TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
55 
to seek shelter within the walls of the city, to which alone he 
appears to have been indebted for safety. A party of Moors, of 
the tribe called Levatce, had encamped under the walls of Leptis, to 
receive from the governor the reward of past fidelity, and the bribe 
for their future good conduct. Eighty of their deputies were 
accordingly introduced into the town, and admitted to a conference 
with the Prefect. On the statement of certain grievances of which 
they complained Sergius rose to leave the tribunal ; but one of the 
suppliants detained him by the robe, while the rest of the deputies 
pressed nearer to his person and urged their demands in louder 
terms. Provoked at this insolence, an officer of the Prefect drew 
his sword and plunged it into the Moor, and the death of this impru- 
dent offender became the signal for a general massacre. One only 
of the Levatae escaped from the city to bear the melancholy news of 
the slaughter of his companions to the rest of the tribe without the 
walls. They instantly took up arms and invested the city ; and 
though at first repulsed with great loss by a sally of the Komans, 
they shortly after succeeded in defeating the Prefect ; and his gene- 
ral Pudentius, having incautiously exposed himself, was cut off and 
slain in the field. Sergius retired with the remainder of his army 
upon the city, and shut himself up within its walls ; but as he was 
incapable of continuing the contest with advantage, he finally with- 
drew to Carthage, in order to claim the assistance of his uncle, and 
induce him to march his army against the Moors *. The result of 
* Solomon, the uncle of Sergius, was intrusted with the command of the army by 
Belisarius, when that general left the African coast, and governed with the title of 
