The majesty of the Roman people no longer commanded the respect of
the universe, the valour of its legions no longer spread terror
among the barbarians, in the time of Justinian. A king of the Huns,
named Zabergan, ventured to advance, in 559, to the very walls of
Constantinople, and to threaten the imperial city with pillage. There
was but a feeble garrison within its ramparts, but in the moment of
terror it was remembered that they possessed Belisarius. That great man
was instantly dragged from the obscurity in which he languished. Called
upon to drive from the walls of the capital the dangers by which it was
surrounded, he resumed his genius, his activity, and his valour; no one
could perceive that years had cooled his ardour. His first care was to
surround his camp with a wide ditch, to protect it from the insults of
the Huns, and to deceive them with regard to the number of his troops
by lighting fires in all parts of the plain. There was only one passage
by which the Huns could reach Constantinople, and that was through a
hollow way, bordered on each side by a thick forest. Belisarius began
by lining the two sides of this defile with two hundred archers;
he then advanced at the head of three hundred soldiers, trained to
conquer under his orders. He was followed by the rest of his troops,
who were ordered to utter loud cries, and to drag along the ground
large branches of trees, so as to raise vast clouds of dust round them.
Everything succeeded; the barbarians, charged in flank, blinded by the
dust which the wind blew in their eyes, terrified by the cries of the
Romans, and the noise of their arms, and attacked in front with vigour
by Belisarius and his chosen band, took to flight without striking a
blow. This horde of barbarians hastily departed, to carry the evils of
plunder, fire, and death elsewhere.