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350 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xli Romans and confederates were persuaded to march under his banners ; every malecontent embraced the fair opportunity of revenging his private or imaginary wrongs ; and the remaining troops of Belisarius were divided and dispersed from the garrisons of Sicily to the shores of the Hadriatic. His skill and persever- pirmnesB ance overcame every obstacle ; Urbino was taken, 112 the sieges authority of Faesulae, Orvieto, and Auxinium, were undertaken and vigor- ously prosecuted ; and the eunuch N arses was at length recalled 1UB to the domestic cares of the palace. All dissensions were healed, and all opposition was subdued, by the temperate authority of the Roman general, to whom his enemies could not refuse their esteem ; and Belisarius inculcated the salutary lesson that the forces of the state should compose one body and be animated by one soul. But in the interval of discord the Goths were permitted to breathe ; an important season was lost, Milan was destroyed, and the northern provinces of Italy were afflicted by an inundation of the Franks, invasion of When Justinian first meditated the conquest of Italy, he Franks. sent ambassadors to the kings of the Franks, and adjured them, a.d. 538, 539 , , . . ... 6 . , . . . . J . ,. , , by the common ties of alliance and religion, to join m the holy enterprise against the Arians. The Goths, as their wants were more urgent, employed a more effectual mode of persuasion, and vainly strove, by the gift of lands and money, to purchase the friendship, or at least the neutrality, of a light and perfidious nation. 113 But the arms of Belisarius and the revolt of the Italians had no sooner shaken the Gothic monarchy than Theo- debert of Austrasia, the most powerful and warlike of the Merovingian kings, was persuaded to succour their distress by an indirect and seasonable aid. Without expecting the consent of their sovereign, ten thousand Burgundians, his recent subjects, descended from the Alps, and joined the troops which Vitiges had sent to chastise the revolt of Milan. After an obstinate [Begins in siege, the capital of Liguria was reduced by famine, but no of 688; capitulation could be obtained, except for the safe retreat of the ends before aic ' digression on the manners and adventures of this wandering nation, a part of whom finally emigrated to Thule or Scandinavia (Goth. 1. ii. c. 14, 15). 112 [c. Dec. 21, a.d. 538. Urbs Vetus was taken early in 539 ; Feesulw and Auximum, about October or November in the same year. See Clinton, F.R. ad ann.] 113 This national reproach of perfidy (Procop. Goth. 1. ii. c. 25) offends the ear of la Mothe la Vayer (torn. viii. p. 163-165), who criticises, aB if he had not read, the Greek historian.