then concerted with Mundus. Both generals made their way out with some difficulty over the ruins of the Chalke, and drew up their men in a compact body in the Augusteum. Marching around from thence they inspected all the inlets of the Circus, but saw that those on the north were held in force by the armed adherents of Hypatius. On arriving at the sphendone, however, Belisarius noticed that the way lay open into the arena, where the unarmed mob were collected in a dense throng. With a sudden impulse he called his men to arms and rushed on the crowd with vengeful determination. A remorseless massacre followed, and was continued as long as the barbarians found any living being within their reach. As for Mundus, the moment he perceived how Belisarius had become engaged, he swept rapidly round the southern circuit of the Hippodrome and made a similar irruption through the opposite entry, that called the Gate of the Dead. The doomed people, thus caught between the two brigades of infuriated troops, were cut off from all chance of escape; and, when at length the slaughter ceased, it was computed that at least thirty-five thousand citizens had been slain in this military execution.[1]
At the sight of the massacre consternation seized on the immediate partisans of Hypatius, and their confident union was completely dissolved. All felt that the cause of the upstart emperor was lost, and thought only of falling off from his perilous proximity in order to ensure their individual safety. A corresponding sense of assurance quickly spread among the inmates of the Palace as soon as they became aware that the rebels massed in the Hippodrome were undergoing extermination. Justus and Boraides, two
- ↑ Procopius, loc. cit.; some of the others make it more.
