A Struggle for Rome, v. 2

by Felix Dahn

  CHAPTER VII.

  The following day the immense army of the Goths appeared before thewalls of the Eternal City, which it surrounded in seven camps.

  And now began that memorable siege, which was to develop the militarytalent and inventive genius of Belisarius no less than the courage ofthe besiegers.

  The citizens of Rome had with consternation beheld from the walls theinterminable march of the Goths.

  "Look, Prefect, they outflank all your walls."

  "Yes, in breadth! but in height? They cannot get over them withoutwings."

  Witichis had left only two thousand men behind in Ravenna; eightthousand he had sent, under Earl Uligis of Urbssalvia, and Earl Ansa ofAsculum, to Dalmatia, to wrest that province and Liburnia from theByzantines, and to reconquer the strong fortress of Salona. Thesetroops were to be reinforced by mercenaries recruited in Savia.

  The Gothic fleet--against Teja's advice--was also to repair thither,and not to Portus, the harbour of Rome.

  But the King now surrounded, with a hundred and fifty thousandwarriors, the city of Rome and its far-stretching ramparts, the wallsof Aurelian and the Prefect.

  Rome had at that time fifteen principal gates and a few smaller ones.

  The weaker part of the ramparts--the space between the Flaminian Gatein the north (on the east of the present Porta del Popolo) to thePraenestinian Gate--was completely surrounded by six camps, thus: thewalls from the Flaminian Gate eastwards as far as the Pincian andSalarian Gates; then to the Nomentanian Gate (south-east of Porta Pia);farther towards the "closed gate," or Porta Clausa; and finallysouthwards, the Tiburtinian (now Porta San Lorenzo), the Asinarian,Metronian, and Latin Gates (on the Via Latina), the Appian Gate (on theVia Appia), and the St. Paul's Gate, which lay close to the Tiber.

  These six camps were erected on the left bank of the river.

  But in order to prevent the besieged from destroying the MilvianBridge, and thus cutting off the way across the river and the wholedistrict from the right bank as far as the sea, the Goths erected aseventh camp upon the right bank of the Tiber, on the "field of Nero,"which reached from the Vatican Hill nearly to the Milvian Bridge (underMonte Mario).

  So this bridge was dominated, and that of Hadrian threatened, by aGothic camp, as well as the road to the city through the "Porta SanctiPetri," as the inner Aurelian Gate, according to Procopius, was alreadycalled at that time.

  It was the entrance nearest to the Mausoleum of Hadrian.

  But also the gate of St. Pancratius, on the right bank of the river,was especially watched by the Goths.

  This camp upon the field of Nero, between the Pancratian and Peter'sGates, had been assigned to Earl Markja of Mediolanum, who had beenrecalled from the Cottian Alps. But the King himself often repairedthither in order to examine the Mausoleum. He had undertaken thecommand of no particular camp, reserving to himself the generalsupervision; and he had divided the other six camps between Hildebrand,Totila, Hildebad, Teja, Guntharis, and Grippa.

  He caused each of the seven camps to be surrounded with a deep moat,throwing up the excavated earth in high banks between the moat andcamp, and strengthening them with stout palisades, as a protectionagainst sallies from the city.

  Belisarius and Cethegus also divided their generals and their menaccording to the sections and gates of Rome.

  Belisarius confided the defence of the Praenestinian Gate in the easternquarter (now Porta Maggiore) to Bessas, and the important FlaminianGate, close to which lay the camp of Totila, to Constantinus, whocaused it to be almost closed with blocks of marble, taken from ancienttemples and palaces.

  The Prefect jealously kept the western and southern quarters ofthe city under his own strict surveillance, but in the northBelisarius settled down between the Flaminian and Pincian--or now"Belisarian"--Gates (the weakest part of the ramparts), and formedplans of sallies against the barbarians.

  The remaining gates were entrusted to the leaders of the foot-soldiers:Piranius, Magnus, Ennes, Artabanes, Azarethas, and Chilbudius.

  The Prefect had undertaken the defence of all the gates on the rightbank of the Tiber; the new Porta Aurelia on the AElisian Bridge near theMausoleum, the Porta Septimiana, the old Aurelian Gate, which was nownamed the Pancratian; and on the left bank, that of St. Paul.

  The next gate to the east, the Ardeatinian, was again under theprotection of a Byzantine garrison, commanded by Chilbudius.

  The besiegers and the besieged proved themselves equally indefatigableand equally inventive in plans of attack and defence.

  For a long time the only thing the Goths could attempt was to harassthe Romans before storming the walls. On their side, the Romansprepared to defend them when attacked. The Goths--lords and masters inthe Campagna--sought to distress the besieged by cutting off all thefourteen splendid aqueducts which supplied the city with water.

  As soon as Belisarius learned this fact, he hastened to block themouths of the aqueducts within the city.

  "For," Procopius had said to him, "since you, O great hero, Belisarius,have crept into Neapolis through such a water-runnel, the same ideamight occur to the barbarians, and they would scarcely think it a shameto crawl into Rome by a similar hero-path."

  The besieged were now obliged to deny themselves the luxury of theirbaths; the wells in the quarters of the city at a distance from theriver scarcely sufficed for drinking water.

  But by cutting off the supply of water, the barbarians had alsodeprived the Romans of bread.

  At least it seemed so, for all the water-mills of Rome were stopped.

  The garnered grain bought in Sicily by Cethegus, and that whichBelisarius had, by force, caused to be brought into Rome from all theneighbouring country, in spite of the outcry of farmers and husbandmen,could no longer be ground.

  "Let the mills be turned by asses and oxen!" cried Belisarius.

  "Most of the asses and oxen were too wise to allow themselves to beshut up with us here, O Belisarius," said Procopius; "we have only asmany as we shall want for the shambles, and it is impossible that theyshould first drive the mills and then be still fat enough to affordmeat to eat with the bread thus gained."

  "Then call Martinus. Yesterday, as I stood by the Tiber counting theGothic tents, I had an idea----"

  "Which Martinus must translate from the Belisarian into the possible!Poor man! But I will go and fetch him."

  But when, on the evening of the same day, Belisarius and Martinuscaused the first boat-mills that the world had ever known to be erectedin the Tiber, by means of boats ranged one near the other, Procopiussaid admiringly:

  "The bread of these boat-mills will rejoice men longer than yourgreatest deeds. Flour, ground in this wise, savours of immortality."

  And indeed these boat-mills, imagined by Belisarius and practicallycarried out by Martinus, fully compensated to the besieged, during thewhole siege, for the loss of the powerless water-mills.

  Behind the bridge which is now called Ponte San Sisto, on the flat ofthe Janiculum, Belisarius caused two boats to be fastened with ropes,and laid mills over their flat decks, so that the wheels were driven bythe river, which streamed from between the arches of the bridge withincreased force.

  The besiegers, who were informed of these arrangements by desertersfrom the city, soon attempted to destroy them.

  They threw beams, rafts, and trees into the river above the bridge, andin a single night all the mills were destroyed.

  But Belisarius caused them to be reconstructed, and ordered strongchains to be drawn across the river above the bridge, which caught andarrested everything that floated down.

  These iron river-bolts were not only intended to protect the mills, butalso to prevent the Goths from reaching the city on boats or rafts.

  For now Witichis began to make preparations for storming the city.

  He caused wooden towers, higher than the ramparts, to be built, which,placed upon four wheels, could be drawn by oxen. Then he causedstorming-ladders to be prepa
red in great numbers, and four tremendousrams or wall-breakers, which were each pushed and served by fifty men.

  The deep moats were to be filled up with countless bundles of brushwoodand reeds.

  To defeat these plans, Belisarius and Cethegus, the first defending thecity in the north and east, the latter in the west and south, plantedcatapults and other projectile machines on the walls, which were ableto cast immense spears to a great distance, with such force that theycould pierce the strongest coat of mail.

  They protected the gates by means of "wolves," that is, cross-beams setwith iron spikes, which were let crashing down upon the assaulters assoon as the latter approached the gate.

  And, lastly, they strewed innumerable caltrops and steel-traps upon thespace between the town-moats and the camp of the besiegers.