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an army beyond counting, which the emperor has gathered from every land and sent to us, and a fleet, such as the Romans have never before assembled, covers both the coast of Campania and most of the Ionian gulf. 6.3.31 And in a few days they will arrive among us with all the provisions, to both end our want and to overwhelm the camps of the barbarians with a multitude of missiles. 6.3.32 I therefore reckoned it better to put off the time for battle until their arrival and with safety to secure the victory in the war, than, made bold by unreasoning haste, to throw away the salvation of all. And that they will arrive immediately and not delay further, I will see to it.” 6.4.1 With these words Belisarius heartened the Roman people and dismissed them, but Procopius, who wrote this history, he ordered to go immediately to Naples. For a certain report was circulating that the emperor would send an army there. 6.4.2 And he instructed him to fill as many ships as possible with grain and to gather all the soldiers who at present happened to have come from Byzantium, or had been left there for the purpose of guarding horses or for any other reason whatsoever, many of whom he had heard had gone to the places in Campania, and to take some of the garrisons there, and to come with them, conveying the grain to 6.4.3 Ostia, where the port of the Romans is. And he, with Mundilas the guardsman and a few horsemen, passed by night through the gate which is named after Paul the apostle, eluding the camp of the enemy, 6.4.4 which was guarding very near the Appian Way. And when Mundilas and his men returned to Rome and reported that Procopius had already reached Campania without encountering any of the barbarians, for the enemy never marched outside their camp at night, all became hopeful, and Belisarius, now taking courage, devised the following: 6.4.5 he sent out many of the horsemen to the nearby strongholds, instructing that, if any of the enemy should go that way in order to bring provisions into their camps, they were not to permit them, by continually making sorties and ambushes against them from all the places thereabouts, but to hinder them with all their strength, so that the city might be less pressed by want than before and the barbarians might seem to be besieged themselves rather than besieging 6.4.6 the Romans. Martinus and Trajan, then, with a thousand men, he ordered to go to Tarracina. And with them he also sent his wife Antonina, instructing that she be sent to Naples with a few men and await in safety the fortune that would befall them. 6.4.7 And Magnus and Sinthues the guardsman, taking about five hundred men, he sent to the fortress of Tibur, one hundred and forty stades distant from Rome. 6.4.8 To the town of the Albani, however, being so many stades away, and lying on the Appian Way, he had previously happened to send Gontharis with some Heruli, whom the Goths overpowered and drove from there not long after. 6.4.9 And there is a certain church of Paul the apostle, fourteen stades distant from the circuit-wall of Rome. The river Tiber flows past it. There is no fortification here, but a certain portico extending from the city all the way to the church, and many other buildings being around it, make the place not easy of access. 6.4.10 And there is also a certain reverence for these sacred places among the Goths. To neither of the churches of the apostles, at least, during the whole time of the war, was any unpleasantness done by them, but it happened that everything there was performed by the priests, just as was 6.4.11 customary. And in this place Valerian, having brought all the Huns, he ordered to make a palisade along the bank of the Tiber, so that their horses might be pastured more safely and the Goths might be still more prevented from going at will as far as possible from their own 6.4.12 camps. And he did accordingly. And when the Huns had encamped there, where the general 6.4.13 had commanded, he rode off to the city. Belisarius, then, having accomplished these things, remained quiet, not beginning a battle, but from the

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στράτευμα ἡμῖν ἀριθμοῦ «κρεῖσσον ἐκ πάσης γῆς ἀθροίσας βασιλεὺς ἔπεμψε «καὶ στόλος, ὅσος οὐ πώποτε Ῥωμαίοις ξυνέστη, τήν «τε Καμπανίας ἀκτὴν καὶ κόλπου τοῦ Ἰονίου τὰ 6.3.31 «πλεῖστα καλύπτει. ὀλίγων τε ἡμερῶν ξὺν πᾶσι τοῖς «ἐπιτηδείοις παρ' ἡμᾶς ἥξουσι, τήν τε ἀπορίαν ἡμῖν «διαλύσοντες καὶ πλήθει βελῶν τὰ τῶν βαρβάρων 6.3.32 «στρατόπεδα καταχώσοντες. ἐλογισάμην οὖν ἐς τὴν «ἐκείνων παρουσίαν τὸν τῆς ξυμβολῆς μᾶλλον ἀποθέ»σθαι καιρὸν καὶ ξὺν τῷ ἀσφαλεῖ τὸ τοῦ πολέμου «πορίζεσθαι κράτος, ἢ σπουδῇ ἀλογίστῳ θρασυνόμενος «τὴν τῶν ὅλων σωτηρίαν προΐεσθαι. ὅπως δὲ αὐτίκα «τε ἥξουσι καὶ μὴ περαιτέρω μελλήσουσιν, ἐγὼ προ»νοήσω.» 6.4.1 Τούτοις μὲν Ῥωμαίων τὸν δῆμον παραθρασύνας Βελισάριος ἀπεπέμψατο, Προκόπιον δὲ, ὃς τάδε ξυνέγραψεν, αὐτίκα ἐς Νεάπολιν ἐκέλευεν ἰέναι. φήμη γάρ τις περιήγγελλεν ὡς στράτευμα ἐνταῦθα βασιλεὺς 6.4.2 πέμψειε. καί οἱ ἐπέστελλε ναῦς τε ὅτι πλείστας σίτου ἐμπλήσασθαι καὶ στρατιώτας ἀγεῖραι ἅπαντας, ὅσους ἐν τῷ παρόντι ἐκ Βυζαντίου ἥκειν τετύχηκεν, ἢ ἵππων φυλακῆς ἕνεκα ἢ ἄλλου ὁτουοῦν ἐνταῦθα λελεῖφθαι, οἵους δὴ πολλοὺς ἐς τὰ ἐν Καμπανίᾳ χωρία ἠκηκόει ἰέναι, τινὰς δὲ καὶ τῶν ταύτῃ φρουρῶν ἀφελέσθαι, ἥξειν τε ξὺν αὐτοῖς τὸν σῖτον παρακομίζοντι ἐς 6.4.3 Ὀστίαν, ὅθι τὸ Ῥωμαίων ἐπίνειον. καὶ ὁ μὲν ξὺν τῷ Μουνδίλᾳ τῷ δορυφόρῳ καὶ ὀλίγοις ἱππεῦσι διὰ πύλης, ἣ Παύλου τοῦ ἀποστόλου ἐπώνυμός ἐστι, νύκτωρ διῆλθε, λαθὼν τὸ τῶν πολεμίων στρατόπεδον, 6.4.4 ὅπερ ἄγχιστα ὁδοῦ τῆς Ἀππίας ἐφύλασσεν. ἐπειδή τε ἐς Ῥώμην οἱ ἀμφὶ Μουνδίλαν ἐπανήκοντες ἀφῖχθαι ἤδη Προκόπιον ἐς Καμπανίαν οὐδενὶ ἐντυχόντα τῶν βαρβάρων ἀπήγγελλον, νύκτωρ γὰρ οὔποτε τοὺς πολεμίους ἔξω τοῦ στρατοπέδου πορεύεσθαι, εὐέλπιδες μὲν γεγένηνται πάντες, Βελισάριος δὲ θαρσήσας ἤδη 6.4.5 ἐπενόει τάδε· τῶν ἱππέων πολλοὺς ἐς τὰ πλησίον ἐξέπεμπεν ὀχυρώματα, ἐπιστείλας, ἤν τινες τῶν πολεμίων ταύτῃ ἴωσιν, ἐφ' ᾧ τὰ ἐπιτήδεια ἐς τὰ στρατόπεδα ἐσκομίσονται, ἔνθεν αὐτοῖς ἐπεκδρομάς τε καὶ ἐνέδρας πανταχόθι τῶν τῇδε χωρίων ἀεὶ ποιουμένους μὴ ἐπιτρέπειν, ἀλλὰ παντὶ σθένει ἀπείργειν, ὅπως ἥ τε πόλις ἐλασσόνως ἢ πρότερον τῇ ἀπορίᾳ πιέζοιτο καὶ οἱ βάρβαροι πολιορκεῖσθαι μᾶλλον ἢ αὐτοὶ πολιορ6.4.6 κεῖν Ῥωμαίους δόξειαν. Μαρτῖνον μὲν οὖν καὶ Τραϊανὸν ξὺν χιλίοις ἐς Ταρακίναν ἐκέλευσεν ἰέναι. οἷς δὴ καὶ Ἀντωνίναν τὴν γυναῖκα ξυνέπεμψεν, ἐντειλάμενος ἔς τε Νεάπολιν αὐτὴν στέλλεσθαι ξὺν ὀλίγοις τισὶ καὶ τύχην ἐκ τοῦ ἀσφαλοῦς τὴν σφίσι ξυμβησο6.4.7 μένην καραδοκεῖν. Μάγνον δὲ καὶ Σινθούην τὸν δορυφόρον πεντακοσίους μάλιστα ἐπαγομένους ἐς Τίβουριν τὸ φρούριον ἔπεμψε, σταδίους τεσσαράκοντα 6.4.8 καὶ ἑκατὸν Ῥώμης διέχον. ἐς μέντοι τὸ Ἀλβανῶν πόλισμα, σταδίους μὲν τοσούτους ἀπέχον, ἐν δὲ τῇ Ἀππίᾳ ὁδῷ κείμενον, πρότερον ἤδη Γόνθαριν ξὺν Ἐρούλοις τισὶ πέμψας ἔτυχεν, οὓς δὴ οἱ Γότθοι βιασάμενοι ἐξήλασαν ἐνθένδε οὐ πολλῷ ὕστερον. 6.4.9 Ἔστι δέ τις νεὼς Παύλου τοῦ ἀποστόλου, Ῥώμης τοῦ περιβόλου τεσσαρεσκαίδεκα σταδίους ἀπέχων. ὅ τε ποταμὸς αὐτὸν παραρρεῖ Τίβερις. ἐνταῦθα ὀχύρωμα μὲν οὐδαμῆ ἐστι, στοὰ δέ τις ἄχρι ἐς τὸν νεὼν διήκουσα ἐκ τῆς πόλεως, ἄλλαι τε πολλαὶ οἰκοδομίαι ἀμφ' αὐτὸν οὖσαι οὐκ εὐέφοδον ποιοῦσι τὸν χῶρον. 6.4.10 ἔστι δέ τις καὶ αἰδὼς πρὸς ταῦτα δὴ τὰ ἱερὰ τοῖς Γότθοις. ἐς οὐδέτερον γοῦν τοῖν ἀποστόλοιν νεὼν παρὰ πάντα τὸν τοῦ πολέμου καιρὸν ἄχαρί τι πρὸς αὐτῶν γέγονεν, ἀλλὰ πάντα τῇδε τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν, ᾗπερ 6.4.11 εἰώθει, ἐξοσιοῦσθαι ξυμβέβηκεν. ἐν τούτῳ δὲ τῷ χωρίῳ Βαλεριανὸν, τοὺς Οὔννους ἅπαντας ἀπαγαγόντα, χαράκωμα παρὰ τοῦ Τιβέριδος τὴν ὄχθην ἐκέλευε ποιεῖσθαι, ὅπως ἂν αὐτοῖς τε ἀδεέστερον οἱ ἵπποι τρέφοιντο καὶ οἱ Γότθοι μᾶλλον ἔτι ἀναστέλλοιντο τοῦ κατ' ἐξουσίαν ὡς ἀπωτάτω τῶν στρατοπέδων τῶν σφε6.4.12 τέρων ἰέναι. ὁ δὲ κατὰ ταῦτα ἐποίει. ἐπειδή τε οἱ Οὖννοι ἐνταῦθα ἐστρατοπεδεύσαντο, οὗπερ ὁ στρατη6.4.13 γὸς ἐνετέλλετο, ἐς τὴν πόλιν ἀπήλαυνε. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν Βελισάριος διαπεπραγμένος ἡσύχαζε, μάχης μὲν οὐκ ἄρχων, ἐκ δὲ τοῦ