fore[66] and to which he
had given his name.

Now the Appian Way is in length a journey of five days for an
unencumbered traveller; for it extends from Rome to Capua. And the
breadth of this road is such that two waggons going in opposite
directions can pass one another, and it is one of the noteworthy sights
of the world. For all the stone, which is mill-stone[67] and hard by
nature, Appius quarried in another place[68] far away and brought there;
for it is not found anywhere in this district. And after working these
stones until they were smooth and flat, and cutting them to a polygonal
shape, he fastened them together without putting concrete or anything
else between them. And they were fastened together so securely and the
joints were so firmly closed, that they give the appearance, when one
looks at them, not of being fitted together, but of having grown
together. And after the passage of so long a time, and after being
traversed by many waggons and all kinds of animals every day, they have
neither separated at all at the joints, nor has any one of the stones
been worn out or reduced in thickness,--nay, they have not even lost any
of their polish. Such, then, is the Appian Way.

But as for the Goths who were keeping guard in Rome, it was not until
they learned that the enemy were very near and became aware of the
decision of the Romans, that they began to be concerned for the city,
and, being unable to meet the attacking army in battle, they were at a
loss; but later, with the permission of the Romans, they all departed
thence and proceeded to Ravenna, except that Leuderis, who commanded
them, being ashamed, I suppose, because of the situation in which he
found himself, remained there. And it so happened on that day that at
the very same time when Belisarius and the emperor's army were entering
Rome through the gate which they call the Asinarian Gate, the Goths were
withdrawing from the city through another gate which bears the name
Flaminian; and Rome became subject to the Romans again after a space of
sixty years, on the ninth day of the last month, which is called
"December" by the Romans, in the eleventh year of the reign of the
Emperor Justinian. [V] Now Belisarius sent Leuderis, the commander of
the Goths, and the keys of the gates to the emperor, but he himself
turned his attention to the circuit-wall, which had fallen into ruin in
many places; and he constructed each merlon of the battlement with a
wing,