night in great fear, supposing that
on the morrow they would perish. But John, neither yielding to despair
in face of the danger nor being greatly agitated by fear, devised the
following plan. Leaving the others on guard at their posts, he himself
took the Isaurians, who carried pickaxes and various other tools of this
kind, and went outside the fortifications; it was late in the night and
no word had been given beforehand to anyone in the city; and once
outside the wall, he commanded his men in silence to dig the trench
deeper. So they did as directed, and as they dug they kept putting the
earth which they took out of the trench upon the side of it nearer the
city-wall, and there it served them as an earthwork. And since they were
unobserved for a long time by the enemy, who were sleeping, they soon
made the trench both deep and sufficiently wide, at the place where the
fortifications were especially vulnerable and where the barbarians were
going to make the assault with their engine of war. But far on in the
night the enemy, perceiving what was being done, charged at full speed
against those who were digging, and John went inside the fortifications
with the Isaurians, since the trench was now in a most satisfactory
condition.

But at daybreak Vittigis noted what had been accomplished and in his
exceeding vexation at the occurrence executed some of the guards;
however, he was as eager as before to bring his engine to bear, and so
commanded the Goths to throw a great number of faggots as quickly as
possible into the trench, and then by drawing the tower over them to
bring it into position. This they proceeded to do as Vittigis commanded,
with all zeal, although their opponents kept fighting them back from the
wall with the utmost vigour. But when the weight of the tower came upon
the faggots they naturally yielded and sank down. For this reason the
barbarians were quite unable to go forward with the engine, because the
ground became still more steep before them, where the Romans had heaped
up the earth as I have stated. Fearing, therefore, that when night came
on the enemy would sally forth and set fire to the engine, they began to
draw it back again. This was precisely what John was eager to prevent
with all his power, and so he armed his soldiers, called them all
together, and exhorted them as follows:

"My men, who share this danger common to us all, if it would please any
man among you to live and see those whom h