both of the heavens and of the air, of the earth
and of the sea, and sundry other demons which are said to be in the
waters of springs and rivers. And they incessantly offer up all kinds of
sacrifices, and make oblations to the dead, but the noblest of
sacrifices, in their eyes, is the first human being whom they have taken
captive in war; for they sacrifice him to Ares, whom they regard as the
greatest god. And the manner in which they offer up the captive is not
by sacrificing him on an altar only, but also by hanging him to a tree,
or throwing him among thorns, or killing him by some of the other most
cruel forms of death. Thus, then, do the inhabitants of Thule live. And
one of their most numerous nations is the Gauti, and it was next to them
that the incoming Eruli settled at the time in question.

On the present occasion,[196] therefore, the Eruli who dwelt among the
Romans, after the murder of their king had been perpetrated by them,
sent some of their notables to the island of Thule to search out and
bring back whomsoever they were able to find there of the royal blood.
And when these men reached the island, they found many there of the
royal blood, but they selected the one man who pleased them most and set
out with him on the return journey. But this man fell sick and died when
he had come to the country of the Dani. These men therefore went a
second time to the island and secured another man, Datius by name. And
he was followed by his brother Aordus and two hundred youths of the
Eruli in Thule. But since much time passed while they were absent on
this journey, it occurred to the Eruli in the neighbourhood of
Singidunum that they were not consulting their own interests in
importing a leader from Thule against the wishes of the Emperor
Justinian. They therefore sent envoys to Byzantium, begging the emperor
to send them a ruler of his own choice. And he straightway sent them one
of the Eruli who had long been sojourning in Byzantium, Suartuas by
name. At first the Eruli welcomed him and did obeisance to him and
rendered the customary obedience to his commands; but not many days
later a messenger arrived with the tidings that the men from the island
of Thule were near at hand. And Suartuas commanded them to go out to
meet those men, his intention being to destroy them, and the Eruli,
approving his purpose, immediately went with him. But when the two
forces were one day's journey distant from each other, the king's