In the second, they approached the shore; but they saw the hills covered with archers, the landing-place defended by a line of spears, and the king of the Goths impatient for battle.

The conqueror of Italy retired with a sigh, and continued to languish, inglorious and inactive, till Antonina, who had been sent to Constantinople to solicit succors, obtained, after the death of the empress, the permission of his return.
[Footnote 17: The tribuli are small engines with four spikes, one fixed in the ground, the three others erect or adverse, (Procopius, Gothic.
l.iii.c.24.Just.

Lipsius, Poliorcetwv, l.v.c.

3.) The metaphor was borrowed from the tribuli, (land-caltrops,) an herb with a prickly fruit, commex in Italy.

(Martin, ad Virgil.Georgic.i.153 vol.ii.