Delphi Complete Works of Procopius

by Procopius of Caesarea

  The Varni, not long ago, were ruled by a man named Hermegisclus. He, being eager to strengthen his kingdom, had made the sister of Theudibert, ruler of the Franks, his wedded wife. For his previous wife had died recently, having been the mother of one child, Radigis by name, whom she left to his father; and he sought a marriage for this child with a maiden born in Brittia, whose brother was then king of the nation of the Angili, and had given her a large sum of money because of his wooing. Now this man, while riding with the most notable of the Varni in a certain place, saw a bird sitting in a tree and croaking loudly. And whether he really comprehended the bird’s voice, or, possessing some other knowledge, simply made a mysterious pretence of comprehending the bird’s prophecy, he at any rate immediately told those with him that he would die forty days later. For this, he said, was revealed to him by the pronouncement of the bird. “Now I,” he said, “making provision that you should live most securely and at your ease, have related myself with the Franks by taking from their country the wife who is now my consort, and I have bestowed Brittia upon my son by betrothal. But now, since I expect to die very shortly, and, as far as this wife is concerned, I am without issue male or female, and my son furthermore is still unwed and without his bride, come now, let me communicate my thought to you, and, if it should seem to you not without some profit, do you, as soon as I reach the term of my life, put upon it the seal of your approval and execute it. I think, then, that it will be more to the advantage of the Varni to make the alliance by marriage with the Franks than with the islanders. For the men of Brittia, on the one hand, are not even able to join forces with you except after a long and difficult journey, while the Varni and Franks, on the other hand, have only yonder water of the Rhine between them, so that they, being very close neighbours to you, and having achieved an enormous power, have the means ready at hand both to help you and to harm you whenever they wish; and they will undoubtedly harm you if the said marriage alliance shall not prevent them. For men naturally find a neighbouring state’s power, when it surpasses their own, grievous and a most ready cause of injustice, for a powerful neighbour may with comparative ease secure causes of war against his neighbours who are doing no wrong. Since, then, the facts are these, let the island girl who has been wooed for this boy be given up by you, and all the money which she has received from us for this purpose, let her retain as remuneration for the indignity, as the common law of mankind has it; but let my son Radigis be married to his own stepmother thenceforth, just as our ancestral law permits us.”

  So he spoke, and on the fortieth day from the pronouncement he fell sick and fulfilled his destiny. Then the son of Hermegisclus, after taking over the kingdom of the Varni, by the will of the notable men among these barbarians, carried out the counsel of the dead king, and straightway renouncing his marriage with his betrothed, became wedded to his step-mother. But when the betrothed of Radigis learned this, she could not bear the indignity of her position and undertook to secure revenge upon him for his insult to her. For so highly is virtue regarded among those barbarians, that when merely the name of marriage has been mentioned among them, though the fact has not been accomplished, the woman is considered to have lost her maidenhood. First, then, she sent an embassy to him of some of her kinsmen and inquired for what reason he had insulted her, though she had neither been unfaithful nor done him any other wrong. But since she was unable to accomplish anything by this means, she took up the duties of a man and proceeded to deeds of war.

  She accordingly collected four hundred ships immediately and put on board them an army of not fewer than one hundred thousand fighting men, and she in person led forth this expedition against the Varni. And she also took with her one of her brothers who was to assist her in settling the situation, not that he was holding the kingship, for he was still living in the position of a private citizen. Now these islanders are valiant beyond any of the barbarians we know, and they enter battle on foot. And this is not merely because they are unpractised in horsemanship, but the fact is that they do not even know what a horse is, since they never see so much as a picture of a horse on that island; for it is clear that this animal has in no time lived in Brittia. And whenever it happens that some of them on an embassy or some other mission make a visit among the Romans or the Franks or any other nation which has horses, and they are there constrained to ride on horseback, they are altogether unable, to leap upon their backs, but other men lift them in the air and thus mount them on the horses, and when they wish to get off, they are again lifted and placed on the ground. Nor, in fact, are the Varni horsemen either, but they too all march on foot. Such, then, are these barbarians. And there were no supernumeraries in this fleet, for all the men rowed with their own hands. Nor do these islanders have sails, as it happens, but they always navigate by rowing alone.

  When they came to land on the continent, the maiden who commanded them, having established a strong stockade close by the mouth of the Rhine River, remained there with a small number, but commanded her brother to lead forward all the rest of the army against the enemy. Now the Varni at that time were encamped not far from the shore of the ocean and the mouth of the Rhine. So when the Angili reached that place, marching swiftly, the two armies engaged in combat with one another, and the Varni were defeated decisively. And many of them fell in this struggle, while the entire number of those remaining, together with the king, turned to retreat, and the Angili, after keeping up the pursuit for only a short distance, as is customary for infantry, retired to their camp. But the maiden rebuked them when they returned to her and inveighed most vehemently against her brother, declaring that nothing worthy of mention had been achieved by the army, because they had not brought her Radigis alive.

  She then selected the most warlike men among them and sent them off straightway, instructing them to bring the man captive without fail. Then, by way of carrying out her mission, these men went about searching that whole country thoroughly, until they found Radigis hiding in a dense wood; then they bound him and took him back to the girl. So he stood before her eyes trembling and expecting to die instantly by the most cruel death; she, however, contrary to his expectations, neither killed him nor inflicted any other harm upon him, but by way of reproaching him for his insult to her, enquired of the fellow why in the world he had made light of the agreement and allied himself to another woman, and that too though his betrothed had not been unfaithful. And he, seeking to defend himself against the charge, brought forward the commands of his father and the zeal of his subjects, and he uttered words of supplication and mingled many prayers with his defence, excusing his action by the stress of necessity. And if it was her will that they should be married he promised that what he had done unjustly in the past would be repaired by his subsequent conduct. Now when this was approved by the girl, and Radigis had been released from his bonds and received kind treatment in all other matters, he straightway dismissed the sister of Theudibert and wedded the girl from Brittia. Thus did these events take place.

  Now in this island of Brittia the men of ancient times built a long wall, cutting off a large part of it; and the climate and the soil and everything else is not alike on the two sides of it. For to the east of the wall there is a salubrious air, changing with the seasons, being moderately warm in summer and cool in winter. And many people dwell there, living in the same fashion as other men, and the trees abound with fruits which ripen at the fitting season, and the corn-lands flourish as abundantly as any; furthermore, the land seems to display a genuine pride in an abundance of springs of water. But on the west side everything is the reverse of this, so that it is actually impossible for a man to survive there even a half-hour, but countless snakes and serpents and every other kind of wild creature occupy this area as their own. And, strangest of all, the inhabitants say that if any man crosses this wall and goes to the other side, he dies straightway, being quite unable to support the pestilential air of that region, and wild animals, likewise, which go there are instantly met and taken by
death.

  Since I have reached this point in the history, it is necessary for me to record a story which bears a very close resemblance to mythology, a story which did not indeed seem to me at all trustworthy, although it was constantly being published by countless persons who maintained that they had done the thing with their own hands and had heard the words with their own ears, and yet it cannot be altogether passed over, lest, in writing an account of the island of Brittia, gain a lasting reputation for ignorance of what takes place there.

  They say, then, that the souls of men who die are always conveyed to this place. And as to the manner in which this is done, I shall presently explain, having many a time heard the people there most earnestly describe it, though I have come to the conclusion that the tales they tell are to be attributed to some power of dreams. Along the coast of the ocean which lies opposite the island of Brittia there are numerous villages. These are inhabited by men who fish with nets or till the soil or carry on a sea-trade with this island, being in other respects subject to the Franks, but never making them any payment of tribute, that burden having been remitted to them from ancient times on account, as they say, of a certain service, which will here be described by me.

  The men of this place say that the conduct of souls is laid upon them in turn. So the men who on the following night must go to do this work relieving others in the service, as soon as darkness comes on, retire to their own houses and sleep, awaiting him who is to assemble them for the enterprise. And at a late hour of the night they are conscious of a knocking at their doors and hear an indistinct voice calling them together for their task. And they with no hesitation rise from their beds and walk to the shore, not understanding what necessity leads them to do this, but compelled nevertheless. There they see skiffs in readiness with no man at all in them, not their own skiffs, however, but a different kind, in which they embark and lay hold of the oars. And they are aware that the boats are burdened with a large number of passengers and are wet by the waves to the edge of the planks and the oarlocks, having not so much as one finger’s breadth above the water; they themselves, however, see no one, but after rowing a single hour they put in at Brittia. And yet when they make the voyage in their own skiffs, not using sails but rowing, they with difficulty make this passage in a night and a day. Then when they have reached the island and have been relieved of their burden, they depart with all speed, their boats now becoming suddenly light and rising above the waves, for they sink no further in the water than the keel itself.

  And they, for their part, neither see any man either sitting in the boat with them or departing from the boat, but they say that they hear a kind of voice from the island which seems to make announcement to those who take the souls in charge as each name is called of the passengers who have come over with them, telling over the positions of honour which they formerly held and calling out their fathers’ names with their own. And if women also happen to be among those who have been ferried over, they utter the names of the men to whom they were married in life. This, then, is what the men of this country say takes place. But I shall return to the previous narrative.

  Οὕτω μὲν οὖν τὰ κατὰ τοὺς πολέμους ἐν χώρᾳ ἑκάστῃ ξυνηνέχθη γενέσθαι. ὁ δὲ Γοτθικὸς πόλεμος ἐφέρετο ὧδε. Βελισάριον μὲν ἐς Βυζάντιον μεταπεμψάμενος βασιλεύς, ᾗπέρ μοι ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν λόγοις ἐρρήθη, διὰ τιμῆς ἦγε, καὶ οὐδὲ Γερμανοῦ τετελευτηκότος πέμπειν αὐτὸν ἐς τὴν Ἰταλίαν διενοεῖτο, ἀλλὰ καὶ στρατηγὸν τῆς ἑῴας ὄντα, τῶν βασιλικῶν σωματοφυλάκων ἄρχοντα καταστησάμενος, αὐτοῦ κατεῖχεν. [2] ἦν τε τῷ ἀξιώματι πρῶτος ὁ Βελισάριος Ῥωμαίων ἁπάντων, καίτοι τινὲς αὐτῶν πρότεροι ἀνάγραπτοί τε ἐς πατρικίους γενόνασι καὶ ἐς αὐτὸν ἀναβεβήκεσαν τῶν ὑπάτων τὸν δίφρον. [3] ἀλλὰ καὶ ὣς αὐτῷ τῶν πρωτείων ἐξίσταντο πάντες, αἰσχυνόμενοι κατὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς τῷ νόμῳ χρῆσθαι καὶ τὸ ἀπ̓ αὐτοῦ δικαίωμα περιβάλλεσθαι. [4] ταῦτά τε βασιλέα κομιδῆ ἤρεσκεν. Ἰωάννης δὲ ὁ Βιταλιανοῦ διεχείμαζεν ἐν Σάλωσι. προσδεχόμενοί τε αὐτὸν ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ τοῦτον δὴ τὸν χρόνον οἱ τοῦ Ῥωμαίων στρατοῦ ἄπρακτοι ἔμενον. καὶ ὁ χειμὼν ἔληγε, καὶ τὸ ἑκκαιδέκατον ἔτος ἐτελεύτα τῷ Γοτθικῷ πολέμῳ τῷδε, ὃν Προκόπιος ξυνέγραψε. [5] Τῷ δὲ ἐπιγενομένῳ ἐνιαυτῷ Ἰωάννης μὲν διενοεῖτο ἐκ Σαλώνων τε ἐξανίστασθαι καὶ τῷ στρατῷ ἐξηγεῖσθαι ὅτι τάχιστα ἐπὶ Τουτίλαν τε καὶ Γότθους. [6] βασιλεὺς δὲ αὐτὸν διεκώλυεν, αὐτοῦ τε μένειν ἐπέστελλεν, ἕως Ναρσῆς ὁ εὐνοῦχος ἀφίκηται. αὐτὸν γὰρ τοῦδε αὐτοκράτορα καταστήσασθαι τοῦ πολέμου ἐβούλευσεν. [7] ὅτου δὲ δὴ ἕνεκα ταῦτα βουλομένῳ βασιλεῖ εἴη διαρρήδην μὲν τῶν πάντων οὐδενὶ φανερὸν γέγονε: βασιλέως γὰρ βούλευμα ἔκπυστον ὅτι μὴ αὐτοῦ ἐθελουσίου ἀμήχανά ἐστιν: ἃ δὲ ὑποπτεύοντες ἄνθρωποι ἔλεγον, ἐγὼ δηλώσω. [8] ἔννοια Ἰουστινιανῷ βασιλεῖ γέγονεν ὡς οἱ ἄλλοι τοῦ Ῥωμαίων στρατοῦ ἄρχοντες Ἰωάννου ἐπακούειν ὡς ἥκιστα ἐθελήσουσιν, οὐκ ἀξιοῦντες καταδεέστεροί τι αὐτοῦ τὸ ἀξίωμα εἶναι. [9] καὶ ἀπ̓ αὐτοῦ ἔδεισε μὴ διχοστατοῦντες τῇ γνώμῃ ἢ ἐθελοκακοῦντες τῷ φθόνῳ ξυγχέωσι τὰ πρασσόμενα. [10] Ἤκουσα δὲ καὶ τόνδε τὸν λόγον ἀπαγγέλλοντος Ῥωμαίου ἀνδρός, ἡνίκα ἐπὶ Ῥώμης διατριβὴν εἶχον: ἦν δὲ οὗτος ἀνὴρ τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς συγκλήτου βουλῆς. [11] ἔλεγεν οὖν ὁ Ῥωμαῖος οὗτος ὡς ἄρχοι μὲν Ἰταλίας ποτὲ Ἀταλάριχος ὁ Θευδερίχου θυγατριδοῦς, βοῶν δέ τις ἀγέλη ἐς Ῥώμην ὑπὸ τοῦτον τὸν χρόνον ἀμφὶ δείλην ὀψίαν ἐξ ἀγροῦ ἥκει διὰ τῆς ἀγορᾶς ἣν Φόρον Εἰρήνης καλοῦσι Ῥωμαῖοι: [12] ἐνταῦθα γάρ πη ὁ τῆς Εἰρήνης νεὼς κεραυνόβλητος γενόμενος ἐκ παλαιοῦ κεῖται. ἔστι δέ τις ἀρχαία πρὸ ταύτης δὴ τῆς ἀγορᾶς κρήνη, καὶ βοῦς ἐπὶ ταύτης χαλκοῦς ἕστηκε, Φειδίου, οἶμαι, τοῦ Ἀθηναίου ἢ Λυσίππου ἔργον. [13] ἀγάλματα γὰρ ἐν χώρῳ τούτῳ πολλὰ τούτοιν δὴ τοῖν ἀνδροῖν ποιήματά ἐστιν. οὗ δὴ καὶ Φειδίου ἔργον ἕτερον: τοῦτο γὰρ λέγει τὰ ἐν τῷ ἀγάλματι γράμματα. [14] ἐνταῦθα καὶ τὸ τοῦ Μύρωνος βοΐδιον. ἐπιμελὲς γὰρ ἐγεγόνει τοῖς πάλαι Ῥωμαίοις τῆς Ἑλλάδος τὰ κάλλιστα πάντα ἐγκαλλωπίσματα Ῥώμης ποιήσασθαι. [15] ἕνα δὲ ταῦρον ἔφη τῶν τηνικάδε παριόντων εὐνοῦχον τῆς τε ἀγέλης ἀπολειπόμενον καὶ ταύτης δὴ τῆς κρήνης ἐπιβατεύσαντα καθύπερθεν βοὸς τοῦ χαλκο�
� στῆναι. [16] τύχῃ δέ τινι παριόντα τινά, Τοῦσκον γένος, κομιδῆ ἄγροικον δόξαντα εἶναι, ξυμβάλλοντα τὸ ποιούμενον φάναι ῾εἰσὶ γὰρ μαντικοὶ καὶ ἐς ἐμὲ Τοῦσκοἰ ὡς εὐνοῦχός ποτε καταλύσει τὸν ἄρχοντα Ῥώμης. [17] καὶ τηνικάδε μὲν ὅ τε Τοῦσκος ἐκεῖνος καὶ ὁ παῤ αὐτοῦ λόγος γέλωτα ὦφλε. πρὸ γὰρ τῆς πείρας ἀεὶ ἄνθρωποι τὰς προρρήσεις φιλοῦσι χλευάζειν, οὐκ ἀναχαιτίζοντος αὐτοὺς τοῦ ἐλέγχου, τῷ μήτε ἀποβεβηκέναι τὰ πράγματα μήτε τὸν περὶ αὐτῶν λόγον εἶναι πιστόν, ἀλλὰ μύθῳ τινὶ γελοιώδει ἐμφερῆ φαίνεσθαι. [18] Νῦν δὲ δὴ ἅπαντες τὸ ξύμβολον τοῦτο ῾τοῖς ἀποβεβηκόσιν ὑποχωροῦντες᾿ θαυμάζουσι. [19] καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἴσως ἐπὶ Τουτίλαν ἐστρατήγει Ναρσῆς, ἢ στοχαζομένης τοῦ ἐσομένου τῆς βασιλέως γνώμης, ἢ πρυτανευούσης τὸ δέον τῆς τύχης. [20] ὁ μὲν οὖν Ναρσῆς στράτευμά τε λόγου ἄξιον καὶ χρήματα μεγάλα πρὸς βασιλέως κεκομισμένος ἐστέλλετο. [21] ἐπειδὴ δὲ ξὺν τοῖς ἑπομένοις ἐν μέσῃ Θρᾴκῃ ἐγένετο, χρόνον τινὰ ἐν Φιλιππουπόλει ἀποκεκλεισμένος τῆς ὁδοῦ ἔμεινε. [22] στράτευμα γὰρ Οὐννικὸν ἐπισκῆψαν τῇ Ῥωμαίων ἀρχῇ ἅπαντα ἦγόν τε καὶ ἔφερον, οὐδενὸς σφίσιν ἀντιστατοῦντος. ἐπειδὴ δὲ αὐτῶν οἱ μέν τινες ἐπὶ Θεσσαλονίκην, οἱ δὲ τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ Βυζάντιον ᾔεσαν, μόλις ἐνθένδε ἀπαλλαγεὶς ἐπίπροσθεν ᾔει.