most of all at Tricamarum. And as a result of his
deeds there Belisarius entrusted to him these islands. And later
Belisarius sent an army also into Tripolis to Pudentius and
Tattimuth,[13] who were being pressed by the Moors there, and thus
strengthened the Roman power in that quarter.

He also sent some men to Sicily in order to take the fortress in
Lilybaeum, as belonging to the Vandals' kingdom,[14] but he was repulsed
from there, since the Goths by no means saw fit to yield any part of
Sicily, on the ground that this fortress did not belong to the Vandals
at all. And when Belisarius heard this, he wrote to the commanders who
were there as follows: "You are depriving us of Lilybaeum, the fortress
of the Vandals who are the slaves of the emperor, and are not acting
justly nor in a way to benefit yourselves, and you wish to bring upon
your ruler, though he does not so will it and is far distant from the
scene of these actions, the hostility of the great emperor, whose
good-will he has, having won it with great labour. And yet how could you
but seem to be acting contrary to the ways of men, it you recently
allowed Gelimer to hold the fortress, but have decided to wrest from the
emperor, Gelimer's master, the possessions of the slave? You, at least,
should not act thus, most excellent sirs. But reflect that, while it is
the nature of friendship to cover over many faults, hostility does not
brook even the smallest misdeeds, but searches the past for every
offence, and allows not its enemy to grow rich on what does not in the
least belong to them.[15] Moreover, the enemy fights to avenge the
wrongs which it says have been done to its ancestors; and whereas, if
friendship thus turned to hostility fails in the struggle, it suffers no
loss of its own possessions, yet if it succeeds, it teaches the
vanquished to take a new view of the indulgence which has been shewn
them in the past. See to it, then, that you neither do us further harm
nor suffer harm yourselves, and do not make the great emperor an enemy
to the Gothic nation, when it is your prayer that he be propitious
toward you. For be well assured that, if you lay claim to this fortress,
war will confront you immediately, and not for Lilybaeum alone, but for
all the possessions you claim as yours, though not one of them belongs
to you."

Such was the message of the letter. And the Goths reported these things
to the mother[16] of Antalaric, and at her direction made the