Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/229

 their ally. Soon, however, they found themselves involved in a deadly tumult, myriads of axes were flung, and their disabled comrades were slaughtered on every side, until the whole Gothic army was routed and hurried with headlong speed towards Ravenna. Shortly the disordered bands of Goths were noticed flying across the country by the Roman forces engaged in that district, among them being the redoubtable John, and they immediately concluded that Belisarius had fought a successful battle, and was in hot pursuit of the beaten enemy. All rose expectantly and advanced in the direction of the impulse, when they also found themselves in collision with the invading host, which bore down on them in an irresistible mass. Overwhelmed by the immensely superior numbers, they turned and, abandoning all their positions, hurried by forced marches to join Belisarius in Tuscany. The reason of this extraordinary incursion was now clearly apprehended; believing that the Romans and Goths had reduced each other to a state of inanition, the King of the most faithless of nations (the Franks are so characterized) thought the moment opportune to possess himself of a large tract of Italian territory. A remonstrance was at once addressed to him by Belisarius, who appealed to the obligations of probity, and the compelling nature of his previous engagements to divert him from his purpose. But a better argument was at hand: bivouacked in an exhausted country, with a deficient commissariat and no water supply but the tainted stream of the Po, an epidemic of dysentery soon pervaded the teeming multitude, and they hastened to regain their own habitations after losing a third of their number. *