CHAP. thousand of their bravest troops. Their cavalry XLI. was unpractised in the use of the bow; their

archers served on foot; and this divided force was incapable of contending with their adversaries, whose lances and arrows, at a distance, or at hand, were alike formidable. The consummate skill of Belisarius embraced the favourable opportunities: and as he chose the ground and the moment, as he pressed the charge or sounded the retreat, the squadrons which he detached were seldom unsuccessful. These partial advantages diffused an im, patient ardour among the soldiers and people, who began to feel the hardships of a siege, and to disregard the dangers of a general engagement, Each plebeian conceived himself to be an hero, and the infantry, who, since the decay of discipline, were rejected from the line of battle, aspired to the ancient honours of the Roman legion. Belisarius praised the spirit of his troops, condemned their presumption, yielded to their clamours, and prepared the remedies of a defeat, the possibility of which he alone had courage to suspect. In the quarter of the Vatican, the Romans prevailed; and if the irreparable moments had not been wasted in the pillage of the camp, they might have occupied the Milvian bridge, and charged in the rear of the Gothic host. On the other side of the Tyber,

For the Roman trumpet and its various notes, consult Lipsius, de Milità Roman & Opp. tom. iii. 1. iv. Dialog. x. p. 125 -129.). A mode of distinguishing the charge by the horsetrumpet of solid brass, and the retreat by the foot-trumpet of leather and light wood, was recommended by Procopius, and adopted by Belisarius (Goth. 1. ii. c. 23.).

XLI.

Tyber, Belisarius advanced from the Pincian and CHAP, Salarian gates. But his army, four thousand soldiers perhaps, was lost in a spacious plain; they were encompassed and oppressed by fresh multitudes, who continually relieved the broken ranks of the Barbarians. The valiant leaders of the infantry were unskilled to conquer; they died: the retreat (an hasty retreat) was covered by the prudence of the general, and the victors started back with affright from the formidable aspect of an armed rampart. The reputation of Belisarius was unsullied by a defeat; and the vain confidence of the Goths was not less serviceable to his designs, than the repentance and modesty of the Roman troops.

From the moment that Belisarius had deter

mined to sustain a siege, his assiduous care provided Rome against the danger of famine, more dreadful than the Gothic arms. An extraordinary supply of corn was imported from Sicily: the harvests of Campania and Tuscany were forcibly swept for the use of the city and the rights of private property were infringed by the strong plea of the public safety. It might easily be foreseen that the enemy would intercept the aqueducts; and the cessation of the water-mills was the first inconvenience, which was speedily removed by mooring large vessels, and fixing mul-stones in the current of the river. The stream was soon embarrassed by the trunks of trees, and polluted, with dead bodies; yet so effectual were the precautions of the Roman general, that the waters of the Tyber

Distress of the city.

XLI.

CHA P. still continued to give motion to the mills and

drink to the inhabitants; the more distant quarters were supplied from domestic wells; and a besieged city might support, without impatience, the privation of her public baths. A large portion of Rome, from the Prænestine gate to the church of St. Paul, was never invested by the Goths; their excursions were restrained by the activity of the Moorish troops : the navigation of the Tyber, and the Latin, Appian, and Ostian ways, were left free and unmolested for the introduction of corn and cattle, or the retreat of the inhabitants, who sought a refuge in Campania or Sicily. Anxious to relieve

. himself from an useless and devouring multitude, Belisarius issued his peremptory orders for the instant departure of the women, the children, and slaves; required his soldiers to dismiss their male and female attendants, and regulated their allowance, that one moiety should be given in provisions, and the other in money. His foresight was justified by the increase of the public distress, as soon as the Goths had occupied two important posts in the neighbourhood of Rome. By the loss of the port, or, as it is now called, the city of Porto, he was deprived of the country on the right of the Tyber, and the best communication with the sea ; and he reflected with grief and anger, that three hundred men, could he have spared such a feeble band, might have defended its impregnable works. Seven miles from the capital, between the Appian and the Latin ways, two principal aqueducts crossing, and again crossing each other, inclosed

XLI.

within their solid and lofty arches a fortified space*, CHA P. where Vitiges established a camp of seven thousand Goths to intercept the convoys of Sicily and Campania. The granaries of Rome were insensibly exhausted, the adjacent country had been wasted with fire and sword; such scanty supplies as might yet be obtained by hasty excursions, were the reward of valour, and the purchase of wealth: the forage of the horses, and the bread of the sol. diers, never failed ; but in the last months of the siege, the people were exposed to the miseries of scarcity, unwholesome food t, and contagious disorders. Belisarius saw and pitied their sufferings ; but he had foreseen, and he watched the decay of their loyalty, and the progress of their discontent. Adversity had awakened the Romans from the dreams of grandeur and freedom, and taught them the humiliating lesson, that it was of small moment to their real happiness, whether the name of their master was derived from the Gothic or the Latin language. The lieutenant of Justinian listened to their just complaints, but he rejected with disdain the idea of flight or capitulation ; repressed their

clamorous

• Procopius (Goth. l. ii. c. 3.) has forgot to name these aqueducts: nor can such a double intersection, at such a dis

a tance from Rome, be clearly ascertained from the writings of Frontinus Fabretti and Eschinard, de Aquis and de Agro Romano, or from the local maps of Lameti and Cingolani. Seven or eight miles from the city (50 stadia), on the road to Albano, between the Latin and Appian ways, I discern the remains of an aqueduct (probably the Septimian), a series (630 paces) of arches twenty-five feet high (if sray).

+ They made sausages, adatas, of mules flesh: unwhole. some, if the animals had died of the plague. Otherwise the famous Bologna sausages are said to be made of ass flesh (Voy: ages de Labat, tom. ii. p. 218.).

XLI.

CHA P. clamorous impatience for battle; amused them with the prospect of sure and speedy relief; and secured himself and the city from the effects of their despair or treachery. Twice in each month he changed the station of the officers to whom the custody of the gates was committed: the various precautions. of patroles, watch-words, lights, and music were repeatedly employed to discover whatever passed on the ramparts; out-guards were posted beyond the ditch, and the trusty vigilance of dogs supplied the more doubtful fidelity of mankind, A letter was intercepted, which assured the king of the Goths, that the Asinarian gate, adjoining to the Lateran church, should be secretly opened to his troops. On the proof or suspicion Pope Sylve. of treason, several senators were banished, and the pope Sylverius was summoned to attend the repre sentative of his sovereign, at his head-quarters in the Pincian palace *. The ecclesiastics who followed their bishop, were detained in the first or second apartment †, and he alone was admitted to the presence of Belisarius. The conqueror of Rome and Carthage was modestly seated at the feet of Antonina, who reclined on a stately couch? the

Exile of

rius,

A.D. 537.

Nov. 17.

The name of the palace, the hill, and the adjoining gate, were all derived from the senator Pincius. Some recent vestiges of temples and churches are now smoothed in the garden of the Minims of the Trinità del Monté (Nardini, 1. iv. c. 7. p. 196. Eschinard, p. 209, 210. the old plan of Buffalino, and the great plan of Nolli.). Belisarius had fixed his station be tween the Pincian and Salarian gates (Procop. Goth. 1. i. c. 15.).

From the mention of the primum et secundum velum, it should seem that Belisarius, even in a siege, represented the emperor, and maintained the proud ceremonial of the Byzantine palace.