one ever held at
Constantinople! Justinian had recalled the general, though it would
have been far wiser to have left him to consolidate his conquest; but
no Roman emperor could be free from the suspicion that a victorious
general might become his rival, nor could the scrupulous loyalty of
Belisarius disarm him. It is said that Gelimer marched along,
repeating, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."

The next scheme of Justinian was the recovery of Italy from the Goths.
This people had never shown the same savage cruelty as the Vandals,
but had settled amicably among the Italians, and adopted much of their
civilization and learning. They had recently had a truly great
monarch, Theodoric, who deserves to rank with Alfred or Charlemagne,
but he had left only a daughter, Amalasanta, a noble woman, and an
ally of Justinian. She was stifled in her bath by Theodatus, the
husband whom she had raised to the throne. The Gothic kingdom was
convulsed by the crime, and Justinian saw both motive and opportunity
for conquest. Yet he only gave Belisarius 4,500 horse and 3,000
infantry when this great enterprise was begun in 535, besides some
choice troops of the imperial guard.

Sailing to Sicily he met no resistance except at Panormis (Palermo),
but observing that his masts overtopped the walls, he hung up small
rafts full of archers, whose arrows disconcerted the inhabitants so
that they surrendered, and the whole island was restored to the Roman
power. Theodatus tried to treat with Justinian, and while the
negotiations were going on, Belisarius crossed over to the African
province, which was threatened by the Moors of Mount Atlas. Strong
measures were needed, but for the time the incursions were repressed,
and by the time the bad faith of Theodatus had disgusted the Greeks,
Belisarius was ready to cross into Italy and besiege Naples. As usual,
the native inhabitants were his friends, but were in terror of the
Gothic garrison, and these, on their side, were afraid of treating
with the Greek general because Theodatus had their wives and children
as hostages.

Theodatus, however, shut himself up in Rome and gave no aid to Naples,
and Belisarius had made up his mind to raise the siege and attack Rome
itself, when one of his soldiers came to tell him that in exploring an
aqueduct which had been stopped, he had found that the passage for the
water could easily be enlarged so as to admit armed men. Once more he
summoned the native magis