ccomplished the same result. So in making these three sallies, in
the manner told by me, Belisarius destroyed about four thousand of his
antagonists.

But Vittigis, failing to take into account the difference between the
two armies in point of equipment of arms and of practice in warlike
deeds, thought that he too would most easily inflict grave losses upon
the enemy, if only he should make his attack upon them with a small
force. He therefore sent five hundred horsemen, commanding them to go
close to the fortifications, and to make a demonstration against the
whole army of the enemy of the very same tactics as had time and again
been used against them, to their sorrow, by small bands of the foe. And
so, when they came to a high place not far from the city, but just
beyond the range of missiles, they took their stand there. But
Belisarius selected a thousand men, putting Bessas in command, and
ordered them to engage with the enemy. And this force, by forming a
circle around the enemy and always shooting at them from behind, killed
a large number, and by pressing hard upon the rest compelled them to
descend into the plain. There a hand-to-hand battle took place between
forces not evenly matched in strength, and most of the Goths were
destroyed, though some few with difficulty made their escape and
returned to their own camp. And Vittigis reviled these men, insisting
that cowardice had been the cause of their defeat, and undertaking to
find another set of men to retrieve the loss after no long time, he
remained quiet for the present; but three days later he selected men
from all the camps, five hundred in number, and bade them make a display
of valorous deeds against the enemy. Now as soon as Belisarius saw that
these men had come rather near, he sent out against them fifteen hundred
men under the commanders Martinus and Valerian. And a cavalry battle
taking place immediately, the Romans, being greatly superior to the
enemy in numbers, routed them without any trouble and destroyed
practically all of them.

And to the enemy it seemed in every way a dreadful thing and a proof
that fortune stood against them, if, when they were many and the enemy
who came against them were few, they were defeated, and when, on the
other hand, they in turn went in small numbers against their enemy, they
were likewise destroyed. Belisarius, however, received a public vote of
praise from the Romans for his wisdom, at which they not unnaturally