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430 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xliii led in person, was laboriously moved against the current of the river. The chain yielded to their weight, and the enemies who guarded the banks were either slain or scattered. 31 As soon as they touched the principal barrier, the fire-ship was instantly grappled to the bridge; one of the towers, with two hundred Goths, was consumed by the flames; the assailants shouted victory; and Eome was saved, if the wisdom of Belisarius had not been defeated by the misconduct of his officers. He had previously sent orders to Bessas to second his operations by a timely sally from the town; and he had fixed his lieutenant, Isaac, by a peremptory command, to the station of the port. But avarice rendered Bessas immoveable; while the youthful ardour of Isaac delivered him into the hands of a superior enemy. The exaggerated rumour of his defeat was hastily carried to the ears of Belisarius : he paused ; betrayed in that single moment of his life some emotions of surprise and perplexity; and re- luctantly sounded a retreat to save his wife Antonina, his trea- sures, and the only harbour which he possessed on the Tuscan coast. The vexation of his mind produced an ardent and almost mortal fever ; and Rome was left without protection to the mercy or indignation of Totila. The continuance of hostilities had em- bittered the national hatred ; the Arian clergy was ignominiously driven from Rome ; Pelagius, the archdeacon, returned without success from an embassy to the Gothic camp; and a Sicilian bishop, the envoy or nuncio of the pope, was deprived of both of his hands, for daring to utter falsehoods in the service of the church and state. 32 Rome Famine had relaxed the strength and discipline of the the 6 Goth6. garrison of Rome. They could derive no effectual service from Dec. 5 i7' a dying people ; and the inhuman avarice of the merchant at length absorbed the vigilance of the governor. Four Isaurian sentinels, while their companions slept and their officers were absent, descended by a rope from the wall, and secretly pro- posed to the Gothic king to introduce his troops into the city. 31 [The words of Procopius seem rather to imply that the enemies were first destroyed or scattered, and that then the chain was removed, presumably by being unfastened at the banks (ttjc aXxxriv aveneuot). There seems no reason to suspect, with Hodgkin, that divers were at work.] 32 [This sentence, referring to previous events, might mislead the reader. The expulsion of the Arian clergy occurred in a.d. 544, the fruitless mission of Pelagius near the beginning of the siege ; and the bishop who was mutilated had come with the corn-ships sent by Vigilius.]