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Chap, xli] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 293 and signified the day and the hour on which the citizens should prepare a bath for his refreshment after the toils of victory. He encountered an adversary equal to himself, by the new title of General of the East : 10 his superior in the science of war, but much inferior in the number and quality of his troops, which amounted only to twenty-five thousand Romans and strangers, relaxed in their discipline, and humbled by recent u.d. 531] disasters. As the level plain of Dara refused all shelter to stratagem and ambush, Belisarius protected his front with a deep trench, which was prolonged at first in perpendicular and afterwards in parallel lines, to cover the wings of cavalry ad- vantageously posted to command the flanks and rear of the enemy. 11 When the Roman centre was shaken, their well- timed and rapid charge decided the conflict : the standard of Persia fell ; the immortals fled ; the infantry threw away their bucklers ; and eight thousand of the vanquished were left on the field of battle. In the next campaign, Syria was invaded on the side of the desert ; and Belisarius, with twenty thousand u.d. 530] men, hastened from Dara to the relief of the province. During the whole summer, the designs of the enemy were baffled by his skilful dispositions : he pressed their retreat, occupied each night their camp of the preceding day, and would have secured a bloodless victory if he could have resisted the impatience of his own troops. Their valiant promise was faintly supported in the hour of battle ; the right wing was exposed by the treacher- ous or cowardly desertion of the Christian Arabs ; the Huns, a veteran band of eight hundred warriors, were oppressed by superior numbers ; the flight of the Isaurians was intercepted ; but the Roman infantry stood firm on the left, for Belisarius himself, dismounting from his horse, shewed them that intrepid despair was their only safety. They turned their backs to the Euphrates, and their faces to the enemy ; innumerable arrows glanced without effect from the compact and shelving order of their bucklers ; an impenetrable line of pikes was opposed to the repeated assaults of the Persian cavalry ; and, after a re- sistance of many hours, the remaining troops were skilfully 10 [No new title, but that of Magister Milituin per Orientem ; but about this time a new command was introduced, that of Magister Militum in Armenia, and was conferred on Sittas, who married the Empress Theodora's sister.] 11 [For a diagram of this battle see Bury, Later Roman Empire, i. p. 375.]