"Who is the old man with the flowing beard, marching before his troop and carrying a stone axe? He looks as if the lightning of Zeus had missed him in the battle with the Titans."
"It is Theodoric's old master-at-arms; he marches against this gate," answered the Prefect.
"And who is the richly-accoutred man upon the brown charger, with the wolfs head upon his helmet? He is marching towards the Porta Portuensis."
"That is Duke Guntharis, the Wölfung," said Lucius Licinius.
"And see there, too, on the eastern side of the city, away over the river, as far as the eye can reach, the ranks of the enemy advance against all the gates," cried Piso.
"But where is the King himself!" asked Kallistratos.
"Look! there in the middle you see the Gothic standard. There he is, opposite the Pancratian Gate," answered the Prefect.
"He alone, with his strong division, stands motionless far behind the lines," said Salvius Julianus, the young jurist.
"Will he not join in the fight!" asked Massurius.
"It would be against his habit not to do so. But let us go down upon the ramparts; the fight begins," said Cethegus.