The national dignity was
resented by their countrymen, who disclaimed the servile
laws of the empire and asserted the free privileges of
Scythia, where a small fine was allowed to expiate the
sallies of intemperance and anger. Their complaints were
specious, their clamours were loud, and the Romans were not
averse to the example of disorder and impunity. But the
rising sedition was appeased by the authority and eloquence
of the general, and he represented to the assembled troops
the obligation of justice, the importance of discipline, the
rewards of piety and virtue, and the unpardonable guilt of
murder, which, in his apprehension, was aggravated rather
than excused by the vice of intoxication. In the navigation
from the Hellespont to the Peloponnesus, which the Greeks
after the siege of Troy had performed in four days, the
fleet of Belisarius was guided in their course by his
master-galley, conspicuous in the day by the redness of the
sails, and in the night by torches blazing from the
masthead. It was the duty of the pilots as they steered
between the islands and turned the capes of Malea and
Taenarium to preserve the just order and regular intervals of
such a multitude.
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