had no soldiers to defend them and seizing all the most
valuable things, until the coming of night, and drunkenness following
their toil, made them cease.

And Solomon succeeded in escaping unnoticed into the great sanctuary
which is in the palace, and Martinus joined him there in the late
afternoon. And when all the mutineers were sleeping, they went out from
the sanctuary and entered the house of Theodorus, the Cappadocian, who
compelled them to dine although they had no desire to do so, and
conveyed them to the harbour and put them on the skiff of a certain
ship, which happened to have been made ready there by Martinus. And
Procopius also, who wrote this history, was with them, and about five
men of the house of Solomon. And after accomplishing three hundred
stades they reached Misuas, the ship-yard of Carthage, and, since they
had reached safety, Solomon straightway commanded Martinus to go into
Numidia to Valerian and the others who shared his command, and endeavour
to bring it about that each one of them, if it were in any way possible,
should appeal to some of the soldiers known to him, either with money or
by other means, and bring them back to loyalty toward the emperor. And
he sent a letter to Theodorus, charging him to take care of Carthage and
to handle the other matters as should seem possible to him, and he
himself with Procopius went to Belisarius at Syracuse. And after
reporting everything to him which had taken place in Libya, he begged
him to come with all speed to Carthage and defend the emperor, who was
suffering unholy treatment at the hands of his own soldiers, Solomon,
then, was thus engaged.

XV

But the mutineers, after plundering everything in Carthage, gathered in
the plain of Boulla, and chose Stotzas,[50] one of the guards of
Martinus, and a passionate and energetic man, as tyrant over them, with
the purpose of driving the emperor's commanders out of all Libya and
thus gaining control over it. And he armed the whole force, amounting to
about eight thousand men, and led them on to Carthage, thinking to win
over the city instantly with no trouble. He sent also to the Vandals who
had run away from Byzantium with the ships and those who had not gone
there with Belisarius in the beginning, either because they had escaped
notice, or because those who were taking off the Vandals at that time
took no account of them. Now they were not fewer than a thousand, and
after no great time they joined S