Still the ancient Empire, dimmed in its glory and with ill-welded traditions from Christian and pagan past, held out in the great cities of Genoa and Naples, of Ravenna and Rome, the two last the centres of government under exarch and pope. At first the danger seemed to come not from the king but from one of the dukes. At Spoleto on the Flaminian Way was settled a Lombard colony of invaders under Ariulf, the outposts of whose territory were almost within sight of Rome; and Gregory when he wrote to his friends at Constantinople declared that he found himself "bishop not of the Romans but of the Lombards, men whose promises are swords and whose grace a pain."
Against "the unspeakable Ariulf" he was ever on the watch. In 591 and 592 he was taking constant precaution, telling the Magister militum at Perugia to fall, if need be, on his rear, and bidding the clergy and people of the lesser cities in the neighbourhood to be on their guard and to obey the pope's representative in all things. Step by step the Lombard duke approached, as yet without active hostility. In July 592 at length he spoke of Ariulf as being close to the city, "slaying and mutilating"; and Arichis, the Lombard duke of Benevento, was at the same time threatening Naples. The pope himself sent a military commander to the southern city. He bitterly resented the weakness of Romanus the exarch, which prevented him from dealing in martial fashion with the duke of Spoleto. Left helpless, he prepared to make a peace with Ariulf, and in July 592 it seems that a separate agreement was concluded which saved Rome from sack. Paul the Deacon tells that an interview between the Lombard duke and the Roman bishop made the "tyrant" ever after a devoted servant of the Roman Church. "His heart was touched by divine grace, and he perceived that there was so much power in the pope's words that with humblest courtesy he made satisfaction to the most religious Apostolic bishop." Gregory's statesmanship and charm won a diplomatic victory which preserved Rome from the Lombards.
But indirectly it would seem as if this success laid the city open to another attack. Romanus the exarch was encouraged by it to secure the communications between Ravenna and Rome by a campaign which recovered many cities, including Perugia, from the Lombards. This new activity on the part of the Empire which he may well have deemed moribund aroused Agilulf, the Lombard king, to action. He marched southwards, recaptured Perugia, and put to death Maurisio, a duke of the Lombards, who had surrendered the city to the exarch and now held if for the Empire. Thence he marched to Rome.
Gregory was illustrating Ezekiel, in sombre homily, by the tragic events of his day, the decay of ancient institutions, the devastation of country, the destruction of cities. Daily came news which deepened the gloom of his picture, till at length he closed the book and set himself to defend the city. The defence as before was that of spiritual not
