to be of good cheer, for he would suffer no harm at his hands, but on the following day would be gone from Carthage with his wife and his possessions.  Then he dismissed the priest Reparatus, and bade Areobindus and Athanasius dine with him in the palace.  And during the dinner he honoured Areobindus, inviting him to take his place first on the couch; but after the dinner he did not let him go, but compelled him to sleep in a chamber alone; and he sent there Ulitheus with certain others to assail him.  And while he was wailing and crying aloud again and again and speaking many entreating words to them to move them to pity, they slew him.  Athanasius, however, they spared, passing him by, I suppose, on account of his advanced age.

XXVII

And on the following day Gontharis sent the head of Areobindus to Antalas, but decided to deprive him of the money and of the soldiers.  Antalas, therefore, was outraged, because he was not carrying out anything of what had been agreed with him, and at the same time, upon considering what Gontharis had sworn and what he had done to Areobindus, he was incensed.  For it did not seem to him that one who had disregarded such oaths would ever be faithful either to him or to anyone else at all.  So after considering the matter long with himself, he was desirous of submitting to the Emperor Justinian; for this reason, then, he marched back.  And learning that Marcentius, who commanded the troops in Byzacium, had fled to one of the islands which lie off the coast, he sent to him, and telling him the whole story and giving pledges, persuaded him by kind words to come to him.  And Marcentius remained with Antalas in the camp, while the soldiers who were on duty in Byzacium, being well disposed to the emperor, were guarding the city of Hadrumetum.  But the soldiers of Stotzas, being not less than a thousand, perceiving what was being done, went in great haste, with John leading them, to Gontharis; and he gladly received them into the city.  Now there were five hundred Romans and about eighty Huns, while all the rest were Vandals.  And Artabanes, upon receiving pledges, went up to the palace with his Armenians, and promised to serve the tyrant according to his orders.  But secretly he was purposing to destroy Gontharis, having previously communicated this purpose to Gregorius, his nephew, and to Artasires, his body-guard.  And Gregorius, urging him on to the undertaking, spoke as follows: 

“Artabanes, the opportunity is now at hand for you, and you alone, to win the glory of Belisarius—­nay more, even to surpass that glory by far.  For he came here, having received from the emperor a most formidable army and great sums of money, having officers accompanying him and advisers in great numbers, and a fleet of ships whose like we have never before heard tell of, and numerous cavalry, and arms, and everything else, to put it in a word, prepared for him in a manner