The Pope Silverius, summoned before the court, appeared in full regalia of gold and purple and white silk, as if to overawe my mistress. He had his Fisherman's ring on his finger, his pastoral staff in his hand, the great jewelled tiara on his head. Behind him followed a retinue of bishops and deacons, splendidly gowned. But these were instructed by my mistress Antonina to wait in the first and second ante-chambers, according to their rank.
The Pope Silverius rapped with his staff on the floor and asked my mistress: 'Why, Illustrious Antonina, Sister in Christ, have you brought us here, rudely interrupting our devotions with your impetuous summons? What ails you that you could not instead come to our Palace, as courtesy demanded?'
She bent her brows in the style of Theodora and, disdaining any reply to his question, asked him directly:' Pope Silverius, what have we done to you that you should betray us to the Goths?'
He feigned indignation: 'Would you accuse the anointed successor of the Holy Apostle Peter of a miserable felony?'
But she: 'Do you think that because tradition entrusts you with the Keys of Heaven you have power also over the keys of the Asinarian Gate?'
'Who accuses us of this treachery?'
'Your own signature and seal.' She showed him the intercepted letter.
'Adulteress, it is a forgery,' he bellowed at her.
' Be respectful to the court, cleric, or you shall be scourged,' she threatened. Then she confronted him with the parish priest, who had made a full confession without any necessity of torture.
The Pope Silverius trembled for shame, yet continued to deny his guilt. The nine senators who had also signed the letter were now produced in witness against him. They had already thrown themselves on the mercy of my mistress, and tearfully blamed the Pope to his face for seducing them from their loyalty.
My mistress delivered her verdict, after a short conference with Belisarius:' Whereas the sentence that the Law requires to be inflicted on traitors, during the defence of a city, is mutilation of the features, and to be paraded for public insult through the streets, and then to be put to a disgraceful death at the stake, we yet have more regard for the good name of the Church than to keep strictly to the letter of the law. None the less, a shepherd who sells his flock to the Arian wolf cannot be allowed to retain his crook. Eugenius, disrobe this priest and give him the monk's robe hanging on the peg yonder. Silverius, you are deposed from your bishopric, and leave the city tonight.'
Although the clerics of the Papal retinue were appalled at the sacrilege when the sentence was announced to them, they could not dispute the human justice of it. I approached the Pope and took away his pastoral staff, his ring, and his tiara, laying them upon a table. Then I conducted him to a room where the regional sub-deacon was waiting. He removed all Silverius's priestly garments, until he stood before us only in his shirt — and not a hair-shirt, cither, but a fine silk one embroidered with flowers like a woman's chemise. Then we gave him the monk's robe and put it over his head, and tied the cord for him, all without a word.
When we brought him back into the court my mistress addressed him, saying: 'Spend the rest of your days in repentance, Brother Silverius, as did your illustrious predecessor, the first Bishop of Rome, after similarly breaking faith with his Master. He finally made amends by martyrdom in the Hippodrome of Caligula, close to the city — but so much sanctity we do not expect of you.'
Belisarius said nothing all this time, and appeared very ill at case.
Silverius was escorted out of the Palace by two Massagetic Huns, who placed him in the guard-room at the Pincian Gate; that night he left the city for Naples, and the East.
His subordinates met to elect a new Pope. The deacon Vigilius was the successful candidate — having gone to the trouble of bribing the electors with a matter of 15,000 gold pieces. Gold was more highly prized by these greedy clerics than ever before. The civil population was allowed only a very small corn-ration, which it would eke out with cabbage and such green herbs as nettle and dandelion and hare's car; but good food in plenty only gold could purchase. During that summer soldiers took to making nightly raids on the harvest-fields behind the Gothic lines, cutting the heads of com off by the handful with sickles and thrusting them into sacks slung over the backs of their horses. A sack of com fetched a hundred times its peace-time price.
As winter drew on, these supplies ceased: sausages made from mule-flesh were the only palatable supplement to the meagre corn-ration that even the wealthiest purse could buy. Cats, rats, and axle-grease were eaten. Of wine alone there was no great shortage, since Belisarius had requisitioned all stocks from private cellars for public distribution. The city was very dose to famine; yet, strangely enough, 1 never saw a single under-nourished priest. 'Ah,' said my mistress drily, when I remarked on this to her, 'the ravens feed them, as they miraculously fed the Prophet Elijah.'
As for the nine senators who had attached their names to the intercepted letter, Antonina could not injustice punish them more severely than the Pope. She banished them, confiscated their goods, and sent them out of the city in Brother Silverius's company. Belisarius was still uneasy: other Romans as well might be implicated in the plot. He therefore employed locksmiths to change or interchange the locks of all the gates twice a month, so that it would be more difficult for traitors to obtain a key to fit them. He also appointed officers for guard duty at these gates according to an irregular roster, to make it impossible for any of them to be bribed in advance to open any particular gate on any agreed night. To make the watches less tedious my mistress had formed bands of musicians from the theatre to give frequent concerts at every gate; but for greater vigilance on these occasions Belisarius set outposts beyond the fosse, chiefly Moors, and every outpost had a watchdog trained to growl at the least sound of approaching feet.
I must pause here just long enough to relate how cleverly my mistress Antonina managed these musicians. If any musician played ill my mistress would seize his instrument from him and show him: 'The tunc goes so.' And she would taunt them, 'O you miserable Romans, you cannot fight and you cannot fiddle. Of what use are you?' To this an aggrieved daring musician once replied, attempting to abash her with obscenity: 'We are great adepts at procreation.' She replied coldly: 'In this at least you surpass your fathers.' The joke was repeated from mouth to mouth, and has become one of the most famous of her many sayings.
The reverse of which I promised to tell was due to the elation of our troops at the success of the cavalry skirmishes. They were impatient of Belisarius's policy of gradually wearing down the enemy's forces and courage, and clamoured for a general engagement. It was his policy never to discourage a warlike spirit in his men, but he did not think that the time was yet ripe for a pitched battle. The enormous difference in size between the armies still remained, and the Goths, though discouraged, were still fighting courageously. He tried to keep his men busy with more frequent sorties. But on two or three occasions he found that the Goths were ready for him, having been warned of his intentions by deserters. The Roman population now began to clamour for a battle too — or at least for a speedy end to the siege, one way or the other. He could no longer refuse the plea: he must not lose the respect of his men, or allow the civil population to become unmanageable.