rius lay on the other side of Hadria; in Italy the Imperial
commanders scarce moved from the walls where each had found safety.
Already suffering dearth (for Totila now had ships upon the Tyrrhene
Sea, hindering the corn vessels that made for Portus), such of her
citizens as had hope elsewhere and could escape, making haste to flee,
watching the slow advance of the Gothic conqueror, and fearful of the
leaguer which must presently begin, Rome waited.

One morning the attention of those who went about the streets was
caught by certain written papers which had been fixed during the night
on the entrance of public buildings and at other such conspicuous
points; they bore a proclamation of the King of the Goths. Reminding
the Roman people that nearly the whole of Italy was now his, and urging
them to avoid the useless sufferings of a siege, Totila made promise
that, were the city surrendered to him, neither hurt nor loss should
befall one of the inhabitants; and that under his rule Rome should have
the same liberty, the same honour, as in the time of the glorious
Theodoric. Before these papers had been torn down, their purport became
universally known; everywhere men whispered together; but those who
would have welcomed the coming of Totila could not act upon their wish,
and the Greeks were confident of relief long ere the city could be
taken by storm or brought to extremities. Bessas well knew the numbers
of Totila's army; he himself commanded a garrison of three thousand
men, and not much larger than this was the force with which, after
leaving soldiers to maintain his conquest throughout the land, the king
now drew towards Rome. At the proclamation Bessas laughed, for he saw
in it a device dictated by weakness.

And now, in these days of late autumn, the Gothic army lay all but in
sight. Watchers from the walls pointed eastward, to where on its
height, encircled by the foaming Anio, stood the little town of Tibur;
this, a stronghold overlooking the Ager Romanus, Totila had turned
aside to besiege. The place must soon yield to him. How long before his
horsemen came riding along the Tiburtine Way?

Close by Tibur, on a gently rising slope, sheltered by mountains alike
from northern winds and from the unwholesome breathing of the south,
stood the vast pleasure-house built by the Emperor Hadrian, with its
presentment in little of the scenes and architecture which had most
impressed him in his travels throughout the Roman wo