In this he was attempting with a small and weary force what had never before been accomplished.  Theodoric, it is true, had entered Ravenna as a conqueror, but only by stratagem and deceptive promises after a siege of three years.  Belisarius, none knew it better than he, had neither the time nor the forces that were at the disposal of the great Gothic king.  He must act quickly if at all, and nowhere and on no occasion does this great and resourceful man appear to better advantage than in his achievement at Ravenna, which should have been the last military action of the reconquest.

Procopius, who was perhaps an eye-witness of the whole business of the siege and certainly entered Ravenna in triumph with Belisarius, tells us that, after the fall of Osimo, Belisarius made haste to Ravenna with his whole army.  He sent one of his generals, Magnus, before him with a sufficient force, to march along the Po and to prevent provisions being taken into the impregnable city from the Aemilian Way; while another general, Vitalius, he called out of Dalmatia with his forces to hold the northern bank of the river.  When this was done a most extraordinary accident occurred which it seems impossible to explain.  “An accident then befell,” says Procopius, “which clearly shows that Fortuna determines even yet every struggle.  For the Goths had brought down the Po many barges from Liguria[1] laden with corn, bound for Ravenna; but the water suddenly grew so low in the river that they could not row on; and the Romans coming upon them took them and all their lading.  Soon after the river had again its wonted stream and was navigable as before.  This scarcity of water had never till then occurred so far as we could hear.”

[Footnote 1:  Cf.  Cassiodorus, Variae, II. 20, where we read of Theodoric in a time of scarcity supplying Liguria with food from Ravenna.  “Let any provision ships which may be now lying at Ravenna be ordered round to Liguna, which in ordinary times supplies the needs of Ravenna herself.”]

Owing to this accident and the closeness of the investment the Goths began to be short of provisions, for they could import nothing from the sea, since the Romans were masters there.  In their need, however, the King of the Franks, knowing how things were, sent ambassadors to Vitiges in Ravenna, and so did Belisarius.  The Franks offered to lead an army of five hundred thousand men over the Alps and to bury the Romans in utter ruin if the Goths would consent to share Italy with them.  But the Goths feared the Franks, and the ambassadors of Belisarius were able to persuade them to reject their offers.  From this time forward negotiations went on without ceasing between Belisarius and the Goths, for the one was short of time, the other of food.  Nevertheless, the Romans did not relax their investment of the city in any way.  Indeed, Belisarius chose this moment for his shrewdest and cruellest blow.  “For hearing how there was much corn in the public magazines of Ravenna, he won a citizen with money to set them afire; which loss, some say, happened by Matasuntha’s advice, the wife of Vitiges.  It was so suddenly done that some thought it was by lightning, as others by design, and Vitiges and the Goths, taking it in either kind, fell into more irresolution, mistrusting one another, and thinking that God himself made war against them.”