es, denounced the foul deed which
they had permitted to be done, and declared that for this there must be
"truceless war" between the Emperor and them. Theodahad, as stupid as he
was vile, renewed his ridiculous protestations that he had no part in
the violence done to Amalasuentha, but had heard of it with the utmost
regret, and this although he had already rewarded the murderers with
signal tokens of his favour.

Thus, by the folly of the wise and the criminal audacity of the coward,
had a train been laid for the destruction of the Ostrogothic kingdom.
All the petty pretexts for war, the affair of Lilybaeum, the Hunnish
deserters, the sack of Gratiana, faded into insignificance before this
new and most righteous cause of quarrel. If Hilderic's deposition had
been avenged by the capture of Carthage, with far more justice might the
death of the noble Amalasuentha be avenged by the capture of Ravenna and
of Rome. In the great war which was soon to burst upon Italy Justinian
could figure not only as the protector of the provincials, not only as
the defender of the Catholics, but as the avenger of the blood of the
daughter of Theodoric.

[Illustration: PIECE OF FORTY NUMMI OF THEODAHAD. NUMMI (COPPER).]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XVI.

BELISARIUS.

Justinian begins his great Gothic war--Dalmatia recovered for the
Empire--Belisarius lands in Sicily--Siege of Palermo--The South of Italy
overrun--Naples taken by a stratagem--Theodahad deposed by the
Goths--Witigis elected king--The Goths evacuate Rome--Belisarius enters
it--The long siege of Rome by the Goths who fail to take it--Belisarius
marches northward and captures Ravenna.

The Emperor's preparations for the Gothic war were soon made, and in the
summer of 535 two armies were sent forth from Constantinople, one
destined to act on the east and the other on the west of the Adriatic.
When we think of the mighty armaments by means of which Pompey and
Caesar, or even Licinius and Constantine, had contended for the mastery
of the Roman world, the forces entrusted to the generals of Justinian
seem strangely small. We are not informed of the precise number of the
army sent to Dalmatia, but the whole tenor of the narrative leads us to
infer that it consisted of not more than 3,000 or 4,000 men. It fought
with varying fortunes but with ultimate success. Salona, the Dalmatian
capital, was taken by the Imperial a