Battle of Ad Decimum, 533

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Belisarius versus Gelimer: A Vandal army under Gelimer ambushes a Byzantine army under Belisarius in open country. Can Gelimer finish Belisarius off before he can rally his strung out army? Click on the image below to view.

It is ironic that Belisarius conquered Carthage, the place which Hannibal hailed from. Both commanders were excellent in their craft but were sabotaged on the political home front, limiting their success.

A cool commander keeps his emotions in check, something Gelimer definitely did not do. By failing to act after he discovered his brother dead, he missed a crucial opportunity to finish off Belisarius. Instead, the ambush lost its surprise and became a slogging match which the outnumbered Vandals had no hope of winning.

When I first aimed to animate an ambush, I obviously did not expect to animate this little-known engagement over, say, a typical Vietnam War ambush. I chose this battle for two reasons. First, I needed a Belisarius battle for a future spotlight and second, I had not completed an animation in some time and needed to post a simple one quickly; in fact I believe I completed this animation in a coffee shop, waiting for a friend. Interestingly enough, this is the least popular battle I have yet animated. I first started “rating” battles’ popularity after Season I was complete; this involves google-searching the battle and basing its popularity on how many results show up. The system is not perfect but it allowed me to determine how much attention a given battle would bring to my site. Obviously this was never the only factor I considered when choosing battles but it enabled me to balance out a season so it featured both familiar and new battles alike. The most popular battle I have animated thus far is Dresden (3,810,000 results) while Ad Decimum is the least popular (3,700 results). The most popular battle I have ever found is France (30,900,000 results), which I am sure I cannot resist animating for very much longer.

- Jonathan Webb

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