m,
had marched southward with his whole force and with the broadest front,
in order to make an end of all the remaining Goths. Only to Tuscany did
he send two small detachments, under his generals, Vitalianus and
Wilmuth, to take such forts as still resisted, and, after them, Lucca,
in Annonarian Tuscany. Valerianus, who had meanwhile conquered Petra
Pertusa, which place blocked the Flaminian Way beyond Helvillum, was
sent still farther north against Verona, the obstinate defence of which
had enabled many Goths to escape up the valley of the Athesis to the
Passara.

With these exceptions, Narses hurried south with the whole of his army.
He himself passed Rome on the Flaminian Way; while Johannes, on the
coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the Herulian Vulkaris on that of the
Ionian Gulf, were to drive the Goths before them.

But Johannes and Vulkaris found but little work to do; for in the north
the Gothic families had already been received, in passing, into the
mass of the army of the King, which it was now impossible to overtake;
and from the south the Goths had likewise long since streamed past Rome
to Neapolis, whither expresses from the King had bidden them to repair.
"Mons Vesuvius!" was the rallying word for all these Gothic fugitives.

Narses had named Anagnia to his two wings as the point of reunion with
the main body.

Cethegus gladly accepted the commander's invitation to remain with him
in the centre, for he could expect no great events with the two wings;
and the road taken by Narses led past Rome. In case that the commander,
in spite of his promise, should attempt to procure entrance into Rome,
Cethegus would be on the spot.

But, almost to the Prefect's astonishment, Narses kept his word. He
quietly marched his army past Rome. And he called upon Cethegus to be
witness to his interview with Pope Pelagius and the other governing
bodies of Rome, which interview took place below the walls at the Porta
Belisaria (Pinceana), between the Flaminian and Salarian Gates.

Once more the Pope and the Romans assured Narses--swearing by the holy
remains of Cosma and Damian (according to legend, Arabian physicians
who were martyred under Diocletian), which were brought in silver and
ivory caskets to the walls--that they would unhesitatingly, after the
annihilation of the Goths in the Moles Hadriani, open their gates to
the Prefect of Rome, but firmly resist any attempt on the part of the
Byzantines to enter the city