p. They could not, however, take the
strong fortress, and the Prefect already foresaw that Acacius would
soon call upon him to help to destroy the Goths, who could then no
longer escape him. It rejoiced him that, since the departure of
Belisarius, the forces of Byzantium were proved, in the face of all
Italy, to be incapable of putting an end to the resistance of the
Goths. And the harshness of the Byzantine financial administration,
which had accompanied Belisarius wherever he went--for he could not
prevent the practice of draining the resources of the country, which
was carried on at the Emperor's command--awakened or heightened the
dislike of both town and country to the East Roman rule.

Cethegus took good care not--as Belisarius had often done--to oppose
the worst acts of Justinian's officials. It gave him great pleasure
when the populations of Neapolis and Rome repeatedly broke out into
open rebellion against their oppressors.

When the Goths were completely annihilated, the power of the Byzantines
become contemptible, and their tyranny sufficiently hated, Italy might
be called upon to assert her independence, and her saviour, her ruler,
would be Cethegus.

Notwithstanding, he was troubled by one circumstance--for he was far
from undervaluing his enemies. The Gothic war, the last sparks of which
were not yet trampled out, might at any time flame up anew, fanned by
the national indignation aroused by the treachery which had been
practised. It had great weight with the Prefect that the most hated
leaders of the Goths, Totila and Teja, had not been taken in the trap
laid at Ravenna.

For the purpose, therefore, of preventing such a national uprising as
he feared, he attempted to drag from the Gothic King a declaration,
that he had surrendered himself and the city without hope and without
condition, and that he called upon his people to abstain from fruitless
resistance. He also wished his prisoner to tell him in what castle the
war-treasure of Theodoric was concealed.

Even in those days such a treasure, as a means of gaining foreign
princes and mercenaries, was of the highest importance. If the Goths
lost it, they would lose their best chance of strengthening their
exhausted forces by the aid of foreign weapons.

And it was the Prefect's greatest wish not to let this treasure--which
legend spoke of as immense--fall into the hands of the Byzantines--whose
need of money, and the tyranny caused by this need, wer