idden in the houses told our troops what had happened; most of
them had fled to Carthage on learning that their village had been
chosen for the battleground.

A wonderfully beautiful woman,--she looks like the Sphinx at
Memphis,--the owner of the largest villa in Decimum, voluntarily
received our men. It was she who told us of the noble's death. He fell
before her eyes, just in front of her house.

The leaders now consulted, undecided whether to advance, halt, or
return to Belisarius. At last the whole body of cavalry rode about two
thousand paces west of Decimum, where they could obtain from the high
sand-hills a wider view in every direction. There they saw rising in
the south-southwest--that is, in the rear and on the left flank of
Belisarius--a huge cloud of dust, from which sometimes flashed the arms
and banners of an immense body of horsemen. They instantly sent a
message to Belisarius that he must hasten; the enemy was at hand.

Meanwhile the Barbarians, led by Gelimer, approached. They were
marching along a road between Belisarius's main body in the east and
the Huns and Thracians, our left wing, who had defeated Gibamund and
pursued him far to the west. But the high hills along the road
obstructed Gelimer's view, so that he could not see Gibamund's
battlefield. Byzantines and Vandals, as soon as they saw each other,
struggled to be first to reach and occupy the summit of the highest
hill in the chain which dominated the whole region. The Barbarians
gained the top, and from it King Gelimer rushed down with such power
upon our men, the auxiliary cavalry, that they were seized with panic,
and fled in wild confusion eastward, toward Decimum.

About nine hundred paces west of the village the fugitives met their
strong support, a body of eight hundred mounted shield-bearers, led by
Velox, Belisarius's bodyguard. The General and all of us who had
tremblingly witnessed the flight of the cavalry consoled ourselves with
the hope that Velox would check their flight and march back with them
to the enemy. But--oh, shame and horror--the weight of the Vandal
onslaught was so tremendous that the fugitives and the shield-bearers
did not even wait for it; the whole body, mingled together, swept back
in disorder to Belisarius.

The General said that at this moment he gave us all up for lost:
"Gelimer," he said at the banquet that night, "had the victory in his
hands. Why he voluntarily let it escape is incomprehensible. Had