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 As soon as Belisarius heard of the departure of Totila, he determined to re-occupy the vacant capital. He brought all his men up from Portus, therefore, and set them to work in rebuilding in a temporary fashion the ruined stretches of wall. The stones, which lay scattered around, were collected and placed in position, without mortar, as accurately as possible; stakes were planted outside; the fosse was cleared; and the adjacent ground was plentifully sown with calthrops. In three weeks the work was completed, and, before long, many of the Romans, eager to occupy their old domiciles, returned, for whom the general laid up a copious store of provisions. When Totila heard of this procedure, he was much annoyed, and hastened back with all speed to recapture the city. The Goths delivered several assaults, but were invariably repulsed with loss, notwithstanding that they had torn down and destroyed all the gates, which had, therefore, to be defended by bodies of men packed in the open passages. Seeing no prospect of success, the Gothic King soon retired with his army, from whom he had to endure many reproaches for not having adopted more effective measures to render Rome untenable. In his retreat on this occasion he destroyed all the bridges over the Tiber except the Milvian. Belisarius now fitted new gates to the city and again went through the form of sending the keys to Justinian.

During the next year (547) the hostile armies frequently came into collision, but no decisive success was won. In 548 Belisarius recognized that the peninsula could not be conquered without much greater forces than he had at command, but Justinian appeared to be lukewarm in the matter, and the contingents he despatched from time to time were barely sufficient to counterbalance the losses. The Constable resolved, therefore, to send his wife on a special