NARSES, a celebrated statesman and gen., and almost the last stay of the old Roman empire in Italy, was b. toward the last quarter of the 5th century. The place of his birth is uncertain. His parentage was obscure, and he was probably sold as a slave in childhood, having, according to the barbarous usage of the period, been previously emas culated. From some menial in the imperial household at Constantinople, he rose by successive steps to the post of cubieularius, or private chamberlain of the emperor Justinian, and ultimately to that of keeper of the privy purse. In the difficult art of courtiership, Narses long maintained a pre-eminence. More remarkable, however, considering his con dition, was the distinction which lie attained in military affairs. In 538 he was sent to Italy in command of a body of troops, professedly to act in concert with Belisarius (q.v.); but in reality, it is conjectured. with a secret commission to observe and control that general. After some successes, Names, having disputed with Belisarius, assumed an independent authority; but his separate command was unfortunate, and he was recalled to Constan tinople in 539. After some years, however, Belisarius was recalled, and Narses was appointed to the chief command in Italy. His conduct of that expedition extorted the admiration even of his enemies, Not having the command of a sufficient number of transports, he marched his army along the whole circuit of the shore of the Adriatic, and while the enemy's fleet were still in possession of the sea, was enabled to encounter them in the plain of Sentaglio, near Tagina, where, after a desperate engagement, the Goths were totally defeated, and their king, Totila, slain, Narses took possession of Rome. and after a series of successes both in southern and northern Italy, completely extinguished the Gothic power in that peninsula. Justinian appointed Narses exarch of Italy in 553. He fixed his court at Ravenna, and continued, till the death of Justin
ian, to administer the affairs of Italy with a vigor and ability which did much to stay the progress of that decay which had long infected all its social, political, and military institutions. The only blot on the character of his administration is the avarice with which he is charged by his contemporaries. His exactions pressed heavily on the exhausted resources of the population; though their severity may be in sonic degree palliated by the splendor and utility of the public works on which he partly expended the public resources. On the death of Justinian, his ascendency came to an end. The Romans, on the accession of Justin, complained to him of the exactions of Narses, and that emperor deprived him, in 565, of his office; a proceeding to which a special indig nity was imparted by an insulting message from the empress, that it was time for him to "leave arms to men, and to spin wool among the women of the palace." To this hitter taunt (according to Panlus Diaconns, De Gest. Long. ii. 6), Narses replied that he would "spin for her a thread which she would find it hard to unravel;" and he is accused of secretly intriguing with Alboin, king of the Lombards, to incite a new invasion of Italy, at the same time submissively offering his services to the emperor for the purpose of repelling the invasion. This account, however, seems uncertain, and perhaps improbable; and as Narses died at Rome in 568, just on the eve of the Lom bard invasion, iS'tlfrOWn .upon this stony by the '4043pyfpteof the war. His age at the time of his death is a subject of much curious controversy. According to the popular account, it was nolcss than 95 years; but this is doubted by most of the historians.