Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/317

 is said that only five escaped death on the field of battle. Of the Romans only eighty were killed, and these were the men who stood in the ranks where they had to withstand the first shock of the Frankish charge. Shortly after this victory Narses proceeded to the reduction of Compsae, where the number of recalcitrant Goths, who had taken asylum with Ragnaris, now amounted to seven thousand. The fortress was blockaded during the winter; and at the beginning of spring (555), after their leader had been slain in a chance encounter, the occupants surrendered unconditionally to the eunuch, who sent them to Constantinople, so that their services might be utilized for the future in the defence of the Empire.

After a war of twenty years Justinian at last felt himself to be the veritable sovereign of Italy; and he drew up forthwith a comprehensive Act for the future government of the country. The title of this document, the legate to whose hand it was entrusted, and the place chosen for its promulgation, were all worthy of its importance. In the autumn of 554 the exiled Pope Vigilius quitted the Imperial capital to annunciate the Pragmatic Sanction from the throne of St. Peter as the Emperor's message of amity to the Italian people. Yet the concessions made to the inhabitants by this Constitution were, perhaps, not worthy of the name; and many who benefited, through the adoption of a definite Imperial policy, did so at the expense of others. Not altogether inequitably, however, as the main object of the Emperor was to restore the status quo before the accession to power of Totila. The Pragmatic Sanction, therefore, enacted a universal reinstatement of, and restitution to those who were