and it has come round to this that you have exchanged your own safety
and a bountiful supply of good things for some few pieces of silver,
when it was possible for you, by purchasing provisions from willing
owners, not to appear unjust and at the same time to enjoy their
friendship to the utmost. Now, therefore, the war will be between you
and both Vandals and Libyans, and I, at least, say further that it will
be against God himself, whose aid no one who does wrong can invoke. But
do you cease trespassing wantonly upon the possessions of others, and
reject a gain which is full of dangers. For this is that time in which
above all others moderation is able to save, but lawlessness leads to
death. For if you give heed to these things, you will find God
propitious, the Libyan people well-disposed, and the race of the Vandals
open to your attack."

With these words Belisarius dismissed the assembly. And at that time he
heard that the city of Syllectus was distant one day's journey from the
camp, lying close to the sea on the road leading to Carthage, and that
the wall of this city had been torn down for a long time, but the
inhabitants of the place had made a barrier on all sides by means of the
walls of their houses, on account of the attacks of the Moors, and
guarded a kind of fortified enclosure; he, accordingly, sent one of his
spearmen, Boriades, together with some of the guards, commanding them to
make an attempt oh the city, and, if they captured it, to do no harm in
it, but to promise a thousand good things and to say that they had come
for the sake of the people's freedom, that so the army might be able to
enter into it. And they came near the city about dusk and passed the
night hidden in a ravine. But at early dawn, meeting country folk going
into the city with waggons, they entered quietly with them and with no
trouble took possession of the city. And when day came, no one having
begun any disturbance, they called together the priest and all the other