Belisarius then delivered his opinion: which was that Osimo must be masked by a small force — no more than a thousand men could be spared — encamped twenty miles away; the remainder of the army must hurry forward to the relief of Bloody John and his men. The only hope of forcing Wittich to abandon the siege was to deceive him as to our numbers, and for this reason we must divide into three armies and converge on Rimini with all speed. One army must march up the coast under Martin, a recently arrived general, and the fleet under Hildiger must keep pace with it. Narses and himself, with the best of the cavalry, must take the Apenninc ridge-track, far inland. To this plan everyone agreed; and the start was made that very morning. My mistress went with Belisarius and Narses, and I with her, riding on a mule behind her palfrey. And a rough ride it was indeed, and an extremely hot one — for this was July, with not a breath of wind stirring among the rocks and pines. The mountain villages through which we passed were inhabited by miserable half-starved savages, who not only were not Christians but had never been converted to a belief in the Olympian Gods and still worshipped obscure aboriginal deities. But there was plenty of game in the valleys, and our scouts had fine sport. One of them even shot a bear, an animal which we had thought was extinct in Italy since the time of the Emperor Augustus. On the fifth day, after travelling some 200 miles and on a diet mainly of army biscuit and salt pork, we reached Sarsina, which is only one day's journey inland from Osimo. There our scouts came suddenly on a Gothic foraging party and drove them off with loss. Belisarius, in the vanguard, could easily have captured them all, but preferred to let them escape and spread the alarming news of our approach.
King Wittich, to whom the fugitives had given a very exaggerated account of our strength, expected us to march down the valley of the Rubicon and attack him from the north-west. But on the following evening he saw the distant glare of our camp-fires to the westward, and very numerous these were: every soldier had been instructed to light one and keep it heaped with fuel all night. To the southeastward he saw the camp-fires of what seemed to be another huge army, which was Martin's brigade. And when day broke the sea was covered with ships, and armed galleys came steering menacingly towards the harbour. The Gothic army abandoned its camp in a panic. Nobody obeyed orders or had any thought at all but to be the first man off up the Aemilian Way and into Ravenna. If Bloody John had been able to make a sortie at that moment the result might well have been decisive; but his men were so weak from starvation that they could hardly mount their horses, which themselves were mere bags of bones, since there was practically no grazing in Rimini.
Hildiger landed with a battalion of marines and captured the enemy camp, which contained a good deal of treasure and 500 badly wounded Goths. Belisarius did not arrive until midday. The boisterous and indiscreet Uliaris, who had accompanied Hildiger, told Bloody John that Belisarius, enraged with him for disobeying orders, had reproved Narses in a very rude manner for urging the immediate relief of Rimini. This was Uliaris's notion of a joke; Bloody John took it seriously as coming from one of Belisarius's oldest friends and was extremely angry.
Belisarius greeted him in a somewhat reserved way, but seeing how pale and emaciated the man looked said no more in the way of rebuke than: 'You owe a great debt of gratitude to Hildiger, Distinguished John!'
Bloody John replied sourly: 'No, but rather to Narses.' Saluting, he turned on his heel without another word.
As for the treasure that Bloody John had collected for himself and stored at Rimini, Belisarius distributed it equally among all the troops who had served with him before the arrival of Narses. This angered Bloody John still more. He went to Narses, whom he had known for some years, having been in command of a company of Palace Ushers, and complained that Belisarius had treated him very shabbily. Narses sympathized, and the two of them became fast friends, forming a coalition against Belisarius. Narses believed that it was disgraceful for an old, experienced statesman like himself, who shared the secrets of the Emperor, to take orders from a man half his age, a mere general; and also that he should be recompensed for having given up his secure and comfortable post at the Palace by being allowed to share the glories of the campaign with Belisarius. He meant by this, to share the command with him. Bloody John pointed out that nearly all Belisarius's own troops were now garrisoning various towns in Italy and Sicily — 200 men here, 500 there, 1,000 in another place — and that his marching army was thus reduced to 2,000 swords; whereas Narses and John himself commanded five times that amount.
Now that Rimini had been relieved, Belisarius felt free to attack Osimo; but Narses began to oppose this and every other project that he put forward, trying to force him cither to share or to resign his command. Valuable time was thus wasted, though the news that arrived from other parts of Italy was most disquieting and called for instant action. At last on my mistress's suggestion Belisarius called a council of generals and spoke frankly to them.
He said: 'I am sorry to find, my lords and gentlemen, that you and I are in disagreement as to the proper conduct of this war. Most of you, I mean, are under the impression that the Goths are already completely conquered. This is far from being the case. King Wittich is at Ravenna with 60,000 Goths; there are nearly 30,000 more behind the walls of Osimo; between here and Rome there are several other fortified towns strongly held. Wittich has now sent an army under his nephew Uriah against our small garrison at Milan, and Liguria is his again. Worse: a large army of Franks, or at least of Burgundians, who are allies of the Franks, have recently crossed the Ligurian Alps and are reported to be joining forces with this Uriah. I have repeatedly urged upon you my considered opinion: that we should march against Osimo without further delay, meanwhile masking Ravenna with a small force, and also send a large relief force to Milan. You have sullenly opposed these plans. I shall now assert my authority, by converting them into definite orders.'
Nobody replied for some time. Then Narses spoke. 'It is not practicable to divide our forces in this way, my lord. The soundest strategy would be to march northward past Ravenna and seize the whole Venetian coast, thus drawing Uriah away from Milan; and at the same time to blockade Ravenna by sea and land. To attack Osimo would be a waste of energy, since Osimo will fall when Ravenna does. But do you take your own few forces to Milan or Osimo or the Moon or wherever else you wish. I intend to do as I have said with the men whom I have brought with me.'
Belisarius asked: 'And our garrison at Milan, Distinguished Chamberlain? What of them?'
Narses replied: 'They must extricate themselves as best they can just as Bloody John would have been forced to do at Rimini but for my insistence.'
Belisarius controlled his rising indignation. 'My Lord Narses,' he said gently,' you forget yourself and the truth.' Then he called to his secretary Procopius: 'Where is the document that recently came for me from the Emperor?'
Procopius found the document. It was one that Justinian had signed without Narses' knowledge, being forced to do so by Theodora. Belisarius read out in his low, even voice:
'We have today sent our Lord Chamberlain, the Distinguished Narses, to Picenum with certain of our regiments. But he shall have authority over our armies in Italy only as specifically appointed to a command by the Illustrious Belisarius, who has held and must continue to hold the supreme authority under us. It is the duty of all Imperial officers serving in the Western Empire to obey the said Belisarius implicitly, for the public good of our Empire.'
Narses' ugly face turned still uglier as he listened. When Belisarius had finished, he snatched the letter from his hands and read it over to himself, hoping to twist some meaning from it that was not there. He had a mind well-sharpened by years of petty intrigue, and it was therefore not difficult for him to find a flaw in the wording. 'There!' he cried in triumph, pointing to the last words. 'We are to obey you implicitly, but only for the public good of His Serene Majesty's Empire. Illustrious Belisarius, your military plans are thoroughly unsound, and in no way conduce to the public good. I, for one, do not feel bound by this document to obey you. And you, Distinguished John?'