Triumph Read Free Page B

favoured by numbers, they comprised a host that was in search of a quick result. They also had to be fed and there was no time for foraging or forced extraction ofsupplies. Captured cities would pay tribute to the new rulers and that money would be used to purchase what they needed, with word flying ahead to tell other cities they had nothing to fear.
    Plunder would come in time but it would be taken from the Goths not the Italians. Two Isaurians who did not heed the message paid with their lives for their transgression, the army marching past the tree that held the two swinging corpses to drive home the point. That second-in-command Constantinus did not agree with either policy of the Belisarian reaction was plain if unspoken. It was also ignored.
    The army sought as much as possible to stay near the coast and in touch with the accompanying fleet, not always possible as the old Roman road moved inland. Even if it was not in perfect repair everywhere, there was still enough of the old pavé to permit fast travel and with no enemy close by – Ebrimuth had assured Flavius that the main Goth army was still in Ravenna – it was possible to eschew caution in favour of progress.
    There was no need for a cavalry screen. The only people out ahead were his own surveyors and foresters, the former selecting campsites, into which the soldiers following behind would find lines and markers laid out within which to raise their tents. The foresters would have spent the day gathering timber on which the army could cook the supplies that came in the commissary waggons bringing up the rear.
    Naturally there was a section set aside for the commanders, usually in the centre of the encampment and on a slight mound and it was here that Flavius Belisarius would entertain his closest advisors and share with them his thoughts, always taking a chance to drive home his message that if this was conquest it came with duties.
    As for what lay behind the day’s march, anything pertaining to that fell to Procopius and Solomon his domesticus . With a substantial number of clerks to aid him, the general’s faithful secretary and assessor , with his sharp legal mind, was required to produce a quick summary of the nature of the provinces once ruled from Rome.
    That included titles to land, expected annual yields, population numbers broken down by sex and age, resources such as iron, tin and salt, all of which, once passed by the commander, would be sent back to Constantinople so that Justinian should know the value of his conquests. Solomon was expert at supply, it being no easy task to feed a host the size of that his master led and to him fell the task of purchasing food.
    If it was a progress not a march, that ended abruptly when they came to Naples, which not only had sound and formidable walls but a Goth garrison, albeit one few in number. As his fleet sailed into the huge bay, Flavius sent word that they were to press as close as they could to the Neapolitan sea wall but to stay out of range of any ballistae, which would be equipped to fire inflammables, deadly to ships. The aim was not for the fleet to fight but to let the citizens see that, with an army outside the land walls, they were cut off from supply.
    Next he sent word to the city demanding the surrender of the garrison and also asking for the presence of someone to represent the indigent population, the notables who ran the city, men with whom he could parley. The Goths who made up the garrison did not even deign to reply but in due course a trio of Neapolitan negotiators were brought to his tent, one filled with his senior officers in full battle equipment.
    To get there these worthies had been obliged to make their way between two long files of heavily armed soldiers. That message of strength driven home, Flavius was as charming as he could be, inviting them to sit and take wine, talking of matters unrelated to that which needed to be discussed. In reality he was seeking to gauge whomight be