word, and the armour which I
wore that day, as a sign that I thank him.' And in the report to the
Emperor he dictated these words to me: 'Cethegus saved Rome, and
Cethegus alone! Send him the patricianship of Byzantium.'"

"Many thanks! I did not save Rome for Byzantium!" observed Cethegus.

"You need not tell Belisarius that, you un-Attic Roman!"

"I am in no Attic humour, you life-preserver! What was your reward?"

"Peace. He knows nothing of it, and shall never learn it."

"Syphax, wine! I cannot bear so much magnanimity. It makes me weak.
Well, what was the joke with the ambush?"

"Friend, it was no joke, but as terrible earnest as I have ever seen.
Belisarius was saved by a hair's-breadth."

"Yes; it was one of those hairs which are always in the way of these
Goths! They are clumsy fools, one and all!"

"You speak as if you were sorry that Belisarius was not killed!"

"It would have served him right. I had warned him thrice. He ought by
this time to know what becomes an old general and what a young
brawler."

"Listen," said Procopius, looking at him earnestly. "You have won the
right to speak thus at the Mausoleum. Formerly, when you depreciated
this man's heroism----"

"You thought I spoke in envy of the brave Belisarius? Hear it, ye
immortal gods!"

"Yes; certainly your Gepidian laurels----"

"Leave those boyish deeds alone! Friend, if necessary, a man must
despise death, but else he must cherish his life carefully. For only
the living laugh and rule, not the dumb dead. This is my wisdom, call
it cowardice if you will. Therefore--there was an ambush. Tell me
briefly, how went the fight!"

"Briskly enough! After we had scoured the neighbourhood--it seemed free
from enemies and safe for foraging--we gradually turned our horses'
heads in the direction of the city, taking with us a few goats and
half-starved sheep which we had found. Belisarius went foremost with
young Severinus, Johannes, and myself. Suddenly, as we issued from the
village _ad aras Bacchi_, there came galloping out of the trees on
either side the Valerian Way a number of Gothic horsemen. I saw at once
that they far outnumbered us, and advised that we should try to rush
between them straight on the road to Rome. But Belisarius thought that
though they were many, they were not too many, so he turned to the left
to meet and break through one of their lines. But we were ill received.
The Goths fought and rode better than our Mauretanian