operations of antiquity.]

[Footnote 52: Agathias (l. ii. p. 47) has produced a Greek epigram of
six lines on this victory of Narses, which a favorably compared to the
battles of Marathon and Plataea. The chief difference is indeed in
their consequences--so trivial in the former instance--so permanent and
glorious in the latter. Note: Not in the epigram, but in the previous
observations--M.]

[Footnote 53: The Beroia and Brincas of Theophanes or his transcriber
(p. 201) must be read or understood Verona and Brixia.]

After a reign of sixty years, the throne of the Gothic kings was filled
by the exarchs of Ravenna, the representatives in peace and war of the
emperor of the Romans. Their jurisdiction was soon reduced to the limits
of a narrow province: but Narses himself, the first and most powerful
of the exarchs, administered above fifteen years the entire kingdom of
Italy. Like Belisarius, he had deserved the honors of envy, calumny,
and disgrace: but the favorite eunuch still enjoyed the confidence of
Justinian; or the leader of a victorious army awed and repressed the
ingratitude of a timid court. Yet it was not by weak and mischievous
indulgence that Narses secured the attachment of his troops. Forgetful
of the past, and regardless of the future, they abused the present hour
of prosperity and peace. The cities of Italy resounded with the noise
of drinking and dancing; the spoils of victory were wasted in sensual
pleasures; and nothing (says Agathias) remained unless to exchange their
shields and helmets for the soft lute and the capacious hogshead. [54]
In a manly oration, not unworthy of a Roman censor, the eunuch reproved
these disorderly vices, which sullied their fame, and endangered their
safety. The soldiers blushed and obeyed; discipline was confirmed; the
fortifications were restored; a duke was stationed for the defence and
military command of each of the principal cities; [55] and the eye
of Narses pervaded the ample prospect from Calabria to the Alps. The
remains of the Gothic nation evacuated the country, or mingled with
the people; the Franks, instead of revenging the death of Buccelin,
abandoned, without a struggle, their Italian conquests; and the
rebellious Sinbal, chief of the Heruli, was subdued, taken and hung on
a lofty gallows by the inflexible justice of the exarch. [56] The civil
state of Italy, after the agitation of a long tempest, was fixed by a
pragmatic sanction, which the emperor prom