ng his absence he entrusted his command to Johannes.

He had resolved to attack the Goths in Ravenna.

His unchecked and victorious march, and the successes of his advanced
troops of skirmishers--who, through the revolt of the Italians, had won
all the fortresses, castles, and towns till within a short distance of
Ravenna--had awakened in Belisarius the conviction that the campaign
would soon be ended, and that the only thing left to do was to crush
the helpless barbarians in their last strongholds.

For after Belisarius himself had won the whole southern part of the
peninsula--Bruttia, Lucania, Calabria, Apulia, and Campania--and had
afterwards occupied Rome and marched through Samnium and the Valeria,
his lieutenant-generals, Bessas and Constantinus, with his own
body-guard, commanded by the Armenian Zanter, the Persian Chanaranges,
and the Massagetian AEschman, had been sent forward to conquer Tuscany.

Bessas advanced upon the strong fortress of Narnia. For the means of
assault available at that time, this castled town was almost
impregnable. It was situated upon a high mountain, at the foot of which
runs the deep river Nar. The only two approaches to this fortress from
the east and west are a narrow pass and the old lofty and fortified
bridge erected by the Emperor Augustus.

But the Roman population overpowered the half-Gothic garrison which lay
there, and opened the gates to the Thracians of Bessas.

In the same manner, Spoletium and Perusia succumbed to Constantinus
without striking a blow.

Meanwhile another general, the Comes Sacri Stabuli Constantinus, had,
on the east coast of the Ionian Gulf, avenged the death of two
Byzantine leaders--the magister militum for Illyrium, Mundus, and his
son Mauricius, who had fallen at the beginning of the war at Solona, in
Dalmatia--had occupied Solona, and forced the scanty Gothic troops to
retreat to Ravenna.

So all Dalmatia and Liburnia had fallen into the hands of the
Byzantines.

From Tuscany, as we have seen, the Huns of Justinian were already
devastating Picenum and the country as far as the AEmilia.

Therefore Belisarius held the peace proposals of the Gothic King to be
a sign of weakness. It never occurred to him that the barbarians would
advance to the attack. At the same time, he was eager to leave Rome;
for he felt a strong repugnance to being called the guest of the
Prefect. In the open field his superiority would soon be fully
displayed.

The Pr