Belisarius, let no fear of these men enter your minds, and, if Moors gathered to the number of fifty thousand have already defeated five hundred Romans, let not this stand for you as an example.  But call to mind your own valour, and consider that while the Vandals defeated the Moors, you have become masters of the Vandals in war without any effort, and that it is not right that those who have conquered the greater should be terrified before those who are inferior.  And indeed of all men the Moorish nation seems to be the most poorly equipped for war’s struggle.  For the most of them have no armour at all, and those who have shields to hold before themselves have only small ones which are not well made and are not able to turn aside what strikes against them.  And after they have thrown those two small spears, if they do not accomplish anything, they turn of their own accord to flight.  So that it is possible for you, after guarding against the first attack of the barbarians, to win the victory with no trouble at all.  But as to your equipment of arms, you see, of course, how great is the difference between it and that of your opponents.  And apart from this, both valour of heart and strength of body and experience in war and confidence because you have already conquered all your enemies,—­all these advantages you have; but the Moors, being deprived of all these things, put their trust only in their own great throng.  And it is easier for a few who are most excellently prepared to conquer a multitude of men not good at warfare than it is for the multitude to defeat them.  For while the good soldier has his confidence in himself, the cowardly man generally finds that the very number of those arrayed with him produces a want of room that is full of peril.  Furthermore, you are warranted in despising these camels, which cannot fight for the enemy, and when struck by our missiles will, in all probability, become the cause of considerable confusion and disorder among them.  And the eagerness for battle which the enemy have acquired on account of their former success will be your ally in the fight.  For daring, when it is kept commensurate with one’s power, will perhaps be of some benefit even to those who make use of it, but when it exceeds one’s power it lends into danger.  Bearing these things in mind and despising the enemy, observe silence and order; for by taking thought for these things we shall win the victory over the disorder of the barbarians more easily and with less labour.”  Thus spoke Solomon.

And the commanders of the Moors also, seeing the barbarians terrified at the orderly array of the Romans, and wishing to recall their host to confidence again, exhorted them in this wise:  “That the Romans have human bodies, the kind that yield when struck with iron, we have been taught, O fellow-soldiers, by those of them whom we have recently met, the best of them all, some of whom we have overwhelmed with our spears and killed, and the others we have seized