ion of the treaty to the presence and
authority of Belisarius. But in the interval of suspense, two Roman
generals, who had entered the province of Dalmatia, were defeated and
slain by the Gothic troops. From blind and abject despair, Theodatus
capriciously rose to groundless and fatal presumption, [61] and dared
to receive, with menace and contempt, the ambassador of Justinian;
who claimed his promise, solicited the allegiance of his subjects, and
boldly asserted the inviolable privilege of his own character. The march
of Belisarius dispelled this visionary pride; and as the first campaign
[62] was employed in the reduction of Sicily, the invasion of Italy is
applied by Procopius to the second year of the Gothic war. [63]

[Footnote 60: The ancient Alba was ruined in the first age of Rome. On
the same spot, or at least in the neighborhood, successively arose. 1.
The villa of Pompey, &c.; 2. A camp of the Praetorian cohorts; 3. The
modern episcopal city of Albanum or Albano. (Procop. Goth. l. ii. c. 4
Oluver. Ital. Antiq tom. ii. p. 914.)]

[Footnote 61: A Sibylline oracle was ready to pronounce--Africa capta
munitus cum nato peribit; a sentence of portentous ambiguity, (Gothic.
l. i. c. 7,) which has been published in unknown characters by
Opsopaeus, an editor of the oracles. The Pere Maltret has promised a
commentary; but all his promises have been vain and fruitless.]

[Footnote 62: In his chronology, imitated, in some degree, from
Thucydides, Procopius begins each spring the years of Justinian and of
the Gothic war; and his first aera coincides with the first of April,
535, and not 536, according to the Annals of Baronius, (Pagi, Crit. tom.
ii. p. 555, who is followed by Muratori and the editors of Sigonius.)
Yet, in some passages, we are at a loss to reconcile the dates of
Procopius with himself, and with the Chronicle of Marcellinus.]

[Footnote 63: The series of the first Gothic war is represented by
Procopius (l. i. c. 5--29, l. ii. c. l--30, l. iii. c. l) till the
captivity of Vitigas. With the aid of Sigonius (Opp. tom. i. de Imp.
Occident. l. xvii. xviii.) and Muratori, (Annali d'Itaia, tom. v.,) I
have gleaned some few additional facts.]

After Belisarius had left sufficient garrisons in Palermo and Syracuse,
he embarked his troops at Messina, and landed them, without resistance,
on the opposite shores of Rhegium. A Gothic prince, who had married the
daughter of Theodatus, was stationed with an army to g