The Goths, from the earliest times to the end of the Gothic dominion in Spain . the Eastern Empire. But though the task was unworthy of Belisarius, thesuccess which he had thus far attained is a proof ofhis wonderful genius. If he had been allowed to re- I yUSTINIANS MISTAKE. 275 turn to Italy at once, a {qw more months would prob-ably have seen the end of the struggle. Justinian,however, thought that the work which had beencarried so far might safely be left to inferior hands tofinish. It was a great mistake, the result of which,as we shall see, was that the struggle lasted on fortwelve more
The Goths, from the earliest times to the end of the Gothic dominion in Spain . the Eastern Empire. But though the task was unworthy of Belisarius, thesuccess which he had thus far attained is a proof ofhis wonderful genius. If he had been allowed to re- I yUSTINIANS MISTAKE. 275 turn to Italy at once, a {qw more months would prob-ably have seen the end of the struggle. Justinian,however, thought that the work which had beencarried so far might safely be left to inferior hands tofinish. It was a great mistake, the result of which,as we shall see, was that the struggle lasted on fortwelve more years. The Goths were conquered atlast, but at an immense cost of treasure and of humanlives that might all have been spared had Justinianbeen wise in time. Belisariuss two royal prisoners had no reason tocomplain of their treatment. King Witigis was madea Patrician ; he lived in inglorious luxury at Con-stantinople for two more years, and then died, un-lamented by his young widow—still only abouttwenty-two—who immediately became the wife ofthe emperors nephew COINS STRUCK AT RAVENNA. XXVI. NEW GOTHIC VICTORIES. The emperor thought that the conquest of Italy wasnow as good as complete, and he at once proceededto turn his new acquisition to practical account. Jus-tinians notion of government was the extortion ofmoney, to be spent in keeping up the splendour of hiscourt, and in building magnificent churches, palaces,and fortresses all over the empire. Although hethought himself a great lover of justice, and tookimmense pains in reducing the Roman laws to ascientific system, he did very little to ensure the lawsbeing justly administered in his dominions. Whetherhis subjects were prosperous or not was a secondarymatter; the one great thing was that they shouldpay their taxes regularly. His revenue officerswere allowed to oppress the people as they liked, andto enrich themselves with ill-gotten gains, if only theydid not fail to send plenty of money to Constantinople.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectgoths, bookyear1887
