 44 Buat (tom. xi. p. 2, &c.) conveys to his favourite Bavaria this remnant of Goths, who by others are buried in the mountains of Uri, or restored to their native ifle of Gothland (Mascou, Annot, xxi.). CC 4 1 oath XLIII. CHAP. oath of fidelity or exile was alike rejected by one thousand Goths, who broke away before the treaty was figned, and boldly effected their retreat to the walls of Pavia. The spirit, as well as the fituation of Aligern, prompted him to imitate rather than to bewail his brother: a strong and dexterous archer, he tranfpierced with a fingle arrow the armour and breast of his antagonist; and his military conduct defended Cumæ 45 above a year against the forces of the Romans. Their industry had fcooped the Sibyll's cave into a prodigious mine; combuftible materials were introduced to confume the temporary props: the wall and the gate of Cuma funk into the cavern, but the ruins formed a deep and inacceffible precipice. On the fragment of a rock, Aligern ftood alone and unfhaken, till he calmly furveyed the hopeless condition of his country, and judged it more honourable to be the friend of Narfes than the flave of the Franks. After the death of Teias, the Roman general feparated his troops to reduce the cities of Italy; Lucca fuftained a long and vigorous fiege; and fuch was the humanity or the prudence of Narfes, that the repeated 45 I leave Scaliger (Animadvers. in Eufeb. p 59.) and Salmafius Exercitat. Plinian. p, 51, 52.) to quarrel about the origin of Cumæ, the oldeft of the Greek colonies in Italy (Strab. I. v. p. 372. Velleius Paterculus, l. i. c. 4.), already vacant in Juvenal's time (Satir. iii.), and now in ruins. 46 Agathias (l.i. c. 21.) settles the Sibyll's cave under the wall of Cuma he agrees with Servius (ad 1. vi. Æneid.); nor can I perceive why their opinion should be rejected by Heyne, the excellent editor of Virgil (tom. ii. p. 650, 651). In urbe mediâ fecreta religio! But Cume was not yet built; and the lines (1. vi. 96, 97) would become ridiculous, if Æneas were actually in a Greek city. perfidy |