[617] Founding on Theophanes, an. 6044, and Cedrenus, i, p. 659, this battle must have been fought in July, or at latest the beginning of August.
[618] Procopius (loc. cit., iv. 32) gives both stories of his death, the first vaguely, the second, which he appears to believe, circumstantially.
[619] Jn. Malala, xviii, p. 486; Theophanes, loc. cit.
[620] Procopius (De Bel. Goth., iv. 33) notes a curious parallel between the careers of Dagisthaeus and Bessas. The latter, as we have seen, disgraced himself at Rome, and subsequently distinguished himself by the capture of Petra (p. 601). But just before Dagisthaeus had been deported under arrest from Lazica, where he had held the command, on the charge of accepting bribes from the Persians. He now retrieved his disgrace by the capture of Rome.
[621] This is the last scene in the historical work of Procopius. Agathias now takes up the narrative and begins with an epitome of his predecessor. In his first and second books he treats of the further warfare of Narses.
[622] Modern Capua, the ancient town, retaining its name, having been moved to this site.
[623] Apparently a town near the Aufidus, on the northern border of Lucania.
[624] The Pragmatic Sanction is found at the end of all editions of the Corpus Juris Civilis. In the affix Narses is named as the Praepositus of the Sacred Cubicle, that is Grand Chamberlain, or Chief Eunuch, the title under which he became military governor of Italy. He was provided with a Praetorian Praefect. There is a fragment of a later Act in which J. legalises a composition pro rata between debtors and creditors, having regard to the losses caused by the Frankish invasion.