let down a stout leather thong which they fastened to the
stem of an olive-tree, and by which all their comrades mounted. They
rushed to that part of the walls beneath which Belisarius was standing,
blew their trumpets, and assisted the besiegers to ascend. The Gothic
garrison were taken prisoners and treated honourably by Belisarius. The
city suffered some of the usual horrors of a sack from the wild Hunnish
soldiers of the Empire, but these were somewhat mitigated, and the
citizens who had been taken prisoners were restored to liberty, in
compliance with the earnest entreaties of Belisarius.

The fall of Neapolis, to whose assistance no Gothic army had marched,
and the unhindered conquest of Southern Italy crowned the already
towering edifice of Theodahad's unpopularity. It is not likely that this
selfish and unwarlike pedant--a "nithing", as they probably called
him--had ever been aught but a most unwelcome necessity to the
lion-hearted Ostrogoths, and for all but the families and friends of the
three slain noblemen, the imprisonment and the permitted murder of his
benefactress must have deepened dislike into horror. His dishonest
intrigues with Constantinople were known to many, intrigues in which
even after Amalasuentha's death he still offered himself and his crown
for sale to the Emperor, and the Emperor, notwithstanding his brave
words about a truceless war, seemed willing to pay the caitiff his
price. Some gleams of success which shone upon the Gothic arms in
Dalmatia towards the end of 535 filled the feeble soul of Theodahad with
presumptuous hope, and he broke off with arrogant faithlessness the
negotiations which he had begun. Still, with all the gallant men under
him longing to be employed, he struck not one blow for his crown and
country, but shut himself up in his palace, seeking by the silliest
auguries to ascertain the issue of the war. The most notable of these
vaticinations was "the Augury of the Hogs", which he practised by the
advice of a certain Jewish magician. He shut up in separate pens three
batches of hogs, each batch consisting of ten. One batch was labelled
"Romans" (meaning the Latin-speaking inhabitants of Italy), another
"Goths", and the third "Soldiers of the Emperor". They were all left for
a certain number of days without food, and when the appointed day was
come, and the pens were opened, all the "Gothic" hogs but two were found
dead. The "Emperor's soldiers", with very few exceptions,