or they were few, as I have previously
stated,[126] and the same men could not keep guard constantly without
sleeping, but some would naturally be taking their sleep while others
were stationed on guard. At the same time he saw that the greatest part
of the populace were hard pressed by poverty and in want of the
necessities of life; for since they were men who worked with their
hands, and all they had was what they got from day to day, and since
they had been compelled to be idle on account of the siege, they had no
means of procuring provisions. For these reasons Belisarius mingled
soldiers and citizens together and distributed them to each post,
appointing a certain fixed wage for an unenlisted man for each day. In
this way companies were made up which were sufficient for the guarding
of the wall, and the duty of keeping guard on the fortifications during
a stated night was assigned to each company, and the members of the
companies all took turns in standing guard. In this manner, then,
Belisarius did away with the distress of both soldiers and citizens.

But a suspicion arose against Silverius, the chief priest of the city,
that he was engaged in treasonable negotiations with the Goths, and
Belisarius sent him immediately to Greece, and a little later appointed
another man, Vigilius by name, to the office of chief priest. And he
banished from Rome on the same charge some of the senators, but later,
when the enemy had abandoned the siege and retired, he restored them
again to their homes. Among these was Maximus, whose ancestor
Maximus[127] had committed the crime against the Emperor Valentinian.
And fearing lest the guards at the gates should become involved in a
plot, and lest someone should gain access from the outside with intent
to corrupt them with money, twice in each month he destroyed all the
keys and had new ones made, each time of a different design, and he also
changed the guards to other posts which were far removed from those they
had formerly occupied, and every night he set different men in charge
of those who were doing guard-duty on the fortifications. And it was the
duty of these officers to make the rounds of a section of the wall,
taking turns in this work, and to write down the names of the guards,
and if anyone was missing from that section, they put another man on
duty in his stead for the moment, and on the morrow reported the missing
man to Belisarius himself, whoever he might be, in order th