ius's bravest bodyguard, battle-tried men of former wars,
were slain. At last both fell, and now, deprived of their leader,
the Vandals turned their horses, and, in a mad flight, ran down
and overthrew those who were advancing from Carthage to their
support,--true, in little bands of thirty and forty men. Fara with his
swift Herulians dashed after them in savage pursuit to the very gates
of Carthage, cutting down all whom he overtook. The Vandals, who had
fought bravely so long as they saw the Asdings and the nobles in their
van, now threw down their weapons and allowed themselves to be
slaughtered. We found many thousand dead bodies on the road and in the
fields to the left.

After this first onset of the Vandals had resulted in defeat, Gibamund,
knowing nothing of it, attacked with his troops the greatly superior
force of the Huns and Thracians. This happened at the Salt Field,--a
treeless, shrubless waste on the edge of the desert five thousand paces
west of Decimum. With no aid from Carthage and Decimum, he was
completely routed; nearly all his men were slain; their leader was seen
to fall, whether dead or living, no one knows.

Meanwhile, entirely ignorant of what had happened, we were marching
with the main body along the road to Decimum. As Belisarius found an
excellent camping-ground about four thousand paces from this place, he
halted. That the enemy must be in the neighborhood he suspected; the
disappearance of the two Huns during the night had perplexed him. He
established a well-fortified camp, and said to the troops, "The enemy
must be close at hand. If he attacks us here, where we lack the support
of the fleet, our escape will lie solely in victory. Should we be
defeated, there is no stronghold, no fortified city, to receive us; the
sea, roaring below, will swallow us. The intrenched camp is our only
protection, the camp and the long-tested swords in our hands. Fight
bravely! Life, as well as fame, is at stake."

He now ordered the infantry to remain in camp with the luggage as the
last reserve, and led the whole force of cavalry out toward Decimum. He
would not risk everything at once, but intended first to discover the
strength and plans of the Barbarians by skirmishing. Sending the
auxiliary cavalry in the van, he followed with the other squadrons and
his mounted bodyguard. When the advance body reached Decimum, it found
the Byzantines and Vandals who had fallen there. A few of the citizens
who had h