plundered the Roman domain for a long
time and had transferred great amounts of money to Libya, and since
their land was an especially good one, nourishing abundantly with the
most useful crops, it came about that the revenue collected from the
commodities produced there was not paid out to any other country in the
purchase of a food supply, but those who possessed the land always kept
for themselves the income from it for the ninety-five years during which
the Vandals ruled Libya. And from this it resulted that their wealth,
amounting to an extraordinary sum, returned once more on that day into
the hands of the Romans. So this battle and the pursuit and the capture
of the Vandals' camp happened three months after the Roman army came to
Carthage, at about the middle of the last month, which the Romans call
"December." [533 A.D.]

IV

Then Belisarius, seeing the Roman army rushing about in confusion and
great disorder, was disturbed, being fearful throughout the whole night
lest the enemy, uniting by mutual agreement against him, should do him
irreparable harm. And if this thing had happened at that time in any way
at all, I believe that, not one of the Romans would have escaped and
enjoyed this booty. For the soldiers, being extremely poor men, upon
becoming all of a sudden masters of very great wealth and of women both
young and extremely comely, were no longer able to restrain their minds
or to find any satiety in the things they had, but were so intoxicated,
drenched as they were by their present good fortunes, that each one
wished to take everything with him back to Carthage. And they were going
about, not in companies but alone or by twos, wherever hope led them,
searching out everything roundabout among the valleys and the rough
country and wherever there chanced to be a cave or anything such as
might bring them into danger or ambush. For neither did fear of the
enemy nor their respect for Belisarius occur to them, nor indeed
anything else at all except the desire for spoils, and being
overmastered by this they came to think lightly of everything else. And
Belisarius, taking note of all this, was at a loss as to how he should
handle the situation. But at daybreak he took his stand upon a certain
hill near the road, appealing to the discipline which no longer existed
and heaping reproaches upon all, soldiers and officers alike. Then
indeed, those who chanced to be near, and especially those who were of
the hou