Chapter XIII: The Final Conquest of Italy and Its Annexation to the Empire (2)

Both armies were now marshalled over against each other in a long and deep array. Narses collected all his barbarian auxiliaries, with whom he was unfamiliar, into the centre, and made them stand dismounted from their horses. The flower of the Roman troops he placed in the wings, four thousand foot-archers in front, and behind them fifteen hundred cavalry in each division. On the opposite side the Goths were ranged in two lines, all their cavalry being in front and the infantry behind. The two generals now rode along their respective battle fronts, uttering words of encouragement; and Narses added the objective stimulus of rich jewels, armlets, necklets, and golden chains, displayed aloft on the points of spears, and promised the bestowal of them as the rewards of valour. As in most cases, there was a single combat in the interspace, the champions this time being a Roman renegade and an Armenian, when the triumph of the latter infused an access of confidence into the Imperial troops. Totila, however, was anxious for a short delay, as he was awaiting the advent of two thousand horse, whose approach had just been intimated to him. In the meantime he essayed to divert the attention of the enemy by exhibiting his address in equitation and play of arms. He was dressed with regal magnificence, and his weapons and armour were resplendent with gold. Purple plumes flowed from his helmet and lance, and he was mounted on a charger of faultless proportions. He began to caracole along the front of his line, wheeling his horse in circles and pulling him up short at one instant or another to turn in a different direction. Simultaneously his spear was tossed into the air and caught dexterously with interchanging hands, now by one part, now by another. In this saltatory exercise he frittered away the whole forenoon; and then he sent a herald to ask for a parley with Narses. The eunuch, however, replied that it was mere trifling for him to propose a debate on the field, which he had declined at the fitting time.

It was now announced to Totila that the expected accession of cavalry had arrived, whereupon he retired to his tent and passed the word for his troops to fall out and partake of their midday meal. With a swift change, however, all returned to their ranks, and the Gothic cavalry at once began an impetuous charge against the enemy, thinking to catch them in disorder. But Narses had suspected a ruse, and therefore had restrained his men from breaking into loose order or laying aside any part of their equipment. At the same time, lest they should suffer by fasting, he caused them to be served with refreshments while standing in line with their eyes fixed on the movements of the enemy. As soon as he perceived in what manner the battle had begun, the Roman general executed an evolution which was fatally adverse to the chances of the attacking troops. The wings were signalled to deploy towards the centre, and thus in a moment the Byzantine army assumed a crescentic formation, which embraced the Gothic cavalry between its extended horns. From each side the four thousand archers poured their arrows into the dense squadrons of horse, who by some strange perversity or misjudgment had been ordered to rely solely on their spears and the force of their charge to overthrow the ranks of the enemy. A small proportion only of the Gothic horsemen succeeded in reaching the Roman line, most of them falling or becoming disabled the moment they entered the deadly interspace between the two fires. Nevertheless they maintained their efforts with tenacity till the decline of day, when the Byzantine army by a unanimous impulse began to move forwards against them in firm array. Gradually the Goths were pushed backwards, becoming more and more disordered as they retreated, until they again came in contact with their own infantry. In proportion as the enemy yielded the ardour of the Romans had become inflamed; men of all arms attacked fiercely, and soon the retreat became a rout; whilst the Gothic infantry, seeing the defeat of their main force, attempted no defence, but fled wherever the way seemed to lie open for escape. Six thousand of the Goths were slain on the field, and, in addition, a large number of the Imperial troops, who, during the last decade, had from time to time deserted to their standard.[617]

The life and fortunes of Totila were forfeited on the day of Taginae, but the mode of death of the Gothic King is wrapped in some uncertainty. At the outset of the battle, according to one account, a chance arrow pierced him with a mortal wound, and compelled his removal from the field. After his departure, the Goths engaged the enemy without tactical direction, and failed through being deprived of his skilful supervision. Another version relates that as soon as the catastrophe was complete he fled through the darkness with a few followers, when he received a lance-thrust from the hand of a barbarian, who was unaware that he had struck the King. Whatever may have been the immediate cause of the fatality, it seems certain that on that night he arrived at Caprae, about ten miles from the scene of the battle, in a dying state. There he shortly expired and was buried by his companions, who at once left the neighbourhood. Soon afterwards a Gothic woman, resident on the spot, who had seen the occurrence, told some Roman soldiers that the King was dead, and indicated to them his grave. Disbelieving her story, they disinterred the body and found that she had spoken the truth.[618] Before they restored the corpse to the earth they stripped it of its regal apparel, which they brought to Narses. He, in his turn, forwarded the spoils to Justinian.[619] Such was the inglorious end of the reign of Totila, whose martial talents and civil magnanimity deserved a better fate; and we would fain believe that version of his death which elucidates by an inevitable mischance the infelicitous result of this ill-conducted battle so unworthy of his previous reputation.

Narses now marched on Rome, receiving on his way the submission of several towns which had been taken and retaken during the present war. At the same time the remnant of the Goths mustered at Ticinum, which Totila had fortified as the repository of his treasure in North Italy, and there they immediately elected Teïas as King. When the eunuch arrived before the capital, he found the Gothic garrison prepared to offer a vigorous resistance; but their dispositions were unskilful, and they were far from being able to foresee the various possibilities of capture. The siege, therefore, was of brief duration, and they were shortly circumvented by a simple strategical ruse. Three simultaneous assaults were made on distant portions of the wall; and the defenders allowed their attention to be concentrated on these points, whilst leaving the rest of the wide circuit vacant. Then Narses, seizing a favourable moment, ordered one of his lieutenants named Dagisthaeus, supported by a strong brigade, to make a sudden attempt with scaling ladders on one of the deserted stretches of wall. They ascended, meeting with no obstruction, gates were thrown open, and the Imperial standard was displayed from the battlements; whereupon the Goths abandoned the defence and saved themselves by every available outlet.[620] Thus for the fifth time in less than a score of years was Rome captured by one or other of the contending nations; and again on this, the third occasion, the Emperor had the gratification of receiving the keys of the city from one of his generals.

Yet the subjugation of Italy was still far from complete; and an arduous task had still to be executed by Narses before he could proclaim the peaceful settlement of the ruined Gothic kingdom to be an accomplished fact. Desperate bands of Gothic marauders now pervaded the country and wreaked their vengeance uncontrolled on the Italians for the ill success of their arms. All the Roman senators were murdered in Campania, where for their own safety they had been located by Totila; and even at Ticinum a band of hostages, selected from the noblest families, were slaughtered by order of the new Gothic King. And Teïas, notwithstanding his limited resources, was not in the least inclined to make his submission to the victorious eunuch, but determined to oppose him to the last by every means in his power. First, he tried to win the alliance of Theodebald, who had lately succeeded his father on the throne of the Franks, but that monarch declined to identify himself with a failing cause.

The prime object of contention between the hostile generals was now the city of Cumae in Campania, where Totila had deposited the richest complement of his treasures and on that account provided it with a strong garrison. At first John was sent into Tuscany to obstruct the avenues of approach from the north; but Teïas eluded his vigilance, and, by pursuing devious and unfrequented paths in the vicinity of the Adriatic coast, penetrated into Campania before the Byzantines had become aware of his escape. There he fortified his camp on the distal side of Mount Vesuvius, close to the Bay of Naples. The position chosen by the Goths was the south side of a bridge over the Draco, a small river flowing between steep banks, impassable even for infantry. On this spot they built wooden towers and constructed military engines, by means of which, owing to the difficulty of access, they were able to withstand the efforts of the whole Roman army for two months. With their fleet in proximity they held the command of the sea, so that they suffered from no lack of provisions. At the end of that time, however, the ships were betrayed to the enemy by a traitorous Goth who was in charge of them, and thus their supplies were cut off. They now took refuge on the Lactarian Mount, which rises from the ridge of land separating the Bay of Naples from that of Salerno. Here they soon found themselves in danger of being starved out, and resolved, therefore, to make a desperate effort to regain their freedom. Unexpectedly they came down on foot in a solid mass, and threw themselves on the Byzantine troops. Teïas, in the forefront of the battle, performed prodigies of valour, and soon became the central aim for his adversaries. A dozen spears became fixed in his shield, so that he could no longer wield it freely to shelter himself. He called loudly for his armour-bearer, and an attempt to exchange it was made, but for a moment his body remained unprotected and he received a fatal wound. Nevertheless, his men fought on till night terminated the conflict. At the dawn of day the fight was resumed, and again persevered in till night. At last they sent a deputation to Narses, proposing that they should be allowed to possess themselves of whatever funds they had deposited at their homes in various parts of the country, upon which they would leave Italy to go and live according to their own laws among other barbarians. Following the counsel of John, Narses made a convention to that effect; whereupon the Goths agreed to surrender all their remaining strongholds and to evacuate the peninsula.[621]

Such was the end of the dominion of the Ostrogoths in Italy, but Narses still had a considerable war to wage, partly owing to the convention not being strictly carried out, but chiefly because the Franks were firmly convinced that they could make themselves masters of Italy. Their resources were great, but for more than a decade they had been witnesses of the successful resistance offered by Totila with his small army to the anxious efforts of the Emperor; and hence they were itching to find a plausible pretext for invading the country in force. Theodebald was a feeble youth, evidently tottering to the grave, and two nobles of his court, the brothers Leuthar and Butilin, professed to rule both the King and the nation. As soon, therefore, as it became patent that the power of the Goths in Italy was irretrievably shattered, they affected to be moved by the prayers of a few refugees of that people, who had dwelt in the Transpadane region, and had not been directly concerned in the compact with Narses. Hence they quickly levied an army of over seventy thousand men, and suddenly appeared in North Italy under the semblance of being zealous allies of the Goths, but in reality because they believed the country to be without a master. The Roman general had not yet received the submission of Cumae, whilst some thousands of Gothic soldiers had fortified themselves at Compsae under a bellicose Hunnish leader, named Ragnaris; but on hearing of the Frankish invasion he abandoned his operations against them, and marched into Tuscany. Here he stayed to accept the capitulation of a number of towns, but sent on the greater part of his forces to block the way of the invaders on the southern bank of the Po. Some slight successes were obtained, but the eunuch was really incapable of opposing the Frankish host, and he soon retired to the shelter of Ravenna for the winter (553). Italy was now virtually lost again to the Empire had the barbarians who invaded it been capable of organizing a government or founding an administration. But to indulge themselves in rapine was the only course that was intelligible to them, and they possessed the country as brigands, not as civilized conquerors. The bulk of their army was, in fact, composed of German tribes, who had not yet been converted to Christianity. Even the Goths recognized shortly that they had nothing to hope for from such allies; and before long, Aligernus, the brother of Teïas, journeyed voluntarily to the north and presented himself before Narses with the keys of Cumae in his hand.

At the first flush of spring Leuthar and Butilin roused themselves to prosecute their raid, and made a rapid and destructive march through Central Italy until they arrived on the south of Rome. The brothers now divided their forces, and, while one half carried their ravages down to the Sicilian strait, the other devastated the eastern tract of the peninsula until they were brought up by the waters of the Mediterranean. The churches were broken into and rifled of all their precious ornaments by the heathen Germans, but the Orthodox Franks abstained scrupulously from any such sacrilege. The summer was already at its height, when communication was reopened between the Frankish leaders; and Leuthar announced his decision to return home forthwith in order to enjoy the fruits of the expedition. He exhorted his brother to follow his example, and not stake the rich spoils of Italy on the doubtful event of a war with the Romans. Between Butilin and the Goths, however, a bond had been executed in precise terms, by which it was prearranged that, should he succeed in ousting the Byzantines, he should become their king. He, therefore, remained in Campania, whilst his brother proceeded to retrace his steps to the north. On the way a foreguard of three thousand men fell into an ambush, contrived by Artabanes at Fanum, with disastrous results, but the main army continued its march unopposed, crossed the Po, and pitched their camp at Ceneta, in Venetia. Here they bewailed the loss of much of their booty on the long route, and gave themselves up to a life of indolence and relaxation in compensation for their protracted predatory exertions. Soon, however, a pestilence invaded the camp, emanating doubtless from an ill-ordered commissariat and defective sanitation, by which most of them perished, including Leuthar himself.

As for Butilin and the moiety of the host which remained with him, they also succumbed to disease in considerable numbers. The plenteous supply of grapes in Campania induced them to indulge too freely in a raw wine of their own concoction, and hence many of them fell victims to a fatal flux from the bowels. Since Butilin hoped to obtain a permanent seat in the country, he decided to fortify himself in a strong position, and await the development of events. At Casilinum,[622] on the river Vulturnus, he found a suitable spot, and there he fixed his camp within an enclosure strongly fenced by wagons and stakes. Their front was defended by the river, and wooden towers which they built at the foot of an adjoining bridge. His army amounted to about thirty thousand men, and he was also expecting reinforcements which had been promised by his brother as soon as he had deposited his treasures in a place of safety.

Narses now thought himself strong enough to meet the diminished host of Franks in the field; and he therefore came down from the north and encamped on the other side of the river, almost in sight of the enemy. His whole force, however, did not exceed eighteen thousand men, a great many of the barbarians, who had accompanied him into Italy, having been dismissed to their homes shortly after the defeat of Totila. He began hostilities by cutting off the foraging parties, on which the Franks were dependent for supplies, a proceeding which harassed them so much that they decided to end the molestation by a battle. When the Roman general noticed that the enemy were preparing to attack him he disposed his forces in order, placing all his infantry in the centre, and his cavalry on the wings. A certain number of his troops who were armed only with missiles, bowmen, and slingers, he posted at the rear, and he also concealed a detachment of horse in an adjacent wood. The martial equipment of the army opposed to him was very incomplete. All were infantry who bore no defensive armour, except shields and an occasional helmet; and their only offensive weapons were a sword, a barbed javelin, and a two-edged axe. They drew themselves up in the form of a wedge with the apex in front, and when the order to charge was given they drove down on the Roman centre with an impetus which carried them right through the troops opposed to them, so that they seemed to be on the way to capture the camp of their adversaries. Narses now signalled for his wings to wheel round towards the centre, until they faced almost the reverse way, and then to empty their quivers into the unprotected backs of the enemy. At the same time they were assailed in front by a brigade of Herules who had not arrived at their place in the centre before the sudden onslaught of the Franks. The result of these tactics was the practical annihilation of the barbarian host, along with whom Butilin himself perished. While most of them were slain and many driven into the river, it is said that only five escaped death on the field of battle. Of the Romans only eighty were killed, and these were the men who stood in the ranks where they had to withstand the first shock of the Frankish charge. Shortly after this victory Narses proceeded to the reduction of Compsae,[623] where the number of recalcitrant Goths, who had taken asylum with Ragnaris, now amounted to seven thousand. The fortress was blockaded during the winter; and at the beginning of spring (555), after their leader had been slain in a chance encounter, the occupants surrendered unconditionally to the eunuch, who sent them to Constantinople, so that their services might be utilized for the future in the defence of the Empire.

After a war of twenty years Justinian at last felt himself to be the veritable sovereign of Italy; and he drew up forthwith a comprehensive Act for the future government of the country. The title of this document, the legate to whose hand it was entrusted, and the place chosen for its promulgation, were all worthy of its importance. In the autumn of 554 the exiled Pope Vigilius quitted the Imperial capital to annunciate the Pragmatic Sanction from the throne of St. Peter as the Emperor's message of amity to the Italian people. Yet the concessions made to the inhabitants by this Constitution were, perhaps, not worthy of the name; and many who benefited, through the adoption of a definite Imperial policy, did so at the expense of others. Not altogether inequitably, however, as the main object of the Emperor was to restore the _status quo_ before the accession to power of Totila. The Pragmatic Sanction, therefore, enacted a universal reinstatement of, and restitution to those who were the losers by the interior administration of that monarch. In his efforts to consolidate his power he had made, or winked at, sweeping transfers of real and personal estate to his supporters from those who were disaffected to his cause. Now everyone was called on to take his own again wherever he could find it, without being troubled to make out his claim in conformity with the niceties of legal practice, it being conceded that there might have been an indefinite loss or destruction of instruments of title during the general upset. Lands and cattle, houses and movables, were to revert to their original owners; slaves of both sexes, who had obtained or assumed their freedom in the laxity of the times, were to return to the hand of their masters; and even the marriage tie was declared to be a nullity if contracted under the altered social conditions. Thus, husbands and wives who relapsed into servitude could be repudiated by their hymeneal partners; and even nuns, who had tasted of matrimony, had the option of re-entering their convents. On the other hand, Justinian did not encroach on the liberty of his new subjects by depriving them of advantages which they had formerly enjoyed; for instance, the provincial Rectors were to be chosen locally by the prelates of the Church from among the Italians themselves; and the salaries customarily paid at Rome for the promotion of liberal studies, literature, rhetoric, law, and physic, were to be continued to the professors. He also invited the Roman senators to visit him at the Byzantine Court whenever it pleased them to do so; and enacted that travellers might pass without let or hindrance between Italy and the rest of the Empire. The usual formulas as to the efficient collection of the taxes and against fiscal oppression were, of course, prominently expressed in this Constitution; and in this department we may be sure that the Gothic rule was often regretted.[624]

[599] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iii, 1 (whence the narrative proceeds as below). Cf. Anecd., 24, 26.

[600] Afterwards and now Pavia.

[601] Baduela on coins, but the Greeks always call him "Tõtilas," perhaps phonetically.

[602] He had delayed at CP. to celebrate his nuptials with the daughter of Germanus; Procopius, _loc. cit._, 12.

[603] Now Otranto, the nearest point to the opposite coast of Greece.

[604] He was really afraid to be in the vicinity of Antonina, says Procopius (Anecd., 5), as he believed that she had a mandate from Theodora to make away with him, the latter having an inveterate enmity against Germanus and his family.

[605] See p. 546.

[606] In a later part of his work, however, Procopius says (_loc. cit._, iv, 33) that Totila also burnt many of the buildings at this time. Marcellinus Com. (an. 547) corroborates, and says that for forty days there was neither man nor beast within the city.

[607] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iii, 35; Anecd., 5. He left Italy this time as in surreptitious flight, glad to abandon his task. In this year (548), Procopius tells us (De Bel. Goth., iii, 29), the great whale Porphyrio (see p. 368) was found stranded near the mouth of the Euxine. It had got into shallow water, too eager in its pursuit of dolphins. The measurements were 45 by 15 feet, but some doubted it to be the same animal as had been known in the Propontis for fifty years. Procopius does not, however, mention the "wonderful dog," who visited CP. in 530, and runs through all the Chroniclers from Jn. Malala to Zonaras. Rings and coins placed in a heap on the ground he restored to their owners, or fetched according to their value correctly. He also indicated to order among the bystanders pregnant women, brothel-keepers, bawds, adulterers, misers, and benevolent persons.

[608] Perhaps this is the origin of a statement by Paul Diac. (Hist. Miscel., xvii) that on capturing Rome T. kept his trumpets sounding all night to warn the citizens to take sanctuary from his turbulent soldiery. "He lived among the Romans," says that historian, "like a father with his sons." (The same passage occurs in Lib. Pontif., Vigilius.) "The teaching of St. Benedict," he adds, "had moulded his character to this clemency."

[609] Altogether, however, Totila had equipped a war fleet of three hundred first class ships (Procopius, _loc. cit._, 22); with these he made some successful descents on the opposite coast of the Adriatic.

[610] These Italian campaigns had evidently caused the Byzantines to develop their naval power, and caused a reversal of the state of things which prevailed at the beginning of the Vandal war. See p. 503.

[611] Just previously he had built a church and monastery in Cappadocia, to which he intended to retire for the rest of his days (John Ephes., Hist. (Smith), p. 75).

[612] Agathias, i, 16.

[613] See p. 415.

[614] This campaign of Narses occupies the latter part of the fourth book of the Gothic War of Procopius. More than the first half of that book is devoted to Persian affairs, and would properly be called the third book of the Persian War.

[615] It will be observed that Ravenna was never captured unless by stratagem. Both Theodoric (p. 545) and Belisarius (p. 581) entered by a pretended treaty with the occupants.

[616] "Taginae lies just below the central watershed of the Apennines, near the modern Gubbio" (Oman, _op. cit._, p. 32).

[617] Founding on Theophanes, an. 6044, and Cedrenus, i, p. 659, this battle must have been fought in July, or at latest the beginning of August.

[618] Procopius (_loc. cit._, iv. 32) gives both stories of his death, the first vaguely, the second, which he appears to believe, circumstantially.

[619] Jn. Malala, xviii, p. 486; Theophanes, _loc. cit._

[620] Procopius (De Bel. Goth., iv. 33) notes a curious parallel between the careers of Dagisthaeus and Bessas. The latter, as we have seen, disgraced himself at Rome, and subsequently distinguished himself by the capture of Petra (p. 601). But just before Dagisthaeus had been deported under arrest from Lazica, where he had held the command, on the charge of accepting bribes from the Persians. He now retrieved his disgrace by the capture of Rome.

[621] This is the last scene in the historical work of Procopius. Agathias now takes up the narrative and begins with an epitome of his predecessor. In his first and second books he treats of the further warfare of Narses.

[622] Modern Capua, the ancient town, retaining its name, having been moved to this site.

[623] Apparently a town near the Aufidus, on the northern border of Lucania.

[624] The Pragmatic Sanction is found at the end of all editions of the Corpus Juris Civilis. In the affix Narses is named as the Praepositus of the Sacred Cubicle, that is Grand Chamberlain, or Chief Eunuch, the title under which he became military governor of Italy. He was provided with a Praetorian Praefect. There is a fragment of a later Act in which J. legalises a composition _pro rata_ between debtors and creditors, having regard to the losses caused by the Frankish invasion.