History of the Wars, Books V and VI

Procopius, by Procopius

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Title: Procopius History of the Wars, Books V. and VI.
Author: Procopius
Translator: H.B. Dewing
Release Date: January 6, 2007 [EBook #20298]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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PROCOPIUS ***

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PROCOPIUS
WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY H.B. DEWING

IN SEVEN VOLUMES III

HISTORY OF THE WARS, BOOKS V AND VI
LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS HARVARD UNIVERSITY
PRESS
First printed 1919
Printed in Great Britain

CONTENTS
PAGE
HISTORY OF THE WARS--
BOOK V.--THE GOTHIC WAR 1 BOOK VI.--THE GOTHIC WAR
(continued) 287
INDEX 427
* * * * *
PLAN OF WALLS AND GATES OF ROME facing 185

PROCOPIUS OF CAESAREA
HISTORY OF THE WARS:
BOOK V
THE GOTHIC WAR

I
Such, then, were the fortunes of the Romans in Libya. I shall now
proceed to the Gothic War, first telling all that befell the Goths and
Italians before this war.
During the reign of Zeno[A] in Byzantium the power in the West was
held by Augustus, whom the Romans used to call by the diminutive
name Augustulus because he took over the empire while still a lad,[B]
his father Orestes, a man of the greatest discretion, administering it as
regent for him. Now it happened that the Romans a short time before
had induced the Sciri and Alani and certain other Gothic nations to
form an alliance with them; and from that time on it was their fortune
to suffer at the hand of Alaric and Attila those things which have been
told in the previous narrative.[1] And in proportion as the barbarian
element among them became strong, just so did the prestige of the
Roman soldiers forthwith decline, and under the fair name of alliance
they were more and more tyrannized over by the intruders and
oppressed by them; so that the barbarians ruthlessly forced many other
measures upon the Romans much against their will and finally
demanded that they should divide with them the entire land of Italy.
And indeed they commanded Orestes to give them the third part of this,
and when he would by no means agree to do so, they killed him
immediately.[C] Now there was a certain man among the Romans
named Odoacer, one of the bodyguards of the emperor, and he at that
time agreed to carry out their commands, on condition that they should
set him upon the throne. And when he had received the supreme power
in this way, [D] he did the emperor no further harm, but allowed him to
live thenceforth as a private citizen. And by giving the third part of the
land to the barbarians, and in this way gaining their allegiance most
firmly, he held the supreme power securely for ten years.[2]
DATES: [A]474-491 A.D. [B]July 31, 475 A.D. [C]July 28, 476 A.D.
[D]July 28, 476 A.D.
It was at about this same time that the Goths also, who were dwelling

in Thrace with the permission of the emperor, took up arms against the
Romans under the leadership of Theoderic, a man who was of patrician
rank and had attained the consular office in Byzantium. But the
Emperor Zeno, who understood how to settle to his advantage any
situation in which he found himself, advised Theoderic to proceed to
Italy, attack Odoacer, and win for himself and the Goths the western
dominion. For it was better for him, he said, especially as he had
attained the senatorial dignity, to force out a usurper and be ruler over
all the Romans and Italians than to incur the great risk of a decisive
struggle with the emperor.
Now Theoderic was pleased with the suggestion and went to Italy, and
he was followed by the Gothic host, who placed in their waggons the
women and children and such of their chattels as they were able to take
with them. And when they came near the Ionian Gulf,[3] they were
quite unable to cross over it, since they had no ships at hand; and so
they made the journey around the gulf, advancing through the land of
the Taulantii and the other nations of that region. Here the forces of
Odoacer encountered them, but after being defeated in many battles,
they shut themselves up with their leader in Ravenna and such other
towns as were especially strong. [E] And the Goths laid siege to these
places and captured them all,