Rome, a Deserted City
No more impressive scene is presented to the imagination, in history, than the city of Rome, the home of the Caesars, the "marble city" of Augustus, the proud capital of the world, unpeopled and silent for forty days. This occurred when Justinian, the law-giver of civilization, reigned as Emperor of the Eastern Empire, and Totila, King of the Ostro-Goths, ruled in Italy, 547 A. D.
Justinian was not slow to take advantage of the dissensions in the Ostro-Gothic kingdom of Italy. He dispatched his great general, Belisarius, in 535, to conquer and reannex Italy to his dominions, that he might re-establish the ancient Roman Empire. Belisarius made an easy conquest of southern Italy, and the city of Rome practically surrendered before he attacked it. On the 9th of December, 536, Belisarius entered Rome and the Gothic garrison marched out. Rome was not the capital of the Gothic kings of Italy; Theodoric had chosen Ravenna as a city more easily defended than Rome. During the next ten years there was a constant struggle between the Goths and the forces of Justinian for possession of the coveted city. In 546 Totila, King of the Goths, again threw his army around Rome and established a blockade; famine ensued, and Rome was betrayed to the Goths, December 17th, 546. Totila forbade his followers to slay, but gave them full license to pillage. After the city had been stripped and most of the inhabitants had fled, Totila resolved to destroy Rome absolutely, and was only dissuaded from this barbarity by the intercession of Belisarius.
Totila's force being insufficient to garrison the city, he demolished a large portion of the walls and then marched south to defend Apulia, taking with him every surviving inhabitant. It was during the ensuing forty days of January and February, 547, that Rome lay deserted and desolate. Then Belisarius returned, rebuilt the walls and garrisoned the city.
Seven years later, in 553, Totila fell, as became his heroic blood, sword in hand, upon the field of battle. In the same year and in the same way his successor, Teia, died. Totila and Teia were the last of the Ostro-Gothic kings of Italy.
Then occurred another phenomenon, the disappearance of a great and powerful people from the world's history. A people that emerged from semi-barbarism in the third century A. D.; conquered a civilized country and quickly absorbed its civilization; established an enlightened government, and maintained it by genius and the sword; able to send two hundred thousand fighting men into the field of battle, suddenly found their race of heroic leaders exhausted. Totila left no worthy successor, and in the annals of Europe the Ostro-Goths are heard of no more.