th them
the spoils stripped from the fallen, while the Goths cared for their
wounded and bewailed their dead.

FOOTNOTES:

[117] "No doubt these are the same as the _Regii_, one of the seventeen
'Auxilia Palatina' under the command of the Magister Militum
Praesentalis, mentioned in the _Notitia Orientis_, chap. v."--HODGKIN.

[118] Murus Ruptus. "Here, to this day, notwithstanding some lamentable
and perfectly unnecessary 'restorations' of recent years, may be seen
some portions of the Muro Torto, a twisted, bulging, overhanging mass of
_opus reticulatum_."--HODGKIN.

[119] Chap. xxii. 10.

[120] The exact location is hard to determine; the majority of the
authorities agree on the location given in the plan (opposite p. 185),
near the Porta Labicana.

XXIV

And Belisarius wrote a letter to the emperor of the following purport:
"We have arrived in Italy, as thou didst command, and we have made
ourselves masters of much territory in it and have taken possession of
Rome also, after driving out the barbarians who were here, whose leader,
Leuderis, I have recently sent to you. But since we have stationed a
great number of soldiers both in Sicily and in Italy to guard the
strongholds which we have proved able to capture, our army has in
consequence been reduced to only five thousand men. But the enemy have
come against us, gathered together to the number of one hundred and
fifty thousand. And first of all, when we went out to spy upon their
forces along the Tiber River and were compelled, contrary to our
intention, to engage with them, we lacked only a little of being buried
under a multitude of spears. And after this, when the barbarians
attacked the wall with their whole army and assaulted the fortifications
at every point with sundry engines of war, they came within a little of
capturing both us and the city at the first onset, and they would have
succeeded had not some chance snatched us from ruin. For achievements
which transcend the nature of things may not properly and fittingly be
ascribed to man's valour, but to a stronger power. Now all that has been
achieved by us hitherto, whether it has been due to some kind fortune or
to valour, is for the best; but as to our prospects from now on, I could
wish better things for thy cause. However, I shall never hide from you
anything that it is my duty to say and yours to do, knowing that while
human affairs follow whatever course may be in accordance with God'