A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

NARSES. NASIDIENUS. 1141
the wealth and oriental luxuries with which he he was the only man who could check the barbasurrounded himself in his palace at Ravenna ex- rians and had death not prevented him he would
cited the indignation of the Romans. During the certainly have triumphed over his enemies, and
life of Justinian, however, they did not complain, taken ample revenge for the insults he had suffered.
knowing that every attempt to shake Justinian's Such stratagems have often been invented by adconfidence in his great minister would have been venturers aspiring to power, as well as by men
ill vain; but no sooner was he dead than a depu- high in office, aiming at still greater power. It is
tation of Romans waited upon his successor, ex- said that Narses attained the age of ninety-five.
posing the extortions of Narses, and declaring that Gibbon doubts it, and perhaps not without reason.
they would prefer the rude yet frank despotism of " Is it probable," says he, "that all his exploits
the Goths to the system of craft aIld avarice carried were performed at fourscore?" It is certainly not
on by their present governor. Their complaints probable; but when Blucher performed his great
were not only listened to with attention, but were exploits he was past seventy, and he was as fresh
taken up by Justin as a pretext for getting rid of in the field as a young man.
a man who was not hIis creature, and Narses was Narses was one of those rare men who are desconsequently dismissed, and Longinus appointed in tined by Providence to rise above all others, and,
his stead. He might have borne his disgrace with according to circumstances or the particular shape
magnanimity but for the insulting message of of their genius, to become either the benefactors or
the empress Sophia, who bade him leave the the scourges of mankind. Of low and perhaps
profession of arms to men, and resume his former barbarian parentage, slave, eunuch, with the body
occupations among the eunuchs, and spill wool with of a boy and the voice of a woman, he made himthe maidens of the palace. Stung to the quick by self equal to the greatest, and was inferior to none,
this woman-like yet ungenerous taunt, Narses an- for his soul was that of a hero; his mind, bold and
swered that " he would spin her such a thread as inflexible in its resolutions, was yet of that elastic
she would not unravel during her life." (" Narses kind that adapts itself to circumstances; and
dicitur haec responsa dedisse: Talem se eidem through the labyrinth of schemes and intrigues his
telam orditurum qualem ipsa, dum viveret, depo- talents guided him with the same security that
nere non posset," Paul. Diacon. de Gest. Lonq. ii. leads the plain warrior on the broad way of heroic
6.) Narses retired quietly from office and took up action. Equal to Belisarius as a general, he was
his residence at Naples. An opportunity for gra- his superior as a statesman; but his virtues were
tifying his revenge was at hand. The Longobards less pure than those of the unfortunate hero; and
were meditating an invasion of Italy, a scheme of in a moral point of view he stands far below his
which Justin was well aware when he dismissed rival. (Procop. Bell. Goth. ii. 13, &c., iii. iv.;
Narses, who was, however, the only man able to Paul. Diacon. de Gest. Long. ii. 1-5; Marcellin.
prevent such a calamity. "Full of rage," says Chiron.; Agathias, lib. i. ii.; Zonar. vol. ii. p. 68,
Paulus Diaconus (1. c.), "Narses sent messengers &c.; Cedren. p. 387; Malela, p. 83; Theoph. p.
to the Longobards, and invited them to leave 201-206 (the index confounds the great Narses
the poor fields of Pannonia and take possession of with Narses the general of Maurice and Tiberius);
rich Italy. At the same time he sent them all Evagrius, iv. 24; Anastasius, Histor. p. 62,
kinds of fruits and other products of Italy, in order &c.; Vita Joan. iii. p. 43; Agnellus, Liber Ponto make them greedy and hasten their arrival." tific.) [W. P.]
King Alboin accordingly descended from the Alps NAISAMON (NaoacolAwv), a son of Amphithemis
into Italy. No sooner, however, was Narses in- and Tritonis, the ancestral hero of the Nasamones
formed of it, than he repaired to Rome, and tried in the north of Africa, who are said to have derived
to soothe the emperor by a submissive letter. The their name from him. (Apollon. Rhod. iv.
invasion of Italy, however, of which he could not 1496.) [L. S.]
but accuse himself as the cause, preyed upon his NA'SCIO, a Roman divinity, presiding over the
mind, and he died of grief (568). All this appears birth of children, and accordingly a goddess assiststrange; his conduct seems unaccountable; and ing Lucina in her functions, and analogous to the
weighty doubts have been raised by competent his- Greek Eileithyiae. She had a sanctuary in the
torians against the authenticity of the tale. But neighbourhood of Ardea. (Cic. de Nat, Deor. iii.
severe critics, Pagi, Muratori, Horatius Blancus, 18.) [L. S.]
Petavius, &c., as well as the more modern Le Beau NASE'NNIUS, C., served as a centurion in
and Gibbon, are of opinion that there is no ground Crete, under Metellus Creticus, and, after the assasfor disbelieving it. One might ask, why the em- sination of Julius Caesar, united himself to Cicero,
peror did not immediately resent his treachery? who gave him a letter of introduction to Brutus.
and how Narses, after playing such a dangerous (Cic. ad Brut. i. 8.)
game, could venture to repair to Rome, instead of NASI'CA, an agnomen in the family of the
joining the Longobards? The fact of the Romans Scipios. [SciPIo.]
being disaffected to Justin and devotedly attached NASI'CA, CAE'SI US, commanded a Roman
to Narses does not explain the mystery. The fol- legion under Didius Gallus in Britain. (Tac. Ann.
lowing hypothesis might perhaps throw some light xii. 40.) [GALLUS, DIDIUS.]
on the matter. The ambition of Narses was not NASIDIE'NUS, a wealthy (beatus) Roman,
only unlimited, but it was coupled with that irri- who gave a supper to Maecenas, which Horace
table and resentful temper which is peculiar to wo- ridicules so unmercifully in the eighth satire of his
men and eunuchs. His deposition was sufficient second book. It appears from v. 58, that Rufus
to rouse the former, and the bitter taunt of the was the cognomen of Nasidienus. The scholiasts
empress Sophia could not but provoke the latter. tell us that Nasidienus was a Roman eques; but it
He thus invited the Longobards, not in order that is probable that the name is fictitious, as it is
they might conquer Italy, but to compel Justin to not very likely that Horace would have satirised
put him once more at the head of the army, since in this way a man who was honoured by Maecenas
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