d deposit the earth they were carrying in the portico; and Belisarius
together with his guardsmen came there, and he himself reclined on that
earth and ate of the flowers, and urged the others to do likewise; and
as they reclined and ate, as if upon a couch, the food seemed to them
exceedingly sweet. Such, then, was the vision of the dream.

And the whole fleet followed the general's ship, and they put in at
Perinthus, which is now called Heracleia,[40] where five days' time was
spent by the army, since at that place the general received as a present
from the emperor an exceedingly great number of horses from the royal
pastures, which are kept for him in the territory of Thrace. And setting
sail from there, they anchored off Abydus, and it came about as they
were delaying there four days on account of the lack of wind that the
following event took place. Two Massagetae killed one of their comrades
who was ridiculing them, in the midst of their intemperate drinking; for
they were intoxicated. For of all men the Massagetae are the most
intemperate drinkers. Belisarius, accordingly, straightway impaled these
two men on the hill which is near Abydus. And since all, and especially
the relatives of these two men, were angry and declared that it was not
in order to be punished nor to be subject to the laws of the Romans that
they had entered into an alliance (for their own laws did not make the
punishment for murder such _as_ this, they said); and since they were
joined in voicing the accusation against the general even by Roman
soldiers, who were anxious that there should be no punishment for their
offences, Belisarius called together both the Massagetae and the rest of
the army and spoke as follows: "If my words were addressed to men now
for the first time entering into war, it would require a long time for
me to convince you by speech how great a help justice is for gaining the
victory. For those who do not understand the fortunes of such struggles
think that the outcome of war lies in strength of arm alone. But you,
who have often conquered an enemy not inferior to you in strength of
body and well endowed with valour, you who have often tried your
strength against your opponents, you, I think, are not ignorant that,
while it is men who always do the fighting in either army, it is God who
judges the contest as seems best to Him and bestows the victory in
battle. Now since this is so, it is fitting to consider good bodily
con