Bloody John answered: ‘I, too, think that to send another expedition to Milan and attack Osimo with reduced forces is a most dangerous plan, especially with Wittich stationed at Ravenna.’
Hildiger exclaimed indignantly: ‘While we command the sea King Wittich can be held a close prisoner at Ravenna. The only approach is by the causeways across the marshes. A thousand men could block these effectively. I stand by my Lord Belisarius.’
But Narses’ party prevailed.
Then my mistress Antonina spoke angrily to Narses and said: ‘Her Resplendency the Empress Theodora will give you a whipping for this day’s work when you return, eunuch – if you are lucky enough to return.’
CHAPTER 17
A DIADEM REFUSED
BELISARIUS wrote to the Emperor, acquainting him drily with Narses’ ‘loyal scruples’ against deferring to his military judgement; he asked for a new warrant confirming his authority as supreme commander of the Armies in Italy. My mistress Antonina wrote to Theodora at the same time, using a less diplomatic term for Narses’ disgraceful behaviour. Justinian’s answer was long in coming.
Meanwhile Belisarius kept his patience and even managed to persuade Narses to join him in the siege of Urbino. This city is built on a steep hill, and has only one approach on level ground, namely from the north, where the walls are raised higher in compensation. The Gothic garrison, confident in the strength of their walls and their well-stocked granaries, refused an invitation to surrender; Belisarius would have to take the city by assault or stratagem. There was no aqueduct entrance to explore, the inhabitants being supplied with water by a perpetual spring within the city; he must therefore attempt to breach the walls. With this end in view he had a cloister built, superintending the work himself. A cloister is a connected series of pent-houses on wheels, each pent-house consisting of a stout timber frame roofed with osier hurdles of the sort that shepherds use to form their sheep-cotes, the hurdles being covered with raw hides. This cloister was to be advanced against the northern stretch of the fortifications, and under its protection a large number of soldiers with picks and shovels would begin undermining the wall. Usually the posts of a cloister are eight feet high, but Belisarius added another yard to them in order to leave space for a subsidiary roof, for greater protection. The roof of a cloister is built at a steep angle so that stones bounce off harmlessly; the hides are kept constantly damp to prevent them from being set on fire. Belisarius incorporated half a dozen battering-rams in the cloister.
The walls of Urbino were very solid and the ground very rocky: which accounted for there being no fosse. Narses and Bloody John had already lost patience, Bloody John swearing that the place was impregnable – had he not made an unsuccessful attempt upon it himself on his way to Rimini when it was held only by a few men? So on the tenth night of the siege they marched their divisions away, without informing Belisarius where they were going. Narses went to hold Rimini, Bloody John to raid along the coast beyond Ravenna as a means of enriching himself: for in all that north-eastern territory of Aemilia and Venetia there were no strong fortresses to which the Goths could retreat in safety with their treasures.
Belisarius was left to press the siege of Urbino with 1,800 men. The 2,000 Goths of the garrison, aware of what had happened, laughed and jeered at him. But the cloister was soon in position, while his best archers, perched on a scaffolding behind and protected by a screen, picked off the sentries on the battlements.
Though the miners worked vigorously, by the third day they had not yet dug down to the foundations of the wall, and the rams, swung in unison, still made no noticeable impression on it. Then the Goths succeeded in pushing down a whole merlon upon the roof of the cloister. It broke through, but killed nobody, for the archers on the scaffolding gave warning in time. Belisarius reckoned that it would be two months at least before the wall collapsed, and made no secret of this to his remaining officers. Judge then of his surprise, and ours, when on the fourth day, having been strangely quiet for the two preceding days, the Goths of the garrison appeared between the embrasures of the battlements with their hands raised in token of surrender. By midday the terms had been agreed upon between Belisarius and their commander, and Urbino was ours.
What had occurred must be ascribed to plain good luck, but plain good luck was no more than Belisarius deserved at this juncture. Narses would not have agreed about this. Indeed, when the news reached him at Rimini he was so overcome with jealousy that for days he would not eat at the common mess-table, for fear that he might betray his real feelings and so seem disloyal to the Emperor. Narses, by the way, carried about with him, in a gilt shrine, a little glass image of the Virgin Mother of Jesus, which he would consult before undertaking any important step. He used to tell his officers: ‘Our Lady has warned me not to listen to the plan you suggest.’ Or: ‘Our Lady agrees with me that the project I have formed is a sound one.’ On this occasion the Virgin had said nothing. She might well have notified him that the perpetual water supply at Urbino would suddenly fail and the garrison surrender from thirst – for then he would not have put himself in so foolish a position.
Now, in digging the usual fosse for his camp, Narses had accidentally struck a spring of water and, on Bloody John’s advice, diverted it into troughs in his horse-lines for the more convenient watering of his horses-just as Belisarius had once done at Capoudia. This diversion of the spring had an unsuspected connexion with the failure of the city’s water supply. The irony of it was that Narses was really responsible for the fall of Urbino – and, moreover, never knew! By restoring the water to its former channel we were able to quench Urbino’s thirst again. Nobody was admitted to the secret but myself and two of my fellow-domestics, masons by trade, who came with me to the abandoned camp and did the necessary work under my direction. We had orders to hide the spring again under a pile of rocks, for Belisarius might find it necessary to hold Urbino against enemy attack one day.
The motto ‘Patience in Poverty’, on the bowl of St Bartimaeus, which Justinian had given to Belisarius and Belisarius had lent to the monks, recurred to my mind. Our forces were still further reduced by the necessity of sending Martin with a thousand men to the relief of Milan. Belisarius (my mistress Antonina always at his side) undertook the siege of Orvieto with the mere 800 trained men left him, and some Italian recruits: the town lay too close to Rome to be allowed to remain in Gothic hands.
Martin was no hero. When he reached the right bank of the River Po he was afraid to cross with so small a force against Uriah’s army of Burgundians and Goths – which consisted of not less than 70,000 men. Uliaris, who was with Martin, in command of a half-squadron of the Household Regiment, agreed with him that the odds were too great to face. The Governor of Milan sent a messenger to Martin – the messenger passed in disguise through the Gothic lines and swam across the river – imploring that an army be sent at once to his relief. Milan, which is a city of 300,000 inhabitants and next to Rome the most beautiful and prosperous in all Italy, was facing starvation. ‘We are reduced to eating dogs and rats and mice and dormice; and several cases of cannibalism have already been reported.’
Martin made excuses: he had no boats in which to transport his stores across the river. But he undertook that the siege would be raised within three weeks if they could hold out so long. He sent a messenger to Belisarius at Orvieto, with orders to ride night and day: Belisarius was begged to send Bloody John inland up the valley of the Po from Aemilia. ‘With John’s help’, Martin wrote, ‘we can perhaps save Milan.’
Belisarius then sent a fast messenger to Bloody John, acquainting him with the straits in which the Milanese were, and ordering him to join forces with Martin and relieve the city.
Bloody John wrote back in downright refusal – he would take orders from Narses alone. He added unfeelingly: ‘So the Milanese are eating dormice? I have read in the Natural History of the celebrated Pliny that these little creatures were forbidden to the Romans of old by Cato the Censor as being too lu
xurious a delicacy for the table.’
Thereupon Belisarius wrote to Narses at Rimini, reminding him that the divisions of an army are like the limbs of a human being, and must be controlled and directed by a single authority, the head. ‘I would abandon the siege of Orvieto and hurry to Milan with my 800 cuirassiers, but that I must remain in the neighbourhood of Rome – I cannot leave the defence of the city wholly to the Roman levies. Also, a forced march of 300 miles through Tuscany in the present bad weather would be the ruin of my horses. I implore you in the name of God, send your friend John, and Justin the grand-nephew of our master the Emperor, with all available forces to assist Martin. Or go yourself, and derive whatever glory from the campaign you may desire.’
Thus pleadingly addressed, Narses gave Bloody John the required permission; but it was too late. Consider. Martin’s messenger had 300 miles to cover from the Po to Orvieto; and Belisarius’s messenger 300 miles to cover before he reached Bloody John, who was at Padua; and Bloody John’s messenger to Belisarius 300 miles likewise, not hurrying either; and then Belisarius’s messenger to Narses at Rimini nearly 200 miles more. There was a further delay caused by Bloody John’s having an unseasonable bout of malarial fever. By the time that he had recovered and was ready to set out for Milan with 4,000 cavalry, and boats on ox-wagons for the passage of the Po, the city had fallen. This was already the beginning of the year 539, the year of the tailed comet.
The lives of the thousand men of Belisarius’s garrison at Milan were spared by the Goths and Burgundians on their entry; but by order of Uriah all males of the civil population except mere children were butchered, to the number of 100,000, and at the very altars of the churches where they took sanctuary. The soldiers made free with the women, of whom as many as were of any use were taken away as slaves; the Burgundians being allowed first choice in recognition of their services. The old and ugly and infirm were left behind to starve. All the children were taken off by the Goths. The fortifications of Milan were dismantled and the churches levelled to the ground: the Catholic churches by the Arian Goths, but the Arian ones by the Catholic Burgundians. Great fires started and spread unchecked, and one-half of the city was demolished.
Martin and Uliaris returned to Orvieto. When Belisarius heard of the fate of Milan he was so shocked that he would not admit them to his presence, and throughout that campaign he did not speak another word to Uliaris except to give him necessary orders. Uliaris, he said, could have done some small thing for the honour of the Household Regiment – could at least have raided the Gothic communications.
At last a message came from the Emperor Justinian, recalling Narses on the ground that he could no longer be spared from his office as Court Chamberlain, and confirming Belisarius’s appointment as supreme commander, under himself, of the Armies in Italy. Justinian did not reprove Narses, even when he learned of the massacre at Milan, which Narses might have prevented, but continued to behave with great friendliness towards him. Narses took away from Italy a thousand of the men whom he had enlisted for service there. Also, his departure was the excuse for a revolt of the 2,000 Herulian cavalry who were under his direct command. They refused to accept orders from Belisarius and marched into Liguria, pillaging the open country as they went; there they concluded a peace treaty with Uriah, selling him all their slaves and spare possessions and being granted fertile lands to colonize in the neighbourhood of Como. But by a sudden change of heart, to which these barbarous people are no less liable than a city mob, they repented and marched all the way back to Constantinople by way of Macedonia, hoping to be pardoned by the Emperor through the intercession of Narses. (Narses did not fail them.)
Thus Belisarius was left in supreme command indeed, but with a field army, you would say, of no more than 6,000 trained men. However, he had now recalled the garrisons left behind in Sicily and the South of Italy and replaced them with Roman levies, and he had also made soldiers of a sort out of the Italian peasantry, so that 25,000 men were available for campaigning purposes. Five thousand he sent under Justin to besiege Fiesole. Three thousand under Bloody John, together with 3,000 more under another John, who was surnamed The Epicure, he sent up the Po valley to resist any attempt on Uriah’s part to join forces with Wittich at Ravenna. Belisarius himself with 11,000 men settled down to the siege of Osimo, the capital city of Picenum.
At this point the bounds of my story widen again. To the westward they cross the River Rhône in France, to the eastward they cross the Euphrates, to the northward the Danube, to the southward the deserts of Africa. King Wittich was still at Ravenna. The garrison of Osimo now appealed for assistance, but he replied only with empty assurances that God was on the side of the Goths. He did not dare to lead his troops out of the city, since our infantry outposts guarded the causeways over the marshes, being posted behind strong barricades. Rimini, too, was in our hands; cavalry could be summoned from there by bonfire signal at short notice should Wittich’s Goths attempt to force the barricades. Uriah’s return from Milan was blocked by the forces under Bloody John and John the Epicure, and his Burgundian allies had returned to their own country. Wittich felt like a creature trapped.
Then an old merchant of the large Syrian colony resident at Ravenna came to him and said: ‘How is it that the Emperor Justinian has been able to spare forces for the conquest of Africa and of so much of your own dominions? It is surely because he first bought peace with the Persians, and thus could spare Belisarius, the commander of his Eastern armies, for service here in the West. If you were to persuade the Great King to cross the Euphrates in force, then Belisarius would soon be recalled to the East to deal with the new threat. For the Emperor has only this one general of genius, and must pass him up and down across his dominions like the shuttle across the web of a loom. King Wittich, send an embassy to the Great King and, at the same time, another embassy to Theudebert, King of the Franks. Let these embassies inform each monarch that the other has promised to make a flank attack in force against the Roman Empire.’
Wittich asked: ‘But how can any of us Goths go safely on embassies across the entire Eastern Empire? The Emperor’s men would surely arrest my envoys. Moreover, none of us can speak the Persian tongue.’
The Syrian replied: ‘Send priests. They will not be suspected. Let them travel in the company of Syrians, who go everywhere, know every language, have friends in every land.’
Wittich embraced the idea. Willing priests were found, and Syrian guides, the priest destined for Persia assuming the temporary rank of bishop for greater security. The two embassies went out by sea together, in two small boats, taking advantage of the tide on the next moonless night, and eluded our flotilla. At Ravenna there are tides, a common phenomenon on the shores of the Ocean but not seen elsewhere in the Mediterranean. (It has recently been observed that tides are regulated by the moon.) Only at certain hours can ships navigate the channel across the extensive shallows and enter the port; which is what protects Ravenna so securely against attack from the sea.
A month later, considering the matter again, King Wittich sent two more embassies, similarly composed, to the Moors in Africa, and to the Lombards, a Germanic race recently arrived on the farther bank of the Upper Danube, suggesting that they, too, should strike in concert with the Persians and Franks. The four embassies all succeeded in reaching their destinations. In every case but that of the Lombards the answer was: ‘Yes, we will strike, and soon.’ The Lombards replied cautiously: ‘We will do nothing until we have news that the armies of the other nations are in motion; for we are at present the trusted allies of the Emperor.’
None of us would have suspected King Wittich of understanding world politics sufficiently to foment trouble on distant frontiers of our Empire; for no German had ever considered doing such a thing before. But he was hard pressed, and ready to accept the advice even of Syrians, whom usually he despised as lying Oriental heretics.
The year drew on; it was now the fifth since we had first landed in Sicily. Fiesole and Osimo both
refused to capitulate. The Gothic garrisons being large and the defences strong, our only hope was to reduce these fortresses by famine. Belisarius did not allow his army to deteriorate and diminish during the siege, as Wittich had done with his before Rome. On the contrary, he employed these months in the training of his Italian levies, exercising them in continual manoeuvres; he made their rates of pay correspond with the skill that they had attained in the handling of arms and other military arts. He also raised several fresh battalions, providing officers from the ranks of the Household Regiment – among his ‘biscuit-eaters’ there were numerous Thracians and Illyrians whose native dialect was a sort of Latin. But the new levies were no great improvement upon the Roman city troops. The Italian soil, once so prolific of heroes, has become exhausted in the course of centuries: the Italian has no stomach for a fight, for all his bluster and boasting. Belisarius regretted that he could not use the Gothic prisoners that he captured, for they were strong, bold men, easily trained. Instead, they were being sent to the East and to Africa to fight for the Emperor there.
Of the siege of Osimo I can recall few incidents worth relating. Old soldiers have told me that their experience confirms mine: the incidents at the beginning of a campaign recur sharply to the memory, but as the years of war drag on a man notices less and less and becomes sluggish, so that his attention is not stirred except by some extraordinary sight.