of the Gothic
position, on west, north, and east; only on the south, the sea-side,
where he himself had encamped on the strand, was he able to leave a
space undefended, for the enemy had no ships whereon to fly or
wherewith to procure provisions.

The "Tyrrhenian" fleet of Narses was already occupied in carrying the
captive Goths to Byzantium; the "Ionian" was shortly expected; a few
vessels had been sent to cruise in the Bay of Bajae and opposite
Surrentum. Thus Narses, notwithstanding his great superiority, only
gradually occupied, with obstinate patience and forgetting nothing,
Piscinula, Cimiterium, Nola, Summa, Melane, Nuceria, Stabiae, Cumae,
Bajae, Misenum, Puteoli, and Nesis. And presently Neapolis also became
alarmed at the power of Narses, and voluntarily opened to him its
gates.

From all sides the Byzantines advanced concentrically towards the
Gothic position. After many furious battles the Byzantines succeeded in
driving the Goths away from Mons Lactarius and over the river Draco;
where the rest of the nation encamped upon a level plain above the pass
so highly praised by Narses, in the immediate vicinity of one of the
numerous craters which, at that time, surrounded the foot of the
principal cone; only rarely, when the wind blew from the south-east,
suffering from the smoke and sulphurous exhalations of the volcano.

Here, in the innumerable hollows and ravines of the mountain, the
unarmed people encamped under the open sky, or under the tents and
wagons which they had brought with them, in the warm August air.

"The only access to this encampment," writes Procopius, "could be
obtained by a narrow pass, the southern opening of which was so small
that a man holding a shield could completely block it up."

This opening was guarded day and night, each man occupying it for an
hour, by King Teja himself, Duke Guntharis, Duke Adalgoth, Earl Grippa,
Earl Wisand, Aligern, Ragnaris, and Wachis. Behind them the pass was
filled by a hundred warriors, who relieved each other at intervals.

And so, in accordance with the system pursued by Narses, the whole
terrible war, the struggle for Rome and Italy, had been dramatically
reduced to a point; to a battle for a ravine of a foot or two wide on
the southern point of the so dearly-loved, so obstinately-defended
peninsula. Even in the historical representation of Procopius, the fate
of the Goths resembles the last act of a grand and awful tragedy.

On the shore, o