y the inhabitants of
Calabria, his troops were joined by five hundred men who, as I have
said, had been collected in Campania. These set out by the coast road
with the waggons, having in mind, if any hostile force should confront
them, to make a circle of the waggons in the form of a stockade and thus
to ward off the enemy; and they commanded the men under Paulus and Conon
to sail with all speed and join them at Ostia, the harbour of Rome[153];
and they put sufficient grain in the waggons and loaded all the ships,
not only with grain, but also with wine and all kinds of provisions. And
they, indeed, expected to find the forces of Martinus and Trajan in the
neighbourhood of Taracina and to have their company from that point on,
but when they approached Taracina, they learned that these forces had
recently been recalled and had retired to Rome.

But Belisarius, learning that the forces of John were approaching and
fearing that the enemy might confront them in greatly superior numbers
and destroy them, took the following measures. It so happened that the
enemy had encamped very close to the Flaminian Gate; this gate
Belisarius himself had blocked up at the beginning of this war by a
structure of stone, as has been told by me in the previous
narrative,[154] his purpose of course being to make it difficult for the
enemy either to force their way in or to make any attempt upon the city
at that point. Consequently no engagement had taken place at this gate,
and the barbarians had no suspicion that there would be any attack upon
them from there. Now Belisarius tore down by night the masonry which
blocked this gate, without giving notice to anyone at all, and made
ready the greatest part of the army there. And at daybreak he sent
Trajan and Diogenes with a thousand horsemen through the Pincian Gate,
commanding them to shoot missiles into the camps, and as soon as their
opponents came against them, to flee without the least shame and to ride
up to the fortifications at full speed. And he also stationed some men
inside this gate. So the men under Trajan began to harass the
barbarians, as Belisarius had directed them to do, and the Goths,
gathering from all the camps, began to defend themselves. And both
armies began to move as fast as they could toward the fortifications of
the city, the one giving the appearance of fleeing, and the other
supposing that they were pursuing the enemy.

But as soon as Belisarius saw the enemy take u