‘No.’
With so much to do in preparing the next part of the campaign it was not possible to brood on such matters. Flavius did, however, commission a small shrine to the memory of those for whose deaths he felt responsible and that, to the surprise of many, was dedicated not just to Silverius and Macedonia, but also to Constantinus. Asked why by Photius, the reply he gave was true to the way he felt.
‘If I had tried to understand him more, included him more in my thinking, trusted him more, he might have had faith in me to be lenient.’
‘He despised you, Father. Remember, too, he tried to kill you. He deserved his fate for that and not just the stolen daggers.’
‘I was looking into his eyes when he went for his knife, Photius. He was sure I was determined on his execution and for nothing more than his patrician birth. How can it be that I cannot convince a man that I would not hate him for that?’
‘Am I allowed to say that you are berating yourself for no purpose? These are but minor matters in that in which you are engaged.’
Flavius shook himself, Photius was right.
If Narses had gone home, John Vitalianus had not and since he had his own numerous comitatus the option of not employing him did not exist. For security against his potential malice Flavius sent him north with Martinus as his commander, their task to ensure the forces that had retaken Milan stayed north of the River Po and did not come to the aid of the their comrades as Flavius advanced on Ravenna.
The spies Procopius still had in the retinue of Witigis were able to tell of the Goth King’s manoeuvres. Over the winter he had tried to enlist help from the Lombards, a barbarian tribe resident in Pannonia on the northern border of Illyricum, only to discover that Justinian had beaten him to an alliance that would keep them neutral.
His next move was just as dangerous; envoys had been sent to the Sassanids in the hope they would put pressure on the eastern Byzantine border, which threatened would be bound to draw soldiers away from Italy, affairs in that area always taking precedence over other borders. To lose to the Sassanids imperilled the whole Eastern Empire. Such information only confirmed in Flavius the need to bring matters to a conclusion. He had the troops he needed and the inferior commanders he could trust to act as he wished, even John Vitalianus. If that officer did not act for love of his general, his personal ambition was enough to drive him on.
Cautious as ever, the first task was to invest Fisula and free the land route from Rome to Genoa, while simultaneously launching an attack on Auximus and securing the Byzantine rear. This had been anticipated by Witigis, who well understood his enemy. The city was garrisoned with hardened Goth warriors, supplied until its storerooms were bulging and its walls made fully effective to support a fortress that already enjoyed the intrinsic defence provided by its natural features, standing as it did on the peak of a steep-sided hill that dominated the landscape.
Flavius approached Auximus at the head of a ten-thousand-strong army in which he could repose the kind of faith he had enjoyed when he first landed north of Rhegium. His soldiers were healthy, eager for the fight and willing to follow where he led, their spirits raised even more when their general was immediately favoured with some of his famous luck.
His forward elements were able to catch outside the walls a substantial foraging party, entirely unaware of the speed of the Byzantine approach, and engage them. Many of the Goths were killed but an equal number, thanks to their fighting ability, escaped, which told the man come to overwhelm them of the calibre of what he faced and, after he had ridden round the base of the hill, affected his assessment of the tactics to be used, these outlined at his first conference.
‘No major assaults will be attempted. We cannot get siege equipment to rest against those walls, the slope makes that impossible. Auximus cannot be taken by storm. We must starve them out, so make the camps you construct solid, given we may be here for a long time, and make sure they cannot forage.’
No assaults did not mean no activity; close attention was paid to seek out any chinks in the Goth defences, ways in which their fighters exposed themselves, that provided by the need they had, in order to preserve their dry feed, to gather pasture on the hillside. A party would emerge daily to scythe the abundant hillside grass. It was natural for the Isaurian infantry camped closest to the walls to sally forth and harass them and their escorts.
This led to a series of small infantry engagements in which not much damage was done to either side. That altered when the Goths set an ambush; hiding unseen in one of the ravines, old and deep watercourses that scarred the mound, a strong group of warriors emerged to pin the exposed Isaurians, able to get between them and safety. Given the Goths were vastly superior in both numbers and close-quarters fighting ability, few of Flavius’s men survived.
Doubly galling was the fact that they were able to repeat the tactic on more than one occasion as the too-eager-to-fight and hot-tempered Isaurians repeatedly allowed themselves to become trapped. The commanders further down the slope could see the threat as it emerged – those at which it was aimed were in ignorance – but lacked means to communicate with their men and control their actions.
Conscious of the effect such defeats had on morale and knowing that to forbid any action would be just as depressing, Flavius cast about for a solution, surprised that it was Procopius who came up with an answer. He proposed a method of controlling both the advance and the retreat by using the differing sounds of infantry and cavalry trumpets. One could be employed to initiate an attack on the grass cutters while the other could be used to ensure the infantry withdrew as soon as any threat emerged.
The magister’s secretary had never been short on self-regard but his thin chest positively bulged when this proved to be a success, allowing the infantry to interfere with the Goths’ foraging while suffering no losses themselves. In time that grass cutting wound down; the Goths were eating their horses, not feeding them.
However well supplied, their holding out had always rested on the hope that Witigis would march to their relief but, determined to hold his capital he did not stir from Ravenna. Instead he instructed the Goth garrison of Milan to move out of the city and head south in order to draw off the Byzantines. On their way they would face Martinus and John Vitalianus, now camped on the southern bank of the Po.
The news Flavius received told him that the Goths had reached the river but showed no sign of attempting to cross it and continue on to Auximus. His orders to his juniors were explicit: they too should stay where they were camped; a Goth force north of that wide, fast-flowing river was no threat to him.
If things were proceeding as planned, there was always a devil in warfare and now a real Lucifer emerged. News came that the Franks were moving south with what sounded like a massive host. Even allowing for exaggeration as to their real numbers, it was their intentions that mattered.
In theory the Franks were allied to both competing forces, but did that still hold true? If they combined with the Goths, Flavius would be obliged to beat a hasty retreat for the questionable security of Rome, for against such numbers not even that great fortress could be certain to hold.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
To say that the invasion stretched the nerves of Flavius Belisarius was an understatement; he dare not raise the siege of Auximus prematurely for to do so would waste months of efforts and spoil his whole purpose, doubly galling given the stubbornness of a defence that by now should have crumbled. So he waited anxiously for developments, heartened when he learnt that the new invaders, having been welcomed by the Goths as saviours, turned on their supposed allies and ravaged their territory, enslaving thousands and killing more.