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 course that was intelligible to them, and they possessed the country as brigands, not as civilized conquerors. The bulk of their army was, in fact, composed of German tribes, who had not yet been converted to Christianity. Even the Goths recognized shortly that they had nothing to hope for from such allies; and before long, Aligernus, the brother of Teïas, journeyed voluntarily to the north and presented himself before Narses with the keys of Cumae in his hand.

At the first flush of spring Leuthar and Butilin roused themselves to prosecute their raid, and made a rapid and destructive march through Central Italy until they arrived on the south of Rome. The brothers now divided their forces, and, while one half carried their ravages down to the Sicilian strait, the other devastated the eastern tract of the peninsula until they were brought up by the waters of the Mediterranean. The churches were broken into and rifled of all their precious ornaments by the heathen Germans, but the Orthodox Franks abstained scrupulously from any such sacrilege. The summer was already at its height, when communication was reopened between the Frankish leaders; and Leuthar announced his decision to return home forthwith in order to enjoy the fruits of the expedition. He exhorted his brother to follow his example, and not stake the rich spoils of Italy on the doubtful event of a war with the Romans. Between Butilin and the Goths, however, a bond had been executed in precise terms, by which it was prearranged that, should he succeed in ousting the Byzantines, he should become their king. He, therefore, remained in Campania, whilst his brother proceeded to retrace his steps to the north. On the way a foreguard of three thousand men fell into an ambush, contrived by Artabanes at Fanum,