See them squirming yonder

Their camp is rank with fear;

No breath dares blow the horn

Only a whispered word –

"The cataphracts are here!"

Belisarius rides at dawn

To greet the barbarians

With steel, fire and sword

He'll bring them to kneel

Before the Empire's golden

Double headed Eagle...

"The cataphracts are here!"

The enemy quakes in fear –

Belisarius rides at dawn:

Hellenic blood a' flowing

In the brave Thracian's veins...

Emperor Justinian has decreed

That the cataphracts doth march

To free the Eternal City anon

From the clutches of the Ostrogoth...

Belisarius rides at dawn

Proud ahead of a legion

Of cataphracts bound for war

The imperial standard

They carry forth...