Huns had also made a clean sweep of the horses of Thrace in their recent raid, except for the Imperial herds, which had been got away in time behind the walls of Salonica; so that he was also unable to mount his recruits. No arms, armour, horses — and to forge a raw recruit into an efficient cuirassier, even if he is already accustomed to horses, is a work of two years or more.
From Thrace we sailed around the coast of Greece to Spalato, where we revictualled; there arms, but not armour, were found for the recruits. From Spalato Belisarius sent to the relief of Otranto that Valentine who had commanded the Roman militia in the Plain of Nero during the defence of Rome: with 2,000 men, untrained for the most part, and a year's supply of corn. Valentine accomplished the relief of Otranto just in rime: the garrison had decided to capitulate to the Goths four days later, on account of famine. Belisarius could not attempt a landing in the neighbourhood of Rome, for the enemy, with the captured warships, controlled the whole western coast. He brought us to Ravenna by way of Pola.
At Ravenna he exhorted the resident Goths to persuade those of their kinsmen who were fighting with King Teudel to resume their allegiance to the Emperor. But not even the name of Belisarius could draw away a single man. He sent up into Aemilia, to secure that district at least, a hundred of the trained men of his Household and 200 of the most promising recruits, for whom he had found horses and armour in Ravenna; and 2,000 Illyrian infantry. Bologna, the capital, surrendered, but provisions were scanty. Besides, the Illyrians had received no pay for eighteen months and were disgusted that during their absence in Italy the Bulgarian Huns had been allowed to raid Illyria and carry their wives and children into captivity. They suddenly announced that they were going home; which they did, leaving the 400 men of the Household to their own devices. (Justinian was angry with these Illyrians at first, but afterwards forgave them.) So all Aemilia was yielded to the enemy except the fortress of Piacenza. The only lucky circumstance of the expedition was that the men of the Household, commanded by Thurimuth, a Thracian, contrived to cut their way through to Ravenna and to bring back 200 horses and 300 suits of armour belonging to Goths whom they had killed in ambuscades.
Belisarius then sent Thurimuth to Osimo, which King Teudel was besieging, with a thousand men, all that he could spare. Thurimuth managed to slip through the Gothic lines into the city, without loss; but he soon realized, after making a bold sortie, that his thousand men were no match for the 30,000 to which the Gothic Army had now swelled by desertions from the Imperial Army. Nor could he rely on the remainder of the garrison for any military assistance. He consulted with the commander, who agreed with him that the continued presence of the relieving force would be a hindrance rather than a help, meaning merely more mouths to feed; so he removed by night. The Goths were warned of his plans by a deserter, and ambushed him four miles outside the city. He lost 200 men and all his pack animals; with the rest he escaped clear away to Rimini.
Teudel had destroyed the ramparts of all the cities that had yielded to him. Belisarius, who needed a more convenient base than Ravenna, determined to reforrify Pesaro, an Umbrian port between Rimini and Osimo, where there was good grazing for horses in the river valley. The walls of Pesaro had been torn down to half their height, and the gates removed; but with his usual resource he sent agents to measure the gateways, and at Ravenna new oaken gates were made, bound with wrought iron, of the required height and breadth. Thurimuth took these in boats to Pesaro, and fitted them in place; and set the townspeople hastily to work at rebuilding the walls. He had 3,000 men with him, nearly all Thracian recruits. By the time that Teudel had arrived with his army from before Osimo, the walls were high enough to defend. Belisarius had been busily training these recruits in archery, so that they gave a good account of themselves. Teudel withdrew, baffled. Belisarius wrote to Justinian in the following terms:
Most Mighty Emperor,
I nave arrived in Italy without horses or armour — for these were unobtainable in Thrace — and with no money but what I have in my private purse for the payment of my recently-raised Thracian recruits. These are few, untrained as yet, ill-armed, and without horses. Your Majesty's regular troops and militia, which we found here, are no match cither in number or courage for the enemy. King Teudel holds the whole of Italy — except for a few cities, which with the forces at my disposal I am unable to relieve — and in consequence the Imperial revenues cannot be collected. The fact is that even the troops at Ravenna are owed such long arrears of pay by Your Majesty that I am quite unable to persuade them to light. More than one-half of them have already deserted to the enemy.
If my mere presence in Italy were sufficient to bring the war to a victorious conclusion, all would be well: for I have advertised my arrival by every means at my disposal. But let Your Majesty consider that a general without troops is like a head shorn at the neck. I respectfully suggest that the men of my Household Regiment, whom you have sent to the Persian frontier, be recalled and dispatched to me here at once; and with them a large force of Herulian or other Huns, if Your Majesty will be at the expense of engaging their services with a substantial sum of money. If my request cannot be granted, little or nothing can be accomplished by Your Majesty's most loyal and obedient servant
Belisarius, Count of the Royal Stables, At present commanding the Imperial Armies in Italy.
Bloody John, handing over his command at Rome to Bessas, undertook to deliver this letter to Justinian at Constantinople and to urge him to remedy the desperate condition in which we found ourselves. John set out at the close of this year, the year of our Lord 545. Belisarius meanwhile remained at Ravenna, training his recruits, using the few hones at his disposal in rotation for their cavalry exercises. The men learnd handiness with their bows, lances, darts, swords, either on foot or mounted — he made them ride wooden horses, like children.
Osimo surrendered to Teudel on account of famine, and next Pernio and Ascoli, which are also in Piccnum. Then Spolcto and Assisi in Tuscany. Only Perugia held out, though Teudel contrived the assassination of Cyprian, the general who commanded the garrison.
Bloody John did not deliver the letter to the Emperor, Speaking to him of the matter in vague terms only. He was weary of the Italian war, and did not wish to be sent back at once from the comforts of Constantinople, where he was well received, to the discomforts and anxieties of campaigning. He devoted himself to the task of achieving a distinguished marriage, and presently became the husband of Germanus's daughter, young Justin's sister and grand-niece to the Emperor. (By so doing he made himself an enemy of the Empress Theodora, who regarded this as an act of great presumption, almost as a declaration that he was a candidate for the Throne at Justinian's death.)
Receiving no reply, Belisarius wrote again, in exact repetition of his former letter, except that he gave news of Teudel's latest successes. He now reported that Rome, which Bessas held with 3,000 men, was threatened with famine — Teudel's fleet based on the Lipari Islands was intercepting the corn-ships from Sicily — and could not hold out many months longer. Piacenza, the last fortress in the North to remain loyal to the Romans, had already surrendered from famine. He added (prompted by my mistress) that, since His Gracious Majesty appeared to be not alarmed by the condition of affairs in Italy as reported to him in the letter entrusted to John, or at any rate unable to remedy them, he would consider himself at liberty to retire with his wife and bodyguard to Durazzo on the farther side of the Adriatic Sea. There the climate was less relaxing than that of Ravenna, and communication with Constantinople — should the Emperor deign to send him any further instructions — more convenient. The Emperor's grand-nephew Justin would remain in command at Ravenna.
The letter was perfectly respectful and proper in its form, but Justinian felt that it contained a concealed reproach; which decided him to do nothing about the matter, especially as Bloody John denied having been entrusted with any previous letter. However, my mistress had sent a letter to Theodora along with this second letter of Belisarius's, in which she said that Justinian must make up his mind whether to retain possession of Italy by paying the armies there and by sending reinforcements, or whether he wished to resign his claim to it. Theodora at last prevailed on Justinian to withdraw some troops from the Persian frontier, where the danger of invasion seemed to have passed with the plague, and to send Narses to the Crimea to hire a strong force of Herulian Huns to accompany the expedition to Italy. But it was late autumn before these reinforcements, with Bloody
John at their head, arrived at Durazzo; and meanwhile conditions at Rome were growing worse and worse. The most that Belisarius had been able to do was to send a thousand men, half of whom were members of the Household Regiment, across Italy to assist the weak garrison at the Port of Rome — the continued possession of which was essential if Rome was to be relieved by the Imperial Fleet. Valentine, who commanded these troops, had instructions to avoid any battle that might involve him in serious loss. He eluded the Goths and reached his destination in safety.
The Pope Vigilius, the same who had succeeded to the deposed Silverius, had lately been ordered to go from Rome to Sicily, there to await a summons to Constantinople. Justinian (who wished to be remembered as Great for his theological talents as well as for his other qualities and feats) was working on a treatise, for which he wanted
