d prompted the people to overthrow the statues of the
great Theodoric; and the life of that venerable matron would have been
sacrificed to his memory, if Totila had not respected her birth, her
virtues, and even the pious motive of her revenge. The next day he
pronounced two orations, to congratulate and admonish his victorious
Goths, and to reproach the senate, as the vilest of slaves, with their
perjury, folly, and ingratitude; sternly declaring, that their estates
and honors were justly forfeited to the companions of his arms. Yet he
consented to forgive their revolt; and the senators repaid his clemency
by despatching circular letters to their tenants and vassals in the
provinces of Italy, strictly to enjoin them to desert the standard of
the Greeks, to cultivate their lands in peace, and to learn from their
masters the duty of obedience to a Gothic sovereign. Against the city
which had so long delayed the course of his victories, he appeared
inexorable: one third of the walls, in different parts, were demolished
by his command; fire and engines prepared to consume or subvert the most
stately works of antiquity; and the world was astonished by the fatal
decree, that Rome should be changed into a pasture for cattle. The firm
and temperate remonstrance of Belisarius suspended the execution; he
warned the Barbarian not to sully his fame by the destruction of those
monuments which were the glory of the dead, and the delight of the
living; and Totila was persuaded, by the advice of an enemy, to preserve
Rome as the ornament of his kingdom, or the fairest pledge of peace and
reconciliation. When he had signified to the ambassadors of Belisarius
his intention of sparing the city, he stationed an army at the distance
of one hundred and twenty furlongs, to observe the motions of the Roman
general. With the remainder of his forces he marched into Lucania and
Apulia, and occupied on the summit of Mount Garganus [14] one of the
camps of Hannibal. [15] The senators were dragged in his train, and
afterwards confined in the fortresses of Campania: the citizens, with
their wives and children, were dispersed in exile; and during forty days
Rome was abandoned to desolate and dreary solitude. [16]

[Footnote 13: During the long exile, and after the death of Vigilius,
the Roman church was governed, at first by the archdeacon, and at length
(A. D 655) by the pope Pelagius, who was not thought guiltless of the
sufferings of his predecesso