hastise the licentious rapine of their
march. On the confines of Samnium the two brothers divided their forces.
With the right wing, Buccelin assumed the spoil of Campania, Lucania,
and Bruttium; with the left, Lothaire accepted the plunder of Apulia and
Calabria. They followed the coast of the Mediterranean and the Adriatic,
as far as Rhegium and Otranto, and the extreme lands of Italy were the
term of their destructive progress. The Franks, who were Christians
and Catholics, contented themselves with simple pillage and occasional
murder. But the churches which their piety had spared, were stripped by
the sacrilegious hands of the Alamanni, who sacrificed horses' heads
to their native deities of the woods and rivers; [49] they melted or
profaned the consecrated vessels, and the ruins of shrines and altars
were stained with the blood of the faithful. Buccelin was actuated by
ambition, and Lothaire by avarice. The former aspired to restore the
Gothic kingdom; the latter, after a promise to his brother of speedy
succors, returned by the same road to deposit his treasure beyond the
Alps. The strength of their armies was already wasted by the change of
climate and contagion of disease: the Germans revelled in the vintage of
Italy; and their own intemperance avenged, in some degree, the miseries
of a defenceless people. [4911]

[Footnote 48: Among the fabulous exploits of Buccelin, he discomfited
and slew Belisarius, subdued Italy and Sicily, &c. See in the Historians
of France, Gregory of Tours, (tom. ii. l. iii. c. 32, p. 203,) and
Aimoin, (tom. iii. l. ii. de Gestis Francorum, c. 23, p. 59.)]

[Footnote 4811:.... Agathius.]

[Footnote 4812: Aligern, after the surrender of Cumae, had been sent to
Cesent by Narses. Agathias.--M.]

[Footnote 49: Agathias notices their superstition in a philosophic tone,
(l. i. p. 18.) At Zug, in Switzerland, idolatry still prevailed in
the year 613: St. Columban and St. Gaul were the apostles of that rude
country; and the latter founded a hermitage, which has swelled into an
ecclesiastical principality and a populous city, the seat of freedom and
commerce.]

[Footnote 4911: A body of Lothaire's troops was defeated near Fano, some
were driven down precipices into the sea, others fled to the camp;
many prisoners seized the opportunity of making their escape; and
the Barbarians lost most of their booty in their precipitate retreat.
Agathias.--M.]

At the entrance of the spring, the Imper