CHAP. Reign and weakness of Theo datus, the A. D. 534. A. D. 536. which was kindled during his absence in his own camp.** Disorder and disobedience were the common malady of the times: the genius to command, and the virtue to obey, resided only in the mind of Belisarius. Although Theodatus descended from a race of heroes, he was ignorant of the art, and averse to the dangers, of war. Although he had studied the writings of Plato and Tully, philosophy was incapable of purifying his mind from the basest passions, avarice and fear. He had purchased a sceptre by ingratitude and murder: at the first menace of an enemy, he degraded his own majesty, and that of a nation, which already disdained their unworthy sovereign. Astonished by the recent example of Gelimer, he saw himself dragged in chains through the streets of Constantinople: the terrors which Belisarius inspired, were heightened by the eloquence of Peter, the Byzantine ambassador; and that bold and subtle advocate persuaded him to sign a treaty, too ignominious to become the foundation of a lasting peace. It was stipulated, that in the acclamations of the Roman people, the name of the emperor should be always proclaimed before that of the Gothic king; and that as often as the statue of Theodatus was erected in brass or marble, the divine image of Justinian should be placed on its right hand. Instead of conferring, the king of Italy was reduced to solicit, the honours of the senate; and the consent of the emperor was made indispensible before he could execute, against a priest or senator, the sentence either of death or confiscation. The feeble monarch resigned the possession of Sicily; offered, as the annual mark of his dependence, a crown of gold, of the weight of three hundred pounds; and promised to supply, at the requisition of his sovereign, three thousand Gothic auxiliaries for the service of the empire. Satisfied with these extraordinary concessions, the successful agent of Justinian hastened his journey to Constantinople; but no sooner 59 Procopius (Vandal. I. ii. c. 14, 15.) so clearly relates the return of Belisarius into Sicily (p. 146. edit. Hoeschelii), that I am astonished at the strange misapprehension and reproaches of a learned critic (Oeuvres de la Mothe le Vayer, tom. viii. p. 162, 163). XLI. had he reached the Alban villa," than he was recalled by CHAP. the anxiety of Theodatus; and the dialogue which passed between the king and the ambassador deserves to be represented in its original simplicity. "Are you of opi"nion that the emperor will ratify this treaty? Perhaps. "If he refuses, what consequence will ensue? War. Will "such a war be just or reasonable? Most assuredly: "every one should act according to his character. What "is your meaning? You are a philosopher..... Justinian "is emperor of the Romans: it would ill become the disci"ple of Plato to shed the blood of thousands in his private " quarrel: the successor of Augustus should vindicate his “rights, and recover by arms the ancient provinces of his empire." This reasoning might not convince, but it was sufficient to alarm and subdue the weakness of Theodatus; and he soon descended to his last offer, that for the poor equivalent of a pension of forty-eight thousand pounds sterling, he would resign the kingdom of the Goths and Italians, and spend the remainder of his days in the innocent pleasures of philosophy and agriculture. Both treaties were entrusted to the hands of the ambassador, on the frail security of an oath not to produce the second till the first had been positively rejected. The event may be easily foreseen: Justinian required and accepted the abdication of the Gothic king. His indefatigable agent returned from Constantinople to Ravenna, with ample instructions; and a fair epistle, which praised the wisdom and generosity of the royal philosopher, granted his pension, with the assurance of such honours as a subject and a catholic might enjoy; and wisely referred the final execution of the treaty, to the presence and authority of Belisarius. But in the interval of suspense, two Roman generals, who had entered the province of Dalmatia, were defeated and slain by the Gothic troops. From blind and abject despair, Theodatus capriciously rose to groundless and fatal presumption, and dared to 60 The ancient Alba was ruined in the first age of Rome. On the same spot, or at least in the neighbourhood, successively arose, 1. The villa of Pompey, &c. 2. A camp of the Prætorian cohorts. 3. The modern episcopal city of Albanum or Albano (Procop. Goth. I. ii. c. 4. Cluver. Ital. Antiq. tom. ii. p. 914). 61 A Sibylline oracle was ready to pronounce....Africâ captâ mundus CHAP. Belisarius invades Italy, and receive with menace and contempt, the ambassador of Justinian, who claimed his promise, solicited the allegiance of his subjects, and boldly asserted the inviolable privilege of his own character. The march of Belisarius dispelled this visionary pride; and as the first campaign62 was employed in the reduction of Sicily, the invasion of Italy is applied by Procopius to the second year of the GOTHIC WAR.63 After Belisarius had left sufficient garrisons in Palermo and Syracuse, he embarked his troops at Messina, and landed them, without resistance, on the opposite shores of Rhegium. A Gothic prince, who had married the daughter of Theodatus, was stationed with an army to guard the entrance of Italy; but he imitated, without scruple, the example of a sovereign, faithless to his public and private duties. The perfidious Ebermor deserted with his followers to the Roman camp, and was dismissed to enjoy the servile honours of the Byzantine court.64 From Rhegium to Naples, the fleet and army of Belisarius, almost always in view of each other, advanced near three hundred miles along the sea-coast. The people of Bruttium, Lucania, and Campania, who abhorred the name and religion of the Goths, embraced the specious excuse, that their ruined walls were incapable of defence: the soldiers paid a just equivalent for a plentiful market; and curiosity alone interrupted the peaceful occupations of the husbandman or artificer. Naples, which has swelled to a great and populous capital, long cherished the cum nato peribit; a sentence of portentous ambiguity (Gothic. I. i. c. 7.) which has been published in unknown charac ers by Opsopaus, an editor of the oracles. The Pere Maltret has promised a commentary; but all his promises have been vain and fruitless. 62 In his chronology, imitated in some degree from Thucydides, Procopius begins each spring the years of Justinian and of the Gothic war; and his first æra coincides with the 1st of April 535, and not 536, according to the Annals of Baronius (Pagi. Crit. tom. ii. p. 555. who is followed by Muratori and the editors of Sigonius). Yet in some passages we are at a loss to reconcile the dates of Procopius with himself, and with the Chronicle of Marcellinus. 63 The series of the first Gothic war is represented by Procopius (1. i. c. 5...29. I. ii. c. 1...30. 1. iii. c. 1.) till the captivity of Vitiges. With the aid of Sigonius (Opp. tom. i. de Imp. Occident. 1. xvii, xviii.) and Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. v.) I have gleaned some few additional facts. 64 Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 60. p. 702. edit. Grot. and tom. i. p. 221. Muratori, de Success. Regn. p. 241. language and manners of a Grecian colony;65 and the choice of Virgil had ennobled this elegant retreat, which attracted the lovers of repose and study, from the noise, the smoke, and the laborious opulence of Rome." As soon as the place was invested by sea and land, Belisarius gave audience to the deputies of the people, who exhorted him to disregard a conquest unworthy of his arms, to seek the Gothic king in a field of battle, and after his victory, to claim, as the sovereign of Rome, the allegiance of the dependent cities. "When I treat with "my enemies,” replied the Roman chief, with an haughty smile, “ I am more accustomed to give than to receive "counsel: but I hold in one hand inevitable ruin, and in "the other, peace and freedom, such as Sicily now en"joys." The impatience of delay urged him to grant the most liberal terms; his honour secured their performance; but Naples was divided into two factions; and the Greek democracy was inflamed by their orators, who, with much spirit and some truth, represented to the multitude, that the Goths would punish their defection, and that Belisarius himself must esteem their loyalty and valour. Their deliberations, however, were not perfectly free: the city was commanded by eight hundred Barbarians, whose wives and children were detained at Ravenna as the pledge of their fidelity; and even the Jews, who were rich and numerous, resisted, with desperate enthusiasm, the intolerant laws of Justinian. In a much later period, the circumference of Naples 65 Nero (says Tacitus, Annal. xv. 35) Neapolim quasi Græcam urbem delegit. One hundred and fifty years afterwards, in the time of Septimius Severus, the Helenism of the Neapolitans is praised by Philostratus: γενος Έλληνες και αςυκοί, οθεν και τας σπεδας των λογων Ελληνικοί (Icon. 1. i. p. 763. edit. Olear). 66 The otium of Naples is praised by the Roman poets, by Virgil, Horace, Silius Italicus, and Statius (Cluver. Ital. Ant.l.iv. p. 1149, 1150). In an elegant epistle (Sylv. 1. iii. 5. p. 94...98. edit. Markland), Statius undertakes the difficult task of drawing his wife from the pleasures of Rome to that calm retreat. 67 This measure was taken by Roger I. after the conquest of Naples (A. D. 1139), which he made the capital of his new kingdom (Giannone, Istoria Civile, tom. ii. p. 169). That city, the third in Christian Europe, is now at least twelve miles in circumference (Jul. Ce ar. Capaccii Hist. Neapol. I. i. p. 47.) and contains more inhabitants (350,000) in a given space, than any other spot in the known world. CHAP. XLI. XLI. CHAP. measured only two thousand three hundred and sixty. three paces: the fortifications were defended by precipices or the sea; when the aqueducts were intercepted, a supply of water might be drawn from wells and fountains; and the stock of provisions was sufficient to consume the patience of the besiegers. At the end of twenty days, that of Belisarius was almost exhausted, and he had reconciled himself to the disgrace of abandoning the siege, that he might march, before the winter season, against Rome and the Gothic king. But his anxiety was relieved by the bold curiosity of an Isaurian, who explored the dry channel of an aqueduct, and secretly reported, that a passage might be perforated to introduce a file of armed soldiers into the heart of the city. When the work had been silently executed, the humane general risked the discovery of his secret, by a last and fruitless admonition of the impending danger. In the darkness of the night, four hundred Romans entered the aqueduct, raised themselves by a rope, which they fastened to an olive tree, into the house or garden of a solitary matron, sounded their trumpets, surprised the centinels, and gave admittance to their companions, who on all sides scaled the walls, and burst open the gates of the city. Every crime which is punished by social justice, was practised as the rights of war; the Huns were distinguished by cruelty and sacrilege, and Belisarius alone appeared in the streets and churches of Naples, to moderate the calamities which he predicted. "The gold and "silver," he repeatedly exclaimed, " are the just rewards "of your valour. But spare the inhabitants, they are "Christians, they are suppliants, they are now your fel"low-subjects. Restore the children to their parents, "the wives to their husbands; and shew them by your generosity, of what friends, they have obstinately de"prived themselves." The city was saved by the virtue and authority of its conqueror ;69 and when the Neapo 68 Not geometrical, but common, paces or steps, of 22 French inches` (d'Anvilie, Mesures Itineraires, p. 7, 8); the 2363 do not make an Eng Jish mile. 69 Belisarius was reproved by Pope Sylverius for the massacre. He repeopled Naples, and imported colonics of African captives into Sicily, |