Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/153

 deserted bay of Sicily at the foot of Mount Aetna. At Methone a lengthened stay was necessitated by the incidence of a calamity which resulted from the criminal parsimony of the Praetorian Praefect John. In his eagerness to save the cost of labour and fuel he had stocked the commissariat with imperfectly baked biscuit. After the lapse of two or three weeks this unsuitable provision fell into a state of poisonous decay, so that the troops who partook of it were seized with intestinal inflammation. Before the cause could be recognized five hundred had perished, and the spread of the disease was tardily checked by Belisarius, who procured a supply of proper bread from the shore. As soon as the Emperor had cognizance of the disaster he commended the conduct of the general, but took no steps to punish the guilty minister.

While in the Sicilian harbour a wave of doubt and depression swept over the minds of the Romans. They feared that an engagement might be imminent with a strange and formidable foe. "Where were now the Vandals, and what was their method of fighting?" was asked on every side. "Were they lying in wait to attack the expedition before it could arrive on the African coast?" The Byzantine military were scared at the prospect of a naval battle, and made no secret of their intention to avoid such a contingency by a precipitate flight. More enlightenment as to the task before them was, therefore, imperatively needed; and Belisarius decided to despatch Procopius on a mission of inquiry to Syracuse. Fortune was propitious to the messenger at the