At this period the Gothic King again attempted to compose a peace with Justinian, but his overtures were treated with unconcern. It is probable that at this juncture the Emperor would have been willing to ratify a treaty, but he had at his side an adviser who urged him persistently not to abandon Italy to the dominion of the Arian heretics. Pope Vigilius had been for a couple of years resident at the Byzantine Court, and, as the representative of Orthodox Italy, he could by no means endure that the Papal seat should be under the control of the Goths. Germanus was, therefore, appointed to be commander-in-chief, but he died on his way through Illyricum, and for the next two years the war continued to be waged by land and sea on the same indecisive lines. The principal exploit of Totila was the reconquest of Sicily, but he left it incomplete; and shortly afterwards Artabanes virtually recovered the island for the Empire.
In the autumn of the year 551, a naval battle off Ancona, disastrous to the Goths, again induced Totila to approach the Emperor with peace proposals, but Justinian remained obdurate, and seemed to be possessed with a rooted prejudice against entering into any convention with the Goths. The name had become odious to him, and, after so many years of quasi-occupation of Italy, he doubtless looked on that nation merely as heretic rebels who disturbed the peace in an integral part of his dominions.
In this naval engagement, the only express conflict on the water in this century, the Romans were provided with fifty warships of the utmost capacity, the Goths with forty-seven.[1]
- ↑ Altogether, however, Totila had equipped a war fleet of three hundred first class ships (Procopius, loc. cit., 22); with these he made some successful descents on the opposite coast of the Adriatic.
