The near approach of the Romans to Carthage
filled the mind of Gelimer with anxiety and terror....
"Yet the authority and promises of Gelimer collected a
formidable army, and his plans were concerted with some
degree of military skill. An order was despatched to his
brother Ammatas to collect all the forces of Carthage, and
to encounter the van of the Roman army at the distance of
ten miles from the city: his nephew Gibamund with two
thousand horse was destined to attack their left, when the
monarch himself, who silently followed, should charge their
rear in a situation which excluded them from the aid and
even the view of their fleet. But the rashness of Ammatas
was fatal to himself and his country. He anticipated the
hour of attack, outstripped his tardy followers, and was
pierced with a mortal wound, after he had slain with his own
hand twelve of his boldest antagonists. His Vandals fled to
Carthage: the highway, almost ten miles, was strewed with
dead bodies, and it seemed incredible that such multitudes
could be slaughtered by the swords of three hundred Romans.
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