consolation in sanguinary revenge : and three hun. C'HA P. dred youths of the noblest families, who had been XLIII. sent as hostages beyond the Po, were inhumanly com slain by the successor of Totila. The fate of the senate suggests an awful lesson of the vicissitude of human affairs. Of the senators whom Totila had banished from their country, some were rescued by an officer of Belisarius, and transported from Campania to Sicily ; while others were too guilty to confide in the clemency of Justinian, or too poor to provide horses for their escape to the sea-shore. Their brethren languished five years in a state of indigence and exile : the victory of Narses revived their hopes; but their premature return to the metropolis was prevented by the furious Goths; and all the fortresses of Campania were stained with patrician* blood. After a period of thirteen

. centuries, the institution of Romulus expired ; and if the nobles of Rome still assumed the title of senators, few subsequent traces can be discovered of a public council, or constitutional order. Ascend six hundred years, and contemplate the kings of the earth soliciting an audience, as the slaves or freedmen of the Roman senatet!

The Gothic war was yet alive, the bravest of Defeat and the nation retired beyond the Po; and Teias was Teias, the unanimously chosen to succeed and revenge their last king of

the Goths. departed

death of

Сс 3

A D 553)

CHA P. departed hero. The new king immediately sent

ambassadors to implore, or rather to purchase the

aid of the Franks, and nobly lavished for the public March safety, the riches which had been deposited in the

palace of Pavia. The residue of the royal treasure was guarded by his brother A ligern at Cumæ in Campania ; but the strong castle which Totila had forufied, was closely besieged by the arms of Narses. From the Alps to the foot of mount Vesuvius, the Gothic king, by rapid and secret marches, advanced to the relief of his brother, eluded the vigilance of the Roman chiefs, and pitched his camp on the banks of the Sarnus or Draco *, which flows from Nuceria into the bay of Naples. The river separated the two armies ; sixty days were consumed in distant and fruitless combats, and Teias maintained this important post, till he was deserted by his fleet and the hope of subsistence. With re. luctant steps he ascended the Lactarian mount, where the physicians of Rome, since the time of Galen, had sent their patients for the benefit of the air and the milk t. Bui the Goths soon embraced ą more generous resolution : to descend the hill,

to

* The Agarwy of Procopius (Goth. 1. iv. c. 35.) is evidently the Sarnus, ie text is accused or altered by the rash violence of Ciuvenus (1. iv. c. 3. p. 1156.): but Camillo Pellegrini of Naples (Discorsi sopra la Campania Felice, p. 330, 331.) has proved from old iecords, that as early as the year 8.2 that river was called the Dracontio, or Draconcello.

+ Galen (de Method. Medendi, 1. v. apud Cluver. I. iv. c. 3. p. 1159, 1160.) describes the lofty site, pure air, and rich milk of mount Lactarius, whose medicinal benefits were equally known and sought in the time of Symmachus (1. vi. epist

. : 8.), and Cassiodorius Var, xi. 10.). Nothing is now létt except the name of the town Letrete,

to dismiss their horses, and to die in arms, and in c'HA P. the possession of freedom. The king marched at XLIJI. their head, bearing in his right-hand a lance, and an ample buckler in his left: with the one he struck dead the foremost of the assailants, with the other he received the weapons which every hand was ambitious to aim against his life. After a combat of many hours, his left arm was fatigued by the weight of twelve javelins which hung from his shield. Without moving from his ground, or suspending his blows, the hero called aloud on his attendants for a fresh buckler, but in the moment, while his side was uncovered, it was pierced by a mortal dart. He fell : and his head, exalted on a spear, proclaimed to the nations, that the Gothic kingdom was no more. But the example of his death served only to animate the companions who had sworn to perish with their leader. They fought till darkness descended on the earth. They reposed on their arms. The combat was renewed with the return of light, and maintained with unabated vigour till the evening of the second day. The repose of a second night, the want of water, and the loss of their bravest champions, determined the surviving Goths to accept the fair capitulation which the prudence of Narses was inclined to propose. They embraced the alternative of re. siding in Italy as the subjects and soldiers of Justinian, or departing with a portion of their private wealth, in search of some independent country *.

Yec

Сс 4

CHAP. Yet the oath of fidelity or exile was alike rejected XLIII. by one thousand Goths, who broke away before the

treaty was signed, and boldly effected their retreat to the walls of Pavia. The spirit as well as the situation of Aligern, prompted him to imitate rather than to bewail his brother: a strong and dexterous archer, he transpierced with a single arrow the armour and breast of his antagonist; and his military conduct defended Cumæ * above a year against the forces of the Romans. Their industry had scooped the Sibyll's cave + into a prodigious mine ; combustible materials were introduced to consume the temporary props : the wall and the gate of Cumæ sunk into the cavern, but the ruins formed a deep and inaccessible precipice. On the fragment of a rock, Aligern stood alone and unshaken, till he calmly surveyed the hopeless condition of his country, and judged it more honourable to be the friend ot Narses than the slaye of the Franks. After the death of Teias, the Roman general separated his troops to reduce the cities of Italy ; Lucca sustain. ed a long and vigorous siege ; and such was the hu. manity or the prudence of Narses, that the repeated

perfidy

• I leave Scaliger (Animadvers. in Euseb. p. 59.) and Sal. masius Exercitat. Plinian. P: 51, 52, to quarrel about the origin of Cumæ, the oldest of the Greek colonies in Italy (Strab. 1. v. p. 372. Velleius Paterculus, 1. i. c. 4.), already vacant in Juvenal's time (Satir. iii.), and now in ruins.

+ Agathias (1. i. c. 21.) settles the Sibyll's cave under the wall of Cumæ : he agrees with Servius (ad l. vi. Æneid.); nor can I perceive why their opinion should be rejected by Heyne, the excellent editor of Virgil (tom ii. p. 650, 651.). In urbe media secreta religio ! But Cumæ was not yet built ; and the lines (l. vi. 96, 97.) would become ridiculous, if Æneas were actually in a Greek city.

perfidy of the inhabitants could not provoke him CHA P. to exact the forfeit lives of their hostages. These XLIII. hostages were dismissed in safety; and their grate+

ful zeal at length subdued the obstinacy of their. countrymen *.

Franks and

A. D. 553

Before Lucca had surrendered, Italy was over- Invasion of whelmed by a new deluge of Barbarians. A feeble Italy by the youth, the grandson of Clovis, reigned over the Alemanni, Austrasians or oriental Franks. The guardians of August. Theodebald entertained with coldness and reluc tance the magnificent promises of the Gothic ambas sadors. But the spirit of a martial people outstripped the timid counsels of the court: two brothers, Lo thaire and Buccelin +, the dukes of the Alemanni, stood forth as the leaders of the Italian war; and se venty-five thousand Germans descended in the autumn from the Rhætian Alps into the plain of Milan. The vanguard of the Roman army was stationed near the Po, under the conduct of Fulcaris, a bold Herulian, who rashly conceived, that personal bra. very was the sole duty and merit of a commander. As he marched without order or precaution along the Emilian way, an ambuscade of Franks sudden ly rose from the amphitheatre of Parma: his troops were surprised and routed; but their leader refused to fly, declaring to the last moment that death

was

There is some difficulty in connecting the 35th chapter of the ivth book of the Gothic war of Procopius with the first book of the history of Agathias. We must now relinquish a statesman and soldier, to attend the footsteps of a poet and rhetorician (1. i. p. 11. 1. ii. p. 51. edit. Louvre).

Among the fabulous exploits of Buccelin, he discomfited and slew Belisarius, subdued Italy and Sicily, &c. See in the historians of France, Gregory of Tours (tom. ii. 1. ii. c. 32, p. 203), and Aimoin (tom. iii. 1. ii. de Gestis Francorum, c. 23. p. 59.).