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 who made him aware that the permission, if granted, would have been futile owing to the obstructive dispositions of Teïas. A military council was now held; there was still a third way of entering the peninsula, which Totila had left unguarded, beset as it was by obstacles which seemed to preclude the passage of an army. By proceeding along the coast they would be secure from hostile interruption, but the land line was irregular, marshy, and broken by numerous estuaries of navigable rivers. By the advice of John, however, whose experience of a decade in the country qualified him to act as guide, this seemingly impassable route was undertaken and successfully accomplished. All the available ships and boats followed the army close to the shore; and by means of them, as often as the mouth of a river was reached, a floating bridge was improvised, over which the troops passed in safety.

After Narses arrived at Ravenna he gave the whole army a nine days' rest, during which time he received a further accession of strength through being joined by all the Byzantine detachments remaining in that region. Just as the work of recuperation was completed the Gothic governor of Ariminum, Usdrilas by name, taking umbrage at his apparent inactivity, addressed him a sharp, provocative letter. "After filling all Italy with rumours of the terrible host of barbarians, which you are bringing against us," said he, "you now stay loitering behind the walls of Ravenna. Come out at once and show your spirit to the Goths; no longer tantalize us, who are eager to meet you in the field." The eunuch smiled at the bravado of the Goth, and shortly