A Struggle For Rome Volume Ii Part 52

And now began that memorable siege, which was to develop the military talent and inventive genius of Belisarius no less than the courage of the besiegers.

The citizens of Rome had with consternation beheld from the walls the interminable march of the Goths.

"Look, Prefect, they outflank all your walls."

"Yes, in breadth! but in height? They cannot get over them without wings."

Witichis had left only two thousand men behind in Ravenna; eight thousand he had sent, under Earl Uligis of Urbssalvia, and Earl Ansa of Asculum, to Dalmatia, to wrest that province and Liburnia from the Byzantines, and to reconquer the strong fortress of Salona. These troops were to be reinforced by mercenaries recruited in Savia.

The Gothic fleet--against Teja's advice--was also to repair thither, and not to Portus, the harbour of Rome.

But the King now surrounded, with a hundred and fifty thousand warriors, the city of Rome and its far-stretching ramparts, the walls of Aurelian and the Prefect.

Rome had at that time fifteen princ.i.p.al gates and a few smaller ones.

The weaker part of the ramparts--the s.p.a.ce between the Flaminian Gate in the north (on the east of the present Porta del Popolo) to the Praenestinian Gate--was completely surrounded by six camps, thus: the walls from the Flaminian Gate eastwards as far as the Pincian and Salarian Gates; then to the Nomentanian Gate (south-east of Porta Pia); farther towards the "closed gate," or Porta Clausa; and finally southwards, the Tiburtinian (now Porta San Lorenzo), the Asinarian, Metronian, and Latin Gates (on the Via Latina), the Appian Gate (on the Via Appia), and the St. Paul's Gate, which lay close to the Tiber.

These six camps were erected on the left bank of the river.

But in order to prevent the besieged from destroying the Milvian Bridge, and thus cutting off the way across the river and the whole district from the right bank as far as the sea, the Goths erected a seventh camp upon the right bank of the Tiber, on the "field of Nero,"

which reached from the Vatican Hill nearly to the Milvian Bridge (under Monte Mario).

So this bridge was dominated, and that of Hadrian threatened, by a Gothic camp, as well as the road to the city through the "Porta Sancti Petri," as the inner Aurelian Gate, according to Procopius, was already called at that time.

It was the entrance nearest to the Mausoleum of Hadrian.

But also the gate of St. Pancratius, on the right bank of the river, was especially watched by the Goths.

This camp upon the field of Nero, between the Pancratian and Peter's Gates, had been a.s.signed to Earl Markja of Mediolanum, who had been recalled from the Cottian Alps. But the King himself often repaired thither in order to examine the Mausoleum. He had undertaken the command of no particular camp, reserving to himself the general supervision; and he had divided the other six camps between Hildebrand, Totila, Hildebad, Teja, Guntharis, and Grippa.

He caused each of the seven camps to be surrounded with a deep moat, throwing up the excavated earth in high banks between the moat and camp, and strengthening them with stout palisades, as a protection against sallies from the city.

Belisarius and Cethegus also divided their generals and their men according to the sections and gates of Rome.

Belisarius confided the defence of the Praenestinian Gate in the eastern quarter (now Porta Maggiore) to Bessas, and the important Flaminian Gate, close to which lay the camp of Totila, to Constantinus, who caused it to be almost closed with blocks of marble, taken from ancient temples and palaces.

The Prefect jealously kept the western and southern quarters of the city under his own strict surveillance, but in the north Belisarius settled down between the Flaminian and Pincian--or now "Belisarian"--Gates (the weakest part of the ramparts), and formed plans of sallies against the barbarians.

The remaining gates were entrusted to the leaders of the foot-soldiers: Piranius, Magnus, Ennes, Artabanes, Azarethas, and Chilbudius.

The Prefect had undertaken the defence of all the gates on the right bank of the Tiber; the new Porta Aurelia on the aelisian Bridge near the Mausoleum, the Porta Septimiana, the old Aurelian Gate, which was now named the Pancratian; and on the left bank, that of St. Paul.

The next gate to the east, the Ardeatinian, was again under the protection of a Byzantine garrison, commanded by Chilbudius.

The besiegers and the besieged proved themselves equally indefatigable and equally inventive in plans of attack and defence.

For a long time the only thing the Goths could attempt was to hara.s.s the Romans before storming the walls. On their side, the Romans prepared to defend them when attacked. The Goths--lords and masters in the Campagna--sought to distress the besieged by cutting off all the fourteen splendid aqueducts which supplied the city with water.

As soon as Belisarius learned this fact, he hastened to block the mouths of the aqueducts within the city.

"For," Procopius had said to him, "since you, O great hero, Belisarius, have crept into Neapolis through such a water-runnel, the same idea might occur to the barbarians, and they would scarcely think it a shame to crawl into Rome by a similar hero-path."

The besieged were now obliged to deny themselves the luxury of their baths; the wells in the quarters of the city at a distance from the river scarcely sufficed for drinking water.

But by cutting off the supply of water, the barbarians had also deprived the Romans of bread.

At least it seemed so, for all the water-mills of Rome were stopped.

The garnered grain bought in Sicily by Cethegus, and that which Belisarius had, by force, caused to be brought into Rome from all the neighbouring country, in spite of the outcry of farmers and husbandmen, could no longer be ground.

"Let the mills be turned by a.s.ses and oxen!" cried Belisarius.

"Most of the a.s.ses and oxen were too wise to allow themselves to be shut up with us here, O Belisarius," said Procopius; "we have only as many as we shall want for the shambles, and it is impossible that they should first drive the mills and then be still fat enough to afford meat to eat with the bread thus gained."

"Then call Martinus. Yesterday, as I stood by the Tiber counting the Gothic tents, I had an idea----"

"Which Martinus must translate from the Belisarian into the possible!

Poor man! But I will go and fetch him."

But when, on the evening of the same day, Belisarius and Martinus caused the first boat-mills that the world had ever known to be erected in the Tiber, by means of boats ranged one near the other, Procopius said admiringly:

"The bread of these boat-mills will rejoice men longer than your greatest deeds. Flour, ground in this wise, savours of immortality."

And indeed these boat-mills, imagined by Belisarius and practically carried out by Martinus, fully compensated to the besieged, during the whole siege, for the loss of the powerless water-mills.

Behind the bridge which is now called Ponte San Sisto, on the flat of the Janiculum, Belisarius caused two boats to be fastened with ropes, and laid mills over their flat decks, so that the wheels were driven by the river, which streamed from between the arches of the bridge with increased force.

The besiegers, who were informed of these arrangements by deserters from the city, soon attempted to destroy them.

They threw beams, rafts, and trees into the river above the bridge, and in a single night all the mills were destroyed.

But Belisarius caused them to be reconstructed, and ordered strong chains to be drawn across the river above the bridge, which caught and arrested everything that floated down.

These iron river-bolts were not only intended to protect the mills, but also to prevent the Goths from reaching the city on boats or rafts.

For now Witichis began to make preparations for storming the city.

He caused wooden towers, higher than the ramparts, to be built, which, placed upon four wheels, could be drawn by oxen. Then he caused storming-ladders to be prepared in great numbers, and four tremendous rams or wall-breakers, which were each pushed and served by fifty men.

The deep moats were to be filled up with countless bundles of brushwood and reeds.

To defeat these plans, Belisarius and Cethegus, the first defending the city in the north and east, the latter in the west and south, planted catapults and other projectile machines on the walls, which were able to cast immense spears to a great distance, with such force that they could pierce the strongest coat of mail.

They protected the gates by means of "wolves," that is, cross-beams set with iron spikes, which were let cras.h.i.+ng down upon the a.s.saulters as soon as the latter approached the gate.

And, lastly, they strewed innumerable caltrops and steel-traps upon the s.p.a.ce between the town-moats and the camp of the besiegers.