uddenly, and a
Roman foot-soldier, becoming greatly confused, fell into a deep hole,
many of which were made there by the men of old, for the storage of
grain, I suppose. And he did not dare to cry out, supposing that the
enemy were encamped near by, and was not able in any way whatever to get
out of the pit, for it afforded no means of climbing up; he was
therefore compelled to pass the night there. Now on the next day, when
the barbarians had again been put to flight, one of the Goths fell into
the same hole. And there the two men were reconciled to mutual
friendship and good-will, brought together as they were by their
necessity, and they exchanged solemn pledges, each that he would work
earnestly for the salvation of the other; and then both of them began
shouting with loud and frantic cries. Now the Goths, following the
sound, came and peered over the edge of the hole, and enquired who it
was who shouted. At this, the Roman, in accordance with the plan decided
upon by the two men, kept silence, and the Goth in his native tongue
said that he had just recently fallen in there during the rout which had
taken place, and asked them to let down a rope that he might come up.
And they as quickly as possible threw down the ends of ropes, and, as
they thought, were pulling up the Goth, but the Roman laid hold of the
ropes and was pulled up, saying only that if he should go up first the
Goths would never abandon their comrade, but if they should learn that
merely one of the enemy was there they would take no account of him. So
saying, he went up. And when the Goths saw him, they wondered and were
in great perplexity, but upon hearing the whole story from him they drew
up his comrade next, and he told them of the agreement they had made
and of the pledges both had given. So he went off with his companions,
and the Roman was released unharmed and permitted to return to the city.
After this horsemen in no great numbers armed themselves many times for
battle, but the struggles always ended in single combats, and the Romans
were victorious in all of them. Such, then, was the course of these
events.

A little after this an engagement took place in the Plain of Nero,
wherein various small groups of horsemen were engaged in pursuing their
opponents in various directions; in one group was Chorsamantis, a man of
note among the guards of Belisarius, by birth a Massagete, who with some
others was pursuing seventy of the enemy. And when h