ce, which Belisarius long before specified and thou didst
grant, but he also killed my own brother, although he had no wrongdoing
to charge against him. We have therefore taken vengeance upon him who
wronged us. And if it is thy will that the Moors be in subjection to thy
empire and serve it in all things as they are accustomed to do, command
Sergius, the nephew of Solomon, to depart from here and return to thee,
and send another general to Libya. For thou wilt not be lacking in men
of discretion and more worthy than Sergius in every way; for as long as
this man commands thy army, it is impossible for peace to be established
between the Romans and the Moors."

Such was the letter written by Antalas. But the emperor, even after
reading these things and learning the common enmity of all toward
Sergius, was still unwilling to remove him from his office, out of
respect for the virtues of Solomon and especially the manner of his
death. Such, then, was the course of these events.

But Solomon, the brother of Sergius, who was supposed to have
disappeared from the world together with his uncle Solomon, was
forgotten by his brother and by the rest as well; for no one had learned
that he was alive. But the Moors, as it happened, had taken him alive,
since he was very young; and they enquired of him who he was. And he
said that he was a Vandal by birth, and a slave of Solomon. He said,
moreover, that he had a friend, a physician, Pegasius by name, in the
city of Laribus near by, who would purchase him by giving ransom. So the
Moors came up close to the fortifications of the city and called
Pegasius and displayed Solomon to him, and asked whether it was his
pleasure to purchase the man. And since he agreed to purchase him, they
sold Solomon to him for fifty pieces of gold. But upon getting inside
the fortifications, Solomon taunted the Moors as having been deceived by
him, a mere lad; for he said that he was no other than Solomon, the son
of Bacchus and nephew of Solomon. And the Moors, being deeply stung by
what had happened, and counting it a terrible thing that, while having a
strong security for the conduct of Sergius and the Romans, they had
relinquished it so carelessly, came to Laribus and laid siege to the
place, in order to capture Solomon with the city. And the besieged, in
terror at being shut in by the barbarians, for they had not even carried
in provisions, as it happened, opened negotiations with the Moors,
proposing