The station of Verona was occupied by Teias, with the flower of the Gothic forces; and that skilful commander had overspread the adjacent country with the fall of woods and the inundation of waters.

[33] In this perplexity, an officer of experience proposed a measure, secure by the appearance of rashness; that the Roman army should cautiously advance along the seashore, while the fleet preceded their march, and successively cast a bridge of boats over the mouths of the rivers, the Timavus, the Brenta, the Adige, and the Po, that fall into the Adriatic to the north of Ravenna.

Nine days he reposed in the city, collected the fragments of the Italian army, and marching towards Rimini to meet the defiance of an insulting enemy.
[Footnote 29: Procopius relates the whole series of this second Gothic war and the victory of Narses, (l.iv.c.21, 26--35.) A splendid scene.
Among the six subjects of epic poetry which Tasso revolved in his mind, he hesitated between the conquests of Italy by Belisarius and by Narses, (Hayley's Works, vol.iv.p.

70.)] [Footnote 30: The country of Narses is unknown, since he must not be confounded with the Persarmenian.

Procopius styles him (see Goth.l.