Chap, xli] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 343 peatedly employed to discover whatever passed on the ramparts ; out-guards were posted beyond the ditch, and the trusty vigil- ance of dogs supplied the more doubtful fidelity of mankind. A letter was intercepted, which assured the king of the Goths that the Asinarian gate, adjoining to the Lateran church, should be secretly opened to his troops. On the proof or suspicion ofExiieof treason, several senators were banished, and the pope Sylverius syiverius. was summoned to attend the representative of his sovereign, at Nov. 17 cis] his head-quarters in the Pincian palace. 102 The ecclesiastics who followed their bishop were detained in the first or second apartment, 103 and he alone was admitted to the presence of Belisarius. The conqueror of Borne and Carthage was modestly seated at the feet of Antonina, who reclined on a stately couch ; the general was silent, but the voice of reproach and menace issued from the mouth of his imperious wife. Accused by credible witnesses, and ihe evidence of his own subscription, the successor of St. Peter was despoiled of his pontifical ornaments, clad in the mean habit of a monk, and embarked without delay for a distant exile in the East. At the emperor's command, the clergy of Eome proceeded to the choice of a new bishop; and, after a solemn invocation of the Holy Ghost, elected the deacon Vigilius, who had purchased the papal throne by a bribe of two hundred pounds of gold. The profit, and consequently the guilt, of thisf^soooj simony was imputed to Belisarius ; but the hero obeyed the orders of his wife ; Antonina served the passions of the empress ; and Theodora lavished her treasures, in the vain hope of obtaining a pontiff hostile or indifferent to the council of Chalcedon. 104 The epistle of Belisarius to the emperor announced his victory, Deiiver- his danger, and his resolution. « According to your commands, city we have entered the dominions of the Goths, and reduced to 102 The name of the palace, the hill, and the adjoining gate, were all derived from the senator Pinoius. Some recent vestiges of temples and churches are now smoothed in the garden of the Minims of the Trinita del Monte (Nardini, 1. iv. c. 7, p. 196, Eschinard, p. 209, 210, the old plan of Buffalino, and the great plan of Nolli). Belisarius had fixed his station between the Pincian and Salarian gates (Frocop. Goth. 1. i. o. 15). 103 From the mention of the primum et secundum velum, it should seem that Belisarius, even in a siege, represented the emperor, and maintained the proud cere- monial of the Byzantine palace. 104 Of this act of sacrilege, Procopius (Goth. 1. i. c. 25) is a dry and reluctant witness. The narratives of Liberatus (Breviarium, c. 22) and Anastasius (de Vit. Pont. p. 39) are characteristic, but passionate. Hear the execrations of Cardinal Baronius (a.d. 536, No. 123 ; a.d. 538, No. 4-20) : portentum, facinus omni execra- tione dignum.
