Chapter XLI: Conquests Of Justinian, Character Of Balisarius.—Part II

As soon as the tumult had subsided, the several parts of the army
informed each other of the accidents of the day; and Belisarius
pitched his camp on the field of victory, to which the tenth
mile-stone from Carthage had applied the Latin appellation of
Decimus. From a wise suspicion of the stratagems and resources of
the Vandals, he marched the next day in order of battle, halted
in the evening before the gates of Carthage, and allowed a night
of repose, that he might not, in darkness and disorder, expose
the city to the license of the soldiers, or the soldiers
themselves to the secret ambush of the city. But as the fears of
Belisarius were the result of calm and intrepid reason, he was
soon satisfied that he might confide, without danger, in the
peaceful and friendly aspect of the capital. Carthage blazed with
innumerable torches, the signals of the public joy; the chain was
removed that guarded the entrance of the port; the gates were
thrown open, and the people, with acclamations of gratitude,
hailed and invited their Roman deliverers. The defeat of the
Vandals, and the freedom of Africa, were announced to the city on
the eve of St. Cyprian, when the churches were already adorned
and illuminated for the festival of the martyr whom three
centuries of superstition had almost raised to a local deity. The
Arians, conscious that their reign had expired, resigned the
temple to the Catholics, who rescued their saint from profane
hands, performed the holy rites, and loudly proclaimed the creed
of Athanasius and Justinian. One awful hour reversed the fortunes
of the contending parties. The suppliant Vandals, who had so
lately indulged the vices of conquerors, sought an humble refuge
in the sanctuary of the church; while the merchants of the East
were delivered from the deepest dungeon of the palace by their
affrighted keeper, who implored the protection of his captives,
and showed them, through an aperture in the wall, the sails of
the Roman fleet. After their separation from the army, the naval
commanders had proceeded with slow caution along the coast till
they reached the Hermaean promontory, and obtained the first
intelligence of the victory of Belisarius. Faithful to his
instructions, they would have cast anchor about twenty miles from
Carthage, if the more skilful seamen had not represented the
perils of the shore, and the signs of an impending tempest. Still
ignorant of the revolution, they declined, however, the rash
attempt of forcing the chain of the port; and the adjacent harbor
and suburb of Mandracium were insulted only by the rapine of a
private officer, who disobeyed and deserted his leaders. But the
Imperial fleet, advancing with a fair wind, steered through the
narrow entrance of the Goletta, and occupied, in the deep and
capacious lake of Tunis, a secure station about five miles from
the capital. 19 No sooner was Belisarius informed of their
arrival, than he despatched orders that the greatest part of the
mariners should be immediately landed to join the triumph, and to
swell the apparent numbers, of the Romans. Before he allowed them
to enter the gates of Carthage, he exhorted them, in a discourse
worthy of himself and the occasion, not to disgrace the glory of
their arms; and to remember that the Vandals had been the
tyrants, but that they were the deliverers, of the Africans, who
must now be respected as the voluntary and affectionate subjects
of their common sovereign. The Romans marched through the streets
in close ranks prepared for battle if an enemy had appeared: the
strict order maintained by the general imprinted on their minds
the duty of obedience; and in an age in which custom and impunity
almost sanctified the abuse of conquest, the genius of one man
repressed the passions of a victorious army. The voice of menace
and complaint was silent; the trade of Carthage was not
interrupted; while Africa changed her master and her government,
the shops continued open and busy; and the soldiers, after
sufficient guards had been posted, modestly departed to the
houses which were allotted for their reception. Belisarius fixed
his residence in the palace; seated himself on the throne of
Genseric; accepted and distributed the Barbaric spoil; granted
their lives to the suppliant Vandals; and labored to repair the
damage which the suburb of Mandracium had sustained in the
preceding night. At supper he entertained his principal officers
with the form and magnificence of a royal banquet. 20 The victor
was respectfully served by the captive officers of the household;
and in the moments of festivity, when the impartial spectators
applauded the fortune and merit of Belisarius, his envious
flatterers secretly shed their venom on every word and gesture
which might alarm the suspicions of a jealous monarch. One day
was given to these pompous scenes, which may not be despised as
useless, if they attracted the popular veneration; but the active
mind of Belisarius, which in the pride of victory could suppose a
defeat, had already resolved that the Roman empire in Africa
should not depend on the chance of arms, or the favor of the
people. The fortifications of Carthage 2011 had alone been
exempted from the general proscription; but in the reign of
ninety-five years they were suffered to decay by the thoughtless
and indolent Vandals. A wiser conqueror restored, with incredible
despatch, the walls and ditches of the city. His liberality
encouraged the workmen; the soldiers, the mariners, and the
citizens, vied with each other in the salutary labor; and
Gelimer, who had feared to trust his person in an open town,
beheld with astonishment and despair, the rising strength of an
impregnable fortress.

19 (return) [ The neighborhood of Carthage, the sea, the land,
and the rivers, are changed almost as much as the works of man.
The isthmus, or neck of the city, is now confounded with the
continent; the harbor is a dry plain; and the lake, or stagnum,
no more than a morass, with six or seven feet water in the
mid-channel. See D’Anville, (Geographie Ancienne, tom. iii. p.
82,) Shaw, (Travels, p. 77—84,) Marmol, (Description de
l’Afrique, tom. ii. p. 465,) and Thuanus, (lviii. 12, tom. iii.
p. 334.)]

20 (return) [ From Delphi, the name of Delphicum was given, both
in Greek and Latin, to a tripod; and by an easy analogy, the same
appellation was extended at Rome, Constantinople, and Carthage,
to the royal banquetting room, (Procopius, Vandal. l. i. c. 21.
Ducange, Gloss, Graec. p. 277., ad Alexiad. p. 412.)]

2011 (return) [ And a few others. Procopius states in his work De
Edi Sciis. l. vi. vol i. p. 5.—M]

That unfortunate monarch, after the loss of his capital, applied
himself to collect the remains of an army scattered, rather than
destroyed, by the preceding battle; and the hopes of pillage
attracted some Moorish bands to the standard of Gelimer. He
encamped in the fields of Bulla, four days’ journey from
Carthage; insulted the capital, which he deprived of the use of
an aqueduct; proposed a high reward for the head of every Roman;
affected to spare the persons and property of his African
subjects, and secretly negotiated with the Arian sectaries and
the confederate Huns. Under these circumstances, the conquest of
Sardinia served only to aggravate his distress: he reflected,
with the deepest anguish, that he had wasted, in that useless
enterprise, five thousand of his bravest troops; and he read,
with grief and shame, the victorious letters of his brother Zano,
2012 who expressed a sanguine confidence that the king, after the
example of their ancestors, had already chastised the rashness of
the Roman invader. “Alas! my brother,” replied Gelimer, “Heaven
has declared against our unhappy nation. While you have subdued
Sardinia, we have lost Africa. No sooner did Belisarius appear
with a handful of soldiers, than courage and prosperity deserted
the cause of the Vandals. Your nephew Gibamund, your brother
Ammatas, have been betrayed to death by the cowardice of their
followers. Our horses, our ships, Carthage itself, and all
Africa, are in the power of the enemy. Yet the Vandals still
prefer an ignominious repose, at the expense of their wives and
children, their wealth and liberty. Nothing now remains, except
the fields of Bulla, and the hope of your valor. Abandon
Sardinia; fly to our relief; restore our empire, or perish by our
side.” On the receipt of this epistle, Zano imparted his grief to
the principal Vandals; but the intelligence was prudently
concealed from the natives of the island. The troops embarked in
one hundred and twenty galleys at the port of Caghari, cast
anchor the third day on the confines of Mauritania, and hastily
pursued their march to join the royal standard in the camp of
Bulla. Mournful was the interview: the two brothers embraced;
they wept in silence; no questions were asked of the Sardinian
victory; no inquiries were made of the African misfortunes: they
saw before their eyes the whole extent of their calamities; and
the absence of their wives and children afforded a melancholy
proof that either death or captivity had been their lot. The
languid spirit of the Vandals was at length awakened and united
by the entreaties of their king, the example of Zano, and the
instant danger which threatened their monarchy and religion. The
military strength of the nation advanced to battle; and such was
the rapid increase, that before their army reached Tricameron,
about twenty miles from Carthage, they might boast, perhaps with
some exaggeration, that they surpassed, in a tenfold proportion,
the diminutive powers of the Romans. But these powers were under
the command of Belisarius; and, as he was conscious of their
superior merit, he permitted the Barbarians to surprise him at an
unseasonable hour. The Romans were instantly under arms; a
rivulet covered their front; the cavalry formed the first line,
which Belisarius supported in the centre, at the head of five
hundred guards; the infantry, at some distance, was posted in the
second line; and the vigilance of the general watched the
separate station and ambiguous faith of the Massagetae, who
secretly reserved their aid for the conquerors. The historian has
inserted, and the reader may easily supply, the speeches 21 of
the commanders, who, by arguments the most apposite to their
situation, inculcated the importance of victory, and the contempt
of life. Zano, with the troops which had followed him to the
conquest of Sardinia, was placed in the centre; and the throne of
Genseric might have stood, if the multitude of Vandals had
imitated their intrepid resolution. Casting away their lances and
missile weapons, they drew their swords, and expected the charge:
the Roman cavalry thrice passed the rivulet; they were thrice
repulsed; and the conflict was firmly maintained, till Zano fell,
and the standard of Belisarius was displayed. Gelimer retreated
to his camp; the Huns joined the pursuit; and the victors
despoiled the bodies of the slain. Yet no more than fifty Romans,
and eight hundred Vandals were found on the field of battle; so
inconsiderable was the carnage of a day, which extinguished a
nation, and transferred the empire of Africa. In the evening
Belisarius led his infantry to the attack of the camp; and the
pusillanimous flight of Gelimer exposed the vanity of his recent
declarations, that to the vanquished, death was a relief, life a
burden, and infamy the only object of terror. His departure was
secret; but as soon as the Vandals discovered that their king had
deserted them, they hastily dispersed, anxious only for their
personal safety, and careless of every object that is dear or
valuable to mankind. The Romans entered the camp without
resistance; and the wildest scenes of disorder were veiled in the
darkness and confusion of the night. Every Barbarian who met
their swords was inhumanly massacred; their widows and daughters,
as rich heirs, or beautiful concubines, were embraced by the
licentious soldiers; and avarice itself was almost satiated with
the treasures of gold and silver, the accumulated fruits of
conquest or economy in a long period of prosperity and peace. In
this frantic search, the troops, even of Belisarius, forgot their
caution and respect. Intoxicated with lust and rapine, they
explored, in small parties, or alone, the adjacent fields, the
woods, the rocks, and the caverns, that might possibly conceal
any desirable prize: laden with booty, they deserted their ranks,
and wandered without a guide, on the high road to Carthage; and
if the flying enemies had dared to return, very few of the
conquerors would have escaped. Deeply sensible of the disgrace
and danger, Belisarius passed an apprehensive night on the field
of victory: at the dawn of day, he planted his standard on a
hill, recalled his guardians and veterans, and gradually restored
the modesty and obedience of the camp. It was equally the concern
of the Roman general to subdue the hostile, and to save the
prostrate, Barbarian; and the suppliant Vandals, who could be
found only in churches, were protected by his authority,
disarmed, and separately confined, that they might neither
disturb the public peace, nor become the victims of popular
revenge. After despatching a light detachment to tread the
footsteps of Gelimer, he advanced, with his whole army, about ten
days’ march, as far as Hippo Regius, which no longer possessed
the relics of St. Augustin. 22 The season, and the certain
intelligence that the Vandal had fled to an inaccessible country
of the Moors, determined Belisarius to relinquish the vain
pursuit, and to fix his winter quarters at Carthage. From thence
he despatched his principal lieutenant, to inform the emperor,
that in the space of three months he had achieved the conquest of
Africa.

2012 (return) [ Gibbon had forgotten that the bearer of the
“victorious letters of his brother” had sailed into the port of
Carthage; and that the letters had fallen into the hands of the
Romans. Proc. Vandal. l. i. c. 23.—M.]

21 (return) [ These orations always express the sense of the
times, and sometimes of the actors. I have condensed that sense,
and thrown away declamation.]

22 (return) [ The relics of St. Augustin were carried by the
African bishops to their Sardinian exile, (A.D. 500;) and it was
believed, in the viiith century, that Liutprand, king of the
Lombards, transported them (A.D. 721) from Sardinia to Pavia. In
the year 1695, the Augustan friars of that city found a brick
arch, marble coffin, silver case, silk wrapper, bones, blood,
&c., and perhaps an inscription of Agostino in Gothic letters.
But this useful discovery has been disputed by reason and
jealousy, (Baronius, Annal. A.D. 725, No. 2-9. Tillemont, Mem.
Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 944. Montfaucon, Diarium Ital. p. 26-30.
Muratori, Antiq. Ital. Medii Aevi, tom. v. dissert. lviii. p. 9,
who had composed a separate treatise before the decree of the
bishop of Pavia, and Pope Benedict XIII.)]

Belisarius spoke the language of truth. The surviving Vandals
yielded, without resistance, their arms and their freedom; the
neighborhood of Carthage submitted to his presence; and the more
distant provinces were successively subdued by the report of his
victory. Tripoli was confirmed in her voluntary allegiance;
Sardinia and Corsica surrendered to an officer, who carried,
instead of a sword, the head of the valiant Zano; and the Isles
of Majorca, Minorca, and Yvica consented to remain an humble
appendage of the African kingdom. Caesarea, a royal city, which
in looser geography may be confounded with the modern Algiers,
was situate thirty days’ march to the westward of Carthage: by
land, the road was infested by the Moors; but the sea was open,
and the Romans were now masters of the sea. An active and
discreet tribune sailed as far as the Straits, where he occupied
Septem or Ceuta, 23 which rises opposite to Gibraltar on the
African coast; that remote place was afterwards adorned and
fortified by Justinian; and he seems to have indulged the vain
ambition of extending his empire to the columns of Hercules. He
received the messengers of victory at the time when he was
preparing to publish the Pandects of the Roman laws; and the
devout or jealous emperor celebrated the divine goodness, and
confessed, in silence, the merit of his successful general. 24
Impatient to abolish the temporal and spiritual tyranny of the
Vandals, he proceeded, without delay, to the full establishment
of the Catholic church. Her jurisdiction, wealth, and immunites,
perhaps the most essential part of episcopal religion, were
restored and amplified with a liberal hand; the Arian worship was
suppressed; the Donatist meetings were proscribed; 25 and the
synod of Carthage, by the voice of two hundred and seventeen
bishops, 26 applauded the just measure of pious retaliation. On
such an occasion, it may not be presumed, that many orthodox
prelates were absent; but the comparative smallness of their
number, which in ancient councils had been twice or even thrice
multiplied, most clearly indicates the decay both of the church
and state. While Justinian approved himself the defender of the
faith, he entertained an ambitious hope, that his victorious
lieutenant would speedily enlarge the narrow limits of his
dominion to the space which they occupied before the invasion of
the Moors and Vandals; and Belisarius was instructed to establish
five dukes or commanders in the convenient stations of Tripoli,
Leptis, Cirta, Caesarea, and Sardinia, and to compute the
military force of palatines or borderers that might be sufficient
for the defence of Africa. The kingdom of the Vandals was not
unworthy of the presence of a Praetorian præfect; and four
consulars, three presidents, were appointed to administer the
seven provinces under his civil jurisdiction. The number of their
subordinate officers, clerks, messengers, or assistants, was
minutely expressed; three hundred and ninety-six for the præfect
himself, fifty for each of his vicegerents; and the rigid
definition of their fees and salaries was more effectual to
confirm the right than to prevent the abuse. These magistrates
might be oppressive, but they were not idle; and the subtile
questions of justice and revenue were infinitely propagated under
the new government, which professed to revive the freedom and
equity of the Roman republic. The conqueror was solicitous to
extract a prompt and plentiful supply from his African subjects;
and he allowed them to claim, even in the third degree, and from
the collateral line, the houses and lands of which their families
had been unjustly despoiled by the Vandals. After the departure
of Belisarius, who acted by a high and special commission, no
ordinary provision was made for a master-general of the forces;
but the office of Praetorian præfect was intrusted to a soldier;
the civil and military powers were united, according to the
practice of Justinian, in the chief governor; and the
representative of the emperor in Africa, as well as in Italy, was
soon distinguished by the appellation of Exarch. 27

23 (return) [ The expression of Procopius (de Edific. l. vi. c.
7.) Ceuta, which has been defaced by the Portuguese, flourished
in nobles and palaces, in agriculture and manufactures, under the
more prosperous reign of the Arabs, (l’Afrique de Marmai, tom.
ii. p. 236.)]

24 (return) [ See the second and third preambles to the Digest,
or Pandects, promulgated A.D. 533, December 16. To the titles of
Vandalicus and Africanus, Justinian, or rather Belisarius, had
acquired a just claim; Gothicus was premature, and Francicus
false, and offensive to a great nation.]

25 (return) [ See the original acts in Baronius, (A.D. 535, No.
21—54.) The emperor applauds his own clemency to the heretics,
cum sufficiat eis vivere.]

26 (return) [ Dupin (Geograph. Sacra Africana, p. lix. ad Optat.
Milav.) observes and bewails this episcopal decay. In the more
prosperous age of the church, he had noticed 690 bishoprics; but
however minute were the dioceses, it is not probable that they
all existed at the same time.]

27 (return) [ The African laws of Justinian are illustrated by
his German biographer, (Cod. l. i. tit. 27. Novell. 36, 37, 131.
Vit. Justinian, p. 349—377.)]

Yet the conquest of Africa was imperfect till her former
sovereign was delivered, either alive or dead, into the hands of
the Romans. Doubtful of the event, Gelimer had given secret
orders that a part of his treasure should be transported to
Spain, where he hoped to find a secure refuge at the court of the
king of the Visigoths. But these intentions were disappointed by
accident, treachery, and the indefatigable pursuit of his
enemies, who intercepted his flight from the sea-shore, and
chased the unfortunate monarch, with some faithful followers, to
the inaccessible mountain of Papua, 28 in the inland country of
Numidia. He was immediately besieged by Pharas, an officer whose
truth and sobriety were the more applauded, as such qualities
could seldom be found among the Heruli, the most corrupt of the
Barbarian tribes. To his vigilance Belisarius had intrusted this
important charge and, after a bold attempt to scale the mountain,
in which he lost a hundred and ten soldiers, Pharas expected,
during a winter siege, the operation of distress and famine on
the mind of the Vandal king. From the softest habits of pleasure,
from the unbounded command of industry and wealth, he was reduced
to share the poverty of the Moors, 29 supportable only to
themselves by their ignorance of a happier condition. In their
rude hovels, of mud and hurdles, which confined the smoke and
excluded the light, they promiscuously slept on the ground,
perhaps on a sheep-skin, with their wives, their children, and
their cattle. Sordid and scanty were their garments; the use of
bread and wine was unknown; and their oaten or barley cakes,
imperfectly baked in the ashes, were devoured almost in a crude
state, by the hungry savages. The health of Gelimer must have
sunk under these strange and unwonted hardships, from whatsoever
cause they had been endured; but his actual misery was imbittered
by the recollection of past greatness, the daily insolence of his
protectors, and the just apprehension, that the light and venal
Moors might be tempted to betray the rights of hospitality. The
knowledge of his situation dictated the humane and friendly
epistle of Pharas. “Like yourself,” said the chief of the Heruli,
“I am an illiterate Barbarian, but I speak the language of plain
sense and an honest heart. Why will you persist in hopeless
obstinacy? Why will you ruin yourself, your family, and nation?
The love of freedom and abhorrence of slavery? Alas! my dearest
Gelimer, are you not already the worst of slaves, the slave of
the vile nation of the Moors? Would it not be preferable to
sustain at Constantinople a life of poverty and servitude, rather
than to reign the undoubted monarch of the mountain of Papua? Do
you think it a disgrace to be the subject of Justinian?
Belisarius is his subject; and we ourselves, whose birth is not
inferior to your own, are not ashamed of our obedience to the
Roman emperor. That generous prince will grant you a rich
inheritance of lands, a place in the senate, and the dignity of
patrician: such are his gracious intentions, and you may depend
with full assurance on the word of Belisarius. So long as Heaven
has condemned us to suffer, patience is a virtue; but if we
reject the proffered deliverance, it degenerates into blind and
stupid despair.” “I am not insensible” replied the king of the
Vandals, “how kind and rational is your advice. But I cannot
persuade myself to become the slave of an unjust enemy, who has
deserved my implacable hatred. Him I had never injured either by
word or deed: yet he has sent against me, I know not from whence,
a certain Belisarius, who has cast me headlong from the throne
into his abyss of misery. Justinian is a man; he is a prince;
does he not dread for himself a similar reverse of fortune? I can
write no more: my grief oppresses me. Send me, I beseech you, my
dear Pharas, send me, a lyre, 30 a sponge, and a loaf of bread.”
From the Vandal messenger, Pharas was informed of the motives of
this singular request. It was long since the king of Africa had
tasted bread; a defluxion had fallen on his eyes, the effect of
fatigue or incessant weeping; and he wished to solace the
melancholy hours, by singing to the lyre the sad story of his own
misfortunes. The humanity of Pharas was moved; he sent the three
extraordinary gifts; but even his humanity prompted him to
redouble the vigilance of his guard, that he might sooner compel
his prisoner to embrace a resolution advantageous to the Romans,
but salutary to himself. The obstinacy of Gelimer at length
yielded to reason and necessity; the solemn assurances of safety
and honorable treatment were ratified in the emperor’s name, by
the ambassador of Belisarius; and the king of the Vandals
descended from the mountain. The first public interview was in
one of the suburbs of Carthage; and when the royal captive
accosted his conqueror, he burst into a fit of laughter. The
crowd might naturally believe, that extreme grief had deprived
Gelimer of his senses: but in this mournful state, unseasonable
mirth insinuated to more intelligent observers, that the vain and
transitory scenes of human greatness are unworthy of a serious
thought. 31

28 (return) [ Mount Papua is placed by D’Anville (tom. iii. p.
92, and Tabul. Imp. Rom. Occident.) near Hippo Regius and the
sea; yet this situation ill agrees with the long pursuit beyond
Hippo, and the words of Procopius, (l. ii.c.4,). * Note: Compare
Lord Mahon, 120. conceive Gibbon to be right—M.]

29 (return) [ Shaw (Travels, p. 220) most accurately represents
the manners of the Bedoweens and Kabyles, the last of whom, by
their language, are the remnant of the Moors; yet how changed—how
civilized are these modern savages!—provisions are plenty among
them and bread is common.]

30 (return) [ By Procopius it is styled a lyre; perhaps harp
would have been more national. The instruments of music are thus
distinguished by Venantius Fortunatus:— Romanusque lyra tibi
plaudat, Barbarus harpa.]

31 (return) [ Herodotus elegantly describes the strange effects
of grief in another royal captive, Psammetichus of Egypt, who
wept at the lesser and was silent at the greatest of his
calamities, (l. iii. c. 14.) In the interview of Paulus Aemilius
and Perses, Belisarius might study his part; but it is probable
that he never read either Livy or Plutarch; and it is certain
that his generosity did not need a tutor.]

Their contempt was soon justified by a new example of a vulgar
truth; that flattery adheres to power, and envy to superior
merit. The chiefs of the Roman army presumed to think themselves
the rivals of a hero. Their private despatches maliciously
affirmed, that the conqueror of Africa, strong in his reputation
and the public love, conspired to seat himself on the throne of
the Vandals. Justinian listened with too patient an ear; and his
silence was the result of jealousy rather than of confidence. An
honorable alternative, of remaining in the province, or of
returning to the capital, was indeed submitted to the discretion
of Belisarius; but he wisely concluded, from intercepted letters
and the knowledge of his sovereign’s temper, that he must either
resign his head, erect his standard, or confound his enemies by
his presence and submission. Innocence and courage decided his
choice; his guards, captives, and treasures, were diligently
embarked; and so prosperous was the navigation, that his arrival
at Constantinople preceded any certain account of his departure
from the port of Carthage. Such unsuspecting loyalty removed the
apprehensions of Justinian; envy was silenced and inflamed by the
public gratitude; and the third Africanus obtained the honors of
a triumph, a ceremony which the city of Constantine had never
seen, and which ancient Rome, since the reign of Tiberius, had
reserved for the auspicious arms of the Caesars.32 From the
palace of Belisarius, the procession was conducted through the
principal streets to the hippodrome; and this memorable day
seemed to avenge the injuries of Genseric, and to expiate the
shame of the Romans. The wealth of nations was displayed, the
trophies of martial or effeminate luxury; rich armor, golden
thrones, and the chariots of state which had been used by the
Vandal queen; the massy furniture of the royal banquet, the
splendor of precious stones, the elegant forms of statues and
vases, the more substantial treasure of gold, and the holy
vessels of the Jewish temple, which after their long
peregrination were respectfully deposited in the Christian church
of Jerusalem. A long train of the noblest Vandals reluctantly
exposed their lofty stature and manly countenance. Gelimer slowly
advanced: he was clad in a purple robe, and still maintained the
majesty of a king. Not a tear escaped from his eyes, not a sigh
was heard; but his pride or piety derived some secret consolation
from the words of Solomon, 33 which he repeatedly pronounced,
Vanity! vanity! all is vanity! Instead of ascending a triumphal
car drawn by four horses or elephants, the modest conqueror
marched on foot at the head of his brave companions; his prudence
might decline an honor too conspicuous for a subject; and his
magnanimity might justly disdain what had been so often sullied
by the vilest of tyrants. The glorious procession entered the
gate of the hippodrome; was saluted by the acclamations of the
senate and people; and halted before the throne where Justinian
and Theodora were seated to receive homage of the captive monarch
and the victorious hero. They both performed the customary
adoration; and falling prostrate on the ground, respectfully
touched the footstool of a prince who had not unsheathed his
sword, and of a prostitute who had danced on the theatre; some
gentle violence was used to bend the stubborn spirit of the
grandson of Genseric; and however trained to servitude, the
genius of Belisarius must have secretly rebelled. He was
immediately declared consul for the ensuing year, and the day of
his inauguration resembled the pomp of a second triumph: his
curule chair was borne aloft on the shoulders of captive Vandals;
and the spoils of war, gold cups, and rich girdles, were
profusely scattered among the populace.

32 (return) [ After the title of imperator had lost the old
military sense, and the Roman auspices were abolished by
Christianity, (see La Bleterie, Mem. de l’Academie, tom. xxi. p.
302—332,) a triumph might be given with less inconsistency to a
private general.]

33 (return) [ If the Ecclesiastes be truly a work of Solomon, and
not, like Prior’s poem, a pious and moral composition of more
recent times, in his name, and on the subject of his repentance.
The latter is the opinion of the learned and free-spirited
Grotius, (Opp. Theolog. tom. i. p. 258;) and indeed the
Ecclesiastes and Proverbs display a larger compass of thought and
experience than seem to belong either to a Jew or a king. * Note:
Rosenmüller, arguing from the difference of style from that of
the greater part of the book of Proverbs, and from its nearer
approximation to the Aramaic dialect than any book of the Old
Testament, assigns the Ecclesiastes to some period between
Nehemiah and Alexander the Great. Schol. in Vet. Test. ix.
Proemium ad Eccles. p. 19.—M.]

But the purest reward of Belisarius was in the faithful execution
of a treaty for which his honor had been pledged to the king of
the Vandals. The religious scruples of Gelimer, who adhered to
the Arian heresy, were incompatible with the dignity of senator
or patrician: but he received from the emperor an ample estate in
the province of Galatia, where the abdicated monarch retired,
with his family and friends, to a life of peace, of affluence,
and perhaps of content.34 The daughters of Hilderic were
entertained with the respectful tenderness due to their age and
misfortune; and Justinian and Theodora accepted the honor of
educating and enriching the female descendants of the great
Theodosius. The bravest of the Vandal youth were distributed into
five squadrons of cavalry, which adopted the name of their
benefactor, and supported in the Persian wars the glory of their
ancestors. But these rare exceptions, the reward of birth or
valor, are insufficient to explain the fate of a nation, whose
numbers before a short and bloodless war, amounted to more than
six hundred thousand persons. After the exile of their king and
nobles, the servile crowd might purchase their safety by abjuring
their character, religion, and language; and their degenerate
posterity would be insensibly mingled with the common herd of
African subjects. Yet even in the present age, and in the heart
of the Moorish tribes, a curious traveller has discovered the
white complexion and long flaxen hair of a northern race;35 and
it was formerly believed, that the boldest of the Vandals fled
beyond the power, or even the knowledge, of the Romans, to enjoy
their solitary freedom on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.36
Africa had been their empire, it became their prison; nor could
they entertain a hope, or even a wish, of returning to the banks
of the Elbe, where their brethren, of a spirit less adventurous,
still wandered in their native forests. It was impossible for
cowards to surmount the barriers of unknown seas and hostile
Barbarians; it was impossible for brave men to expose their
nakedness and defeat before the eyes of their countrymen, to
describe the kingdoms which they had lost, and to claim a share
of the humble inheritance, which, in a happier hour, they had
almost unanimously renounced.37 In the country between the Elbe
and the Oder, several populous villages of Lusatia are inhabited
by the Vandals: they still preserve their language, their
customs, and the purity of their blood; support, with some
impatience, the Saxon or Prussian yoke; and serve, with secret
and voluntary allegiance, the descendant of their ancient kings,
who in his garb and present fortune is confounded with the
meanest of his vassals.38 The name and situation of this unhappy
people might indicate their descent from one common stock with
the conquerors of Africa. But the use of a Sclavonian dialect
more clearly represent them as the last remnant of the new
colonies, who succeeded to the genuine Vandals, already scattered
or destroyed in the age of Procopius.39

34 (return) [ In the Bélisaire of Marmontel, the king and the
conqueror of Africa meet, sup, and converse, without recollecting
each other. It is surely a fault of that romance, that not only
the hero, but all to whom he had been so conspicuously known,
appear to have lost their eyes or their memory.]

35 (return) [ Shaw, p. 59. Yet since Procopius (l. ii. c. 13)
speaks of a people of Mount Atlas, as already distinguished by
white bodies and yellow hair, the phenomenon (which is likewise
visible in the Andes of Peru, Buffon, tom. iii p. 504), may
naturally be ascribed to the elevation of the ground and the
temperature of the air.]

36 (return) [ The geographer of Ravenna (l. iii. c. xi. pp. 129,
130, 131, Paris, 1688) describes the Mauritania _Gaditana_
(opposite to Cadiz) ubi gens Vandalorum, a Belisario devicta in
Africâ, fugit, et nunquam comparuit.]

37 (return) [ A single voice had protested, and Genseric
dismissed, without a formal answer, the Vandals of Germany: but
those of Africa derided his prudence, and affected to despise the
poverty of their forests (Procopius, Vandal. l. i. c. 22)]

38 (return) [ From the mouth of the great elector (in 1687)
Tollius describes the secret royalty and rebellious spirit of the
Vandals of Brandenburgh. who could muster five or six thousand
soldiers who had procured some cannon, &c. (Itinerar. Hungar. p.
42, apud Dubos. Hist, de la Monarchie Françoise, tom. i. pp. 182,
183.) The veracity, not of the elector, but of Tollius himself,
may justly be suspected. * Note: The Wendish population of
Brandenburgh are now better known, but the Wends are clearly of
the Sclavonian race; the Vandals most probably Teutonic, and
nearly allied to the Goths.—M.]

39 (return) [ Procopius (l i. c. 22) was in total darkness— οὒτε
μνήμη τις οὒτε ὂνομα ἐς ἐμε σωζέται. Under the reign of Dagobert
(A.D. 630) the Sclavonian tribes of the Sorbi and Venedi already
bordered on Thuringia (Mascou Hist. of the Germans, xv. 3, 4,
5).]

If Belisarius had been tempted to hesitate in his allegiance, he
might have urged, even against the emperor himself, the
indispensable duty of saving Africa from an enemy more barbarous
than the Vandals. The origin of the Moors is involved in
darkness; they were ignorant of the use of letters.40 Their
limits cannot be precisely defined; a boundless continent was
open to the Libyan shepherds; the change of seasons and pastures
regulated their motions; and their rude huts and slender
furniture were transported with the same case as their arms,
their families, and their cattle, which consisted of sheep, oxen,
and camels.41 During the vigor of the Roman power, they observed
a respectful distance from Carthage and the sea-shore: under the
feeble reign of the Vandals, they invaded the cities of Numidia,
occupied the sea-coast from Tangier to Cæsarea, and pitched their
camps, with impunity, in the fertile province of Byzacium. The
formidable strength and artful conduct of Belisarius secured the
neutrality of the Moorish princes, whose vanity aspired to
receive, in the emperor's name, the ensigns of their regal
dignity.42 They were astonished by the rapid event, and trembled
in the presence of their conqueror. But his approaching departure
soon relieved the apprehensions of a savage and superstitious
people; the number of their wives allowed them to disregard the
safety of their infant hostages; and when the Roman general
hoisted sail in the port of Carthage, he heard the cries, and
almost beheld the flames, of the desolated province. Yet he
persisted in his resolution, and leaving only a part of his
guards to reënforce the feeble garrisons, he intrusted the
command of Africa to the eunuch Solomon,43 who proved himself not
unworthy to be the successor of Belisarius. In the first
invasion, some detachments, with two officers of merit, were
surprised and intercepted; but Solomon speedily assembled his
troops, marched from Carthage into the heart of the country, and
in two great battles destroyed sixty thousand of the Barbarians.
The Moors depended on their multitude, their swiftness, and their
inaccessible mountains; and the aspect and smell of their camels
are said to have produced some confusion in the Roman cavalry.44
But as soon as they were commanded to dismount, they derided this
contemptible obstacle: as soon as the columns ascended the hills,
the naked and disorderly crowd was dazzled by glittering arms and
regular evolutions; and the menace of their female prophets was
repeatedly fulfilled, that the Moors should be discomfited by a
_beardless_ antagonist. The victorious eunuch advanced thirteen
days journey from Carthage, to besiege Mount Aurasius,45 the
citadel, and at the same time the garden, of Numidia. That range
of hills, a branch of the great Atlas, contains, within a
circumference of one hundred and twenty miles, a rare variety of
soil and climate; the intermediate valleys and elevated plains
abound with rich pastures, perpetual streams, and fruits of a
delicious taste and uncommon magnitude. This fair solitude is
decorated with the ruins of Lambesa, a Roman city, once the seat
of a legion, and the residence of forty thousand inhabitants. The
Ionic temple of Æsculapius is encompassed with Moorish huts; and
the cattle now graze in the midst of an amphitheatre, under the
shade of Corinthian columns. A sharp perpendicular rock rises
above the level of the mountain, where the African princes
deposited their wives and treasure; and a proverb is familiar to
the Arabs, that the man may eat fire who dares to attack the
craggy cliffs and inhospitable natives of Mount Aurasius. This
hardy enterprise was twice attempted by the eunuch Solomon: from
the first, he retreated with some disgrace; and in the second,
his patience and provisions were almost exhausted; and he must
again have retired, if he had not yielded to the impetuous
courage of his troops, who audaciously scaled, to the
astonishment of the Moors, the mountain, the hostile camp, and
the summit of the Geminian rock. A citadel was erected to secure
this important conquest, and to remind the Barbarians of their
defeat; and as Solomon pursued his march to the west, the
long-lost province of Mauritanian Sitifi was again annexed to the
Roman empire. The Moorish war continued several years after the
departure of Belisarius; but the laurels which he resigned to a
faithful lieutenant may be justly ascribed to his own triumph.

40 (return) [ Sallust represents the Moors as a remnant of the
army of Heracles (de Bell. Jugurth. c. 21), and Procopius
(Vandal. l. ii. c. 10), as the posterity of the Cananæans who
fled from the robber Joshua, (ληστὴς) He quotes two columns, with
a Phœnician inscription. I believe in the columns—I doubt the
inscription—and I reject the pedigree. * Note: It has been
supposed that Procopius is the only, or at least the most ancient
author who has spoken of this strange inscription, of which one
may be tempted to attribute the invention to Procopius himself.
Yet it is mentioned in the Armenian history of Moses of Chorene,
(l. i. c. 18,) who lived and wrote more than a century before
Procopius. This is sufficient to show that an earlier date must
be assigned to this tradition. The same inscription is mentioned
by Suidas, (sub voc. Χανάαν), no doubt from Procopius. According
to most of the Arabian writers, who adopted a nearly similar
tradition, the indigenes of Northern Africa were the people of
Palestine expelled by David, who passed into Africa, under the
guidance of Goliath, whom they call Djalout. It is impossible to
admit traditions which bear a character so fabulous. St. Martin,
t. xi. p. 324.—Unless my memory greatly deceives me, I have read
in the works of Lightfoot a similar Jewish tradition; but I have
mislaid the reference, and cannot recover the passage.—M.]

41 (return) [ Virgil (Georgic. iii. 339) and Pomponius Mela (i.
8) describe the wandering life of the African shepherds, similar
to that of the Arabs and Tartars; and Shaw (p. 222) is the best
commentator on the poet and the geographer.]

42 (return) [ The customary gifts were a sceptre, a crown or cap,
a white cloak, a figured tunic and shoes, all adorned with gold
and silver; nor were these precious metals less acceptable in the
shape of coin, (Procop. Vandal. l. i. c. 25).]

43 (return) [ See the African government and warfare of Solomon,
in Procopius (Vandal. l. ii. c. 10, 11, 12, 13, 19, 20). He was
recalled, and again restored; and his last victory dates in the
xiiith year of Justinian (A.D. 539). An accident in his childhood
had rendered him a eunuch (l. l. c. 11): the other Roman generals
were amply furnished with beards πώγωνος ἐμπιπλάμενοι (l. ii. c.
8).]

44 (return) [ This natural antipathy of the horse for the camel
is affirmed by the ancients (Xenophon. Cyropæd. l. vi. p. 488, l.
vii. pp. 483, 492, edit. Hutchinson. Polyæn. Stratagem, vii. 6,
Plin. Hist. Nat. viii. 26, Ælian, de Natur. Annal. l. iii. c. 7);
but it is disproved by daily experience, and derided by the best
judges, the Orientals (Voyage d’Olearius, p. 553).]

45 (return) [ Procopius is the first who describes Mount Aurasius
(Vandal. l. ii. c. 13. De Edific. l. vi. c. 7). He may be
compared with Leo Africanus (dell’ Africa, parte v., in Ramusio,
tom. i. fol. 77, recto). Marmol (tom. ii. p. 430), and Shaw (pp.
56-59).]

The experience of past faults, which may sometimes correct the
mature age of an individual, is seldom profitable to the
successive generations of mankind. The nations of antiquity,
careless of each other's safety, were separately vanquished and
enslaved by the Romans. This awful lesson might have instructed
the Barbarians of the West to oppose, with timely counsels and
confederate arms, the unbounded ambition of Justinian. Yet the
same error was repeated, the same consequences were felt, and the
Goths, both of Italy and Spain, insensible of their approaching
danger, beheld with indifference, and even with joy, the rapid
downfall of the Vandals. After the failure of the royal line,
Theudes, a valiant and powerful chief, ascended the throne of
Spain, which he had formerly administered in the name of
Theodoric and his infant grandson. Under his command, the
Visigoths besieged the fortress of Ceuta on the African coast:
but, while they spent the Sabbath day in peace and devotion, the
pious security of their camp was invaded by a sally from the
town; and the king himself, with some difficulty and danger,
escaped from the hands of a sacrilegious enemy.46 It was not long
before his pride and resentment were gratified by a suppliant
embassy from the unfortunate Gelimer, who implored, in his
distress, the aid of the Spanish monarch. But instead of
sacrificing these unworthy passions to the dictates of generosity
and prudence, Theudes amused the ambassadors till he was secretly
informed of the loss of Carthage, and then dismissed them with
obscure and contemptuous advice, to seek in their native country
a true knowledge of the state of the Vandals.47 The long
continuance of the Italian war delayed the punishment of the
Visigoths; and the eyes of Theudes were closed before they tasted
the fruits of his mistaken policy. After his death, the sceptre
of Spain was disputed by a civil war. The weaker candidate
solicited the protection of Justinian, and ambitiously subscribed
a treaty of alliance, which deeply wounded the independence and
happiness of his country. Several cities, both on the ocean and
the Mediterranean, were ceded to the Roman troops, who afterwards
refused to evacuate those pledges, as it should seem, either of
safety or payment; and as they were fortified by perpetual
supplies from Africa, they maintained their impregnable stations,
for the mischievous purpose of inflaming the civil and religious
factions of the Barbarians. Seventy years elapsed before this
painful thorn could be extirpated from the bosom of the monarchy;
and as long as the emperors retained any share of these remote
and useless possessions, their vanity might number Spain in the
list of their provinces, and the successors of Alaric in the rank
of their vassals.48

46 (return) [ Isidor. Chron. p. 722, edit. Grot. Mariana, Hist.
Hispan. l. v. c. 8, p. 173. Yet, according to Isidore, the siege
of Ceuta, and the death of Theudes, happened, A. Æ. H. 586—A.D.
548; and the place was defended, not by the Vandals, but by the
Romans.]

47 (return) [ Procopius. Vandal. l. i, c. 24.]

48 (return) [ See the original Chronicle of Isidore, and the vth
and vith books of the History of Spain by Mariana. The Romans
were finally expelled by Suintila, king of the Visigoths (A.D.
621–620), after their reunion to the Catholic church.]

The error of the Goths who reigned in Italy was less excusable
than that of their Spanish brethren, and their punishment was
still more immediate and terrible. From a motive of private
revenge, they enabled their most dangerous enemy to destroy their
most valuable ally. A sister of the great Theodoric had been
given in marriage to Thrasimond, the African king:49 on this
occasion, the fortress of Lilybæum50 in Sicily was resigned to
the Vandals; and the princess Amalafrida was attended by a
martial train of one thousand nobles, and five thousand Gothic
soldiers, who signalized their valor in the Moorish wars. Their
merit was overrated by themselves, and perhaps neglected by the
Vandals; they viewed the country with envy, and the conquerors
with disdain; but their real or fictitious conspiracy was
prevented by a massacre; the Goths were oppressed, and the
captivity of Amalafrida was soon followed by her secret and
suspicious death. The eloquent pen of Cassiodorus was employed to
reproach the Vandal court with the cruel violation of every
social and public duty; but the vengeance which he threatened in
the name of his sovereign might be derided with impunity, as long
as Africa was protected by the sea, and the Goths were destitute
of a navy. In the blind impotence of grief and indignation, they
joyfully saluted the approach of the Romans, entertained the
fleet of Belisarius in the ports of Sicily, and were speedily
delighted or alarmed by the surprising intelligence, that their
revenge was executed beyond the measure of their hopes, or
perhaps of their wishes. To their friendship the emperor was
indebted for the kingdom of Africa, and the Goths might
reasonably think, that they were entitled to resume the
possession of a barren rock, so recently separated as a nuptial
gift from the island of Sicily. They were soon undeceived by the
haughty mandate of Belisarius, which excited their tardy and
unavailing repentance. “The city and promontory of Lilybæum,”
said the Roman general, “belonged to the Vandals, and I claim
them by the right of conquest. Your submission may deserve the
favor of the emperor; your obstinacy will provoke his
displeasure, and must kindle a war, that can terminate only in
your utter ruin. If you compel us to take up arms, we shall
contend, not to regain the possession of a single city, but to
deprive you of all the provinces which you unjustly withhold from
their lawful sovereign.” A nation of two hundred thousand
soldiers might have smiled at the vain menace of Justinian and
his lieutenant: but a spirit of discord and disaffection
prevailed in Italy, and the Goths supported, with reluctance, the
indignity of a female reign.51

49 (return) [ See the marriage and fate of Amalafrida in
Procopius (Vandal. l. i. c. 8, 9), and in Cassiodorus (Var. ix.
1) the expostulation of her royal brother. Compare likewise the
Chronicle of Victor Tunnunensis.]

50 (return) [ Lilybæum was built by the Carthaginians, Olymp.
xcv. 4; and in the first Punic war, a strong situation, and
excellent harbor, rendered that place an important object to both
nations.]

51 (return) [ Compare the different passages of Procopius
(Vandal. l. ii. c. 5, Gothic, l. i c. 3).]

The birth of Amalasontha, the regent and queen of Italy,52 united
the two most illustrious families of the Barbarians. Her mother,
the sister of Clovis, was descended from the long-haired kings of
the _Merovingian_ race;53 and the regal succession of the _Amali_
was illustrated in the eleventh generation, by her father, the
great Theodoric, whose merit might have ennobled a plebeian
origin. The sex of his daughter excluded her from the Gothic
throne; but his vigilant tenderness for his family and his people
discovered the last heir of the royal line, whose ancestors had
taken refuge in Spain; and the fortunate Eutharic was suddenly
exalted to the rank of a consul and a prince. He enjoyed only a
short time the charms of Amalasontha, and the hopes of the
succession; and his widow, after the death of her husband and
father, was left the guardian of her son Athalaric, and the
kingdom of Italy. At the age of about twenty-eight years, the
endowments of her mind and person had attained their perfect
maturity. Her beauty, which, in the apprehension of Theodora
herself, might have disputed the conquest of an emperor, was
animated by manly sense, activity, and resolution. Education and
experience had cultivated her talents; her philosophic studies
were exempt from vanity; and, though she expressed herself with
equal elegance and ease in the Greek, the Latin, and the Gothic
tongue, the daughter of Theodoric maintained in her counsels a
discreet and impenetrable silence. By a faithful imitation of the
virtues, she revived the prosperity, of his reign; while she
strove, with pious care, to expiate the faults, and to obliterate
the darker memory of his declining age. The children of Boethius
and Symmachus were restored to their paternal inheritance; her
extreme lenity never consented to inflict any corporal or
pecuniary penalties on her Roman subjects; and she generously
despised the clamors of the Goths, who, at the end of forty
years, still considered the people of Italy as their slaves or
their enemies. Her salutary measures were directed by the wisdom,
and celebrated by the eloquence, of Cassiodorus; she solicited
and deserved the friendship of the emperor; and the kingdoms of
Europe respected, both in peace and war, the majesty of the
Gothic throne. But the future happiness of the queen and of Italy
depended on the education of her son; who was destined, by his
birth, to support the different and almost incompatible
characters of the chief of a Barbarian camp, and the first
magistrate of a civilized nation. From the age of ten years,54
Athalaric was diligently instructed in the arts and sciences,
either useful or ornamental for a Roman prince; and three
venerable Goths were chosen to instil the principles of honor and
virtue into the mind of their young king. But the pupil who is
insensible of the benefits, must abhor the restraints, of
education; and the solicitude of the queen, which affection
rendered anxious and severe, offended the untractable nature of
her son and his subjects. On a solemn festival, when the Goths
were assembled in the palace of Ravenna, the royal youth escaped
from his mother's apartment, and, with tears of pride and anger,
complained of a blow which his stubborn disobedience had provoked
her to inflict. The Barbarians resented the indignity which had
been offered to their king; accused the regent of conspiring
against his life and crown; and imperiously demanded, that the
grandson of Theodoric should be rescued from the dastardly
discipline of women and pedants, and educated, like a valiant
Goth, in the society of his equals and the glorious ignorance of
his ancestors. To this rude clamor, importunately urged as the
voice of the nation, Amalasontha was compelled to yield her
reason, and the dearest wishes of her heart. The king of Italy
was abandoned to wine, to women, and to rustic sports; and the
indiscreet contempt of the ungrateful youth betrayed the
mischievous designs of his favorites and her enemies. Encompassed
with domestic foes, she entered into a secret negotiation with
the emperor Justinian; obtained the assurance of a friendly
reception, and had actually deposited at Dyrachium, in Epirus, a
treasure of forty thousand pounds of gold. Happy would it have
been for her fame and safety, if she had calmly retired from
barbarous faction to the peace and splendor of Constantinople.
But the mind of Amalasontha was inflamed by ambition and revenge;
and while her ships lay at anchor in the port, she waited for the
success of a crime which her passions excused or applauded as an
act of justice. Three of the most dangerous malcontents had been
separately removed under the pretence of trust and command, to
the frontiers of Italy: they were assassinated by her private
emissaries; and the blood of these noble Goths rendered the
queen-mother absolute in the court of Ravenna, and justly odious
to a free people. But if she had lamented the disorders of her
son she soon wept his irreparable loss; and the death of
Athalaric, who, at the age of sixteen, was consumed by premature
intemperance, left her destitute of any firm support or legal
authority. Instead of submitting to the laws of her country which
held as a fundamental maxim, that the succession could never pass
from the lance to the distaff, the daughter of Theodoric
conceived the impracticable design of sharing, with one of her
cousins, the regal title, and of reserving in her own hands the
substance of supreme power. He received the proposal with
profound respect and affected gratitude; and the eloquent
Cassiodorus announced to the senate and the emperor, that
Amalasontha and Theodatus had ascended the throne of Italy. His
birth (for his mother was the sister of Theodoric) might be
considered as an imperfect title; and the choice of Amalasontha
was more strongly directed by her contempt of his avarice and
pusillanimity which had deprived him of the love of the Italians,
and the esteem of the Barbarians. But Theodatus was exasperated
by the contempt which he deserved: her justice had repressed and
reproached the oppression which he exercised against his Tuscan
neighbors; and the principal Goths, united by common guilt and
resentment, conspired to instigate his slow and timid
disposition. The letters of congratulation were scarcely
despatched before the queen of Italy was imprisoned in a small
island of the Lake of Bolsena,55 where, after a short
confinement, she was strangled in the bath, by the order, or with
the connivance of the new king, who instructed his turbulent
subjects to shed the blood of their sovereigns.

52 (return) [ For the reign and character of Amalasontha, see
Procopius (Gothic, l. i. c. 2, 3, 4, and Anecdot. c. 16, with the
Notes of Alemannus), Cassiodorus (Var. viii. ix. x. and xi, 1),
and Jornandes (De Rebus Geticis, c. 59, and De Successione
Regnorum. in Muratori, tom. i, p. 24).]

53 (return) [ The marriage of Theodoric with Audefleda, the
sister of Clovis, may be placed in the year 495, soon after the
conquest of Italy (De Buat, Hist, des Peuples, tom. ix. p. 213).
The nuptials of Eutharic and Amalasontha were celebrated in 515
(Cassiodor. in Chron. p. 453).]

54 (return) [ At the death of Theodoric, his grandson Athalaric
is described by Procopius as a boy about eight years old—ὀκτὼ
γεγονὼς ἔτη. Cassiodorus, with authority and reason, adds two
years to his age—infantulum adhuc vix decennem.]

55 (return) [ The lake, from the neighboring towns of Etruria,
was styled either Vulsiniensis (now of Bolsena) or Tarquiniensis.
It is surrounded with white rocks, and stored with fish and
wild-fowl. The younger Pliny (Epist. ii. 96) celebrates two woody
islands that floated on its waters: if a fable, how credulous the
ancients! if a fact, how careless the moderns! Yet, since Pliny,
the island may have been fixed by new and gradual accessions.]

Justinian beheld with joy the dissensions of the Goths; and the
mediation of an ally concealed and promoted the ambitious views
of the conqueror. His ambassadors, in their public audience,
demanded the fortress of Lilybæum, ten Barbarian fugitives, and a
just compensation for the pillage of a small town on the Illyrian
borders; but they secretly negotiated with Theodatus to betray
the province of Tuscany, and tempted Amalasontha to extricate
herself from danger and perplexity, by a free surrender of the
kingdom of Italy. A false and servile epistle was subscribed, by
the reluctant hand of the captive queen: but the confession of
the Roman senators, who were sent to Constantinople, revealed the
truth of her deplorable situation; and Justinian, by the voice of
a new ambassador, most powerfully interceded for her life and
liberty.55a Yet the secret instructions of the same minister were
adapted to serve the cruel jealousy of Theodora, who dreaded the
presence and superior charms of a rival: he prompted, with artful
and ambiguous hints, the execution of a crime so useful to the
Romans;56 received the intelligence of her death with grief and
indignation, and denounced, in his master's name, immortal war
against the perfidious assassin. In Italy, as well as in Africa,
the guilt of a usurper appeared to justify the arms of Justinian;
but the forces which he prepared, were insufficient for the
subversion of a mighty kingdom, if their feeble numbers had not
been multiplied by the name, the spirit, and the conduct, of a
hero. A chosen troop of guards, who served on horseback, and were
armed with lances and bucklers, attended the person of
Belisarius; his cavalry was composed of two hundred Huns, three
hundred Moors, and four thousand _confederates_, and the infantry
consisted of only three thousand Isaurians. Steering the same
course as in his former expedition, the Roman consul cast anchor
before Catana in Sicily, to survey the strength of the island,
and to decide whether he should attempt the conquest, or
peaceably pursue his voyage for the African coast. He found a
fruitful land and a friendly people. Notwithstanding the decay of
agriculture, Sicily still supplied the granaries of Rome: the
farmers were graciously exempted from the oppression of military
quarters; and the Goths, who trusted the defence of the island to
the inhabitants, had some reason to complain, that their
confidence was ungratefully betrayed. Instead of soliciting and
expecting the aid of the king of Italy, they yielded to the first
summons a cheerful obedience; and this province, the first fruits
of the Punic war, was again, after a long separation, united to
the Roman empire.57 The Gothic garrison of Palermo, which alone
attempted to resist, was reduced, after a short siege, by a
singular stratagem. Belisarius introduced his ships into the
deepest recess of the harbor; their boats were laboriously
hoisted with ropes and pulleys to the top-mast head, and he
filled them with archers, who, from that superior station,
commanded the ramparts of the city. After this easy, though
successful campaign, the conqueror entered Syracuse in triumph,
at the head of his victorious bands, distributing gold medals to
the people, on the day which so gloriously terminated the year of
the consulship. He passed the winter season in the palace of
ancient kings, amidst the ruins of a Grecian colony, which once
extended to a circumference of two-and-twenty miles:58 but in the
spring, about the festival of Easter, the prosecution of his
designs was interrupted by a dangerous revolt of the African
forces. Carthage was saved by the presence of Belisarius, who
suddenly landed with a thousand guards.58a Two thousand soldiers
of doubtful faith returned to the standard of their old
commander: and he marched, without hesitation, above fifty miles,
to seek an enemy whom he affected to pity and despise. Eight
thousand rebels trembled at his approach; they were routed at the
first onset, by the dexterity of their master: and this ignoble
victory would have restored the peace of Africa, if the conqueror
had not been hastily recalled to Sicily, to appease a sedition
which was kindled during his absence in his own camp.59 Disorder
and disobedience were the common malady of the times; the genius
to command, and the virtue to obey, resided only in the mind of
Belisarius.

55a (return) [ Amalasontha was not alive when this new
ambassador, Peter of Thessalonica, arrived in Italy: he could not
then secretly contribute to her death. “But (says M. de Sainte
Croix) it is not beyond probability that Theodora had entered
into some criminal intrigue with Gundelina: for that wife of
Theodatus wrote to implore her protection, reminding her of the
confidence which she and her husband had always placed in her
former promises.” See on Amalasontha and the authors of her death
an excellent dissertation of M. de Sainte Croix in the Archives
Littéraires published by M. Vaudenbourg, No. 50, t. xvii. p.
216.—G.]

56 (return) [ Yet Procopius discredits his own evidence (Anecdot.
c. 16) by confessing that in his public history he had not spoken
the truth. See the epistles from Queen Gundelina to the Empress
Theodora (Var. x. 20, 21, 23, and observe a suspicious word, de
illâ personà, &c.), with the elaborate Commentary of Buat (tom.
x. pp. 177–185).]

57 (return) [ For the conquest of Sicily, compare the narrative
of Procopius with the complaints of Totila (Gothic. l. i. c. 5.
l. iii. c. 16). The Gothic queen had lately relieved that
thankless island (Var. ix. 10, 11).]

58 (return) [ The ancient magnitude and splendor of the five
quarters of Syracuse are delineated by Cicero (in Verrem. actio
ii. l. iv. c. 52, 53), Strabo (l. vi. p. 415), and D’Orville
Sicula (tom. ii. pp. 174–202). The new city, restored by
Augustus, shrunk towards the island.]

58a (return) [ A hundred (there was no room on board for more).
Gibbon has again been misled by Cousin’s translation. Lord Mahon,
p. 157—M.]

59 (return) [ Procopius (Vandal. l. ii. c. 14, 15) so clearly
relates the return of Belirarius into Sicily (p. 146, edit.
Hoeschelii), that I am astonished at the strange misapprehension
and reproaches of a learned critic (Œuvres de la Mothe le Vayer,
tom, viii. pp. 162, 163).]