ings outside,
though they are many, have been from ancient times unprotected by a
wall. Now as soon as Conon, who was in command of the garrison of the
place, heard that the forces of Vacimus were coming against him and were
already not far away, he made an exhibition of thoughtless folly. For
thinking it too small a thing to preserve free from harm merely the
fortress and its inhabitants together with the soldiers, he left the
fortifications entirely destitute of soldiers, and leading them all out
to a distance of about five stades, arrayed them in line of battle,
without, however, making the phalanx a deep one at all, but thin enough
to surround the entire base of the mountain, as if for a hunt. But when
these troops saw that the enemy were greatly superior to them in number,
they turned their backs and straightway fled to the fortress. And the
barbarians, following close upon them, slew on the spot most of their
number--those who did not succeed in getting inside the circuit-wall in
time--and then placed ladders against the wall and attempted the ascent.
Some also began burning the houses outside the fortress. And the Romans
who resided habitually in the fortress, being terror-stricken at what
was taking place, at first opened the small gate and received the
soldiers as they fled in complete disorder. But when they saw the
barbarians close at hand and pressing upon the fugitives, fearing that
they would charge in with them, they closed the gates as quickly as they
could, and letting down ropes from the battlement, saved a number by
drawing them up, and among them Conon himself. But the barbarians scaled
the wall by means of their ladders and came within a little of capturing
the fortress by storm, and would have succeeded if two men had not made
a display of remarkable deeds by valorously pushing off the battlements
those who had already got upon the wall; one of these two was a
bodyguard of Belisarius, a Thracian named Ulimuth, and the other a
bodyguard of Valerian, named Gouboulgoudou, a Massagete by birth. These
two men had happened by some chance to come by ship to Ancon a little
before; and in this struggle, by warding off with their swords those who
were scaling the wall, they saved the fortress contrary to expectation,
but they themselves were carried from the battlement half dead, their
whole bodies hacked with many wounds.

At that time it was reported to Belisarius that Narses had come with a
great army fro