skillful use of combined tactics involving cavalry and archers to create and exploit disorder in his enemies. Afterwards, in the autumn of 554, the triumphant Narses returned to Rome, possibly to celebrate a formal Triumph; but Agathius, the sole source for the possibility, "does not provide even a rhetorical account of this", and gives no further detail. Final years For the next twelve years, Narses may have stayed in Italy and "set about to reorganize" its government. Justinian sent Narses a series of new decrees known as "pragmatic sanctions". Many historians refer to Narses in this part of his career as an Exarch. Narses completed some restoration projects in Italy but was unable to return Rome to its former splendor, though he did repair many of the bridges into the city and rebuild the city's walls. Little is known of Narses' last years. Some historians believe he died in 567, while others assert that he died in 574, in which case he may have reached the age of 96. Legend has it that Narses was recalled to Constantinople for turning the Romans under his rule into virtual slaves, thereby upsetting the new Emperor Justin II and his wife, the Empress Sophia. Narses then retired to Naples. In an apocryphal but often retold story, Sophia sent Narses a golden distaff with the sarcastic message that he was invited to return to the palace and oversee the women's spinning, and Narses is said to have replied that he would spin a thread of which neither she nor Justin would ever find the end. From Naples, Narses supposedly sent word to the Lombards inviting them to invade northern Italy. The historian Dunlap questions whether there was hostility between the empress and Narses. Paul the Deacon wrote that his body was returned to Constantinople; and John of Ephesus wrote that Narses was buried in the presence of the Emperor and Empress in a Bithynian monastery founded by him. References Bibliography Brodka, Dariusz: Narses. Politik, Krieg und Historiographie im 6. Jahrhundert n. Chr. Berlin: Peter Lang, 2018. Browning, Robert: Justinian and Theodora. London: Thames & Hudson, rev. ed. 1987. Bury, John B.: History of the Later Roman Empire. From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian. Vol. II. London: Macmillan Press, 1958. Cameron, Averil: The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity: AD 395–700. London: Routledge, 2011. Croke, Brian: "Jordanes and the Immediate Past."