Preparations
Ad Decimum (Latin for "Ten Mile Post", literally "at the tenth"), was simply a marker along the Mediterranean coast 10 miles (16 km) south of Carthage. Gelimer, with 11,000 men under his command, had advance warning of the approach of Belisarius' 15,000-man army and chose to take a strong position along the road to Carthage near the post marker. He divided his forces, sending 2,000 men under his nephew Gibamund across a salt pan in an effort to flank Belisarius' army, which was advancing in narrow columns along the road. Another Vandal force, under Gelimer's brother Ammatas, was assigned to initiate a holding action at a defile near Ad Decimum. If everything worked well, Gelimer's 7,000-man main body would follow Gibamund around the Roman left flank and cut off their retreat.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Ad Decimum
Famous quotes containing the word preparations:
“In all the important preparations of the mind she was complete; being prepared for matrimony by an hatred of home, restraint, and tranquillity; by the misery of disappointed affection, and contempt of the man she was to marry. The rest might wait. The preparations of new carriages and furniture might wait for London and the spring, when her own taste could have fairer play.”
—Jane Austen (1775–1817)
“At the ramparts on the cliff near the old Parliament House I counted twenty-four thirty-two-pounders in a row, pointed over the harbor, with their balls piled pyramid-wise between them,—there are said to be in all about one hundred and eighty guns mounted at Quebec,—all which were faithfully kept dusted by officials, in accordance with the motto, “In time of peace prepare for war”; but I saw no preparations for peace: she was plainly an uninvited guest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Whatever may be the reason, whether it was that Hitler thought he might get away with what he had got without fighting for it, or whether it was that after all the preparations were not sufficiently complete—however, one thing is certain: he missed the bus.”
—Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940)