who were first were being killed constantly, but their plight
could not be perceived by those who were coming up behind. And when the
vale became full of dead horses and men, and the bodies made a passage
from Bourgaon to the other mountain, then the remainder were saved by
making the crossing over the bodies. And there perished in this
struggle, among the Moors fifty thousand, as was declared by those of
them who survived, but among the Romans no one at all, nor indeed did
anyone receive even a wound, either at the hand of the enemy or by any
accident happening to him, but they all enjoyed this victory unscathed.
All of the leaders of the barbarians also made their escape, except
Esdilasas, who received pledges and surrendered himself to the Romans.
So great, however, was the multitude of women and children whom the
Romans seized as booty, that they would sell a Moorish boy for the price
of a sheep to any who wished to buy. And then the remainder of the Moors
recalled the saying of their women, to the effect that their nation
would be destroyed by a beardless man.[41]

So the Roman army, together with its booty and with Esdilasas, marched
into Carthage; and those of the barbarians who had not perished decided
that it was impossible to settle in Byzacium, lest they, being few,
should be treated with violence by the Libyans who were their
neighbours, and with their leaders they went into Numidia and made
themselves suppliants of Iaudas, who ruled the Moors in Aurasium.[42]
And the only Moors who remained in Byzacium were those led by Antalas,
who during this time had kept faith with the Romans and together with
his subjects had remained unharmed.

XIII

But during the time when these things were happening in Byzacium,
Iaudas, who ruled the Moors in Aurasium, bringing more than thirty
thousand fighting men, was plundering the country of Numidia and
enslaving many of the Libyans. Now it so happened that Althias[43] in
Centuriae was keeping guard over the forts there; and he, being eager to
take from the enemy some of their captives, went outside the fort with
the Huns who were under his command, to the number of about seventy. And
reasoning that he was not able to cope with such a great multitude of
Moors with only seventy men, he wished to occupy some narrow pass, so
that, while the enemy were marching through it, he might be able to
snatch up some of the captives. And since there are no such roads there,
because fl