t the flower of their troops; the royal standard had
almost fallen into the hands of the enemy, and the fame of Totila
sunk, as it had risen, with the fortune of his arms. Whatever skill
and courage could achieve, had been performed by the Roman general:
it remained only that Justinian should terminate, by a strong and
seasonable effort, the war which he had ambitiously undertaken. The
indolence, perhaps the impotence, of a prince who despised his enemies,
and envied his servants, protracted the calamities of Italy. After a
long silence, Belisarius was commanded to leave a sufficient garrison
at Rome, and to transport himself into the province of Lucania, whose
inhabitants, inflamed by Catholic zeal, had cast away the yoke of their
Arian conquerors. In this ignoble warfare, the hero, invincible against
the power of the Barbarians, was basely vanquished by the delay, the
disobedience, and the cowardice of his own officers. He reposed in his
winter quarters of Crotona, in the full assurance, that the two passes
of the Lucanian hills were guarded by his cavalry. They were betrayed by
treachery or weakness; and the rapid march of the Goths scarcely allowed
time for the escape of Belisarius to the coast of Sicily. At length a
fleet and army were assembled for the relief of Ruscianum, or Rossano,
[18] a fortress sixty furlongs from the ruins of Sybaris, where the
nobles of Lucania had taken refuge. In the first attempt, the Roman
forces were dissipated by a storm. In the second, they approached the
shore; but they saw the hills covered with archers, the landing-place
defended by a line of spears, and the king of the Goths impatient for
battle. The conqueror of Italy retired with a sigh, and continued to
languish, inglorious and inactive, till Antonina, who had been sent
to Constantinople to solicit succors, obtained, after the death of the
empress, the permission of his return.

[Footnote 17: The tribuli are small engines with four spikes, one fixed
in the ground, the three others erect or adverse, (Procopius, Gothic.
l. iii. c. 24. Just. Lipsius, Poliorcetwv, l. v. c. 3.) The metaphor
was borrowed from the tribuli, (land-caltrops,) an herb with a prickly
fruit, commex in Italy. (Martin, ad Virgil. Georgic. i. 153 vol. ii. p.
33.)]

[Footnote 18: Ruscia, the navale Thuriorum, was transferred to the
distance of sixty stadia to Ruscianum, Rossano, an archbishopric without
suffragans. The republic of Sybaris is now the estate o