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OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
395
Hildibald in the midst of a banquet; [A.D. 541, c. May] the Rugians, a foreign tribe, assumed the privilege of election; and Totila,[1] the nephew of the late king, was tempted, by revenge, to deliver himself and the garrison of Treviso into the hands of the Romans. But the gallant and accomplished youth was easily persuaded to prefer the Gothic throne before the service of Justinian; and, as soon as the palace of Pavia had been purified from the Rugian usurper, he reviewed the national force of five thousand soldiers, and generously undertook the restoration of the kingdom of Italy.
Victories of Totila, king of Italy, A.D. 541-544 The successors of Belisarius, eleven generals of equal rank,[2] neglected to crush the feeble and disunited Goths, till they were roused to action by the progress of Totila and the[A.D. 542] reproaches of Justinian. The gates of Verona were secretly opened to [Artabazes] Artabazus, at the head of one hundred Persians in the service of the empire.[3] The Goths fled from the city. At the distance of sixty furlongs the Roman generals halted to regulate the division of the spoil. While they disputed, the enemy discovered the real number of the victors; the Persians were instantly overpowered, and it was by leaping from the wall that Artabazus preserved a life which he lost in a few days by the lance of a barbarian, who had defied him to single combat. Twenty thousand Romans encountered the forces of Totila, near [Faventia] Faenza, and on the hills of Mugello of the Florentine territory. The ardour of freedmen who fought to regain their country was opposed to the languid temper of mercenary troops, who were even destitute of the merits of strong and well-disciplined servitude. On the first attack they abandoned their ensigns, threw down their arms, and dispersed on all sides with an active speed, which abated the loss, whilst it aggravated the shame, of their defeat.[4] The king of the Goths, who- ↑ [His proper name was Baduila, which appears invariably on coins and is mentioned by Jordanes. He was probably elected towards end of A.D. 541; Eraric the Rugian reigned, after Ildibad's death during the summer of that year.]
- ↑ [Hardly of equal rank; for Procopius says that Constantian and Alexander were "first among them" (B. G. iii. 3). Others were Vitalius, Bessas, and John son of Vitalian.]
- ↑ [Not 100 Persians, but 100 men selected from the whole army. Procop. ib. On ordinary occasions Artabazes commanded a Persian band.]
- ↑ [The events are so compressed in the text that they are hardly intelligible. The Roman army, numbering (not 20,000 as the author states, but) 12,000 (δισχιλίους τε καὶ μυρίους), advanced within five miles of Verona, and on the failure of the attempt of Artabazes retreated beyond the Po to Faventia, which is about twenty miles south-west of Ravenna. Totila then, taking the offensive, follows them from Venetia, crosses the Po, and the battle of Faenza is fought, in which the Imperial-
