Volume Iii Part 15 (1/2)
”My lancers are surrounded and too weak to fight alone. Here, O King, is my sword. I am your prisoner.”
”Not so, brave Arsakide! Thou art unconquered--therefore no prisoner.
Go with thy troop whither thou wilt.”
”I _am_ a prisoner, conquered by your magnanimity and the splendour of your eyes. Permit us henceforward to fight under your flag.”
In this manner a chosen troop, who stood by him faithfully, was won for Totila.
Amid a shower of flowers he made his entry into Neapolis through Porta Nolana.
Before Aratius, the admiral of the Byzantine fleets could raise the anchors of his war-s.h.i.+ps, their crews were overpowered by the sailors of the many merchant vessels which lay near in the harbour, the masters of which were old admirers and thankful _proteges_ of Totila.
Without shedding a drop of blood, the King had gained a fleet and the third city of importance in the kingdom.
In the evenings during the banquet which the rejoicing inhabitants had prepared for him, Totila stole softly away.
With surprise the Gothic sentinels saw their King, all alone, disappear into an old half-fallen tower, close to an ancient olive-tree by the Porta Capuana.
The next day there appeared a decree of Totila which dispensed the women and girls of the Jews of Neapolis from a pole-tax which had, until now, been laid upon them; and which--they being forbidden to carry jewels in public--permitted them to wear a golden heart upon the bosom of their dress as a mark of distinction.
In the neglected garden, where a tall stone cross and a deep-sunk grave were completely overgrown with wild ivy and moss, there presently arose a monument of the most beautiful black marble, with the simple inscription: ”_Miriam from Valeria._”
But there was no one living in Neapolis who understood its meaning.
CHAPTER VI.
There now streamed into Neapolis amba.s.sadors from Campania and Samnium, Bruttia and Lucania, Apulia and Calabria, who came to invite the Gothic King to enter their cities as a liberator.
Even the important and strong fortress of Beneventum and the neighbouring forts of Asculum, Ca.n.u.sia, and Acheruntia surrendered at discretion.
In these districts thousands of cases occurred in which the peasants were settled upon the lands of their former masters, who had fallen in battle, or had fled to Byzantium or to Rome.
Besides Rome and Ravenna, there were now in the hands of the Byzantines, only Florentia, held by Justinus; Spoletium, whose joint governors were Bonus and Herodia.n.u.s; and Perusia, under the Hun, Uldugant.
In a few days the King, reinforced by many Italians from the south of the Peninsula, had new manned his conquered fleet, and left the harbour in full sail, while his hors.e.m.e.n marched by land on the Via Appia to the north.
Rome was the goal of both s.h.i.+ps and horse; while Teja, having conquered all the country between Ravenna and the Tiber--Petra and Caesena fell without bloodshed--the aemilia and both Tuscanies (the Annonarian and the Sub-urbicarian), marched with a third army on the Flaminian Way against the city of the Prefect.
On hearing of these movements, Cethegus was obliged to acknowledge that the struggle would now begin in good earnest, and, like a dragon in his den, he determined to defend himself to the death.
With a proud and contented look he viewed the ramparts and towers, and said to his brothers-in-arms, who were uneasy at the approach of the Goths:
”Be comforted! Against these invincible walls they shall be broken to pieces for the second time!”
But at heart he was not so easy as his words and looks would seem to indicate.
Not that he ever repented his past deeds or thought his plans unachievable. But that when, after repeated reverses, he appeared to have arrived at the point of success, he should be as far off the goal as ever because of Totila's victories--this feeling had a great effect upon even _his_ iron nerves.