r on the Romans gained the supremacy
over all of them in war, and settled the Moors at the extremity of the
inhabited land of Libya, and made the Carthaginians and the other
Libyans subject and tributary to themselves. And after this the Moors
won many victories over the Vandals and gained possession of the land
now called Mauretania, extending from Gadira as far as the boundaries of
Caesarea,[35] as well as the most of Libya which remained. Such, then,
is the story of the settlement of the Moors in Libya.

XI

Now when Solomon heard what had befallen Rufinus and Aigan, he made
ready for war and wrote as follows to the commanders of the Moors:
"Other men than you have even before this had the ill fortune to lose
their senses and to be destroyed, men who had no means of judging
beforehand how their folly would turn out. But as for you, who have the
example near at hand in your neighbours, the Vandals, what in the world
has happened to you that you have decided to raise your hands against
the great emperor and throw away your own security, and that too when
you have given the most dread oaths in writing and have handed over your
children as pledges to the agreement? Is it that you have determined to
make a kind of display of the fact that you have no consideration either
for God or for good faith or for kinship itself or for safety or for any
other thing at all? And yet, if such is your practice in matters which
concern the divine, in what ally do you put your trust in marching
against the emperor of the Romans? And if you are taking the field to
the destruction of your children, what in the world is it in behalf of
which you have decided to endanger yourselves? But if any repentance has
by now entered your hearts for what has already taken place, write to
us, that we may satisfactorily arrange with you touching what has
already been done; but if your madness has not yet abated, expect a
Roman war, which will come upon you together with the oaths which you
have violated and the wrong which you are doing to your own children."

Such was the letter which Solomon wrote. And the Moors replied as
follows: "Belisarius deluded us with great promises and by this means
persuaded us to become subjects of the Emperor Justinian; but the
Romans, while giving us no share in any good thing, expected to have us,
though pinched with hunger, as their friends and allies. Therefore it is
more fitting that you should be called faithless t