Delphi Complete Works of Procopius

by Procopius of Caesarea

  XXXVIII

  At about this time an army of Sclaveni amounting to not more than three thousand crossed the Ister River without encountering any opposition, advanced immediately to the Hebrus River, which they crossed with no difficulty, and then split into two parts. Now the one section of them contained eighteen hundred men, while the other comprised the remainder. And although the two sections were thus separated from each other, the commanders of the Roman army, upon engaging with them, both in Illyricum and in Thrace, were defeated unexpectedly, and some of them were killed on the field of battle, while others saved themselves by a disorderly flight.

  Now after all the generals had fared thus at the hands of the two barbarian armies, though they were far inferior to the Roman forces in number, one section of the enemy engaged with Asbadus. This man was a guard of the Emperor Justinian, since he served among the candidati, as they are called, and he was also commander of the cavalry cohorts which from ancient times have been stationed at Tzurullum, the fortress in Thrace, a numerous body of the best troops. These too the Sclaveni routed with no trouble, and they slew the most of them in a most disgraceful flight; they also captured Asbadus and for the moment made him a prisoner, but afterwards they burned him by casting him into a fire, having first flayed strips from the man’s back. Having accomplished these things, they turned to plunder all the towns, both of Thrace and of Illyricum, in comparative security; and both armies captured many fortresses by siege, though they neither had any previous experience in attacking city walls, nor had they dared to come down to the open plain, since these barbarians had never, in tact, even attempted to overrun the land of the Romans. Indeed it appears that they have never in all time crossed the Ister River with an army before the occasion which I have mentioned above.

  Then those who had defeated Asbadus plundered everything in order as far as the sea and captured by storm a city on the coast named Topirus, though it had a garrison of soldiers; this is the first of the coast towns of Thrace and is twelve days’ journey distant from Byzantium. And they captured it in the following manner. The most of them concealed themselves in the rough ground which lay before the fortifications, while some few went near the gate which is toward the east and began to harass the Romans at the battlements. Then the soldiers keeping guard there, supposing that they were no more than those who were seen, immediately seized their arms and one and all sallied forth against them. Whereupon the barbarians began to withdraw to the rear, making it appear to their assailants that they were moving off in retreat because they were thoroughly frightened by them; and the Romans, being drawn into the pursuit, found themselves at a considerable distance from the fortifications. Then the men in ambush rose from their hiding-places and, placing themselves behind the pursuers, made it no longer possible for them to enter the city. Furthermore, those who had seemed to be in flight turned about, and thus the Romans now came to be exposed to attack on two sides. Then the barbarians, after destroying these to the last man, assaulted the fortifications. But the inhabitants of the city, deprived as they were of the support of the soldiers, found themselves in a very difficult situation, yet even so they warded off the assailants as well as the circumstances permitted. And at first they resisted successfully by heating oil and pitch till it was very hot and pouring it down on those who were attacking the wall, and the whole population joined in hurling stones upon them and thus came not very far from repelling the danger. But finally the barbarians overwhelmed them by the multitude of their missiles and forced them to abandon the battlements, whereupon they placed ladders against the fortifications and so captured the city by storm. Then they slew all the men immediately, to the number of fifteen thousand, took all the valuables as plunder, and reduced the children and women to slavery. Before this, however, they had spared no age, but both these and the other group, since the time when they fell upon the land of the Romans, had been killing all who fell in their way, young and old alike, so that the whole land inhabited by the Illyrians and Thracians came to be everywhere filled with unburied corpses.

  Now’ they killed their victims, not with sword nor spear, nor in any other accustomed manner, but by planting very firmly in the earth stakes which they had made exceedingly sharp, and seating the poor wretches upon these with great violence, driving the point of the stake between the buttocks and forcing it up into the intestines; thus did they see fit to destroy them. These barbarians also had a way of planting four thick stakes very deep in the ground, and after binding the feet and hands of the captives to these they would then assiduously beat them over the head with clubs, killing them like dogs or snakes or any other animal. Others again they would imprison in their huts together with their cattle and sheep — those, of course, which they were utterly unable to take with them to their native haunts — and then they would set fire to the huts without mercy. Thus did the Sclaveni consistently destroy those who fell in their way. But from this time onward both these and those of the other group, being as it were drunk with the great quantity of blood they had shed, saw fit to make prisoners of some who fell into their hands, and consequently they were taking with them countless thousands of prisoners when they all departed on the homeward way.

  Ὕστερον δὲ Γότθοι τῷ Ῥηγίνων προσέβαλον ὀχυρώματι, οἱ δὲ πολιορκούμενοι καρτερώτατα σφᾶς ἀμυνόμενοι ἀπεκρούοντο, ἔργα τε ὁ Θουριμοὺθ ἐπεδείκνυτο ἀεὶ ἐς αὐτοὺς ἀρετῆς ἄξια. [2] γνοὺς δὲ ὁ Τουτίλας ἐνδεῖν τοῖς πολιορκουμένοις τὰ ἐπιτήδεια, μοῖραν μὲν τοῦ στρατοῦ αὐτοῦ εἴασε φυλακῆς ἕνεκα, ὅπως δὴ οἱ πολέμιοι μηδὲν μὲν τοῦ λοιποῦ ἐσκομίζωνται, ἀπορίᾳ δὲ τῶν ἀναγκαίων σφᾶς τε αὐτοὺς καὶ τὸ φρούριον Γότθοις ἐνδώσουσιν: αὐτὸς δὲ τῷ ἄλλῳ στρατῷ ἐς Σικελίαν διαπορθμευσάμενος τῷ Μεσηνῶν προσέβαλε τείχει. [3] καί οἱ Δομνεντίολος ὁ Βούζου ἀδελφιδοῦς, ὅσπερ τῶν τῇδε Ῥωμαίων ἦρχεν, ὑπαντιάσας τε πρὸ τοῦ περιβόλου καὶ ἐς χεῖρας ἐλθὼν οὐκ ἔλασσον ἔσχεν. [4] αὖθις δὲ ἐν τῇ πόλει γενόμενος φυλακῆς τε τῆς ἐνταῦθα ἐπιμελούμενος ἡσυχίαν ἦγε. Γότθοι δέ, μηδενὸς σφίσιν ἐπεξιόντος, ἐληΐσαντο Σικελίαν σχεδόν τι ὅλην. [5] Ῥωμαῖοι δὲ οἱ ἐν Ῥηγίῳ πολιορκούμενοι, ὧν δὴ Θουριμούθ τε καὶ Ἱμέριος ἦρχον, ὥσπερ μοι εἴρηται, τὰ γὰρ ἀναγκαῖα σφᾶς παντάπασιν ἐπελελοίπει, αὑτούς τε καὶ τὸ φρούριον ὁμολογίᾳ τοῖς πολεμίοις ἐνέδοσαν. [6] Ἅπερ ἐπεὶ βασιλεὺς ἤκουσε, στόλον τε ἀγείρας νηῶν καὶ στράτευμα λόγου ἄξιον ἐκ καταλόγων πεζῶν ἐν τῷ στόλῳ τούτῳ ἐνθέμενος, ἄρχοντά τε Λιβέριον αὐτοῖς ἐπιστήσας, πλεῖν κατὰ τάχος ἐπὶ Σικελίας ἐκέλευσε, καὶ τὴν νῆσον διασώσασθαι δυνάμει τῇ πάσῃ. [7] ἀλλά οἱ ἄρχοντα τοῦ στόλου καταστησαμένῳ Λιβέριον αὐτίκα δὴ μάλα μετέμελεν: ἦν γὰρ ἐσχατογέρων τε ὁ ἀνὴρ μάλιστα καὶ ἀμελέτητος πολεμέων ἔργων. [8] Ἀρταβάνῃ τε ἀφεὶς τὰ ἐς αὐτὸν ἐγκλήματα πάντα καὶ στρατηγὸν καταλόγων τῶν ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης καταστησάμενος ἐς Σικελίαν εὐθὺς ἔπεμψε, στράτευμα μὲν οὐ πολὺ παρασχόμενος, ἐπιστείλας δὲ τὸν ξὺν τῷ Λιβερίῳ παραλα
βεῖν στόλον, ἐπεὶ Λιβέριον ἐς Βυζάντιον μετεπέμπετο. [9] αὐτοκράτορα δὲ τοῦ πρὸς Τουτίλαν τε καὶ Γότθους πολέμου Γερμανὸν κατεστήσατο τὸν αὑτοῦ ἀνεψιόν. ᾧ δὴ στράτευμα μὲν οὐ πολὺ ἔδωκε, χρήματα δὲ λόγου ἄξια παρασχόμενος στρατιὰν ἐπέστελλεν ἔκ τε Θρᾳκῶν καὶ Ἰλλυριῶν ἀξιολογωτάτην ἀγείραντι οὕτω δὴ στέλλεσθαι σπουδῇ ἐς τὴν Ἰταλίαν πολλῇ. [10] καί οἱ Φιλημούθ τε τὸν Ἔρουλον ξὺν τοῖς ἑπομένοις καὶ Ἰωάννην τὸν αὐτοῦ μὲν Γερμανοῦ κηδεστήν, Βιταλιανοῦ δὲ ἀδελφιδοῦν ῾στρατηγὸς γὰρ ὢν τῶν ἐν Ἰλλυριοῖς καταλόγων διατριβὴν ἐνταῦθα εἶχἐ ξὺν αὑτῷ ἐς τὴν Ἰταλίαν ἐπαγαγέσθαι ἐπήγγελλε. [11] Τότε δὴ Γερμανὸν φιλοτιμία πολλή τις ἔσχε Γότθων τὴν ἐπικράτησιν ἀναδήσασθαι, ὅπως οἱ Λιβύην τε καὶ Ἰταλίαν ἀνασώσασθαι περιέσται τῇ Ῥωμαίων ἀρχῇ. [12] Στότζα γὰρ τετυραννηκότος ἔν γε Λιβύῃ τὰ πρότερα καὶ τὸ Λιβύης κράτος βεβαιότατα ἤδη ἔχοντος αὐτὸς ἐκ βασιλέως σταλεὶς καὶ μάχῃ τοὺς στασιώτας παρὰ δόξαν νικήσας τήν τε τυραννίδα κατέπαυσε καὶ Λιβύην αὖθις ἀνεσώσατο τῇ Ῥωμαίων ἀρχῇ, ὥσπερ μοι ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν λόγοις ἐρρήθη. [13] καὶ νῦν δὲ τῶν Ἰταλίας πραγμάτων ἐς τοῦτο τύχης ἐληλακότων ἐς ὅ μοι ἔναγχος δεδιήγηται, μέγα δὴ ἐνθένδε περιβαλέσθαι κλέος ἐβούλετο ἅτε δὴ καὶ αὐτὴν ἰσχύσας βασιλεῖ ἀνασώσασθαι. [14] καὶ πρῶτα μὲν ῾ἐτετελευτήκει γάρ οἱ πολλῷ πρότερον ἡ γυνὴ Πασσάρα ὄνομἀ Ματασοῦνθαν ἐν γαμετῆς ἐποιήσατο λόγῳ, τὴν Ἀμαλασούνθης τῆς Θευδερίχου θυγατρὸς παῖδα, Οὐιττίγιδος ἤδη ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἀφανισθέντος. [15] ἤλπιζε γάρ, ἢν ξὺν αὐτῷ ἐν τῷ στρατοπέδῳ ἡ γυνὴ εἴη, αἰσχύνεσθαι, ὡς τὸ εἰκός, Γότθους ὅπλα ἐπ̓ αὐτὴν ἀνελέσθαι, ἀναμνησθέντας τῆς Θευδερίχου τε καὶ Ἀταλαρίχου ἀρχῆς. [16] ἔπειτα δὲ χρήματα μεγάλα τὰ μὲν ἐκ βασιλέως, τὰ δὲ πλείω οἴκοθεν οὐδεμιᾷ φειδοῖ προϊέμενος στρατιὰν ἐκ τοῦ ἀπροσδοκήτου πολλὴν ἀνδρῶν μαχιμωτάτων ἀγεῖραι δἰ ὀλίγου εὐπετῶς ἴσχυσε. [17] Ῥωμαῖοί τε γάρ, ἄνδρες ἀγαθοὶ τὰ πολέμια, τῶν ἀρχόντων πολλοὺς ὧν δὴ δορυφόροι τε καὶ ὑπασπισταὶ ἦσαν, ἐν ὀλιγωρίᾳ πεποιημένοι, Γερμανῷ εἵποντο, ἔκ τε Βυζαντίου καὶ τῶν ἐπὶ Θρᾴκης χωρίων καὶ Ἰλλυριῶν οὐδέν τι ἧσσον, Ἰουστίνου τε καὶ Ἰουστινιανοῦ, τῶν αὐτοῦ παίδων, πολλὴν ἐνδειξαμένων περὶ ταῦτα σπουδήν, [18] ἐπεὶ καὶ αὐτοὺς ἐπαγαγόμενος ἀπιὼν ᾤχετο. τινὰς δὲ καὶ ἐκ καταλόγων ἱππικῶν οἳ ἐπὶ τῆς Θρᾴκης ἵδρυντο, δόντος βασιλέως, ξυνέλεξε. [19] καὶ βάρβαροι πολλοὶ οἵπερ ἀμφὶ ποταμὸν Ἴστρον διατριβὴν εἶχον, κατὰ κλέος τοῦ Γερμανοῦ ἥκοντες καὶ χρήματα πολλὰ κεκομισμένοι, [20] ἀνεμίγνυντο τῷ Ῥωμαίων στρατῷ. ἄλλοι τε βάρβαροι ἐκ πάσης ἀγειρόμενοι ξυνέρρεον γῆς. καὶ ὁ τῶν Λαγγοβαρδῶν ἡγούμενος ὁπλίτας χιλίους ἐν παρασκευῇ πεποιημένος αὐτίκα δὴ μάλα ὑπέσχετο πέμψειν. [21] Τούτων δὴ καὶ πλειοτέρων ἐς τὴν Ἰταλίαν ἀγγελλομένων, οἷα δὴ ἐξεργάζεσθαι εἴωθεν ἐς τὰ ἀνθρώπεια προϊοῦσα ἡ φήμη, Γότθοι ἅμα μὲν ἔδεισαν, ἅμα δὲ καὶ ἐν ἀπόρῳ ἐγένοντο, εἰ σφίσιν ἐς γένος τὸ Θευδερίχου πολεμητέα εἴη. [22] στρατιῶται δὲ Ῥωμαίων, ὅσοι Γότθοις ἐτύγχανον ἀκούσιοι ξυστρατεύοντες, ἄγγελον πέμψαντες Γερμανῷ σημαίνειν ἐκέλευον ὡς, ἐπειδὰν τάχιστα ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ γενόμενον αὐτὸν ἴδοιεν, ἐνστρατοπεδευομένην τε τὴν αὐτοῦ στρατιάν, καὶ αὐτοὶ οὐδέν τι μελλήσαντες ξὺν ἐκείνοις τετάξονται πάντως. [23] οἷς δὴ ἅπασι θαρσήσαντες οἱ τοῦ βασιλέως στρατοῦ ἔν τε Ῥαβέννῃ καὶ εἴ που ἄλλη πόλις σφίσι λελεῖφθαι τετύχηκεν, εὐέλπιδες ἰσχυρότατα γεγενημένοι, τὰ χωρία βασιλεῖ ἐς τὸ ἀκριβὲς φυλάσσειν ἠξίουν. [24] ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅσοι ξὺν τῷ Βήρῳ τὰ πρότερα ἢ ἄλλοις τισὶ τοῖς πολεμίοις ἐς χεῖρας ἐλθόντες ἡσσημένοι τε τῶν ἐναντίων ἐν τῇ ξυμβολῇ διέφυγόν τε καὶ σκεδαννύμενοι περιῄεσαν, ὅπη ἑκάστῳ τετύχηκεν, ἐπειδὴ ὁδῷ ἰέναι Γερμανὸν ἤκουσαν, ἀθρόοι ἐν Ἰστρίᾳ γεγενημένοι, ἐνταῦθά τε τὸ στράτευμα τοῦτο προσδεχόμενοι, ἡσυχῆ ἔμενον. [25] Τότε δὴ ὁ Τουτίλας, ἡμέρα γὰρ ἡ ξυγκειμένη αὐτῷ τε καὶ Διογένει ἀμφὶ Κεντουκέλλαις εἱστήκει, πέμψας παῤ αὐτὸν ἐκέλευέν οἱ κατὰ τὰ ξυγκείμενα τὴν πόλιν ἐνδοῦναι. [26] Διογένης δὲ τούτου δὴ κύριος ἔφασκεν αὐτὸς οὐκέτι εἶναι: ἀκηκοέναι γὰρ αὐτοκράτορα τοῦδε τοῦ πολέμου τὸν Γερμανὸν καταστῆναί τε καὶ ξὺν τῷ στρατῷ οὐκ ἄποθεν εἶναι. [27] τῶν δὲ ὁμήρων βουλομένῳ οἱ αὐτῷ εἶναι τοὺς μὲν σφετέρους ἀπολαβεῖν, τοὺς δὲ πρὸς Γότθων σφίσι δεδομένους ἀποτιννύναι. [28] τούς τε σταλέντας ἀποπεμψάμενος τοῦ τῆς πόλεως φυλακτηρίου ἐπεμελεῖτο, Γερμανόν τε καὶ τὸ ξὺν αὐτῷ καραδοκῶν στράτευμα. [29] ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐπράσσετο τῇδε, καὶ ὁ χειμὼν ἔληγε, καὶ τὸ πέμπτον καὶ δέκατον ἔτος ἐτελεύτα τῷ πολέμῳ τῷδε, ὃν Προκόπιος ξυνέγραψε.