conduct of belisarius in italy—his greed—defection of herodianus—loss of spoletum—success of totila and his goths—rupture with john—betrothal of the latter to justina, daughter of germanus—recall of belisarius—perusia taken by the goths—the marriage between joannina and anastasius consummated by a trick on the part of the dying empress—return of antonina, who separates the young pair—belisarius despised for his weakness—sergius causes the loss of the roman army in africa—murder of pegasius by solomon—the vengeance of heaven.
at the end of belisarius’s second expedition to italy, he was obliged to retire in disgrace; for, as i have told already, he was unable for a space of five years to effect a landing on the continent, because he had no stronghold there, but spent the whole time in hovering off the coast. totila was very eager to meet him in the open field, but never found an opportunity, for both the roman general and all the army were afraid to fight. for this reason he recovered nothing of all that had been lost, but even lost rome as well, and pretty nearly everything else. during this time he became exceedingly avaricious and greedy for ignoble gain. because he had received no funds from the emperor, he plundered all the italian peoples of ravenna and sicily, and the rest of italy without mercy, by way of exacting vengeance for irregularities in their past lives. thus he fell upon herodianus, and asked him for money with the most dreadful threats; whereupon he, in his rage, threw off his allegiance to rome and went over with his troops to totila and the goths, and handed over to them the town of spoletum.
i will now tell how belisarius fell out with john, the nephew of vitalianus, a matter which was exceedingly prejudicial to the interests of rome. the empress was so violently incensed against germanus, and showed her dislike of him so plainly, that no one dared to connect himself with him by marriage, although he was the emperor’s nephew, and his children remained unmarried as long as she lived, while his daughter justina was also without a husband at the age of eighteen. for this reason, when john was sent by belisarius on a mission to byzantium, germanus was forced to enter upon negotiations with him with a view to marriage with his daughter, although such an alliance was far beneath him. when both had settled the matter to their satisfaction, they bound each other by the most solemn oaths, to use their best endeavours to bring about this alliance; for neither of them trusted the other, as john knew that he was seeking an alliance above his station, and germanus despaired of finding another husband for his daughter. the empress was beside herself at this, and endeavoured to thwart them in every possible way; but as her threats had no effect upon either, she openly threatened to put john to death. after this, john was ordered to return to italy, and, fearing antonina’s designs upon him, held no further communication with belisarius until her departure for byzantium; for he had good reason to suspect that the empress had sent instructions to antonina to have him murdered; and when he considered the character of antonina and belisarius’s infatuation for his wife, which made him yield to her in everything, he was greatly alarmed.
from this time forth the power of rome, which had long been unstable, utterly fell to the ground for want of capable support. such were the fortunes of belisarius in the gothic war. after this, despairing of success, he begged the emperor to allow him to leave italy with all speed. when he heard that his prayer had been granted, he joyfully retired, bidding a long farewell to the roman army and the italians. he left the greater part of italy in the enemy’s power and perusia in the last agonies of a terrible siege: while he was on his road home, it was taken, and endured all the miseries of a city taken by assault, as i have already related. in addition to his ill-success abroad, he also had to submit to a domestic misfortune, which came about as follows:—the empress theodora was eager to bring about the marriage of her grandson, anastasius, with belisarius’s daughter, and wearied her parents with frequent letters on the subject; but they, not being desirous of contracting this alliance, put off the marriage until they could appear in person at byzantium, and when the empress sent for them, made the excuse that they could not leave italy. but she persisted in her determination to make her grandson master of belisarius’s fortune, for she knew that the girl would be his heiress, as he had no other children. she did not, however, trust antonina’s character, and feared lest, after her own death, antonina might prove unfaithful to her house, although she had found her so helpful in emergencies, and might break the compact. these considerations prompted her to a most abominable act. she made the boy and girl live together without any marriage ceremony, in violation of the laws. it is said that the girl was unwilling to cohabit with him, and that the empress had her secretly forced to do so, that the marriage might be consummated by the dishonour of the bride, and so the emperor might not be able to oppose it. after this had taken place, anastasius and the girl fell passionately in love with each other, and lived together in this manner for eight months.
immediately after the empress’s death, antonina came to byzantium. she found it easy to ignore the outrage which theodora had committed upon her, and, without considering that, if she united the girl to another, she would be no better than a harlot, she drove away theodora’s grandson with insults, and forcibly separated her daughter from the man whom she loved.
this action caused her to be regarded as one of the most heartless women upon earth, but nevertheless the mother obtained, without any difficulty, belisarius’s approval of her conduct, on his return home. thus did this man’s true character reveal itself. although he had sworn a solemn oath to photius and to several of his intimates and broken it, yet all men readily forgave him, because they suspected that the reason of his faithlessness was not the dominion of his wife over him, but his fear of theodora; but now that theodora was dead, as i have told you, he thought nothing about photius or any of his intimates, but entirely submitted to the sway of his wife, and her pander calligonus. then at last all men ceased to believe in him, scorned and flouted him, and railed at him for an idiot. such were the offences of belisarius, about which i have been obliged to speak freely in this place.
in its proper place, i have said enough about the shortcomings of sergius, the son of bacchus, in libya. i have told how he was the chief cause of the ruin of the roman power in that country, how he broke the oath which he swore to the levathae on the gospels, and how he, without excuse, put to death the eighty ambassadors. i need only add in this place, that these men did not come to sergius with any treacherous intent, and that sergius had not the slightest reason for suspecting them, but having invited them to a banquet and taken an oath not to harm them, he cruelly butchered them.
solomon, the roman army, and all the libyans were lost owing to this crime; for, in consequence of what he had done, especially after solomon’s death, no officer or soldier would expose himself to the dangers of war. john, the son of sisinniolus, was especially averse to taking the field, out of the hatred which he bore to sergius, until areobindus arrived in libya.
sergius was effeminate and unwarlike, very young both in years and in mind, excessively jealous and insolent to all men, luxurious in his habits, and inflated with pride. however, after he had become the accepted husband of the niece of antonina, belisarius’s wife, the empress would not permit him to be punished in any way or removed from his office, although she saw distinctly that the state of affairs in libya threatened its utter ruin; and she even induced the emperor to pardon solomon, sergius’s brother, for the murder of pegasius. how this came to pass i will now explain.
after pegasius had ransomed solomon from captivity among the levathae, and the barbarians had returned home, solomon and pegasius, who had ransomed him, set out, accompanied by a few soldiers, to carthage. on the way pegasius reproached solomon with the wrong he had done, and bade him remember that heaven had only just rescued him from the enemy. solomon, enraged at being taunted with his captivity, straightway slew pegasius, and thus requited him for having ransomed him. but when solomon reached byzantium, the emperor absolved him from the guilt of murder, on the pretext that he had slain a traitor to the roman empire, and gave him letters of acquittal. solomon, having thus escaped all punishment for his crime, departed gladly for the east, to visit his own country and his family; but the vengeance of god fell upon him on the way, and removed him from amongst mankind. this is what happened in regard to solomon and pegasius.
