an engine
which was on a tower at his left. And passing through the corselet and
the body of the man, the missile sank more than half its length into the
tree, and pinning him to the spot where it entered the tree, it
suspended him there a corpse. And when this was seen by the Goths they
fell into great fear, and getting outside the range of missiles, they
still remained in line, but no longer harassed those on the wall.

But Bessas and Peranius summoned Belisarius, since Vittigis was pressing
most vigorously upon them at the Vivarium. And he was fearful concerning
the wall there (for it was most assailable at that point, as has been
said[119]), and so came to the rescue himself with all speed, leaving
one of his friends at the Salarian Gate. And finding that the soldiers
in the Vivarium dreaded the attack of the enemy, which was being pressed
with great vigour and by very large numbers, he bade them look with
contempt upon the enemy and thus restored their confidence. Now the
ground there[120] was very level, and consequently the place lay open to
the attacks of any assailant. And for some reason the wall at that point
had crumbled a great deal, and to such an extent that the binding of the
bricks did not hold together very well. Consequently the ancient Romans
had built another wall of short length outside of it and encircling it,
not for the sake of safety (for it was neither strengthened with towers,
nor indeed was there any battlement built upon it, nor any other means
by which it would have been possible to repulse an enemy's assault upon
the fortifications), but in order to provide for an unseemly kind of
luxury, namely, that they might confine and keep there lions and other
wild animals. And it is for this reason that this place has been named
the Vivarium; for thus the Romans call a place where untamed animals are
regularly cared for. So Vittigis began to make ready various engines at
different places along the wall and commanded the Goths to mine the
outside wall, thinking that, if they should get inside that, they would
have no trouble in capturing the main wall, which he knew to be by no
means strong. But Belisarius, seeing that the enemy was undermining the
Vivarium and assaulting the fortifications at many places, neither
allowed the soldiers to defend the wall nor to remain at the
battlement, except a very few, although he had with him whatever men of
distinction the army contained. But he held them all i