he still remaining noble families. Goths and Greeks
alike turned against them. In Campania and in Sicily many distinguished
Romans had waited for better times. Now not only the flying Goths cut down
all who fell into their hands, but the barbarian troops in the army of
Narses, at their entrance into Rome, followed the example. Then, again,
three hundred youths of the noblest families, who had been kept as hostages
at Pavia, were all executed by Teia. The western consulate ended in 534,
Flavius Theodorus Paulinus being the last. It continued seven years longer
in the East, where to Flavius Basilius, consul in 541, no successor was
given. When Justinian abolished this dignity it had lasted 1050 years, with
few interruptions. Though for more than half this time it had been a mere
title of honour, yet the consuls gave their name to the year, and served
still, it may be, to mark to the world the unity of the Roman empire.

From Rome the conqueror Narses turned his steps southwards to Cumae, that
he might seize the treasure of the Goths, which was guarded by the new king
Teia's brother Aligern. This brought Teia himself by a rapid march down the
Hadriatic coast, and crossing Italy obliquely, he appeared at the foot of
Vesuvius. There, in the spring of 553, Teia fought a last and desperate
battle over the grave of sunken cities, in view of the Gulf of Naples. At
the head of a small host, he fought from early morn to noon. It was like a
battle of Homeric warriors. Then he could no longer support the weight of
twelve lances in his shield, and, calling to his armour-bearer for a fresh
shield, he fell transfixed by a lance. The next day the remnant of the
army, save a thousand who fought their way through and reached Pavia,
accepted terms from Narses, to leave Italy and fight no more against the
emperor.

But Italy was far yet from tranquillity. Teia had incited the Alemans and
the Franks to break into Italy. The two brothers, Leuthar and Bucelin, led
a raid of 70,000 men, who ravaged Central and Southern Italy down to the
Straits of Sicily. One of these barbarians carried back his spoil-laden
troops to the Po, where pestilence consumed him and his horde. The host of
the other brother, Bucelin, when it had reached Capua, was overthrown on
the Vulturnus by Narses, with a slaughter as utter as that which Marius
inflicted on the Cimbri. Scarcely five are said to have escaped. So, in
the spring of 555, after twenty years of destruction