srthlErr Thellbttxbl

the_ ostrogoth and the murder of hiu doughter Amaleruntho by Theodahocl

and all the evenrs whidr occasioned the utbrentc of the Gotic 7or, oncl
then the story is told of how sitigis who sr"rcccccled Theodahad as ruier of
t},e Goths was, after prolonged tghting, captured by Belisarius and talcen to
Constantinople, and of how Sicily, Rome and ltaly casr ofl the yoke of
foreign domination and were restored to their ancieni way of life.
3r The
same soufce mofeovef gives an account of the ltalian e<pedition of the
eunuch Narses, who was made commander-in-chief by the Emperor, of his
brilliantly executed campaigns againsr Totila, and of how after the death of
TotiTa Teias the son of Fritigern succeeded to the leadership of the Goths
and how not long afterwards he too was slain. 3z The-foregoing is a
rqmpary of events down to the twenty-sixth year of Justinian,s ..ign, hidr,
I believe, is as far as Procopius' narrative takes us. Ii rvas my inten-tion from
the start to relate the sequel to those events, and that is what I shall now

proceed to do.

BOOK

l.

Teias, who succeeded Totila as leader of the Goths, rallied his forces
and made an all-out attack on Narses and the Romans, but he sufiered an
10
overwhelming defeat in a pitched battle whidr cost him his life; and those
Goths who survived the battle were forced to come to terms with Narses
because they found themselves exposed to constant attacik from the Romans
and crowded together in a confined and waterless str)ot. The terms granted
them meant that they would remain in undisturbed possession of their own
temitory on condition of their continuing thencdorth to be subjects of the
Emperor. This turn of events led everyone to $rppose that the fighting in
Italy hud been brought to a successful conclusion: in realiq' it h.ad scarcely
begun. z I am convinced, for my patt, that our generation shall see no
en to sudr ills, since, human ntufe being what it is, they are a permanent
and ever increasing phenomenon and, indeed, one whidr is practically as old as
man himself. Hisiory and literature, for example, are full of accounts of
battler and fishtins. almost to the exclusion of everything else. 3 I do not,
ho*.i"r, subicrib'to the general view that sudr events re controlled by the
movements of the heavenly bodies and by some blind impersonal fate. If the
influence o{ fate wefe paramount in all things then there would be no place
for free-will, we wotild be obliged to regard all attempts at advice, instruction
and methodical o<position as a complete waste of time and the hopes and
aspirations of the rirto"ot would be extinguished and annihilated. 4 But
I o not think it right, either, to hold the Divinity responsible for tghting
and bloodshed. No, could never put forward of accept the view that a

benevolenr being, whidr is the negation of all evil, could delight in wholesale slaughter. j It is the souls of men that lapse voluntarily into greed
and violence and fill every land with wars and dissensions, giving rise
thereby to widespread destruction, to the upfooti.ng of whole nations and
to countless other horrors,
6 And so it happened on that occasion that aftet the conclusion of the
peace-treaty the Goths went their sepafate /ays, those. who had previously
iived on the near side of the Po maling their way to Tuscany and Liguria
and to wherever force of habit and inclination led them, while those from
beyond the Po crossed that river and dispersed in the direction of Venice
and the garrisons and towns of that region, where they had previously lived.
1o The Battle

of Mons Lactarius (4.D.552),