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of the Romans would remain quiet in Auximum and would follow them, never to do them harm. 6.16.21 And he sent a very noteworthy army with ships, which Herodian and Uliaris and Narses 6.16.22 the brother of Aratius were commanding. And Ildiger was in supreme command of the fleet, whom Belisarius instructed to sail straight for Ariminum, taking care that they should not attempt to land on the shore there while the infantry was left far behind. For they were to march by a road 6.16.23 not far from the coast. And he ordered another army, which Martinus commanded, to go along the coast, following these ships, instructing them, when they came very near the enemy, to light more fires than was warranted by the size of their army, so as to give the enemy the impression of a much larger force. 6.16.24 But he himself, with Narses and the rest of the army, went by another road very far from the coast, through the city of Urbisalia, which Alaric had so destroyed in former times that nothing whatever of its former adornment was left to it, except one gate and a small remnant of its paved foundation. 6.17.1 Here it befell me to see a spectacle of the following sort. When the army with John came into Picenum, there arose, as was natural, a great confusion among the people there. 6.17.2 And of the women, some fled suddenly wherever each one of them could, while others were captured and led away without any order by those who chanced upon them. 6.17.3 In this place, then, a certain woman who had just given birth happened to leave her infant lying on the ground in its swaddling-clothes and, whether she fled or was captured by someone, she was no longer able to return there; for it clearly happened that she disappeared either from the world of men 6.17.4 or from Italy. So the infant, being in this desolate place, was crying. But a certain she-goat, seeing it, took pity on it and coming near (for she herself had also recently given birth) offered her udder and carefully guarded the infant, lest a dog or some 6.17.5 wild beast should harm it. And as a long time was spent in this confusion, it happened that the infant partook of this udder for a very long time. 6.17.6 But when it later became known to the Piceni that the emperor's army had come there for the harm of the Goths, but that the Romans would suffer no unpleasantness from it, they all immediately returned home. 6.17.7 And in Urbisalia the women, as many as were of Roman stock, being with their husbands, when they saw the infant surviving in its swaddling-clothes, being unable in any way to comprehend what had happened, were in great wonder that it was alive. 6.17.8 And each woman offered her breast, those who happened to be fit for this. But the infant would no longer accept human milk, and the she-goat was not at all willing to leave it, but, bleating constantly around the infant, she seemed to those present to be acting terribly, because the women, coming so close to the infant, were thus disturbing it, and, to put it simply, she claimed it as her own offspring. 6.17.9 And from that time the women no longer bothered the infant, and the she-goat, more fearlessly, both nourished and guarded it, caring for it in all other respects. For this reason the local people called this infant Aegisthus. 6.17.10 And when it happened that I was staying there, they, making a demonstration of the strange event, both led me to the child and deliberately distressed it, 6.17.11 so that it would cry out. And it, distressed by those who were hurting it, began to cry, and the she-goat, hearing it (for she was about a stone's throw away), came to it running and with much bleating, and coming up, she stood over it, so that no one could hurt it any more. Such, then, are the facts concerning this Aegisthus. 6.17.12 But Belisarius was proceeding through the mountains in that region. For since he was much inferior in numbers to the enemy, he did not want to come to grips with them directly, since he saw that the barbarians were desperately fighting those who encountered them. 6.17.13 But he thought that they, as soon as they learned that an army of the enemy was advancing against them from all sides, would think of no resistance, but would immediately turn to flight. And he did attain his true opinion, not having conjectured outside of what was to be. 6.17.14 For when in the mountains

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Ῥωμαίων ἔν τε Αὐξίμῳ ἡσυχῆ μενεῖν καὶ οὔποτε κακουργήσοντας 6.16.21 σφίσιν ἕψεσθαι. στρατιὰν δὲ ἀξιολογωτάτην ξὺν ναυσὶν ἔπεμψεν, ἧς Ἡρωδιανός τε καὶ Οὐλίαρις καὶ Ναρ6.16.22 σῆς Ἀρατίου ἀδελφὸς ἦρχον. αὐτοκράτωρ δὲ τῷ στόλῳ Ἰλδίγερ ἐφειστήκει, ᾧ δὴ εὐθὺ Ἀριμίνου Βελισάριος ἐπέστελλε πλεῖν, φυλασσομένῳ ὅπως μὴ μακρὰν ἀπολελειμμένου τοῦ πεζοῦ στρατοῦ καταίρειν ἐς τὴν ἐκείνῃ ἀκτὴν ἐγχειρήσωσιν. ὁδῷ γὰρ αὐτοὺς πορεύεσθαι 6.16.23 τῆς ἠϊόνος οὐ πολλῷ ἄποθεν. καὶ στρατιὰν μὲν ἄλλην, ἧς Μαρτῖνος ἦρχε, ταῖς ναυσὶ ταύταις παρακολουθοῦντας κατὰ τὴν παραλίαν ἐκέλευεν ἰέναι, ἐντειλάμενος, ἐπειδὰν ἄγχιστα τῶν πολεμίων ἵκωνται, πυρὰ πλείονα καὶ οὐ κατὰ λόγον τοῦ στρατοῦ καίειν, δόκησίν τε πλήθους πολλῷ πλείονος τοῖς ἐναντίοις παρέχε6.16.24 σθαι. αὐτὸς δὲ ἄλλην ὁδὸν τῆς ἠϊόνος ἀπωτάτω οὖσαν ξύν τε Ναρσῇ καὶ τῷ ἄλλῳ στρατῷ διὰ πόλεως Οὐρβισαλίας ᾔει, ἣν δὴ ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν χρόνοις οὕτως Ἀλάριχος καθεῖλεν ὥστε ἄλλο γε αὐτῇ οὐδ' ὁτιοῦν ἀπολέλειπται τοῦ πρότερον κόσμου, ὅτι μὴ πύλης μιᾶς καὶ τῆς κατασκευῆς τοῦ ἐδάφους λείψανόν τι βραχύ. 6.17.1 Ἐνταῦθά μοι ἰδεῖν θέαμα ξυνηνέχθη τοιόνδε. ἡνίκα ὁ ξὺν τῷ Ἰωάννῃ στρατὸς ἐς Πικηνοὺς ἦλθε, γέγονεν, ὡς τὸ εἰκὸς, ταραχή τις πολλὴ τοῖς ταύτῃ 6.17.2 ἀνθρώποις. τῶν τε γυναικῶν αἱ μὲν ἔφευγον ἐξαπιναίως ὅπη αὐτῶν ἑκάστῃ δυνατὰ ἐγεγόνει, αἱ δὲ καταλαμβανόμεναι ἤγοντο κόσμῳ οὐδενὶ πρὸς τῶν ἐντυχόν6.17.3 των. ἐν τούτῳ οὖν τῷ χωρίῳ μία τις γυνὴ ἀρτίως τεκοῦσα καὶ τὸ παιδίον ἀπολιποῦσα ἐν τοῖς σπαργάνοις ἔτυχε ἐπὶ γῆς κείμενον καὶ εἴτε φεύγουσα εἴτε ὑφ' ὁτουοῦν καταληφθεῖσα, ἐνταῦθα ἐπανήκειν οὐκέτι ἔσχεν· ἀφανισθῆναι γὰρ αὐτῇ δηλονότι ἢ ἐξ ἀνθρώ6.17.4 πων ἢ ἐξ Ἰταλίας ξυνέπεσε. τὸ μὲν οὖν παιδίον ἐν ταύτῃ δὴ τῇ ἐρημίᾳ γεγονὸς ἔκλαιεν. αἲξ δὲ αὐτὸ μία ἰδοῦσα ᾠκτίζετό τε καὶ πλησίον ἀφικομένη (ἔναγχος γὰρ τεκοῦσα καὶ αὐτὴ ἔτυχε) τὸν τιτθὸν ἐδίδου καὶ τὸ παιδίον ξὺν ἐπιμελείᾳ ἐφύλασσε, μὴ κύων ἤ τι 6.17.5 θηρίον αὐτὸ λυμάνηται. χρόνου τε τῇ ταραχῇ τριβέντος συχνοῦ τούτου δὴ τοῦ τιτθοῦ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον 6.17.6 μεταλαχεῖν τὸ παιδίον ξυνέβη. γνωσθὲν δὲ Πικηνοῖς ὕστερον ὅτι δὴ ὁ βασιλέως στρατὸς ἐπὶ Γότθων μὲν τῷ πονηρῷ ἐνταῦθα ἥκοι, Ῥωμαῖοι δὲ οὐ πείσονται οὐδὲν πρὸς αὐτοῦ ἄχαρι, ἐπανῆλθον εὐθὺς οἴκαδε 6.17.7 ἅπαντες. ἔν τε Οὐρβισαλίᾳ ξὺν τοῖς ἀνδράσιν αἱ γυναῖκες γενόμεναι, ὅσαι γένος Ῥωμαῖαι ἦσαν, ἐπειδὴ τὸ παιδίον ἐν τοῖς σπαργάνοις περιὸν εἶδον, τὸ γεγονὸς ξυμβάλλειν οὐδαμῆ ἔχουσαι ἐν θαύματι μεγάλῳ 6.17.8 ὅτι δὴ βιῴη πεποίηνται. καὶ τὸν τιτθὸν ἑκάστη ἐδίδου, αἳ δὴ πρὸς τοῦτο ἐπιτηδείως ἔχουσαι ἔτυχον. ἀλλ' οὔτε τὸ παιδίον ἀνθρώπειον γάλα ἔτι προσίετο καὶ ἡ αἲξ αὐτοῦ μεθίεσθαι ἥκιστα ἤθελεν, ἀλλὰ μηκωμένη ἀμφὶ τὸ παιδίον ἐνδελεχέστατα, δεινὰ τοῖς παροῦσιν ἐδόκει ποιεῖσθαι, ὅτι τῷ παιδίῳ ἄγχιστα αἱ γυναῖκες ἰοῦσαι οὕτω δὴ αὐτὸ ἐνοχλοῖεν, τό τε ξύμπαν εἰπεῖν μεταποιεῖσθαι ὡς οἰκείου τοῦ βρέφους ἠξίου. 6.17.9 καὶ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ αἵ τε γυναῖκες τὸ παιδίον οὐκέτι ἠνώχλουν καὶ ἡ αἲξ ἀδεέστερον ἔτρεφέ τε καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἐπιμελομένη ἐφύλαττε. διὸ δὴ Αἴγισθον οἱ ἐπιχώριοι 6.17.10 τοῦτο δὴ τὸ παιδίον ἐκάλουν. καὶ ἡνίκα μοι ἐπιδημεῖν ἐνταῦθα ξυνέβη, ἐπίδειξιν τοῦ παραλόγου ποιούμενοι παρά τε τὸ παιδίον ἦγον καὶ αὐτὸ ἐξεπίτηδες, 6.17.11 ἵνα βοᾷ, ἐλύπουν. καὶ τὸ μὲν τοῖς λυποῦσιν ἀχθόμενον ἔκλαεν, ἀκούσασα δὲ ἡ αἲξ (διεστήκει γὰρ αὐτοῦ ὅσον λίθου βολὴν) δρόμῳ τε καὶ μηκηθμῷ ἐχομένη πολλῷ παρ' αὐτὸ ᾔει, ὕπερθέν τε αὐτοῦ ἐλθοῦσα ἔστη, ὡς μή τις αὐτὸ λυπεῖν τὸ λοιπὸν δύνηται. τὰ μὲν οὖν ἀμφὶ τῷ Αἰγίσθῳ τούτῳ τοιαῦτά ἐστι. 6.17.12 Βελισάριος δὲ διὰ τῶν ταύτῃ ὀρῶν ἐχώρει. πλήθει γὰρ παρὰ πολὺ ἐλασσούμενος τῶν ἐναντίων οὐκ ἤθελεν αὐτοῖς ἐκ τοῦ εὐθέος εἰς χεῖρας ἰέναι, ἐπεὶ καὶ θανατῶντας τοῖς ξυμπεσοῦσι τοὺς βαρβάρους ἑώρα. 6.17.13 ᾤετο δὲ αὐτοὺς, ἐπειδὰν τάχιστα πύθωνται πανταχόθεν σφίσι πολεμίων ἐπιέναι στρατὸν, ἀλκῆς ἂν οὐδεμιᾶς μνησθῆναι, ἀλλ' αὐτίκα δὴ μάλα ἐς φυγὴν τρέψεσθαι. καὶ ἔτυχέ γε τῆς ἀληθοῦς δόξης, οὐκ ἔξω τοῦ ἐσομέ6.17.14 νου ὑποτοπήσας. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσιν