ipated the
hour of attack, outstripped his tardy followers, and was
pierced with a mortal wound, after he had slain with his own
hand twelve of his boldest antagonists. His Vandals fled to
Carthage: the highway, almost ten miles, was strewed with
dead bodies, and it seemed incredible that such multitudes
could be slaughtered by the swords of three hundred Romans.
The nephew of Gelimer was defeated after a slight combat by
the six hundred Massagetae; they did not equal the third part
of his numbers, but each Scythian was fired by the example
of his chief, who gloriously exercised the privilege of his
family by riding foremost and alone to shoot the first arrow
against the enemy. In the meantime Gelimer himself, ignorant
of the event, and misguided by the windings of the hills,
inadvertently passed the Roman army and reached the scene of
action where Ammatas had fallen. He wept the fate of his
brother and of Carthage, charged with irresistible fury the
advancing squadrons, and might have pursued and perhaps
decided the victory, if he had not wasted those inestimable
moments in the discharge of a vain though pious duty to the
dead. While his spirit was broken by this mournful office,
he heard the trumpet of Belisarius, who, leaving Antonina
and his infantry in the camp, pressed forward with his
guards and the remainder of the cavalry to rally his flying
troops, and to restore the fortune of the day. Much room
could not be found in this disorderly battle for the talents
of a general; but the king fled before the hero, and the
Vandals, accustomed only to a Moorish enemy, were incapable
of withstanding the arms and the discipline of the
Romans....

"As soon as the tumult had subsided, the several parts of
the army informed each other of the accidents of the day,
and Belisarius pitched his camp on the field of victory, to
which the tenth milestone from Carthage had applied the
Latin appellation of _Decimus_. From a wise suspicion of the
stratagems and resources of the Vandals, he marched the next
day in the order of battle; halted in the evening before the
gates of Carthage, and allowed a night of repose, that he
might not, in darkness and disorder, expose the city to the
licence of the soldiers, or the soldiers themselves to the