[82] Modern Belgrade.

[83] Procopius seems to have erred: Liguria, as well as Aemilia (below),
was south of the Po. Cf. chap. xii. 4, where Liguria is represented as
extending to the Alps.

[84] Whose capital was Placentia (Piacenzo).

XVI

So Belisarius took possession of all the territory of Rome as far as the
river Tiber, and strengthened it. And when all had been settled by him
in the best possible manner, he gave to Constantinus a large number of
his own guards together with many spearmen, including the Massagetae
Zarter, Chorsomanus, and Aeschmanus, and an army besides, commanding him
to go into Tuscany, in order to win over the towns of that region. And
he gave orders to Bessas to take possession of Narnia, a very strong
city in Tuscany. Now this Bessas was a Goth by birth, one of those who
had dwelt in Thrace from of old and had not followed Theoderic when he
led the Gothic nation thence into Italy, and he was an energetic man and
a capable warrior. For he was both a general of the first rank, and a
skilful man in action. And Bessas took Narnia not at all against the
will of the inhabitants, and Constantinus won over Spolitium[85] and
Perusia[86] and certain other towns without any trouble. For the Tuscans
received him into their cities willingly. So after establishing a
garrison in Spolitium, he himself remained quietly with his army in
Perusia, the first city in Tuscany.

Now when Vittigis heard this, he sent against them an army with Unilas
and Pissas as its commanders. And Constantinus confronted these troops
in the outskirts of Perusia and engaged with them. The battle was at
first evenly disputed, since the barbarians were superior in numbers,
but afterwards the Romans by their valour gained the upper hand and
routed the enemy, and while they were fleeing in complete disorder the
Romans killed almost all of them; and they captured alive the commanders
of the enemy and sent them to Belisarius. Now when Vittigis heard this,
he was no longer willing to remain quietly in Ravenna, where he was
embarrassed by the absence of Marcias and his men, who had not yet come
from Gaul. So he sent to Dalmatia a great army with Asinarius and
Uligisalus as its commanders, in order to recover Dalmatia for the
Gothic rule. And he directed them to add to their own troops an army
from the land of the Suevi, composed of the barbarians there, and then
to proceed directly to Dalmatia and Salones. And he also sent w