King Totila gave a sign to his horsemen, and at a trot the thin line advanced towards the far superior ranks of the Longobardians.
"They surely will not shame us by attacking us with only a few lances?" cried Alboin.
But an attack did not seem to be the present object of the King.
He had ridden far in advance of his men, who had suddenly halted, and now attracted all eyes by his feats of horsemanship.
The spectacle which he afforded was so wonderful in the eyes of the Byzantines, that the witnesses related it in astonishment to Procopius, who, himself amazed, has remitted it to us.
"On this day," he writes, "King Totila evidently wished to show his enemies what manner of man he was. His weapons and his horse shone with gold. So many shining red streamers fluttered from the point of his spear that this ornament alone announced the King from a distance. Thus, mounted on a splendid charger, in the space between the two armies, did he indulge in a skilful exercise of arms. Now he rode in a circle; now he caracoled in semicircles to the right and left; now he hurled his spear into the air, as he rode off at full gallop, and caught it by the middle of the shaft as it fell quivering, first with his right hand, and then with his left; and thus he showed to the wondering troops his feats of horsemanship."
After the battle, however, the Byzantines learned the true reason of this merry sport.
For a time Alboin looked on quietly.
Then he said to a Longobardian chief who stood near him:
"That fellow rides to the battle-field adorned like a bridegroom! What costly armour! We do not see the like at home, Gisulf. And not to dare to attack! Does Narses again sleep?"