A Struggle for Rome, v. 3

by Felix Dahn

  CHAPTER V.

  On seeing the disastrous result of the battle at the bridge across thePadus, the Prefect had sent messengers back to his troops and the armedcitizens of Ravenna, who were following him, to order them to return atonce to the latter city. He left the defeated troops of Demetrius totheir fate.

  Totila had taken all the flags and field-badges of the twelve thousand,a thing which, as Procopius angrily writes, "never before happened tothe Romans."

  Cethegus himself, with his small band of trusty adherents, hastenedacross the AEmilia to the west coast of Italy, which he reached atPopulonium. There he went on board a swift ship of war, and, favouredby a strong breeze from the north-east (sent, as he said, by theancient gods of Latium), sailed to the harbour of Rome--Portus.

  He could never have succeeded in reaching Rome by land, for, afterTotila's victory, all Tuscany and Valeria fell to the Goths; the plainsunconditionally, and also such cities as were held by weak Byzantinegarrisons.

  Near Mucella, a day's march from Florence, the King once againvanquished a powerful army of Byzantines, under the command of elevendisunited leaders, who had gathered together the imperial garrisons ofthe Tuscan fortresses to block his way. The commander-in-chief of thisarmy, Justinus, escaped to Florence with difficulty.

  The King treated his numerous prisoners with such lenity, that verymany Italians and imperial mercenaries deserted their flag and joinedthe Gothic army.

  And now all the roads of Central Italy were covered by Goths andnatives who hastened to join Totila on his march to Rome.

  Arrived at the latter city, Cethegus had at once taken the necessarymeasures for its defence.

  For Totila, after this new victory at Mucella, approached rapidly,scarcely detained by anything but the ovations made to him by thecities and castles on his way, which rivalled each other in openingwide their gates to the conqueror.

  The few forts which still resisted were invested by small divisions ofItalians, kept in order by a few chosen Gothic troops. Totila wasenabled to do this without weakening his army, as, during his march toRome, his power was increased, like a river, by the inflowing ofgreater or smaller parties of Goths and Italians. Not only did theItalian peasants join him by thousands, but even the mercenaries ofBelisarius, who for months had received no pay, now offered theirweapons to the Goths, so that a few days after the arrival of thePrefect, Totila led a very considerable army before the walls of Rome.

  With loud hurrahs the troops in the Gothic encampment greeted thearrival of the brave Duke Guntharis, Wisand the bandalarius. EarlMarkja, and old Grippa, whose release Totila had procured by exchangingthem for the prisoners taken at the battle of the Padus.

  And now the almost impossible task was laid upon Cethegus of manningeffectually his grandly-designed fortifications. The whole army ofBelisarius was missing--besides the greater part of his own soldiers,who were slowly sailing to the harbour of Portcus from Ravenna.

  In order, even insufficiently, to defend the entire circle of theramparts, Cethegus was obliged, not only to demand unusual andunexpected exertions from the Roman legionaries, but also to increasetheir numbers by despotic measures.

  From boys of sixteen years of age to old men of sixty, he called "allthe sons of Romulus, Camillus, and Caesar to arms; to protect thesanctuary of their forefathers against the barbarians."

  But his appeal was scarcely read or propagated, and was responded to byvery few volunteers; while he saw with mortification that the manifestoof the Gothic King, which was thrown every night over the walls in manyplaces, was carried about and read by crowds; so that he angrilyproclaimed that anyone found picking up, pasting on the walls, orreading this manifesto, or in any way facilitating its publication,would be punished by the confiscation of his property or the loss ofhis liberty.

  In spite of this, the manifesto still spread among the citizens, andthe list of volunteers remained empty.

  He then sent his Isaurians into all the houses to drag boys and old mento the walls by force; and very soon he was more feared, and evenhated, than beloved.

  His stern will, and the gradual arrival of his troops from Ravenna,alone checked the growing discontent of the Roman population.

  But in the Gothic camp messengers of good fortune overtook each other.

  Teja and Hildebrand had pursued the Byzantines to the gates of Ravenna.

  The defence of that city was conducted by Demetrius, one of theexchanged prisoners, and by Bloody Johannes; that of the harbour townof Classis by Constantianus against Hildebrand, who had won Ariminum inpassing, for the citizens had disarmed the Armenian mercenaries ofArtasires and opened the gates.

  Teja had beaten the troops of the Byzantine general Verus, who haddefended the crossing of the Santernus; had killed the general with hisown hand, and had then hastened through the whole of North Italy withthe manifesto in his left hand, his sword in his right, and in a fewweeks had won by force or by persuasion all towns and castles as far asMediolanum.

  But Totila, taught by the experience of the first siege of Rome, wouldnot expose his troops by attempting to storm the formidable defences ofthe Prefect, and also desired to spare his future capital.

  "I will get into Rome with linen wings, and on wooden bridges," he oneday said to Duke Guntharis; left to him the investment of the city; andtaking all his horsemen with him, marched for Neapolis.

  There in the harbour lay, very inefficiently manned, an imperial fleet.

  Totila's march upon the Appian Way through South Italy resembled atriumphal procession.

  Those districts which had suffered the longest under the yoke of theByzantines were now most willing to greet the Goths as liberators.

  The maidens of Terracina went to meet the King of the Goths withwreaths of flowers.

  The people of Minturnae brought out a golden chariot, made the Kingdescend from his white horse, and dragged him into the town in triumph.

  "Look! look!" was the cry in the streets of Casilinum--an ancient placeonce dedicated to the worship of the Campanian Diana--"Ph[oe]bus Apollohimself has descended from Olympus and comes as a saviour to thesanctuary of his sister!"

  The citizens of Capua begged him to impress the first gold coins of hisreign with the inscription, "_Capua revindicata_."

  Thus it continued until he reached Neapolis; the very same road he hadonce passed as a wounded fugitive.

  The commander of the Armenian mercenaries in Neapolis, who had a verybrave but small troop, did not dare to trust the fidelity of thepopulation in case of a siege.

  He therefore led his lance-bearers and the armed citizens to meet theKing outside the gates.

  But before the battle commenced, a man on a white horse rode out of thelines of Goths, took his helmet from his head, and cried:

  "Have you forgotten me, men of the Parthenopaeian city? I am Totila. Youloved me when I was commander of your harbour. You shall bless me asyour King. Do you not recollect how I saved in my ships your wives andchildren from the Huns of Belisarius? Listen. These very wives andchildren are again in my power; not as fugitives, but as prisoners. Toprotect them from the Byzantines (perhaps from me also), you sent theminto the strong fortress of Cumae. But know that Cumae has surrendered,and all the fugitives are in my power. I have been advised to keep themas hostages in order to compel you to capitulate. But that is repugnantto my feelings. I have set them at liberty; the wives of the Romansenators I have sent to Rome. But your wives and children, men ofNeapolis, I have brought with me; not as my hostages, not as myprisoners, but as my guests. Look how they stream out of my tents! Openyour arms to receive them--they are free! Will you now fight againstme? I cannot believe it! Who will be the first to aim at this breast?"and he opened wide his arms.

  "Hail to King Totila the Good!" was the universal acclamation.

  And the warm-hearted men threw down their weapons, rushed forward, andgreeted with tears of joy their liberated wives and children, kissingthe hem of Totila's mantle.

&n
bsp; The commander of the mercenaries rode up to him.

  "My lancers are surrounded and too weak to fight alone. Here, O King,is my sword. I am your prisoner."

  "Not so, brave Arsakide! Thou art unconquered--therefore no prisoner.Go with thy troop whither thou wilt."

  "I _am_ a prisoner, conquered by your magnanimity and the splendour ofyour eyes. Permit us henceforward to fight under your flag."

  In this manner a chosen troop, who stood by him faithfully, was won forTotila.

  Amid a shower of flowers he made his entry into Neapolis through PortaNolana.

  Before Aratius, the admiral of the Byzantine fleets could raise theanchors of his war-ships, their crews were overpowered by the sailorsof the many merchant vessels which lay near in the harbour, the mastersof which were old admirers and thankful _proteges_ of Totila.

  Without shedding a drop of blood, the King had gained a fleet and thethird city of importance in the kingdom.

  In the evenings during the banquet which the rejoicing inhabitants hadprepared for him, Totila stole softly away.

  With surprise the Gothic sentinels saw their King, all alone, disappearinto an old half-fallen tower, close to an ancient olive-tree by thePorta Capuana.

  The next day there appeared a decree of Totila which dispensed thewomen and girls of the Jews of Neapolis from a pole-tax which had,until now, been laid upon them; and which--they being forbidden tocarry jewels in public--permitted them to wear a golden heart upon thebosom of their dress as a mark of distinction.

  In the neglected garden, where a tall stone cross and a deep-sunk gravewere completely overgrown with wild ivy and moss, there presently arosea monument of the most beautiful black marble, with the simpleinscription: "_Miriam from Valeria._"

  But there was no one living in Neapolis who understood its meaning.