[607] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iii, 35; Anecd., 5. He left Italy this time as in surreptitious flight, glad to abandon his task. In this year (548), Procopius tells us (De Bel. Goth., iii, 29), the great whale Porphyrio (see p. 368) was found stranded near the mouth of the Euxine. It had got into shallow water, too eager in its pursuit of dolphins. The measurements were 45 by 15 feet, but some doubted it to be the same animal as had been known in the Propontis for fifty years. Procopius does not, however, mention the "wonderful dog," who visited CP. in 530, and runs through all the Chroniclers from Jn. Malala to Zonaras. Rings and coins placed in a heap on the ground he restored to their owners, or fetched according to their value correctly. He also indicated to order among the bystanders pregnant women, brothel-keepers, bawds, adulterers, misers, and benevolent persons.
[608] Perhaps this is the origin of a statement by Paul Diac. (Hist. Miscel., xvii) that on capturing Rome T. kept his trumpets sounding all night to warn the citizens to take sanctuary from his turbulent soldiery. "He lived among the Romans," says that historian, "like a father with his sons." (The same passage occurs in Lib. Pontif., Vigilius.) "The teaching of St. Benedict," he adds, "had moulded his character to this clemency."
[609] Altogether, however, Totila had equipped a war fleet of three hundred first class ships (Procopius, loc. cit., 22); with these he made some successful descents on the opposite coast of the Adriatic.
[610] These Italian campaigns had evidently caused the Byzantines to develop their naval power, and caused a reversal of the state of things which prevailed at the beginning of the Vandal war. See p. 503.
[611] Just previously he had built a church and monastery in Cappadocia, to which he intended to retire for the rest of his days (John Ephes., Hist. (Smith), p. 75).
[612] Agathias, i, 16.
[613] See p. 415.
[614] This campaign of Narses occupies the latter part of the fourth book of the Gothic War of Procopius. More than the first half of that book is devoted to Persian affairs, and would properly be called the third book of the Persian War.
[615] It will be observed that Ravenna was never captured unless by stratagem. Both Theodoric (p. 545) and Belisarius (p. 581) entered by a pretended treaty with the occupants.
[616] "Taginae lies just below the central watershed of the Apennines, near the modern Gubbio" (Oman, op. cit., p. 32).