digression on the manners and adventures
of this wandering nation, a part of whom finally emigrated to Thule or
Scandinavia. (Goth. l. ii. c. 14, 15.)]

When Justinian first meditated the conquest of Italy, he sent
ambassadors to the kings of the Franks, and adjured them, by the common
ties of alliance and religion, to join in the holy enterprise against
the Arians. The Goths, as their want were more urgent, employed a more
effectual mode of persuasion, and vainly strove, by the gift of lands
and money, to purchase the friendship, or at least the neutrality, of
a light and perfidious nation. [97] But the arms of Belisarius, and the
revolt of the Italians, had no sooner shaken the Gothic monarchy,
than Theodebert of Austrasia, the most powerful and warlike of the
Merovingian kings, was persuaded to succor their distress by an indirect
and seasonable aid. Without expecting the consent of their sovereign,
the thousand Burgundians, his recent subjects, descended from the Alps,
and joined the troops which Vitiges had sent to chastise the revolt of
Milan. After an obstinate siege, the capital of Liguria was reduced
by famine; but no capitulation could be obtained, except for the safe
retreat of the Roman garrison. Datius, the orthodox bishop, who had
seduced his countrymen to rebellion [98] and ruin, escaped to the luxury
and honors of the Byzantine court; [99] but the clergy, perhaps the
Arian clergy, were slaughtered at the foot of their own altars by the
defenders of the Catholic faith. Three hundred thousand males were
reported to be slain; [100] the female sex, and the more precious spoil,
was resigned to the Burgundians; and the houses, or at least the walls,
of Milan, were levelled with the ground. The Goths, in their last
moments, were revenged by the destruction of a city, second only to Rome
in size and opulence, in the splendor of its buildings, or the number
of its inhabitants; and Belisarius sympathized alone in the fate of
his deserted and devoted friends. Encouraged by this successful inroad,
Theodebert himself, in the ensuing spring, invaded the plains of Italy
with an army of one hundred thousand Barbarians. [101] The king, and
some chosen followers, were mounted on horseback, and armed with lances;
the infantry, without bows or spears, were satisfied with a shield, a
sword, and a double-edged battle-axe, which, in their hands, became a
deadly and unerring weapon. Italy trembled at the march of the Franks;
an