A Struggle for Rome, v. 3

by Felix Dahn

  CHAPTER I.

  The destiny of the Goths was soon to be fulfilled. The rolling stoneapproached the abyss.

  When Narses came to his senses and learned what had taken place, hegave orders at once to arrest Liberius and send him to Byzantium toanswer for his conduct.

  "I will not say," he said to his confidant, Basiliskos, "that he hascome to a false decision. I myself could not have done otherwise. But Ishould have done it for different reasons. _His_ only wish was to savehis friend and the ten thousand prisoners. That was wrong. Situated ashe was, he ought to have sacrificed them, for he could not overlook theactual condition of the war. He did not know, as I know, that afterthis battle the Gothic kingdom is lost--whether it be completelydestroyed at Rome or Neapolis is indifferent--and that alone would havebeen, and is, the reason for which the ten thousand should be saved."

  "At Neapolis? But why not at Rome? Do you not remember the formidablefortifications of the Prefect? Why should not the Goths throwthemselves into Rome and resist for months?"

  "Why? Because things are very different with regard to Rome. But theGoths know this as little as Liberius. And Cethegus--above all--mustknow nothing of it yet; therefore be silent. Where is the Prefect ofRome?"

  "He has hastened forward, in order to be the first to conduct thepursuit as soon as the time of truce has expired."

  "Surely you have taken care----"

  "Do not doubt it! He would have marched with his Isaurians alone, butI--that is, Liberius at my order--gave him Alboin and the Longobardiansas companions, and you know----"

  "Yes," said Narses, with a smile, "my wolves will not lose sight ofhim."

  "But how long shall he----"

  "As long as he is necessary to me; not an hour longer. So the young androyal wonder-worker lies upon his shield! Now may Justinian rightlycall himself 'Gothicus,' and again sleep peacefully. But truly--he willnever more sleep peacefully--that disappointed widower----"

  So the two generals, Narses and Teja, were of one opinion with regardto the Gothic kingdom. It was lost. The flower of the Goths had fallenat Caprae and Taginae. Totila had placed there five-and-twenty thousandmen; not even a thousand had escaped. The two wings of the army hadalso suffered great loss; and so King Teja commenced his retreat to thesouth with scarcely twenty thousand men.

  He was urged to the greatest speed by the calls for help sent by thelittle army under Duke Guntharis and Earl Grippa, who were hard pressedby the greater force of the Byzantines under the command of Armatus andDorotheos, who had landed between Rome and Neapolis.

  And besides this, Teja's retreat was also precipitated because of theterrible manner in which, when the truce was ended, he was pursued byNarses.

  While the Longobardians and Cethegus pursued the fugitives withoutpause, Narses slowly followed with the main army, spreading to theright and left his two formidable wings, which extended in thesouth-west far beyond the Sub-urbicarian Tuscany to the Tyrrhenian sea,and in the north-east through Picenum to the Ionian Gulf, extinguishingas they passed from north to south and from west to east, every traceof the Goths behind them.

  This proceeding was considerably facilitated by the now generaldesertion of the Gothic cause on the part of the Italians. Thebenevolent King, who had once won their sympathies, had been succeededby a gloomy hero of terrible reputation. And all who hesitated werespeedily drawn over to the other side, not by inclination to the ruleof Byzantium, but from fear of Narses and of the Emperor's severity,who threatened all who took the part of the barbarians with death.

  The Italians who still served in Teja's army now deserted and hastenedto Narses. It also happened much more frequently than before the battleof Taginae, that Gothic settlers were betrayed to the Romani by theirItalian neighbours, generally by the _hospes_, who had been obliged torelinquish a third of his property to the Goths; or, where the Italianswere in the majority, the Goths were either killed, or taken prisonersand delivered up to the two Byzantine fleets, the "Tyrrhenian" and the"Ionian," which, sailing along the coasts of those seas, accompaniedthe march of the land forces and received all the captured Goths onboard--men, women, and children.

  The forts and towns, weakly garrisoned--for Teja had been obliged tostrengthen his small army by lessening their numbers--generally fell bymeans of the Italian population, who now overpowered the Gothicgarrison, as, after Totila's election, they had done the imperial. Thusfell, during the progress of the war, Namia, Spoletium and Perusia; thefew towns which resisted were invested.

  So Narses resembled a strong man who walks with outstretched armsthrough a narrow passage, pursuing all who try to hide themselvesbefore him. Or a fisher, who wades up a stream with a sack-net; behindhim all is empty. The few Goths who could yet save themselves fledbefore the "iron roller" to the army of the King, which soon consistedof a greater number of the defenceless than of warriors.

  The Visigoths were again engaged in migration, just as they had been ahundred years before, but this time the iron net of Narses was behindthem; and before them, as they advanced farther and farther into theconstantly narrowing peninsula, the sea. And not a ship did theypossess in which to fly.