c. 21) settles the Sibyl's cave under the
wall of Cumae: he agrees with Servius, (ad. l. vi. Aeneid.;) nor can I
perceive why their opinion should be rejected by Heyne, the excellent
editor of Virgil, (tom. ii. p. 650, 651.) In urbe media secreta religio!
But Cumae was not yet built; and the lines (l. vi. 96, 97) would become
ridiculous, if Aeneas were actually in a Greek city.]

[Footnote 47: There is some difficulty in connecting the 35th chapter
of the fourth book of the Gothic war of Procopius with the first book
of the history of Agathias. We must now relinquish the statesman and
soldier, to attend the footsteps of a poet and rhetorician, (l. i. p.
11, l. ii. p. 51, edit. Lonvre.)]

Before Lucca had surrendered, Italy was overwhelmed by a new deluge of
Barbarians. A feeble youth, the grandson of Clovis, reigned over the
Austrasians or oriental Franks. The guardians of Theodebald entertained
with coldness and reluctance the magnificent promises of the Gothic
ambassadors. But the spirit of a martial people outstripped the timid
counsels of the court: two brothers, Lothaire and Buccelin, [48] the
dukes of the Alemanni, stood forth as the leaders of the Italian war;
and seventy-five thousand Germans descended in the autumn from the
Rhaetian Alps into the plain of Milan. The vanguard of the Roman
army was stationed near the Po, under the conduct of Fulcaris, a bold
Herulian, who rashly conceived that personal bravery was the sole duty
and merit of a commander. As he marched without order or precaution
along the Aemilian way, an ambuscade of Franks suddenly rose from the
amphitheatre of Parma; his troops were surprised and routed; but their
leader refused to fly; declaring to the last moment, that death was
less terrible than the angry countenance of Narses. [4811] The death
of Fulcaris, and the retreat of the surviving chiefs, decided the
fluctuating and rebellious temper of the Goths; they flew to the
standard of their deliverers, and admitted them into the cities which
still resisted the arms of the Roman general. The conqueror of Italy
opened a free passage to the irresistible torrent of Barbarians. They
passed under the walls of Cesena, and answered by threats and reproaches
the advice of Aligern, [4812] that the Gothic treasures could no longer
repay the labor of an invasion. Two thousand Franks were destroyed by
the skill and valor of Narses himself, who sailed from Rimini at the
head of three hundred horse, to c