326 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xli a long separation, united to the Kornan empire. 06 The Gothic garrison of Palermo, which alone attempted to resist, was re- duced, after a short siege, by a singular stratagem. Belisarius introduced his ships into the deepest recess of the harbour ; their boats were laboriously hoisted with ropes and pulleys to the topmast head, and he filled them with archers, who from that superior station commanded the ramparts of the city. After this easy though successful campaign, the conqueror en- tered Syracuse in triumph, at the head of his victorious bands, distributing gold medals to the people, on the day which so gloriously terminated the year of the consulship. He passed the winter season in the palace of ancient kings, amidst the ruins of a Grecian colony, which once extended to a circum- ference of two and twenty miles ; c6 but in the spring, about the [End of festival of Easter, the prosecution of his designs was interrupted a.d. 536] by a dangerous revolt of the African forces. Carthage was saved by the presence of Belisarius, who suddenly landed with a thousand guards. 07 Two thousand soldiers of doubtful faith returned to the standard of their old commander ; and he marched, without hesitation, above fifty miles, to seek an enemy whom he affected to pity and despise. Eight thousand rebels trembled at his approach ; they were routed at the first onset by the dexterity of their master ; and this ignoble victory would have restored the peace of Africa, if the conqueror had not been hastily recalled to Sicily, to appease a sedition which was kindled during his absence in his own camp. 68 Disorder and disobedience were the common malady of the times ; the genius to command and the virtue to obey resided only in the mind of Belisarius. Rei«n and Although Theodatus descended from a race of heroes, he ofTneo- was ignorant of the art, and averse to the dangers, of war. datus, the Gothic lt"f '° f d 65 ^ or ^ e conf l ues t °* Sicily, compare the narrative of Proeopius with the 534, Octo- complaints of Totila (Gothic. 1. i. c. 5 ; 1. iii. c. 16). The Gothic queen had lately ber— a.d. relieved that thankless island (Var. ix. 10, 11). 536, August cb rfhe ancient magnitude and splendour of the five quarters of Syracuse are ^ delineated by Cicero (in Verreru, actio ii. 1. iv. c. 52, 53), Strabo (1. vi. p. 415 [2, § 4]), and d'Orville (Sicula, torn. ii. p. 174-202). The new city, restored by Augustus, shrunk towards the island. 87 [This is an error. The number was a hundred.] 08 Proeopius (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 14, 15) so clearly relates the return of Belisarius into Sicily (p. 146, edit. Hoeschelii) that I am astonished at the strange misap- prehension and reproaches of a learned critic (Oeuvres de la Mothe le Vayer, torn, viii. p. 162, 163).
