arses, V. J. Praepositus
Sacri Cubiculi, and to Antiochus, Praefectus Praetorio Italiae; and has
been preserved by Julian Antecessor, and in the Corpus Juris Civilis,
after the novels and edicts of Justinian, Justin, and Tiberius.]

[Footnote 58: A still greater number was consumed by famine in the
southern provinces, without the Ionian Gulf. Acorns were used in the
place of bread. Procopius had seen a deserted orphan suckled by a
she-goat. Seventeen passengers were lodged, murdered, and eaten, by two
women, who were detected and slain by the eighteenth, &c. * Note: Denina
considers that greater evil was inflicted upon Italy by the Urocian
conquest than by any other invasion. Reveluz. d' Italia, t. i. l. v. p.
247.--M.]

[Footnote 59: Quinta regio Piceni est; quondam uberrimae multitudinis,
ccclx. millia Picentium in fidem P. R. venere, (Plin. Hist. Natur.
iii. 18.) In the time of Vespasian, this ancient population was already
diminished.]

[Footnote 60: Perhaps fifteen or sixteen millions. Procopius (Anecdot.
c. 18) computes that Africa lost five millions, that Italy was thrice as
extensive, and that the depopulation was in a larger proportion. But his
reckoning is inflamed by passion, and clouded with uncertainty.]

I desire to believe, but I dare not affirm, that Belisarius sincerely
rejoiced in the triumph of Narses. Yet the consciousness of his own
exploits might teach him to esteem without jealousy the merit of a
rival; and the repose of the aged warrior was crowned by a last victory,
which saved the emperor and the capital. The Barbarians, who annually
visited the provinces of Europe, were less discouraged by some
accidental defeats, than they were excited by the double hope of spoil
and of subsidy. In the thirty-second winter of Justinian's reign, the
Danube was deeply frozen: Zabergan led the cavalry of the Bulgarians,
and his standard was followed by a promiscuous multitude of Sclavonians.
[6011] The savage chief passed, without opposition, the river and the
mountains, spread his troops over Macedonia and Thrace, and advanced
with no more than seven thousand horse to the long wall, which should
have defended the territory of Constantinople. But the works of man are
impotent against the assaults of nature: a recent earthquake had shaken
the foundations of the wall; and the forces of the empire were employed
on the distant frontiers of Italy, Africa, and Persia. The seven
schools, [61] or companies of the gu