alato.

[20] Auxiliaries; see Book III. xi. 3, 4, and note.

[21] Corresponding roughly to modern Georgia, just south of the
Caucasus.

[22] Modern Palermo.

VI

And when Peter learned of the conquest of Sicily, he was still more
insistent in his efforts to frighten Theodatus and would not let him go.
But he, turning coward and reduced to speechlessness no less than if he
himself had become a captive with Gelimer,[23] entered into negotiations
with Peter without the knowledge of any others, and between them they
formed an agreement, providing that Theodatus should retire from all
Sicily in favour of the Emperor Justinian, and should send him also a
golden crown every year weighing three hundred litrae,[24] and Gothic
warriors to the number of three thousand whenever he should wish; and
that Theodatus himself should have no authority to kill any priest or
senator, or to confiscate his property for the public treasury except by
the decision of the emperor; and that if Theodatus wished to advance
any of his subjects to the patrician or some other senatorial rank this
honour should not be bestowed by him, but he should ask the emperor to
bestow it; and that the Roman populace, in acclaiming their sovereign,
should always shout the name of the emperor first, and afterward that of
Theodatus, both in the theatres and in the hippodromes and wherever else
it should be necessary for such a thing to be done; furthermore, that no
statue of bronze nor of any other material should ever be set up to
Theodatus alone, but statues must always be made for both, and they must
stand thus: on the right that of the emperor, and on the other side that
of Theodatus. And after Theodatus had written in confirmation of this
agreement he dismissed the ambassador.

But, a little later, terror laid hold upon the man's soul and brought
him into fears which knew no bound and tortured his mind, filling him
with dread at the name of war, and reminding him that if the agreement
drawn up by Peter and himself did not please the emperor at all, war
would straightway come upon him. Once more, therefore, he summoned
Peter, who had already reached Albani,[25] for a secret conference, and
enquired of the man whether he thought that the agreement would be
pleasing to the emperor. And he replied that he supposed it would. "But
if," said Theodatus, "these things do not please the man at all, what
will happen then?" And Peter replied "After that you w