any weapon. For I will
immediately provide you with others in place of all that are destroyed
in the battle."

After speaking these words of exhortation, Belisarius led out his army
through the small Pincian Gate and the Salarian Gate, and commanded some
few men to go through the Aurelian Gate into the Plain of Nero. These he
put under the command of Valentinus, a commander of a cavalry
detachment, and he directed him not to begin any fighting, or to go too
close to the camp of the enemy, but constantly to give the appearance of
being about to attack immediately, so that none of the enemy in that
quarter might be able to cross the neighbouring bridge and come to the
assistance of the soldiers from the other camps. For since, as I have
previously stated,[138] the barbarians encamped in the Plain of Nero
were many, it seemed to him sufficient if these should all be prevented
from taking part in the engagement and be kept separated from the rest
of the army. And when some of the Roman populace took up arms and
followed as volunteers, he would not allow them to be drawn up for
battle along with the regular troops, fearing lest, when they came to
actual fighting, they should become terrified at the danger and throw
the entire army into confusion, since they were labouring men and
altogether unpractised in war. But outside the Pancratian Gate, which is
beyond the Tiber River, he ordered them to form a phalanx and remain
quiet until he himself should give the signal, reasoning, as actually
proved to be the case, that if the enemy in the Plain of Nero should see
both them and the men under Valentinus, they would never dare leave
their camp and enter battle with the rest of the Gothic army against his
own forces. And he considered it a stroke of good luck and a very
important advantage that such a large number of men should be kept apart
from the army of his opponents.

Such being the situation, he wished on that day to engage in a cavalry
battle only; and indeed most of the regular infantry were now unwilling
to remain in their accustomed condition, but, since they had captured
horses as booty from the enemy and had become not unpractised in
horsemanship, they were now mounted. And since the infantry were few in
number and unable even to make a phalanx of any consequence, and had
never had the courage to engage with the barbarians, but always turned
to flight at the first onset, he considered it unsafe to draw them up at
a d