acilitating its publication,
would be punished by the confiscation of his property or the loss of
his liberty.

In spite of this, the manifesto still spread among the citizens, and
the list of volunteers remained empty.

He then sent his Isaurians into all the houses to drag boys and old men
to the walls by force; and very soon he was more feared, and even
hated, than beloved.

His stern will, and the gradual arrival of his troops from Ravenna,
alone checked the growing discontent of the Roman population.

But in the Gothic camp messengers of good fortune overtook each other.

Teja and Hildebrand had pursued the Byzantines to the gates of Ravenna.

The defence of that city was conducted by Demetrius, one of the
exchanged prisoners, and by Bloody Johannes; that of the harbour town
of Classis by Constantianus against Hildebrand, who had won Ariminum in
passing, for the citizens had disarmed the Armenian mercenaries of
Artasires and opened the gates.

Teja had beaten the troops of the Byzantine general Verus, who had
defended the crossing of the Santernus; had killed the general with his
own hand, and had then hastened through the whole of North Italy with
the manifesto in his left hand, his sword in his right, and in a few
weeks had won by force or by persuasion all towns and castles as far as
Mediolanum.

But Totila, taught by the experience of the first siege of Rome, would
not expose his troops by attempting to storm the formidable defences of
the Prefect, and also desired to spare his future capital.

"I will get into Rome with linen wings, and on wooden bridges," he one
day said to Duke Guntharis; left to him the investment of the city; and
taking all his horsemen with him, marched for Neapolis.

There in the harbour lay, very inefficiently manned, an imperial fleet.

Totila's march upon the Appian Way through South Italy resembled a
triumphal procession.

Those districts which had suffered the longest under the yoke of the
Byzantines were now most willing to greet the Goths as liberators.

The maidens of Terracina went to meet the King of the Goths with
wreaths of flowers.

The people of Minturnae brought out a golden chariot, made the King
descend from his white horse, and dragged him into the town in triumph.

"Look! look!" was the cry in the streets of Casilinum--an ancient place
once dedicated to the worship of the Campanian Diana--"Ph[oe]bus Apollo
himself has descended from Olympus and comes