Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/170

 rapine; but the assassins elect shrunk from perpetrating the murder on the first, and even on a subsequent occasion. Noisy recriminations in the public places followed, and it became evident to everyone that there was a plot. The conspirators now threw off all disguise, having discovered that they were in a majority, and applied themselves to looting the city and suburbs. Solomon, with Procopius as his companion, under cover of night fled to the coast and made sail for Syracuse, where Belisarius was known to be engaged on a mission. The three returned with the utmost speed, and found that the rebels to the number of eight thousand, including the fugitive Vandals, had massed themselves on the plain of Bulla. They had chosen as their leader a guardsman of vigorous character named Stotzas. A march on Carthage was contemplated, but Belisarius, having levied as many loyal troops as possible, intercepted the project and forced them to give battle. Although his forces were quadrupled by those of the enemy, the prestige of his name, their indecision, and an adverse wind which blew in their faces, enabled him to win a victory. The sedition, however, was merely demulced for a time and Belisarius had to return immediately to Sicily. Later on Justinian despatched his nephew Germanus to Africa, and this general, by tact and blandishments, succeeded in winning back nearly half of the supporters of Stotzas. A battle was fought in which the rebel leader was utterly defeated and his followers scattered, with the loss of all the valuables they had collected in their camp. Stotzas himself fled to Mauritania, where he settled down with a daughter of one of the petty princes as his wife; but a few years afterwards (545) he reappeared in arms, fighting on the side of the Moors. In an encounter he was slain tragically by the Roman general opposed to him, who