Romans call "Delphix," not in their own tongue, but using the Greek word
according to the ancient custom. For in the palace at Rome, where the
dining couches of the emperor were placed, a tripod had stood from olden
times, on which the emperor's cupbearers used to place the cups. Now the
Romans call a tripod "Delphix," since they were first made at Delphi,
and from this both in Byzantium and wherever there is a king's dining
couch they call the room "Delphix"; for the Romans follow the Greek also
in calling the emperor's residence "Palatium." For a Greek named Pallas
lived in this place before the capture of Troy and built a noteworthy
house there, and they called this dwelling "Palatium"; and when Augustus
received the imperial power, he decided to take up his first residence
in that house, and from this they call the place wherever the emperor
resides "Palatium." So Belisarius dined in the Delphix and with him all
the notables of the army. And it happened that the lunch made for
Gelimer on the preceding day was in readiness. And we feasted on that
very food and the domestics of Gelimer served it and poured the wine and
waited upon us in every way. And it was possible to see Fortune in her
glory and making a display of the fact that all things are hers and that
nothing is the private possession of any man. And it fell to the lot of
Belisarius on that day to win such fame as no one of the men of his time
ever won nor indeed any of the men of olden times. For though the Roman
soldiers were not accustomed to enter a subject city without confusion,
even if they numbered only five hundred, and especially if they made the
entry unexpectedly, all the soldiers under the command of this general
showed themselves so orderly that there was not a single act of
insolence nor a threat, and indeed nothing happened to hinder the
business of the city; but in a captured city, one which had changed its
government and shifted its allegiance, it came about that no man's
household was excluded from the privileges of the marketplace; on the
contrary, the clerks drew up their lists of the men and conducted the