To begin, then, with the East. King Khosrou is still alive in this year of our Lord 571, when I write this book. He has abstained from any further invasions of Roman Mesopotamia or Syria, ever since Belisarius turned him back at Carchemish; though the Saracens, his allies, are harassing our frontiers again. But he let the war in Colchis drag on, with alternate victory and defeat, until ten years ago: when another Eternal Peace was signed, under which he withdrew his claim to the sovereignty of Colchis and Justinian agreed to pay him a small annual tribute. (As I write, this Peace, too, has been broken-by the Romans this time. There has also been a successful revolt of the native Christians in Persian Armenia, which has placed itself under Roman protection.) Khosrou, like each of his ancestors in turn, has experienced greatest hostility from those most nearly related to him by blood; since Persian women are held in no honour and have no power to restrain their men-folk from mutual murder. His favourite son, born of a Christian woman, embraced Christianity when he came of age, and not long since rebelled, with a large part of the army; Khosrou crushed him in battle and he died.
Khosrou, though at first suspicious of Greek philosophy, has in his mature years studied it eagerly, engrafting it upon the Magian faith. Thus the torch of the Old Religion, quenched at Athens by Justinian, has been relighted not only in New Antioch, on the Euphrates, but in Persia itself at Khosrou's great university of Gondi Sapor, near Susa. There the best of the Greek Classics have been translated into Persian, together with works from the Latin and Sanskrit languages. But Khosrou abhors and persecutes Christianity, as a religion that 'leads men to neglect their duty in this life for hope of salvation in the next, and that tends to dishonour the Royal House of Persia by awarding Divinity to a Jew of obscure parentage and rebellious spirit' He also persecutes a doctrine called Communism; this was first preached by one Mazdak, who derived it from early Christian practice, but who wished the community of possession to include not only goods and money but also women. Khosrou enjoys good health, and rules vigorously. I do not know whether it was the Mages or the Greek philosophers who persuaded him that the admiration of posterity for a sovereign is secured less by aggressive war against neighbours than by a record of generosity, justice, culture, the resolute defence of his country, and the energetic pursuance of his subjects' welfare at home and abroad. This, at least, is King Khosrou's present view. Ever since the ravages of the plague, which he regarded as a warning sign from Heaven, he has been most attentive to his people, in a despotic way, and has rebuilt, repopulated, and restocked all those districts which suffered from Roman, Arab, or Hun invasion. Already his grace-name is Nushirvan ('The Generous Mind'), and it will be long celebrated in Persian history. They will say of him: 'He protected trade, agriculture, and learning-those were the good days.' For Persia is now strong, prosperous, contented. If only the same could be truly said of our own Empire after the long reign of his ambitious contemporary Justinian!
Now, of King Teudel in the West. Four years after having tacitly agreed, by the recall of Belisarius, to yield all Italy to the Goths-except the city of Ravenna-Justinian found it necessary to renew the war: it was inconvenient for his religious policy that the bishops of North Italy should have broken communion with the Pope Vigilius, and that Arianism should not yet be crushed. He consented to renew the war, but could not bring himself either to provide sufficient forces or to choose a general to command them. On one point only he was resolved: that he would not give Belisarius any further opportunity to distinguish himself. Here was a continual comedy for my mistress and myself to watch, now that we were safe in Constantinople: Justinian playing the capricious tricks that had been so inconvenient to us in Italy. Belisarius made no comment on these matters to us; and I verily believe that he refrained from all hostile criticisms of Imperial policy even in his private mind.
First, Justinian sent Germanus with 5,000 men to Sicily. Then he began to consider that Germanus had been the person recently selected for Emperor by the Armenian assassin, Artaban, and that he was far too closely related to the Goths-he had married Matasontha, formerly King Wittich's wife, and his young son by her was the only surviving male descendant of the great Theoderich. Recalling Germanus suddenly, Justinian gave the command to one Liberius, an old, harmless patrician with no fighting experience at all.
Then someone suggested that Liberius's views on the Incarnation were not quite sound; so he recalled Liberius and (of all people in the world) appointed Artaban, whom he had now forgiven for the attempt on his life and elevated in rank!
But, on second or third droughts, Artaban might, after all, be ambitious and seek to make himself Emperor of the West. Justinian therefore appointed Germanus again, remembering that it was through his carelessness about the fortification of the rock Orocasias that Antioch had fallen-a man with so black a mark on his record could not be regarded as a rival to himself!
Germanus died, suddenly, on his way to Italy; poisoned, some say, by Matasontha. His command devolved jointly on his lieutenants-Bloody John and Germanus's elder son, Justinian's namesake. Justinian did not wish to give the sole command to Bloody John and thus dishonour his grand-nephew and namesake; nor did he wish any other person with the name of Justinian to win glory. He recalled both officers.
'What next?' my mistress and I asked each other. 'What is the fifth episode of this play, "The Suspicious Glutton"?' Then one day a confidential servant of Narses' came to me and said: 'Friend Eugenius, if I may speak to you unofficially as one domestic to another: is it possible that your mistress, the Illustrious Antonina, would be willing to speak a few words in private to my master, if he suggested it?'
I replied: 'If your master, the Distinguished Narses, has pleasant news for my mistress, she will, of course, be disposed to hear it: at least she will not treat your master with the disrespect that he once showed her and her husband, the Count Belisarius, in Italy. Moreover, my mistress and your master have found themselves working together in harmony on one occasion at least since then-when the trap was laid at Rufinianae for Cappadocian John. The meeting can surely be arranged.'
That preliminary settled, an interview was officially requested and granted. Here was old Narses asking pardon of my mistress for the wrong that he had done her and Belisarius twelve years before! He wished to know whether Belisarius would forgive him sufficiently to offer him advice on a matter of State importance.
My mistress Antonina, who did not underrate Narses' powers and was softened by his apology, offered to act as mediator between Belisarius and himself. Thus a second interview was arranged. Here again all was friendliness. Narses reiterated his regret for having formerly opposed Belisarius's orders and entertained suspicions of his loyalty. Belisarius replied generously, taking Narses' right hand in his own and embracing him.
Narses' question was briefly this: 'Dear friend, do you advise me to accept the honour that the Emperor presses upon me-to command the expedition against the Goths? And if so, upon what terms should I accept it? For I cannot estimate the military situation in Italy, and yours is the only view that would weigh with me.'
The nobility of Belisarius was never shown more clearly than in his answer: 'Dear friend, accept the honour. I know of nobody who has greater capacity than yourself for the task, which is one that must be accomplished for the credit of the Empire; and action must be taken before the Goths recover their former strength. You are asking me, I think, to estimate the number and composition of the forces without which it would be unwise for any general, however energetic, to attempt the reconquest of Italy. My answer is: he would need 30,000 men, and at least 20,000 of these should be cavalry, well mounted, and should include the flower of the Roman army-the scattered squadrons of my Household Regiment which I have trained and tested against the Goths. Also, he would need abundance of money, not only to pay his army well but to win back the allegiance of the soldiers in Italy who for want of money have deserted to the Goths.'
Narses was a shrewd judge of men. He recognized Belisarius as a man incapable of guile and of perfect devotion to the Emperor. He paused awhile and then said: 'I thank you, Belisarius, not merely for your advice but for sparing to remind me of my obstinacy. If it had not been for that, Milan need never have been destroyed.'
Belisarius replied: 'Narses, I honour you for your generosity, and my prayers will go with you.'
Narses accepted the commission from Justinian, but insisted on the terms-not mentioning that Belisarius had framed them. The men and money were found immediately! Narses came again to Belisarius, and with decent humility begged him, in the name of their new friendship, for advice as to the best military means of defeating me Goths.
Belisarius said: 'Offer King Teudel a pitched battle as soon as you have landed, before he has time to collect his troops from the fortresses; no Gothic King can resist a pitched battle, even when his forces are greatly inferior in numbers to the enemy. Stand on the defensive as we did at Daras, posting your foot-archers well forward on either flank, facing inwards. Bait the trap with mail-clad spearmen: King Teudel has had reason to despise the Imperial infantry, who seldom face a cavalry charge.'
Narses objected: 'But if I do as you advise, will not King Teudel, swallowing the bait, carry the trap away with him?'
Belisarius replied: 'There is that danger, and I was therefore about to suggest that your spearmen should be dismounted cavalry, whose courage would be of a higher order.'
'Good. And I must place my light cavalry forward on the flanks, I suppose?'
'Yes. Keep them thrust well out, not near enough to invite attack, but near enough to act as a menace. Hold my Household Regiment, with your other heavy cavalry, in reserve.'
Narses asked: 'But if Teudel attacks the foot-archers first?'
'It would be against the Gothic code of kingly honour to do so. Mailed horseman disdains to attack leather-coated archer.'
Thus the famous Battle of Taginae was won already at the Brazen House at Constantinople, and by Belisarius, though Narses never acknowledged his indebtedness to him, nor did Belisarius ever seek to diminish from Narses' glory by recalling it. The battle, which King Teudel eagerly accepted, began with his lancers charging into the re-entrant that Narses offered them and being raked with distant flanking fire from 8,000 long bows. The confusion caused by the uncontrollable kicking and plunging of a huge number of wounded horses and by the death or unhorsing of most of the chieftains, conspicuous by their armour and trappings, slackened the charge from a gallop to a trot, from a trot to a walk. When momentum is lost, charging cavalry are no match for courageous mail-clad spearmen, and their horses offer a most vulnerable target. Teudel's leading squadron could not break the line of spears; the squadrons behind could do nothing to assist them, and lost heavily from continuous arrow-fire. At last Teudel himself was wounded. The Goths wavered. The Roman spearmen then opened their ranks and the Household Regiment swept through the gap; and it was to the war-cry 'Belisarius' that the Gothic lancers were thrown back upon their own infantry, who became involved in the rout and scattered in all directions.
King Teudel was overtaken and killed a few miles from the battlefield. His blood-stained garments and his jewelled hat were dispatched as trophies of victory to the Emperor at Constantinople.
The dismantling of the fortifications of so many cities by the Goths proved their undoing: there was nothing to oppose Narses' progress. Rome was captured at the first assault by one of his generals. Then the Gothic fleet came over to him. Within two months, after a last engagement on the banks of the Sarno, in the neighbourhood of Mount Vesuvius, the war was won. The surviving Goths were broken in spirit; they agreed either to quit Italy or to submit to Justinian.
Shortly before this agreement was made a venerable institution came to a sudden end. For of the Roman Senators and their families, 300 persons whom Teudel had kept as hostages beyond the Po were butchered in revenge for his death; and the rest, hurrying from Sicily to Rome on news of its capture, were intercepted by the Goths near Vesuvius and likewise destroyed without mercy. The Order had not been revived, and never, I drink, will be. Its only excuse for continuance during the last few hundred years had been its riches and its ancient traditions of culture. Justinian inherited the riches; the traditions could not be either recovered or established afresh. So much then for the Senatorial Order of the West, and for King Teudel, and for the Goths-whose name is now extinct in Italy, though there are still Visigothic Kings ruling in Spain.
The end of Bessas: he redeemed his loss of Rome by his success in Colchis, where he recaptured Petra, the capital, from the Persians; and died in honour at Constantinople, not long afterwards. But Petra was once more taken by the Persians. Then a strange coincidence-Dagistheus, the Roman commander at Petra, redeemed his loss of that city by his success in Italy; for it was he who recaptured Rome, lost by Bessas, for Narses.
Narses, who remained in Italy as Governor, won a second great battle on his own account, so that this time the credit goes to his own studies of the art of war. A huge army of Franks had marched down into Southern Italy. Narses surprised their main body at Casilinum in Campania when (as before in Belisarius's time) they had lost half their numbers from dysentery. The Prankish army consisted wholly of infantry armed with sword, spear, and throwing-axe. Narses offered to oppose them with his own infantry; but, as the Franks charged in column, he enveloped their flanks with his squadrons and shot them to pieces at a hundred paces' distance, which was out of the range of their axes. The Franks dared not move forward for fear of being charged on either flank, nor did they dare to break column and attack the cavalry-their art of war demands that they keep close order on all occasions. They died together in a heap, and only five men of 30,000 succeeded in escaping. Narses, perhaps to avoid Justinian's jealousy, ascribed the credit for this victory entirely to the miraculous image of the Virgin that he carried with him, who warned him of all important events.
When Justinian heard of Taginae and Casilinum he praised God and was exceedingly happy. 'Ah,' he is reported to have said, 'why did we not think to send our valiant Narses to Italy long ago? Why did we recall him from the previous campaign, upon a jealous complaint of Count Belisarius? Many lives would have been saved and much treasure spared if we had only trusted to our Narses. We blame ourselves for displaying too great consideration for the feelings of Belisarius, a cowardly and stupid officer; but perhaps such excess of generosity is pardonable in a sovereign.'
Then he returned to his theological studies and, convinced that Italy was safe, that King Khosrou meditated no further mischief on the Eastern frontier, and that the barbarians to the North could be bribed or tricked into fighting one another, he neglected his armies and fortifications more than ever before.
Belisarius, as Commander of the Armies in the East and of the Imperial Guards, three times approached him, begging him to consider the danger to the Empire. After the third attempt an Imperial order came: 'His Serenity forbids this subject to be raised again. God will defend His people who trust in Him, with a strong right hand.'
***
One day, in the autumn of the year of our Lord 558-which was the year of Bloody John's death, in a hunting accident, after having obediently served with Narses in his Italian campaign, and the tenth year of our renewed residence in Constantinople-Belisarius was handed a message by the master of a Black Sea trading vessel. It was written in the shaking hand of an old man, on a dirty strip of parchment.
'Most Illustrious Belisarius, who rescued my life from Cappadocian John fifty years and more ago, in an inn near Adrianople in Thrace, when you were only a little lad: the time has come to show that Simeon the burgess does not forget this debt of gratitude. The Bulgarian Huns carried me off as a slave long ago in a raid upon Thrace, but have treated me with indulgence because of my skill as a saddler. I have learned their barbarous language and am admitted to their councils, and I confess that I am now better situated in many ways than when I was the slave of rapacious tax-collectors. Only, I miss the good wine of Thrace and the warmth of my well-built house. Know, then, that this winter, if the Danube freezes again, as the weather prophets foretell, a Bulgarian horde will overrun Thrace. They boast that they will attack Constantinople itself and take such plunder as was never taken before since the world began. Zabergan leads them, a capable Cham. Twenty thousand men ride with him. Warn the Emperor. Farewell.'
Belisarius brought the letter to the Emperor's attention. Justinian asked: 'Why this torn strip of parchment, reeking of the docks? Is this a proper document to show an Emperor?'
'A dirty beggar, Your Majesty, who sees smoke curling from the upper windows of a great house, is privileged to come rushing into the hall with a warning cry of "Fire!" The inmates thank him for his timely warning and excuse his rags and rude address.'
Justinian said: 'This, Illustrious Belisarius, is surely one of those military ruses for which you are justly famous? You wish to frighten us by a forgery into increasing our armies and rebuilding the fortifications of the city, knowing well that we have forbidden you to mention the matter directly. We arc not deceived, but forgive you for your errors. See to it, my lord, that all disloyalty be banished from your heart. For in times of old there have been generals in this Court who urged upon their Emperors the raising of new armies, pretending an emergency, but planning to use them against the State. Search your heart, my lord, and if you find sin there, pluck it out with Christ's help, for He will grant you strength.'
Now, in the Square of Augustus, opposite the Senate House, Justinian had placed a colossal equestrian statue of himself; it stands upon a very lofty pedestal plated with the finest pale brass. He is shown there in armour of antique pattern and wearing a helmet with an immensely long plume. In his left hand is an orb surmounted by a cross. His right hand is raised in a gesture which is intended to mean: 'Begone, enemies!' But he carries no arms, not even a dagger, as if the gesture and the frown on his face were sufficient discouragement. And indeed in the latter part of his reign he treated his armies as if he had no further use for them. The fact was that Justinian, ambitious of greatness, had acted like the nameless rich man, mentioned in an anecdote by Jesus Christ, who began building a house for himself without first counting the cost, and so fell into debt and ridicule. Justinian's eye, it was said in the city, was the bully of his stomach: he wasted his substance on vain religious luxuries, neglecting his practical military needs.
All agreed that he should never, in the first place, have attempted the conquest and occupation of Africa and Italy with the meagre forces at his disposal. Despite the almost miraculous successes of Belisarius, the double task had proved too heavy for the Imperial armies to perform. True, they still held Carthage and Ravenna, but protracted campaigns had brought these prosperous and well-governed lands to almost complete ruin. Meanwhile, the Northern and Eastern frontiers were weakened by the absence of their garrisons and reserves, and many times breached by invasion, so that a general catastrophe had been only narrowly avoided. The price for the reconquest of the Western Empire was, in a word, its devastation, and the devastation also of Syria, Colchis, Roman Mesopotamia, Illyria, and Thrace: the revenues of which diminished pitiably. Justinian was now obliged to institute a policy of retrenchment; and characteristically began to apply it in the department of Imperial Defence, rather than in that of Ecclesiastical Endowment; hoping, by the foundation or embellishment of still more monasteries, nunneries, churches, to bribe the angelic hosts to assist him, as at other times he had bribed Franks, Slavs, and Huns with gifts of gold or military equipment. He publicly justified his superstitious confidence by the words spoken by Jesus to the Apostle Peter when he resisted the guards of the Jewish High Priest and cut off the car of one of them: 'Put up again thy sword into its place. For all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.' He was the more wedded to his pacifism in that he had no fears for his own safety: the soothsayers whom he secretly consulted had all assured him that he would meet a natural death at last in his own bed in the Sacred Apartments of the Palace.
On Christmas Day the Huns crossed the frozen Danube. When the news reached the Court the Emperor ordered masses to be said in all the principal sanctuaries, and spent his whole night in vigil at St Irene's Church; but took no other action. The Huns divided into two bodies, the one to ravage Greece, the other under their Cham Zabergan himself to capture the city. They swept across Thrace unopposed. Being heathen, they felt no respect for churches or convents: they robbed and raped indiscriminately, sending back wagon-loads of treasure and droves of captives along the winter roads and across the Danube. The escorts of these convoys, savage horsemen, forced the pace with whips or the prick of swords; and any captive who fell and did not instantly rise was killed without mercy-even women overtaken with labour pains. The Huns, though in general well-behaved among themselves, count the whole world of Christians as their natural prey, and would think no more of spitting a baptized infant on a lance than they would of transfixing a fawn in the chase.
Zabergan pressed on. The long walls of Anastasius, built across the peninsula at thirty-two miles' distance from the city, were no obstacle to his horsemen: being ruinous in very many places, with no soldiers available to man the breaches, no catapults or other engines ready for use in the towers. On the Feast of the Three Kings, Zabergan camped by the banks of the river Athyras, twenty miles from the city, and panic suddenly overcame the Constantinopolitans. For the public squares were full of unhappy refugees from the villages, with grey faces and small bundles, shouting: 'They come, the Huns come-like a furious herd of wild bulls destroying as they go! O God have mercy upon us!'
This cry spread through the streets: 'God have mercy upon us!' Then every citizen asked his neighbour: 'Where are the men of the Imperial Guard? Where are the city militia? Will no one restrain these Bulgarian devils from storming the inner walls and burning the city down, and destroying every one of us?'
Great crowds of them hired boats and fled across the Bosphorus into Asia Minor, 50,000 persons crossing in a single day.
The Emperor Justinian spent the greater part of these days kneeling in his private chapel. He repeated again and again: 'The Lord is strong. He will deliver us.' The only step of a practical nature that he took was to order that all churches in the suburbs, and all his villas too, should be immediately stripped of their treasures, and these conveyed to the Imperial private port, to be loaded on barges.
At last he sent for Belisarius, and asked: 'How is it, Illustrious Belisarius, Count of our Stables and Commander of our Guards, that you have sent no soldiers to repel these heathen savages?'
Belisarius replied: 'Your Sacred Majesty gave me titles of honour but not the authority that customarily goes with them; and forbade me to mention the unprepared and undisciplined condition of your forces. Three times, on my return from Italy, I presented the same report to you: pointing out that your ministers sold commissions in the Guards to untrained civilians, that no military drill was practised by the soldiers nor any weapons provided, that your stables were empty of cavalry-horses. You ordered me to have no fear for the safety of this city.'
'You lie, you lie,' yelled Justinian. 'If ever by the grace of God we survive this trial of our faith, you shall be made to suffer dreadful things for your neglect of our armies and fortifications, and not all your boasted victories will save you from the rope.'
Belisarius asked: 'But my order meanwhile, Your Majesty?'
'Go and die like a brave man, though you have lived a coward. Gather together what forces you can and meet the Bulgars in the field, thus imitating my gallant Nines-not skulking behind walls as your custom is. Only in this way can you atone for your follies.'
Belisarius made his obeisance, and left the Sacred Presence. But Justinian called his admiral and asked him secretly: 'Is my fleet well provisioned? What weather can we expect in the Mediterranean if we are obliged to sail?'
Belisarius sent a crier through the streets to shout as follows: 'Count Belisarius, by order of his Sacred Majesty the Emperor, will lead an army against the Hunnish invaders. The city militia will take their stations upon the wall of Theodosius according to their Colours, and will provide themselves with what arms they can find. The Imperial Guards will parade under their officers, whose duty it is to see that they are horsed and fully armed, and march down to the Golden Gate, there to await further orders. All veteran soldiers present in this city who have ever served as cuirassiers with the said Count Belisarius in the wan are desired to gather forthwith on the Parade Ground; he will put himself at their head and provide them with arms and horses.'
Belisarius went to the Dancing Masters of the Green and Blue factions. 'In the Emperor's name, I commandeer all the shirts of mail and spears and shields that are worn in the Hippodrome spectacles and in the stage-plays.' He also went to the Race Masters of the Green and Blue factions. 'In the Emperor's name, I commandeer all the horses in the Hippodrome stables.' Of bows and arrows he found sufficient at the Palace and a number of carriage-horses in the Imperial stables, and a few chargers. Thus he found equipment for his veterans.
The Parade Ground is famous in history as the place where Alexander the Great reviewed his troops before setting out for the conquest of the East. Here Belisarius's veterans came crowding from every part of the city-men on whom the years had bestowed most dissimilar fortunes. Some were well-clothed and stout, some in rags and pale, some limped, some strutted. But the light of valour shone in every face, and they cried one to another: 'Greetings, comrade! It is good when old soldiers meet together.'
There were many reunions between former comrades-in-arms who had not met for a number of years, the city being so large. It was: 'You still alive, old Sisifried? I had thought you died with Diogenes on the retreat from Rome', and 'Why, comrade Unigatus, I saw you last at the siege of Osimo, when the javelin pierced your hand', and 'Hey, comrade, do you not know me? We bivouacked together in the Paradise of Grasse under a quincunx of fruit-trees, four and twenty years ago, a few days before the Battle of the Tenth Milestone.' I was there with my mistress Antonina, and had many affectionate greetings from old associates, which warmed my heart.
But there were some who had even longer campaigning memories than myself. There were two men who had raided with Belisarius against the Gepids and these same Bulgarians when he was a beardless young officer.
From a wrestling-school in the suburbs came white-haired Andreas, Belisarius's former satchel-slave and bath-attendant, who had retired from the wars after his two great feats of single combat before Daras. He said: 'In my wrestling-school I have kept supple and strong, my Lord Belisarius, though I am sixty-five years of age. See, I wear the white-plumed helmet that you gave me as a reward at Daras. I have kept it well scoured with sand. Let me be your standard-bearer!'
When they were all assembled, a few more than 300 men, there came sliding up a tall figure, lean with fasting and clad in a monk's robe. He caught at Belisarius's bridle and said: 'O my brother Belisarius, for this one day I put off my robe and lay down my scourge and resume chain-armour. For though I trust that I have made my peace with Heaven for my sins and follies, and especially for the killing of our dear comrade, Armenian John, I cannot die content until I have regained your trust and affection, which I forfeited by my negligence before Milan.'
Belisarius dismounted from his horse and embraced the monk, replying: 'Uliaris, you shall command a hundred men of this force. I have heard of your holiness and good works among the begging brothers of St Bartimaeus, and I accept you as a loan from God.'
Trajan (recently rid of the arrow-head which had been lodged so long in the flesh of his face) commanded another hundred men. He had gained great glory with Narses in Italy. He now kept a tavern at the docks. Thurimuth, the same who had fought so well in Belisarius's second Italian campaign, commanded the remaining troop. He had fallen on evil days and had not long been released from prison; but I do not recall whether it was for felony or heresy that he had been imprisoned. Belisarius allotted each man to a troop, and it was seen that he remembered the name of every one of them who had ever been among his biscuit-eaters, and his record. Next he mounted them, and gave them arms and armour. They were all greatly exhilarated by now. 'Belisarius for ever!' they cried, and 'Lead us at once against the enemy!'
Belisarius was moved. But he replied: 'Comrades, in remembering the glorious battles of long ago do not forget how they were won. They were won not only by courage and skill with arms but by prudence.'
They rode in column, clattering down the High Street. The people cheered and cried: 'Evidently God is with us still-for here comes Belisarius!'
My mistress rode beside him on a palfrey, carrying her head like a young bride; and I followed close behind her on a jennet. She wore a fine red wig, her face was brave with rouge and white lead, and her shrunken bosom well padded. It was only standing close that one could read her age in the wrinkled hands and yellowed eyes, the drawn cheeks and flabby neck.
We came through the suburb of Deuteron to the Golden Gate, where all was confusion-everyone shouting orders, nobody obeying. Not more than fifty of the 2,000 men of the Guards who had answered the summons were provided with horses; nor, apart from two or three officers, did I see a single man wearing a mail-shirt or properly armed; one could be sure that not as many as would make a full company had ever attended a military parade. Even the city militia were a better force of men; for a few score of both the Blue and Green contingents had practised archery at the city butts (shooting on feast-days for the prize of a goose or a sucking-pig or a flagon of wine); and many more had fought by night with swords in faction-feuds.
Belisarius would have added these archers to his small army, but they refused, saying that their obligation was to defend the walls only, and that it was against the laws to lead them out of the city.
From a tower beside the gate we heard the Demarch of the Blues (for the Greens held the other half of the wall) shouting: 'Is there never a man among you all who understands the management of a catapult? There are catapults in every tower and a good store of bolts.'
My mistress Antonina cried out gaily in answer: 'No, never a man, but an old woman in a red wig, a veteran of two defences of Rome! To me she said: 'Come, Eugenius, old soldier, let us teach these recruits their trade.'
So we two dismounted and went up into the tower, where we renewed the ropes of the catapults, which were rotten, and oiled the winches. Then we went from tower to tower, instructing the men at the catapults and scorpions how to repair and handle their machines, and how to lay a sight. If any man did not pay proper attention, or seemed clumsy, my mistress would call him 'bastard of a Green heretic' and switch him over the shoulders with her riding-whip, shaming him before his mates.
Meanwhile Belisarius gathered the weaponless Guards together and added a thousand able-bodied Thracian peasants to them, taken from among the refugees. He told the officers: 'Yonder is a pleasure park of the Emperor's, surrounded by a palisade of stakes. Lead your men there and let them bring back two stakes each from the palisade. These must serve instead of swords and spears. For shield, collect metal salvers and dishes from private houses.'
Then this unwarlike rabble inarched out through the gates, Belisarius riding at the head with his 300 veterans. My mistress and I watched him go, with pride and foreboding. She said softly, disregarding the regiment of civilians who followed unhappily behind, like a train of captives: 'Three hundred was the number of the Greeks at Thermopylae, according to the old song. Not a man of them returned, but their name will live for ever.'
I replied, with a smile, to cheer her: 'Unlucky souls, who had no Belisarius to command them!'
But she: 'Against ten or twenty thousand Huns what are these few worn-out men riding out to meet them in battle, by the orders of the Emperor? You expect a miracle, Eugenius?'
I replied: 'I do, having seen many.'
At the village of Chettos, two miles from Melantias, where the Cham Zabergan was encamped, Belisarius set his men to dig a ditch and pile a rampart; and every man planted one of his two stakes on the rampart to form the stockade, keeping the other to carry as a spear. Belisarius sent his veterans forward to dispose themselves as if they were cavalry pickets of a large, widely extended army. Behind them, on a front of five miles, the infantry burned numerous sentry-fires at night; and by day (for me weather had been rainless) dragged bushes along the roads and raised huge clouds of dust.
On the second night an important message came, carried by a peasant boy. It was from old Simeon again, whom the Huns had brought with them as a guide and interpreter. He reported that Zabergan's forces numbered not much more than 7,000 picked cavalry, the remainder of his force having taken the road to Greece; and that they would attack the camp in three days' time, because this was a lucky day in their Calendar.
'And in mine,' cried Belisarius, 'for it is the birthday of my wife Antonina.'
The camp at Chettos was further strengthened with a barrier of thorn-bushes; ploughshares and harrows were scattered in front of the gates to do the work of caltrops. The veterans joked together, calling this 'The Pincian Gate', and that 'The Flaminian', and a little hill to the south was 'The Mausoleum of Hadrian'.
Zabergan learned at last that he had no army against him worth the name, but only the aged Belisarius and a few reckless men. He therefore thought it sufficient to send 2,000 Huns, under his brother, to overwhelm the Imperial camp. Their way led through a wide, thick forest, in which there was a narrow defile; this was a notorious haunt of bandits, whose habit it was to lie in wait for prey among the thick bushes that fringed the track. Here Belisarius prepared an ambush. On one side of the track he hid Trajan's troop, on the other Thurimuth's; and behind them, lining the steep sides of the defile, his army of 'spectators', as he called his stake-armed infantry.
Let me not lengthen the tale unnecessarily. The Huns rode into the ambush without a thought of danger. At the trumpet signal Belisarius and Uliaris charged them suddenly with the remaining troop-Andreas, well ahead of the rest, carried the standard. After the lance, the sword: Belisarius fought in the front rank, cutting and thrusting with all his old precision. For a moment the standard was in jeopardy; but Andreas killed a Hun who tried to snatch it from him, plunging a dagger in his belly. Then Trajan and Thurimuth charged from the rear with their troops, while every man of me spectators yelled as fiercely as if this had been a chariot-race, clashing stakes against mock-shields as though impatient for the order to charge. The Bulgars were terrified. They could not use their bows in that narrow place, nor display their skill in cavalry manoeuvre. They were wearing only buff-coats; which made them the less able to resist the furious onslaught of the mail-clad veterans. They gave way suddenly and streamed back in headlong rout.
Belisarius pressed the pursuit, not heeding the arrows that the Huns fired as they fled; his horses could not easily be wounded, because of the metal poitrails he had improvised for them. His own arrows stung more than the Huns'. Four hundred of the enemy were killed, including the brother of Zabergan, whom Uliaris had transfixed with his lance in the first charge. The remainder fled back to Melantias, crying: 'Home, brothers, home! The spirits of the dead are upon us-aged men with fiery eyes and white hair streaming!' They gashed their cheeks with their nails in sign of lamentation.
The Cham Zabergan broke camp and retreated with his whole army. Belisarius followed him, stage by stage. He had entered that battle with 300 armed men only and finished it with 500. The new-comers were Thracian peasants, chosen from among the recruits as men accustomed to horses and to the use of a light bow for hunting; they had been given the horses and arms of the dead Bulgars. Belisarius's dead numbered three only, though many were wounded; Unigatus, who had fought bravely with his one good arm, died of his wounds a few days later.
Belisarius sent a dispatch to the Emperor: 'Obeying your Sacred orders, we have conquered the enemy and are pursuing him.'
In the streets, jubilation and ceaseless praise for Belisarius-'This victory of his outshines every former one in the Palace, mortification and muttering.
Justinian told his admiral: 'Discharge the cargoes of the vessels. We shall not sail.' His Chamberlain (another than Narses, who was still in Italy) cried in pretended indignation: 'Are the citizens mad that they give thanks for their deliverance not to Your Glorious Serenity who ordained the battle, but to Belisarius-by whose neglect Thrace had been wasted and the city all but lost?'
Justinian sent this message to Belisarius: 'Enough now. Let the Huns go in peace, not wasting lives in vain battles. We may have need for their services in wars against our other enemies. If you pursue them farther you will fall under our displeasure.'
Belisarius obeyed. Then Justinian's messengers rode forward to Zabergan's camp. 'The Emperor's message. Following the example of the Glorious Christ who once, in flesh, ordered His servant Peter to put up his sword after he had valiantly struck at a Jewish officer and wounded him, we have likewise called off our armies. But we conjure you in Christ's name to be gone in peace.'
The Cham Zabergan was puzzled by this message, but understood at least that Belisarius had been recalled. Regaining courage, he continued in Thrace all the summer long, burning and pillaging. In the autumn Justinian offered him money to be gone, and Zabergan, afraid lest his retreat might be cut by a flotilla of armed vessels sent up the Danube from the Black Sea, signed a treaty and withdrew.
Justinian now set himself feverishly to the task of rebuilding the long wall of Anastasius-though he took no steps for the training of a proper defence force. The courtiers cried: 'See how the Father of his people puts his negligent officers to shame!'
When Belisarius and his 300 returned by the Fountain Gate, the Guards and peasants behind them singing the paean of victory, they were greeted with garlands and palms and kisses from the enthusiastic citizenry. From the Palace came only a single, curt message: 'Count Belisarius has overstepped his authority in dismantling the palings of our park at the Golden Gate without a signed authority from the Keeper of the Parks. Let these stakes be restored forthwith.' The last phrase became a byword in the wine-shops: if a man who had done his neighbour a signal service was afterwards taken up sharply by him for some slight fault, the outraged benefactor would exclaim: 'Ay, ay, dear sir, and let the stakes be restored forthwith.'
This Battle of Chettos was the last battle that Count Belisarius fought; and let none doubt that my account is true, since these things were not done far away on a distant frontier, but here close by, not a day's journey from a city of a million inhabitants. One may ride out for an afternoon's pleasure to view the defile, and the two camps, the Cham Zabergan's at Melantias and Count Belisarius's at Chettos, and return to the city again before evening falls.
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