Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/31

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 9 to a chief, who excelled in all the virtues and vices of a savage hero ; and the vigilance of Alboin provided an ample magazine of offensive and defensive arms for the use of the expedition. The portable wealth of the Lombards attended the march ; their lands they cheerfully relinquished to the Avars, on the solemn promise, which was made and accepted without a smile, that, if they failed in the conquest of Italy, these voluntary exiles should be reinstated in their former possessions. They might have failed, if Narses had been the antagonist of Disaffection •^ and doath of the Lombards ; and the veteran warriors, the associates of his Narses Gothic victory, would have encountered with reluctance an enemy whom they dreaded and esteemed. But the weakness of the Byzantine court was subservient to the barbarian cause ; and it was for the ruin of Italy that the emperor once listened to the complaints of his subjects. The virtues of Narses were stained with avarice ; and in his provincial reign of fifteen years he accumulated a treasure of gold and silver which surpassed the modesty of a private fortune. His government was op- pressive or unpopular, and the general discontent was expressed with ti-eedom by the deputies of Rome. Before the throne of Justin they boldly declared that their Gothic servitude had been more tolerable than the despotism of a Greek eunuch ; and that, unless their tyrant were instantly removed, they would consult their own happiness in the choice of a master. The apprehension of a revolt was urged by the voice of envy and detraction, which had so recently triumphed over the merit of Belisarius. A new exarch,^'' Longinus, was appointed to super- sede the conqueror of Italy, and the base motives of his recall were revealed in the insulting mandate of the empress Sophia, " that he should leave to men the exercise of arms, and return to his proper station among the maidens of the palace, where a distaff should be again placed in the hand of the eunuch ". " I will spin her such a thi'ead, as she shall not easily unravel ! " is said to have been the reply which indignation and conscious virtue extorted from the hero. Instead of attending, a slave axid a victim, at the gate of the Byzantine palace, he retired to Naples, from whence (if any credit is due to the belief of the times) Narses invited the Lombards to chastise the ingratitude of the prince and people.-'^' But the passions of the people are '*• [There is some doubt whether Longinii!? bore this title. The first governor who certainly was " exarch " is Smaragdus, the successor of Longinus, A.D. 585. J "" The charge of the deacon against Narses (1. ii. c. 5) may be groundless ; but the weak apology of the cardinal (Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.D. 567, No. 8-12) is