But on the following day the infantry with the wife of Belisarius came
up and we all proceeded together on the road toward Carthage, which we
reached in the late evening; and we passed the night in the open,
although no one hindered us from marching into the city at once. For the
Carthaginians opened the gates and burned lights everywhere and the city
was brilliant with the illumination that whole night, and those of the
Vandals who had been left behind were sitting as suppliants in the
sanctuaries. But Belisarius prevented the entrance in order to guard
against any ambuscade being set for his men by the enemy, and also to
prevent the soldiers from having freedom to turn to plundering, as they
might under the concealment of night. On that day, since an east wind
arose for them, the ships reached the headland, and the Carthaginians,
for they already sighted them, removed the iron chains of the harbour
which they call Mandracium, and made it possible for the fleet to enter.
Now there is in the king's palace a room filled with darkness, which the
Carthaginians call Ancon, where all were cast with whom the tyrant was
angry. In that place, as it happened, many of the eastern merchants had
been confined up to that time. For Gelimer was angry with these men,
charging them with having urged the emperor on to the war, and they were
about to be destroyed, all of them, this having been decided upon by
Gelimer on that day on which Ammatas was killed in Decimum; to such an
extremity of danger did they come. The guard of this prison, upon
hearing what had taken place in Decimum and seeing the fleet inside the
point, entered the room and enquired of the men, who had not yet learned
the good news, but were sitting in the darkness and expecting death,
what among their possessions they would be willing to give up and be
saved. And when they said they desired to give everything he might wish,
he demanded nothing of all their treasures, but required them all to
swear that, if they escaped, they would assist him also with all their
power when he came into danger. And they did this. Then he told them