Teja had beaten the troops of the Byzantine general Verus, who had defended the crossing of the Santernus; had killed the general with his own hand, and had then hastened through the whole of North Italy with the manifesto in his left hand, his sword in his right, and in a few weeks had won by force or by persuasion all towns and castles as far as Mediolanum. But Totila, taught by the experience of the first siege of Rome, would not expose his troops by attempting to storm the formidable defences of the Prefect, and also desired to spare his future capital. "I will get into Rome with linen wings, and on wooden bridges," he one day said to Duke Guntharis; left to him the investment of the city; and taking all his horsemen with him, marched for Neapolis. There in the harbour lay, very inefficiently manned, an imperial fleet. Totila's march upon the Appian Way through South Italy resembled a triumphal procession. Those districts which had suffered the longest under the yoke of the Byzantines were now most willing to greet the Goths as liberators. The maidens of Terracina went to meet the King of the Goths with wreaths of flowers. The people of Minturnæ brought out a golden chariot, made the King descend from his white horse, and dragged him into the town in triumph. "Look! look!" was the cry in the streets of Casilinum--an ancient place once dedicated to the worship of the Campanian Diana--"Ph[oe]bus Apollo himself has descended from Olympus and comes as a saviour to the sanctuary of his sister!" The citizens of Capua begged him to impress the first gold coins of his reign with the inscription, "_Capua revindicata_." Thus it continued until he reached Neapolis; the very same road he had once passed as a wounded fugitive. The commander of the Armenian mercenaries in Neapolis, who had a very brave but small troop, did not dare to trust the fidelity of the population in case of a siege. He therefore led his lance-bearers and the armed citizens to meet the King outside the gates. But before the battle commenced, a man on a white horse rode out of the lines of Goths, took his helmet from his head, and cried: