attended to the wounded men.
Now in the case of Arzes, though the physicians wished to draw the
weapon from his face, they were for some time reluctant to do so, not so
much on account of the eye, which they supposed could not possibly be
saved, but for fear lest, by the cutting of membranes and tissues such
as are very numerous in that region, they should cause the death of a
man who was one of the best of the household of Belisarius. But
afterwards one of the physicians, Theoctistus by name, pressed on the
back of his neck and asked whether he felt much pain. And when the man
said that he did feel pain, he said, "Then both you yourself will be
saved and your sight will not be injured." And he made this declaration
because he inferred that the barb of the weapon had penetrated to a
point not far from the skin. Accordingly he cut off that part of the
shaft which shewed outside and threw it away, and cutting open the skin
at the back of the head, at the place where the man felt the most pain,
he easily drew toward him the barb, which with its three sharp points
now stuck out behind and brought with it the remaining portion of the
weapon. Thus Arzes remained entirely free from serious harm, and not
even a trace of his wound was left on his face. But as for Cutilas, when
the javelin was drawn rather violently from his head (for it was very
deeply embedded), he fell into a swoon. And since the membranes about
the wound began to be inflamed, he fell a victim to phrenitis[142] and
died not long afterwards. Bochas, however, immediately had a very severe
hemorrhage in the thigh, and seemed like one who was presently to die.
And the reason for the hemorrhage, according to what the physicians
said, was that the blow had severed the muscle, not directly from the
front, but by a slanting cut. In any event he died three days later.
Because of these things, then, the Romans spent that whole night in deep
grief; while from the Gothic camps were heard many sounds of wailing and
loud lamentation. And the Romans indeed wondered, because they thought
that no calamity of any consequence had befallen the enemy on the
previous day, except, to be sure, that no small number of them had
perished in the encounters. This had happened to them before in no less
degree, perhaps even to a greater degree, but it had not greatly
distressed them, so great were their numbers. However, it was learned on
the following day that men of the greatest note from