[134] and Antae,[135] who are settled above the Ister River
not far from its banks. And Belisarius was pleased by their coming and
thought that thenceforth his army ought to carry the war against the
enemy. On the following day, accordingly, he commanded one of his own
bodyguards, Trajan by name, an impetuous and active fighter, to take two
hundred horsemen of the guards and go straight towards the enemy, and as
soon as they came near the camps to go up on a high hill (which he
pointed out to him) and remain quietly there. And if the enemy should
come against them, he was not to allow the battle to come to close
quarters, nor to touch sword or spear in any case, but to use bows only,
and as soon as he should find that his quiver had no more arrows in it,
he was to flee as hard as he could with no thought of shame and retire
to the fortifications on the run. Having given these instructions, he
held in readiness both the engines for shooting arrows and the men
skilled in their use. Then Trajan with the two hundred men went out from
the Salarian Gate against the camp of the enemy. And they, being filled
with amazement at the suddenness of the thing, rushed out from the
camps, each man equipping himself as well as he could. But the men under
Trajan galloped to the top of the hill which Belisarius had shewn them,
and from there began to ward off the barbarians with missiles. And since
their shafts fell among a dense throng, they were for the most part
successful in hitting a man or a horse. But when all their missiles had
at last failed them, they rode off to the rear with all speed, and the
Goths kept pressing upon them in pursuit. But when they came near the
fortifications, the operators of the engines began to shoot arrows from
them, and the barbarians became terrified and abandoned the pursuit. And
it is said that not less than one thousand Goths perished in this
action. A few days later Belisarius sent Mundilas, another of his own
bodyguard, and Diogenes, both exceptionally capable warriors, with three
hundred guardsmen, commanding them to do the same thing as the others
had done before. And they acted according to his instructions. Then,
when the enemy confronted them, the result of the encounter was that no
fewer than in the former action, perhaps even more, perished in the same
way. And sending even a third time the guardsman Oilas with three
hundred horsemen, with instructions to handle the enemy in the same way,
he a