Count Belisarius

Thereupon Belisarius wrote to Narses at Rimini, reminding him that the divisions of an army are like the limbs of a human being, and must be controlled and directed by a single authority, the head. 'I would abandon the siege of Orvieto and hurry to Milan with my 800 cuirassiers, but that I must remain in the neighbourhood of Rome -I cannot leave the defence of the city wholly to the Roman levies. Also, a forced march of 300 miles through Tuscany in the present bad weather would be the ruin of my horses. I implore you in the name of God, send your friend John, and Justin the grand-nephew of our master the Emperor, with all available forces to assist Martin. Or go yourself, and derive whatever glory from the campaign you may desire.'

Thus pleadingly addressed, Narses gave Bloody John the required permission; but it was too late. Consider. Martin's messenger had 300 miles to cover from the Po to Orvieto; and Belisarius's messenger 300 miles to cover before he reached Bloody John, who was at Padua; and Bloody John's messenger to Belisarius 300 miles likewise, not hurrying cither; and then Belisarius's messenger to Narses at Rimini nearly 200 miles more. There was a further delay caused by Bloody John's having an unseasonable bout of malarial fever. By the time that he had recovered and was ready to set out for Milan with 4,000 cavalry, and boats on ox-wagons for the passage of the Po, the city had fallen. This was already the beginning of the year 539, the year of the tailed comet.

The lives of the thousand men of Belisarius's garrison at Milan were spared by the Goths and Burgundians on their entry; but by order of Uriah all males of the civil population except mere children were butchered, to the number of 100,000, and at the very altars of the churches where they took sanctuary. The soldiers made free with the women, of whom as many as were of any use were taken away as slaves; the Burgundians being allowed first choice in recognition of their services. The old and ugly and infirm were left behind to starve. All the children were taken off by the Goths. The fortifications of Milan were dismantled and the churches levelled to the ground: the Catholic churches by the Arian Goths, but the Arian ones by the Catholic Burgundians. Great fires started and spread unchecked, and one-half of the city was demolished.

Martin and Uliaris returned to Orvicto. When Belisarius heard of the fate of Milan he was so shocked that he would not admit them to his presence, and throughout that campaign he did not speak another word to Uliaris except to give him necessary orders. Uliaris, he said, could have done some small thing for the honour of the Household Regiment – could at least have raided the Gothic communications.

At last a message came from the Emperor Justinian, recalling Narses on the ground that he could no longer be spared from his office as Court Chamberlain, and confirming Belisarius's appointment as supreme commander, under himself, of the Armies in Italy. Justinian did not reprove Narses, even when he learned of the massacre at Milan, which Narses might have prevented, but continued to behave with great friendliness towards him. Narses took away from Italy a thousand of the men whom he had enlisted for service there. Also, his departure was the excuse for a revolt of the 2,000 Meridian cavalry who were under his direct command. They refused to accept orders from Belisarius and marched into Liguria, pillaging the open country as they went; there they concluded a peace treaty with Uriah, selling him all their slaves and spare possessions and being granted fertile lands to colonize in the neighbourhood of Como. But by a sudden change of heart, to which these barbarous people are no less liable than a city mob, they repented and marched all the way back to Constantinople by way of Macedonia, hoping to be pardoned by the Emperor through the intercession of Narses. (Narses did not fail them.)

Thus Belisarius was left in supreme command indeed, but with a field army, you would say, of no more than 6,000 trained men. However, he had now recalled the garrisons left behind in Sicily and the South of Italy and replaced them with Roman levies, and he had also made soldiers of a sort out of the Italian peasantry, so that 25,000 men were available for campaigning purposes. Five thousand he sent under Justin to besiege Fiesole. Three thousand under Bloody John, togther with 3,000 more under another John, who was surnamed The Epicure, he sent up the Po valley to resist any attempt on Uriah's part to join forces with Wittich at Ravenna. Belisarius himself with 11,000 men settled down to the siege of Osimo, the capital city of Picenum.