haris, beat our Squadron so thoroughly that he made prizes of
all the vessels without exception, and carried them victoriously into
the harbour of Laureata. Further, the Gothic King equipped a second
fleet of four hundred large ships at Centumcellae. It was formed for the
most part of Byzantine vessels, which, sent from the East to Sicily to
reinforce Belisarius, in ignorance that the Italian harbours were again
in possession of the Goths, had been taken by a Gothic earl, Grippa,
with all their crews and freights. The goal of this second fleet was
unknown. But suddenly the barbarian King himself appeared with the
fleet before Regium, the fortress in the extreme southern part of
Bruttia, which place we had won on our first landing in Italy, and had
not since lost. After a brave resistance, the garrison of Herulians and
Massagetae were forced to capitulate. But the tyrant Totila sailed
immediately to Sicily, to wrest from us that earliest of Belisarius's
conquests. He beat the Roman governor Domnentiolus, who met him in the
open field, and in a short time took possession of the whole island,
with the exception of Messana, Panormus and Syracusae, which were
enabled to hold out by reason of their formidable fortifications. A
fleet which I sent to attempt the reconquest of Sicily was dispersed by
a storm. A second was driven by the north-west wind to the
Peloponnesus. At the same time a third fleet of triremes, equipped by
this indefatigable King and commanded by Earl Haduswinth, sailed for
Corsica and Sardinia. The first of these islands presently fell to the
Goths, after the imperial garrison of the capital city of Alexia had
been beaten before the walls. The rich Corsican Furius Ahalla, to whom
the greater part of the island belongs, was absent in India. But his
stewards and tenants had been ordered, in case of a landing of the
Goths, in nowise to oppose them, but to aid them to the best of their
power. From Corsica the barbarians turned to Sardinia. Here, near
Karalis, they beat the troops which our magister militum had sent from
Africa to conquer the island, and took Karalis as well as Sulci, Castra
Trajani and Turres. The Goths then settled down in both islands and
treated them as permanently-acquired dependencies of the Gothic
kingdom, placing Gothic commanders in all the towns, and raising taxes
according to Gothic law. Strange to say, these taxes are far less heavy
than ours, and the inhabitants shamelessly declare th