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446 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xliii country, some were rescued by an officer of Belisarius and transported from Campania to Sicily ; while others were too guilty to confide in the clemency of Justinian, or too poor to provide horses for their escape to the sea-shore. Their brethren languished five years in a state of indigence and exile ; the victory of Narses revived their hopes; but their premature return to the metropolis was prevented by the furious Goths, and all the fortresses of Campania were stained with patrician 70 blood. After a period of thirteen centuries, the institution of Romulus expired; and, if the nobles of Rome still assumed the title of senators, few subsequent traces can be discovered of a public council or constitutional order. Ascend six hundred years, and contemplate the kings of the earth soliciting an audience as the slaves or freedmen of the Roman senate ! 71 Defeat and The Gothic war was yet alive. The bravest of the nation Teias. the retired beyond the Po ; and Teias was unanimously chosen to the Goths, succeed and revenge their departed hero. The new king mi- March ' mediately sent ambassadors to implore, or rather to purchase, the aid of the Franks, and nobly lavished for the public safety the riches which had been deposited in the palace of Pavia. The residue of the royal treasure was guarded by his brother Aligern at Cumae in Campania; but the strong castle which Totila had fortified was closely besieged by the arms of Narses. From the Alps to the foot of mount Vesuvius, the Gothic king, by rapid and secret marches, advanced to the relief of his brother, eluded the vigilance of the Roman chiefs, and pitched his camp on the banks of the Sarnus or Draco, n which flows from Nuceria into the bay of Naples. The river separated the [Jan. ana two arinies ; sixty days were consumed in distant and fruitless Feb 553 (?)] . combats, and Teias maintained this important post, till he was deserted by his fleet and the hope of subsistence. With reluc- tant steps he ascended the Lactarian mount, where the phy- 70 Compare two passages of Proeopius (1. iii. c. 26 ; 1. iv. c. 24), which, with some collateral hints from Marcellinus and Jornandes, illustrate the state of the expiring senate. 71 See, in the example of Prusias, as it is delivered in the fragments of Polybius (Excerpt. Legat. xcvii. p. 927, 928 [Bk. xxx. 16]), a curious picture of a royal slave. 72 The ApoKUiv of Proeopius (Goth. 1. iv. c. 35) is evidently the Sarnus. The text is accused or altered by the rash violence of Cluverius (1. iv. c. 3, p. 1156) ; but Camillo Pellegrini of Naples (Discorsi sopra la Campania Felice, p. 330, 331) has proved from old records, that as early as the year 822 that river was called the Dracontio, or Draconcello.