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 Chap, xli] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 329 the invasion of Italy is applied by Procopius to the second year of the Gothic War. 7 - After Belisarius had left sufficient garrisons in Palermo and Belisarius Syracuse, he embarked his troops at Messina, and landed them, itaiy and without resistance, on the opposite shores of Rhegium. A Naples. Gothic prince, who had married the daughter of Theodatus, was stationed with an army to guard the entrance of Italy ; but he imitated, without scruple, the example of a sovereign faith- less to his public and private duties. The perfidious Ebermor [Evermud] deserted with his followers to the Roman camp, and was dis- missed to enjoy the servile honours of the Byzantine court. 73 From Rhegium to Naples, the fleet and army of Belisarius, almost always in view of each other, advanced near three hundred miles along the sea-coast. The people of Bruttium, Lucania, and Campania, who abhorred the name and religion of the Goths, embraced the specious excuse that their ruined walls were incapable of defence ; the soldiers paid a just equiva- lent for a plentiful market ; and curiosity alone interrupted the peaceful occupations of the husbandman or artificer. Naples, which has swelled to a great and populous capital, long cherished the language and manners of a Grecian colony ; 7i and the choice of Virgil had ennobled this elegant retreat, which attracted the lovers of repose and study, from the noise, the smoke, and the laborious opulence of Rome. 75 As soon as the place was invested by sea and land, Belisarius gave audience to the deputies of the people, who exhorted him to disregard a conquest unworthy of his arms, to seek the Gothic king in a field of battle, and, after his victory, to claim, as the sovereign of Rome, the allegiance of the dependent cities. "When I treat with my enemies," 72 The series of the first Gothic war is represented by Procopius (1. i. c. 5-29 ; 1. ii. c. 1-30 ; 1. iii. c. 1) till the captivity of Vitiges. With the aid of Sigonius (Opp. torn. i. de Imp. Occident. 1. xvii. xviii.) and Muratori (Annali d'ltalia, torn, v.), I have gleaned some few additional facts. 73 Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 60, p. 702, edit. Grot, and torn. i. p. 221. Muratori, de Success. Regn. p. 241. 74 Nero (says Tacitus, Annal. xv. 35) Neapolim quasi Greecam urbem delegit. One hundred and fifty years afterwards, in the time of Septimius Severus, the Hellenism of the Neapolitans is praised by Philostratus : ytvos "EWyves Kal ixo-tvkoI, 8dfv Kal ras (TirovSas tSiv ywv 'EKA-qviKol el<rt (Icon. 1. i. p. 763, edit. Olear. [vol. ii., p. 295 in Kayser's ed. minor]). 75 The otium of Naples is praised by the Roman poets, by Virgil, Horace, Silius Italicus, and Statius (Cluver. Ital. Ant. 1. iv. p. 1149, 1150). In an elegant epistle (Sylv. 1. iii. 5, p. 94-98, edit. Markland), Statius undertakes the difficult task of drawing his wife from the pleasures of Rome to that calm retreat.