Vit. Johan. iii. p. 43. Agnellus, Liber Pontifical. Raven.
in Script. Rer. Italicarum, tom. ii. part i. p. 114, 124. Yet I cannot
believe with Agnellus that Narses was ninety-five years of age. Is it
probable that all his exploits were performed at fourscore?]

[Footnote 17: The designs of Narses and of the Lombards for the invasion
of Italy are exposed in the last chapter of the first book, and the
seven last chapters of the second book, of Paul the deacon.]

Whatever might be the grounds of his security, Alboin neither expected
nor encountered a Roman army in the field. He ascended the Julian Alps,
and looked down with contempt and desire on the fruitful plains to
which his victory communicated the perpetual appellation of Lombardy.
A faithful chieftain, and a select band, were stationed at Forum Julii,
the modern Friuli, to guard the passes of the mountains. The Lombards
respected the strength of Pavia, and listened to the prayers of the
Trevisans: their slow and heavy multitudes proceeded to occupy the
palace and city of Verona; and Milan, now rising from her ashes, was
invested by the powers of Alboin five months after his departure from
Pannonia. Terror preceded his march: he found every where, or he left,
a dreary solitude; and the pusillanimous Italians presumed, without a
trial, that the stranger was invincible. Escaping to lakes, or rocks,
or morasses, the affrighted crowds concealed some fragments of their
wealth, and delayed the moment of their servitude. Paulinus, the
patriarch of Aquileia, removed his treasures, sacred and profane, to
the Isle of Grado, [18] and his successors were adopted by the infant
republic of Venice, which was continually enriched by the public
calamities. Honoratus, who filled the chair of St. Ambrose, had
credulously accepted the faithless offers of a capitulation; and the
archbishop, with the clergy and nobles of Milan, were driven by the
perfidy of Alboin to seek a refuge in the less accessible ramparts of
Genoa. Along the maritime coast, the courage of the inhabitants was
supported by the facility of supply, the hopes of relief, and the power
of escape; but from the Trentine hills to the gates of Ravenna and Rome
the inland regions of Italy became, without a battle or a siege, the
lasting patrimony of the Lombards. The submission of the people invited
the Barbarian to assume the character of a lawful sovereign, and the
helpless exarch was confined to the office of announcing to