Delphi Complete Works of Procopius

by Procopius of Caesarea

  XL

  But while Germanus was collecting and organizing his army in Sardice, the city of Illyricum, and making all the necessary preparations for war with the greatest thoroughness, a throng of Sclaveni such as never before was known arrived on Roman soil, having crossed the Ister River and come to the vicinity of Naïssus. Now some few of these had scattered from their army and, wandering about the country there alone, were captured by certain of the Romans and made prisoners; and the Romans questioned them as to why this particular army of the Sclaveni had crossed the Ister and what they had in mind to accomplish. And they stoutly declared that they had come with the intention of capturing by siege both Thessalonice itself and the cities around it. When the emperor heard this, he was greatly agitated and straightway wrote to Germanus directing him to postpone for the moment his expedition to Italy and defend Thessalonice and the other cities, and to repel the invasion of the Sclaveni with all his power. So Germanus, for his part, was devoting himself to this problem.

  But the Sclaveni, upon learning definitely from their captives that Germanus was in Sardice, began to be afraid; for Germanus had a great reputation among these particular barbarians for the following reason. During the reign of Justinian, the uncle of Germanus, the Antae, who dwell close to the Sclaveni, had crossed the Ister River with a great army and invaded the Roman domain. Now the emperor had not long before this, as it happened, appointed Germanus General of all Thrace. He accordingly engaged with the hostile army, defeated them decisively in battle, and killed practically all of them; and Germanus, as a result of this achievement, had covered himself with great glory in the estimation of all men, including these same barbarians. Consequently, on account of their dread of him, as I have said, and also because they supposed that he was conducting a very formidable force, seeing that he was being sent by the emperor against Totila and the Goths, the Sclaveni immediately turned aside from their march on Thessalonice and no longer dared to descend to the plain, but they crossed over all the mountain ranges of Illyricum and so came into Dalmatia. Germanus, accordingly, paid no further attention to them and issued orders to the entire army to prepare for marching, intending to commence the journey thence to Italy two days later.

  But by some chance it so befell that he was taken sick and abruptly reached the term of life. Thus did Germanus suddenly pass away, a man endowed with the finest qualities and remarkable for his activity; for in war, on the one hand, he was not only a most able general, but was also resourceful and independent in action, while in peace and prosperity, on the other hand, he well understood how to uphold with all firmness both the laws and the institutions of the state. As a judge he was conspicuously upright, while in private life he made loans of large sums of money to all who requested it, never so much as speaking of taking interest from them. Both in the palace and in the market-place he was a man of very impressive personality and exceedingly serious demeanour, while in his daily home life he was a pleasant, open-hearted, and charming host. He would not permit, as far as his strength allowed, any offence in the palace against established laws, nor did he ever share either in the purpose or in the conversations of the conspirators in Byzantium, though many even of those in power went so far in their unnatural conduct. Such then was the course of these events.

  The emperor was deeply moved by this misfortune, and commanded John, the nephew of Vitalian and son-in-law of Germanus, in company with Justinian, one of the two sons of Germanus, to lead this army into Italy. So they set out on the way to Dalmatia, intending to pass the winter in Salones, since it seemed to them impossible at that season to make the circuit of the gulf, as they would be obliged to do in travelling into Italy; for it was impossible for them to ferry across since they had no ships. Meanwhile Liberius, not having as yet learned anything of the emperor’s change of purpose regarding the fleet he commanded, put in at Syracuse while it was under siege by the enemy. And he forced his way through the barbarian lines, sailed into the harbour, and so got inside the fortifications with the whole fleet. Now Artabanes not long after this reached Cephallenia, and finding that Liberius and his army had already put out to sea and departed thence on the way to Sicily, he immediately set out from there and crossed the so-called Adriatic Sea. But when he came near Calabria, he was assailed by a terrific storm and a head wind of extraordinary violence, and it so fell out that all the ships were scattered so completely that it appeared that the most of them had been driven on the shore of Calabria and fallen into the hands of the enemy. This, however, was not the case, but they had first been driven apart by the great violence of the wind, then had turned about, heavily buffeted meanwhile by the sea, and had reached the Peloponnesus again. As for the other ships, some were lost and some were saved, according to where chance carried them. But one ship, that in which Artabanes himself was sailing, had its mast broken off in this heavy sea, and yet, after coming to such a degree of danger, was carried by the surge and followed the swell until it came to land at the island of Melita. Thus did it come about contrary to expectation that Artabanes was saved.

  Liberius now found himself unable to make sallies against the besiegers or to fight a decisive battle against them, while at the same time their provisions could not possibly suffice for any considerable time, seeing they were a large force, and so he set sail from there with his troops, and, eluding the enemy, withdrew to Panormus.

  Totila and the Goths, meanwhile, had plundered practically the whole land of Sicily; they had collected as booty a vast number of horses and other animals, and had stripped the island of grain and all its other crops; these, together with all the treasure, which amounted to a great sum indeed, they loaded on their ships, and then suddenly abandoned the island and returned to Italy, being impelled to do so for the following reason. Not long before this, as it happened, Totila had appointed one of the Romans, Spinus by name, a native of Spolitium, to be his personal adviser. This man was staying in Catana, which was an unwalled town. And, by some chance, it came about that he fell into the hands of the enemy there. Now Totila, being eager to rescue this man, wished to release to the Romans in his stead a notable’s wife who was his prisoner. But the Romans would not consent to accept a woman in exchange for a man holding the position of quaestor, as it is called. The man consequently became fearful that he would be destroyed while in hostile hands, and so promised the Romans that he would persuade Totila to depart immediately from Sicily and cross over to Italy with the whole Gothic army. So they first bound him over by oaths to carry out this promise and then gave him up to the Goths, receiving the woman in return. He then went before Totila and asserted that the Goths were not consulting their own interests, now that they had plundered practically the whole of Sicily, in remaining there for a few insignificant fortresses. For he declared that he had recently heard, while he was among the enemy, that Germanus, the emperor’s nephew, had passed from the world, and that John, his son-in-law, and Justinian, his son, with the whole army collected by Germanus were already in Dalmatia and would move on from there, after completing their preparations in the briefest time, straight for Liguria, in order, obviously, to descend suddenly upon the Goths and make slaves of their women and children and to plunder all their valuables; and it would be better for the Goths, he said, to be there to meet them, passing the winter meanwhile in safety in company with their families. “For,” he went on, “if we overcome that army, it will be possible for us at the opening of spring to renew our operations against Sicily free from anxiety and with no thought of an enemy in our minds.” Totila was convinced by this suggestion, and so, leaving guards in four strongholds, he himself, taking with him the entire booty, crossed over with all the rest of the army to Italy. Such was the course of these events.

  Now John and the emperor’s army, upon reaching Dalmatia, decided to pass the winter in Salones, purposing to march from there straight for Ravenna after the winter season. But the Sclaveni now reappeared, both those who had previously come into the emperor’s land, as I have r
ecounted above, and others who had crossed the Ister not long afterwards and joined the first, and they began to overrun the Roman domain with complete freedom. And some indeed entertained the suspicion that Totila had bribed these very barbarians with large gifts of money and so set them upon the Romans there, with the definite purpose of making it impossible for the emperor to manage the war against the Goths well because of his preoccupation with these barbarians. But as to whether the Sclaveni were conferring a favour upon Totila, or whether they came there without invitation, I am unable to say. These barbarians did, in any case, divide themselves into three groups and wrought irreparable damage in all Europe, not merely plundering that country by sudden raids, but actually spending the winter as if in their own land and having no fear of the enemy. Afterwards, however, the Emperor Justinian sent a very considerable army against them, which was led by a number of commanders, including Constantianus, Aratius, Nazares, Justinus the son of Germanus and John who bore the epithet of the Glutton. But he placed in supreme command over them all Scholastieus, one of the eunuchs of the palace.

  This army came upon a part of the barbarians near Adrianopolis, which is situated in the interior of Thrace, five days’ journey distant from Byzantium. And the barbarians were unable to proceed further; for they were taking with them a booty which surpassed all reckoning, consisting of men and animals and valuables of every description. So they remained there, eager to come to an engagement with the enemy, but without letting this be known to them in any way. Now the Sclaveni were encamped on the hill which rises there, while the Romans were in the plain not far away. And since a long time was consumed in thus blocking the enemy, the soldiers began to be resentful and made a great to-do, laying against the generals the charge that while they themselves, as commanders of the Roman army, had all provisions in abundance, they were paying no heed to the soldiers, to whom the want of absolute necessities was causing hardship and who were unwilling to engage with the enemy. By these remonstrances the generals were compelled to join battle with the enemy. And the battle which followed was a fierce one, but the Romans were decisively vanquished. In that battle many of the best soldiers perished, and the generals came within a little of falling into the hands of the enemy, succeeding only with difficulty in making their escape with the remnant of the army and thus saving themselves, each as best he could. The standard of Constantianus was also captured by the barbarians, who now moved forward heedless of the Roman army. And they plundered the land of Astica, as it is called, without let or hindrance, a place which had not been ravaged since ancient times, and for this reason it turned out that they found there an enormous booty. Thus they devastated a wide expanse of country and came as far as the long walls, which are a little more than one day’s journey distant from Byzantium. But not long afterwards the Roman army, in following up these barbarians, came upon a portion of their force, engaged with them suddenly, and turned them to flight. And they not only slew many of the enemy, but also rescued a vast number of Roman captives, and they also found and recovered the standard of Constantianus. But the rest of the barbarians departed on the homeward way with the other booty.