"General," said Lucius, "things look grave, very grave! What about the Isaurians? Do you persist in your order?"
"Have I retracted it?" said Cethegus severely. "Lucius, you and the other tribunes must follow me. Isaurians, you, under your chief, Asgares, will march between the Baths and the Tiburtinian Gate."
He did not believe there was danger for Rome. He thought he knew what the barbarians really intended at this moment.
"The feint of a general attack," he argued, "is only meant to prevent the Byzantines from thinking of the danger of their commander outside the walls."
He soon reached and ascended a tower of the Capitol, whence he could overlook the whole plain.
It was filled with Gothic weapons.
It was a splendid spectacle.
From all the gates of the encampment poured the Gothic troops, encircling the whole circumference of the city.
It was evident that the assault was intended to be carried on simultaneously against all the gates of Rome.
Foremost came the archers and slingers, in light groups of skirmishers, whose business it was to rid the ramparts of their defenders.