the use
of the expedition. The portable wealth of the Lombards attended the
march: their lands they cheerfully relinquished to the Avars, on the
solemn promise, which was made and accepted without a smile, that if
they failed in the conquest of Italy, these voluntary exiles should be
reinstated in their former possessions.

[Footnote 12: Ut hactenus etiam tam apud Bajoarior um gentem, quam et
Saxmum, sed et alios ejusdem linguae homines..... in eorum carmini bus
celebretur. Paul, l. i. c. 27. He died A.D. 799, (Muratori, in Praefat.
tom. i. p. 397.) These German songs, some of which might be as old
as Tacitus, (de Moribus Germ. c. 2,) were compiled and transcribed by
Charlemagne. Barbara et antiquissima carmina, quibus veterum regum actus
et bella canebantur scripsit memoriaeque mandavit, (Eginard, in Vit.
Carol. Magn. c. 29, p. 130, 131.) The poems, which Goldast commends,
(Animadvers. ad Eginard. p. 207,) appear to be recent and contemptible
romances.]

[Footnote 13: The other nations are rehearsed by Paul, (l. ii. c.
6, 26,) Muratori (Antichita Italiane, tom. i. dissert. i. p. 4) has
discovered the village of the Bavarians, three miles from Modena.]

[Footnote 14: Gregory the Roman (Dialog. l. i. iii. c. 27, 28, apud
Baron. Annal Eccles. A.D. 579, No. 10) supposes that they likewise
adored this she-goat. I know but of one religion in which the god and
the victim are the same.]

They might have failed, if Narses had been the antagonist of the
Lombards; and the veteran warriors, the associates of his Gothic
victory, would have encountered with reluctance an enemy whom they
dreaded and esteemed. But the weakness of the Byzantine court was
subservient to the Barbarian cause; and it was for the ruin of Italy,
that the emperor once listened to the complaints of his subjects. The
virtues of Narses were stained with avarice; and, in his provincial
reign of fifteen years, he accumulated a treasure of gold and silver
which surpassed the modesty of a private fortune. His government was
oppressive or unpopular, and the general discontent was expressed with
freedom by the deputies of Rome. Before the throne of Justinian they
boldly declared, that their Gothic servitude had been more tolerable
than the despotism of a Greek eunuch; and that, unless their tyrant were
instantly removed, they would consult their own happiness in the choice
of a master. The apprehension of a revolt was urged by the voice of
envy and detraction, wh