abandoned, whether their land or their arms or any other part of their
possessions. They thereupon retorted that he had abandoned nothing,
except, forsooth, the one opportunity on which, as it turned out,
everything else depended. Now the Ephthalitae with all zeal demanded
that they should go out to meet the invaders, but the king sought to
restrain them at any rate for the moment. For he insisted that as yet
they had received no definite information as to the invasion, for the
Persians were still within their own boundaries. So, remaining where he
was, he busied himself as follows. In the plain where the Persians were
to make their irruption into the land of the Ephthalitae he marked off a
tract of very great extent and made a deep trench of sufficient width;
but in the centre he left a small portion of ground intact, enough to
serve as a way for ten horses. Over the trench he placed reeds, and upon
the reeds he scattered earth, thereby concealing the true surface. He
then directed the forces of the Huns that, when the time came to retire
inside the trench, they should draw themselves together into a narrow
column and pass rather slowly across this neck of land, taking care that
they should not fall into the ditch[7]. And he hung from the top of the
royal banner the salt over which Perozes had once sworn the oath which
he had disregarded in taking the field against the Huns. Now as long as
he heard that the enemy were in their own territory, he remained at
rest; but when he learned from his scouts that they had reached the city
of Gorgo which lies on the extreme Persian frontier, and that departing
thence they were now advancing against his army, remaining himself with
the greater part of his troops inside the trench, he sent forward a
small detachment with instructions to allow themselves to be seen at a
distance by the enemy in the plain, and, when once they had been seen,
to flee at full speed to the rear, keeping in mind his command
concerning the trench as soon as they drew near to it. They did as
directed, and, as they approached the trench, they drew themselves into