The assault was set in motion before any reply was forthcoming, Phocas and his men making deep inroads into the Goth position, but in time resistance hardened as it became plain they were not supported: Bessas had declined to move, even if the commotion caused by the fighting must have been audible in the city. This left no option but to withdraw.
Word was once more sent: a second attempt would be made and again Bessas was begged to provide the aid that would be needed. It never got going; Totila had been informed of the intention and ambushed the whole force, killing the leaders along with most of those they led.
The only other route by which food could be brought into the city was by rowing barges up the Tiber and here Totila had built two wooden forts at a point, not far from the walls and hard by the road to Portus, where the river narrowed, with a bridge of joined timbers stretched between them. The plan formulated by Flavius to counter this showed he had lost none of his flair for innovation.
Lashing a pair of barges together and planking their decks he had a wooden structure constructed that in height would overreach the Totila forts. On the very top of the flimsy-looking edifice he had placed a boat filled with pitch-treated timber and brimstone. This floating surprise was to be followed upriver by every barge and boat that could be mustered in a convoy containing enough food to keep Rome going for a year, each one given built-up sides with slits that could protect his archers while giving them the ability to discharge their weapons.
At the same time a commander called Isaac the Armenian was given care of Antonina and took charge in Portus but it was made plain he must remain static and on no account risk losing the quays; his task was diversion, this as an unequivocal command was sent to Bessas; he in turn must now sally forth and attack the Goths to keep them occupied.
Flavius took the lead barge with his bodyguards and set in motion the troops he had ordered to march up the inland riverbank. The discovery of a metal chain downriver of the Totila forts imposed a check, but not for long as the men guarding it fled and it was quickly dislodged. The guards who ran alerted those holding the forts and given there was little distance between them and the Goth encampment masking Portus, and a signalling system in place to warn of trouble, the soldiers there began to rush to aid in the defence.
Still too far off to intervene they could nevertheless see the wily ploy of their enemy. Forcing the vessel that held his flimsy structure against the bridge, Flavius had the boat atop it set alight and the whole tipped over to crash into the base of one of the Goth forts, the dry timber immediately catching fire. To the screams of those hundreds of men trapped inside, condemned to burn to death, his men attacked and overcame the second fort and could then begin the task of destroying the bridge.
If only Isaac the Armenian had obeyed his orders all would have been well. But he had seen many of the Goths departing to confront Flavius and the temptation of engaging with a weakened enemy proved too much. Essaying forth at the head of a mere hundred fighters he immediately launched his own attack, and by severely wounding the camp commander, which broke the morale of his followers, was able to drive the Goths right out of their camp.
Isaac was not of the stamp needed to take advantage of this minor success; his men lacked the discipline required and he the commanding presence to stop them resorting to the plunder of a camp full of the possessions of an army that had enjoyed several years of success, men unaware that what had driven the Goths back was a degree of panic. Those busy ransacking for spoils were in a serious minority and as soon as the Goths re-formed they took back their camp with ease and great slaughter, Isaac being taken prisoner, a fact relayed to Flavius without any detail as to how it had come about.
Fearful that Totila had taken Portus and fearing for the consequences for Rome and the whole campaign – there would be the need to pay ransom for Antonina too – Flavius immediately set out to confront them, hoping to come on them while they would be in a state of some disorder. This meant, partly also due to the fact that Bessas had not obeyed his orders, abandoning the attempt at resupply.
That it was a mistake only became apparent when he knew Portus was still in Byzantine hands, though that provided small compensation for what had been a highly unsuccessful manoeuvre on the Tiber. When he heard that Totila, in retribution for the death of the leader wounded in Isaac’s attack, had the Armenian beheaded, he could not summon up even a pinch of sympathy. He was even heard to say that if the Goth King wanted to remove the head of Bessas, then he would be happy to hand him over.
Rarely cast down for long by reverses, Flavius was now, and a health that had always been robust failed him too, rendering him unable to initiate further actions. All he knew was that if Rome had been at risk before, it was doubly so now.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
If the behaviour of Bessas had been well short of that required up till now, the failure of the attempt to resupply Rome did nothing to improve it. From denying food to the citizens he extended that to his soldiers, who now found they were required to acquire their rations from rich senators who had bought them from their commanding general. Needless to say the prices Bessas charged his middlemen was high – he was having new coffers made to hold his burgeoning fortune – and so ever higher was that paid by the desperate.
Badly fed soldiers no longer bothered to carry out their responsibilities and it was a brave officer, himself forced to barter for his supplies, who even hinted at any punishment for a dereliction of duty. The mass of the citizens of Rome, becoming skeletal, cared nothing for who ruled the city only for who might feed them. Only the corpses that began to fill the streets were indifferent.
The Isaurians had ever been a bane to Flavius Belisarius: numerous and usually infantry, rarely cavalry, they were badly led and with leaders averse to doing any training to alter such deficiencies, only ever effective when he had taken a personal hand in how they were led. The story emerged, as so many did in this troubled campaign, long after the events themselves. Four junior Isaurian officers had lowered themselves from the walls and gone to Totila to offer him a way into the city by the Asinarian Gate, for which they were responsible.
The Goth King had seen the hand of wily Flavius in this – a trap that would cost lives, diminish his standing and dent the morale of his army – so he declined to accept. Undeterred, those same Isaurians had returned to him twice more to renew their offer until he finally accepted they might be telling the truth. Even then he took the precaution of sending two of his own trusted bodyguards to ensure the traitors were telling the truth. They reported back that the walls were barely manned.
In darkness and silence Totila deployed his army, but it fell to no more than a handful of his axe-bearing Goths to climb the ropes let down by the Isaurians and be the first to breach the defences. The axes were employed to smash the bars holding shut the great gate, and that opened, allowed Totila to lead his men into a city where there was no will to mount an internal defence.
Those who did not seek sanctuary in one of the dozens of churches fled out of every gate the city possessed that provided a chance of escape. Bessas was to the fore of that, leaving so hurriedly that his dozens of bulging coffers were left behind for Totila, who was to reward the Isaurian defectors not only with much of the gold but with offices rich in spoils to run the city of Rome.