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And at Dryus were eight hundred Thracian horsemen, whom John, the nephew of Vitalian who had formerly been tyrant, commanded, and with them another thousand soldiers from the regular cavalry; and these were commanded by Alexander and Marcentius among others.6.5.2 And Zeno also happened to have already arrived in Rome with three hundred horsemen by way of both the Samnite and Latin road. And when John with all the others came to Campania, having many wagons from Calabria, five hundred men gathered from Campania were mingled with them, 6.5.3 as I have said. These men, taking the coast road, proceeded with the wagons, having in mind, if any enemy should meet them, to form the wagons into a sort of circle and shape of a stockade and from there to defend themselves against their attackers, and they ordered Paul and Conon and their men to sail with all speed, and to join them at Ostia, the port of the Romans, having placed sufficient grain in the wagons, and having filled all the ships not only with grain, but also with wine and all the necessary supplies. 6.5.4 And they themselves thought that they would find Martinus and Trajan and their men in the region of Tarracina and go from there with them; but when they came very near they learned that a little before 6.5.5 they had been recalled and had withdrawn to Rome. But Belisarius, learning that John and his men were approaching and fearing that the enemy, meeting them with a great multitude, might destroy them, 6.5.6 did the following. The Flaminian Gate, very near which the enemy happened to be encamped, he himself had blocked up with a structure of stones at the beginning of this war, as was told by me in the previous account, so that the enemy might not easily be able either to force an entrance from there or to make some plot against the city. 6.5.7 And for this reason it had happened that no engagement had taken place at this point, nor did the barbarians suspect that anything hostile to them would come from there. 6.5.8 Having taken down the structure of this gate by night, without telling anyone at all beforehand, he prepared the greatest part of the army there. 6.5.9 And at daybreak he sent Trajan and Diogenes with a thousand horsemen through the Pincian Gate, whom he ordered to attack the stockades and, whenever the enemy should come against them, to flee without the least shame and ride at a run as far as the circuit-wall. 6.5.10 And he stationed some men also inside this small gate. So Trajan and his men, just as Belisarius had instructed them, began to provoke the barbarians, and the Goths, gathering from all the stockades, 6.5.11 defended themselves against them. And both sides went as quickly as possible toward the circuit-wall of the city, the one giving the impression that they were fleeing, the other thinking they were pursuing the enemy. 6.5.12 But Belisarius, as soon as he saw the enemy settling into the pursuit, opened the Flaminian Gate and sent the army against the unsuspecting barbarians. 6.5.13 And one of the Goths' camps happened to be along the road there. And before it there was a narrow place, both precipitous and 6.5.14 terribly impassable. There one of the barbarians, both clad in armour and in exceedingly good physical condition, when he saw the enemy advancing, went ahead and stood his ground and both called his comrades and urged them to guard the narrow place with him. 6.5.15 But Mundilas, anticipating him, both killed him and allowed none of the other barbarians to pass through this narrow way. 6.5.16 So, having passed through, with no one resisting them, they came to the nearby stockade, and some of them, after making an attempt on it for a short time, were not able to take it because of the strength of the stockade, although not many barbarians had been left behind there. 6.5.17 For the ditch had been dug to a very great depth, and the earth which had been taken from it, being always thrown on the inner side, was both raised to a height and served as a wall, and it was extraordinarily fenced about with stakes, which were both very sharp and numerous. 6.5.18 Trusting in these, the barbarians stoutly defended themselves against the enemy. But one of Belisarius's shield-bearers, Aquilinus by name, a most energetic man, taking hold of a horse's rein, from there with the horse into the middle of the stockade

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∆ρυοῦντα δὲ Θρᾷκες ἱππεῖς ὀκτακόσιοι, ὧν Ἰωάννης ἦρχεν ὁ Βιταλιανοῦ τοῦ πρώην τετυραννηκότος ἀδελφιδοῦς καὶ ξὺν αὐτοῖς ἕτεροι στρατιῶται ἐκ καταλόγου ἱππικοῦ χίλιοι· ὧν ἄλλοι τε καὶ Ἀλέξανδρός τε καὶ Μαρκέν6.5.2 τιος ἦρχον. ἐτύγχανε δὲ ἤδη καὶ Ζήνων ξὺν τριακοσίοις ἱππεῦσιν ἐς Ῥώμην διά τε Σαμνίου καὶ Λατίνης ὁδοῦ ἀφικόμενος. ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ Ἰωάννης ξὺν τοῖς ἄλλοις ἅπασιν ἐς Καμπανίαν ἦλθεν, ἁμάξας πολλὰς ἐκ Καλαβρῶν ἔχων, ἀνεμίγνυντο αὐτοῖς πεντακόσιοι 6.5.3 ἠθροισμένοι ἐκ Καμπανίας, ὥσπερ μοι εἴρηται. οὗτοι μὲν ὁδὸν ἔχοντες τὴν παραλίαν ξὺν ταῖς ἁμάξαις ᾔεσαν ἐν νῷ ἔχοντες, ἤν τι ἀπαντήσῃ πολέμιον σφίσι, κύκλον τέ τινα καὶ χαρακώματος σχῆμα τὰς ἁμάξας ποιησάμενοι ἐνθένδε τοὺς ἐπιόντας ἀμύνασθαι, τοὺς δὲ ἀμφὶ Παῦλόν τε καὶ Κόνωνα πλεῖν κατὰ τάχος ἐκέλευον, καὶ σφίσιν ἐς Ὀστίαν συμμῖξαι τὸ Ῥωμαίων ἐπίνειον, σῖτον μὲν ἱκανὸν ἐν ταῖς ἁμάξαις ἐνθέμενοι, ναῦς δὲ ἁπάσας οὐ σίτου μόνον ἐμπλησάμενοι, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἴνου 6.5.4 καὶ τῶν ἀναγκαίων ἁπάντων. καὶ αὐτοὶ μὲν τοὺς ἀμφὶ Μαρτῖνόν τε καὶ Τραϊανὸν ᾤοντο ἐς τὰ ἐπὶ Ταρακίνης χωρία εὑρήσειν καὶ ξὺν αὐτοῖς ἐνθένδε ἰέναι· γεγονότες δὲ ἄγχιστα ἔμαθον ὡς ὀλίγῳ πρό6.5.5 τερον ἐς Ῥώμην μετάπεμπτοι ἀνεχώρησαν. Βελισάριος δὲ τοὺς ἀμφὶ τὸν Ἰωάννην προσιέναι μαθὼν καὶ δείσας μὴ σφᾶς οἱ πολέμιοι πλήθει πολλῷ ἀπαντήσαντες 6.5.6 διαφθείρωσιν ἐποίει τάδε. πύλην τὴν Φλαμινίαν, οὗ δὴ αὐτῆς ἄγχιστα ἐνστρατοπεδεύσασθαι τοὺς πολεμίους τετύχηκε, λίθων οἰκοδομίαις αὐτὸς κατ' ἀρχὰς τοῦδε τοῦ πολέμου ἀπέφραξεν, ὥσπερ μοι ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν λόγοις ἐρρήθη, ὅπως δὴ μὴ ἐνθένδε οἱ πολέμιοι εὐπετῶς ἔχωσιν ἢ βιάζεσθαι ἤ τινα ἐπιβουλὴν ἐς τὴν πόλιν 6.5.7 ποιεῖσθαι. καὶ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ ξυμβολὴν οὐδεμίαν ἐν ταύτῃ γεγονέναι ξυμβέβηκεν, οὐδ' ἄν τι οἱ βάρβαροι 6.5.8 ἔσεσθαι σφίσι πολέμιον ἐνθένδε ὑπώπτευον. ταύτης τῆς πύλης νύκτωρ τὴν οἰκοδομίαν περιελὼν, οὐδενὶ τῶν πάντων προειρημένον, τὸ πλεῖστον τοῦ στρατοῦ 6.5.9 ἐνταῦθα ἡτοίμαζεν. ἅμα τε ἡμέρᾳ διὰ πύλης Πιγκιανῆς Τραϊανόν τε καὶ ∆ιογένην ξὺν ἱππεῦσι χιλίοις ἔπεμψεν, οὓς δὴ ἔν τε τοῖς χαρακώμασι βάλλειν ἐκέλευσε καὶ, ἐπειδὰν οἱ ἐναντίοι ἐπ' αὐτοὺς ἴωσι, φεύγειν τε ἥκιστα αἰδουμένους καὶ μέχρι ἐς τὸν περίβολον ἀπελαύνειν 6.5.10 δρόμῳ. τινὰς δὲ καὶ ταύτης ἐντὸς τῆς πυλίδος ἔστησεν. οἱ μὲν οὖν ἀμφὶ Τραϊανὸν, καθάπερ σφίσιν ἐπέστελλε Βελισάριος, τοὺς βαρβάρους ἠρέθιζον, καὶ αὐτοὺς οἱ Γότθοι ἐκ πάντων ἀγειρόμενοι τῶν χαρα6.5.11 κωμάτων ἠμύνοντο. ἀμφότεροί τε ὡς τάχιστα ἐπὶ τὸν τῆς πόλεως περίβολον ᾔεσαν, οἱ μὲν ὅτι φεύγουσι δόξαν παρέχοντες, οἱ δὲ διώκειν τοὺς πολεμίους οἰό6.5.12 μενοι. Βελισάριος δὲ, ἐπειδὴ τάχιστα τοὺς ἐναντίους ἐς τὴν δίωξιν καθισταμένους εἶδε, πύλην τε τὴν Φλαμινίαν ἀνοίγνυσι καὶ τὸ στράτευμα ἐπὶ τοὺς βαρβάρους 6.5.13 οὐ προσδεχομένους ἀφίησιν. ἓν δὲ τῶν Γότθων στρατόπεδον παρὰ τὴν ταύτῃ ὁδὸν ἐτύγχανεν ὄν. καί τις αὐτοῦ ἔμπροσθεν ἦν στενοχωρία κρημνώδης τε καὶ 6.5.14 δεινῶς ἄβατος. ἐνταῦθα τῶν τις βαρβάρων τεθωρακισμένος τε καὶ σώματος ἐς ἄγαν εὖ ἥκων, ἐπειδὴ εἶδε προϊόντας τοὺς πολεμίους, προτερήσας εἱστήκει καὶ τοὺς ἑταίρους ἐκάλει τε καὶ τὴν στενοχωρίαν ξυμφυ6.5.15 λάσσειν ἠξίου. Μουνδίλας δὲ φθάσας αὐτόν τε ἔκτεινε καὶ τῶν ἄλλων βαρβάρων οὐδένα ἐς τοῦτον διελθεῖν 6.5.16 τὸν στενωπὸν ξυνεχώρησε. διελθόντες οὖν, οὐδενὸς σφίσιν ἀντιστατοῦντος, ἔς τε τὸ πλησίον χαράκωμα ἵκοντο καὶ αὐτοῦ τινες δι' ὀλίγου ἀποπειρασάμενοι οὐκ ἔσχον ἑλεῖν ἰσχύϊ τοῦ χαρακώματος, καίπερ οὐ 6.5.17 πολλῶν ἐνταῦθα ἐγκαταλελειμμένων βαρβάρων. ἥ τε γὰρ τάφρος ἐς μέγα τι βάθους ὠρώρυκτο χρῆμα καὶ χοῦς ὃς ἐνθένδε ἀφῄρητο, ἐς τὴν ἐντὸς ἀεὶ ἐντιθέμενος μοῖραν ἐς ὕψος τε ᾔρετο καὶ ἀντὶ τείχους ἐγίνετο, τοῖς τε σκόλοψι περιεσταύρωτο ὑπερφυῶς, ὀξέσι 6.5.18 τε λίαν καὶ συχνοῖς οὖσιν. οἷς δὴ θαρσοῦντες οἱ βάρβαροι καρτερῶς τοὺς πολεμίους ἠμύνοντο. εἷς δὲ τῶν Βελισαρίου ὑπασπιστῶν, Ἀκυλῖνος ὄνομα, δραστήριος ἀνὴρ ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα, λώρου λαβόμενος ἵππου, ἐνθένδε ξὺν τῷ ἵππῳ ἐς μέσον τὸ χαράκωμα