I am unable to say what happened to Gelimer that, having
the victory in his hands, he willingly gave it up to the enemy, unless
one ought to refer foolish actions also to God, who, whenever He
purposes that some adversity shall befall a man, touches first his
reason and does not permit that which will be to his advantage to come
to his consideration. For if, on the one hand, he had made the pursuit
immediately, I do not think that even Belisarius would have withstood
him, but our cause would have been utterly and completely lost, so
numerous appeared the force of the Vandals and so great the fear they
inspired in the Romans; or if, on the other hand, he had even ridden
straight for Carthage, he would easily have killed all John's men, who,
heedless of everything else, were wandering about the plain one by one
or by twos and stripping the dead. And he would have preserved the city
with its treasures, and captured our ships, which had come rather near,
and he would have withdrawn from us all hope both of sailing away and of
victory. But in fact he did neither of these things. Instead he
descended from the hill at a walk, and when he reached the level ground
and saw the corpse of his brother, he turned to lamentations, and, in
caring for his burial, he blunted the edge of his opportunity--an
opportunity which he was not able to grasp again. Meantime Belisarius,
meeting the fugitives, bade them stop, and arrayed them all in order and
rebuked them at length; then, after hearing of the death of Ammatas and
the pursuit of John, and learning what he wished concerning the place
and the enemy, he proceeded at full speed against Gelimer and the
Vandals. But the barbarians, having already fallen into disorder and
being now unprepared, did not withstand the onset of the Romans, but
fled with all their might, losing many there, and the battle ended at
night. Now the Vandals were in flight, not to Carthage nor to Byzacium,
whence they had come, but to the plain of Boulla and the road leading
into Numidia. So the men with John and the Massagetae returned to us
about dusk, and after learning all that had happened and reporting what
they had done, they passed the night with us in Decimum.

XX

But on the following day the infantry with the wife of Belisarius came
up and we all proceeded together on the road toward Carthage, which we
reached in the late evening; and we passed the night in the open,
although no one hindered us from marc