nd f

Jase

to spare the persons and property of his African | separate station and ambiguous faith of the Massasubjects, and secretly negociated with the Arian getæ, who secretly reserved their aid for the consectaries and the confederate Huns. Under these querors. The historian has inserted, and the reader circumstances, the conquest of Sardinia served only may easily supply, the speeches of the commandto aggravate his distress: he reflected with the ers, who, by arguments the most opposite to their deepest anguish, that he had wasted, in that useless situation, inculcated the importance of victory, and enterprise, five thousand of his bravest troops; and the contempt of life. Zano, with the troops which he read, with grief and shame, the victorious letters had followed him to the conquest of Sardinia, was of his brother Zano, who expressed a sanguine con- placed in the centre; and the throne of Genseric fidence that the king, after the example of their might have stood, if the multitude of Vandals had ancestors, had already chastised the rashness of imitated their intrepid resolution. Casting away the Roman invader. "Alas! my brother,” replied their lances and missile weapons, they drew their Gelimer, "Heaven has declared against our un- swords, and expected the charge: the Roman happy nation. While you have subdued Sardinia, cavalry thrice passed the rivulet; they were thrice we have lost Africa. No sooner did Belisarius repulsed; and the conflict was firmly maintained, appear with a handful of soldiers, than courage and till Zano fell, and the standard of Belisarius was prosperity deserted the cause of the Vandals. Your displayed. Gelimer retreated to his camp; the nephew Gibamund, your brother Ammatas, have Huns joined the pursuit; and the victors despoiled been betrayed to death by the cowardice of their the bodies of the slain. Yet no more than fifty followers. Our horses, our ships, Carthage itself, Romans, and eight hundred Vandals, were found and all Africa, are in the power of the enemy. Yet on the field of battle; so inconsiderable was the the Vandals still prefer an ignominious repose, at carnage of a day, which extinguished a nation, and the expense of their wives and children, their wealth transferred the empire of Africa. In the evening, and liberty. Nothing now remains, except the field Belisarius led his infantry to the attack of the camp; of Bulla, and the hope of your valour. Abandon and the pusillanimous flight of Gelimer exposed the Sardinia; fly to our relief; restore our empire, or vanity of his recent declarations, that, to the vanperish by our side." On the receipt of this epistle, quished, death was a relief, life a burthen, and Zano imparted his grief to the principal Vandals; infamy the only object of terror. His departure but the intelligence was prudently concealed from was secret; but as soon as the Vandals discovered the natives of the island. The troops embarked in that their king had deserted them, they hastily one hundred and twenty galleys at the port of Cag- dispersed, anxious only for their personal safety, liari, cast anchor the third day on the confines of and careless of every object that is dear or valuMauritania, and hastily pursued their march to join able to mankind. The Romans entered the camp the the royal standard in the camp of Bulla. Mournful without resistance; and the wildest scenes of was the interview: the two brothers embraced; they disorder were veiled in the darkness and confusion wept in silence: no questions were asked of the of the night. Every barbarian who met their swords Sardinian victory; no inquiries were made of the was inhumanly massacred; their widows and daughAfrican misfortunes: they saw before their eyes the ters, as rich heirs, or beautiful concubines, were whole extent of their calamities; and the absence embraced by the licentious soldiers; and avarice of their wives and children afforded a melancholy itself was almost satiated with the treasures of gold proof, that either death or captivity had been their and silver, the accumulated fruits of conquest or lot. The languid spirit of the Vandals was at length economy in a long period of prosperity and peace. awakened and united by the entreaties of their king, In this frantic search, the troops even of Belisarius the example of Zano, and the instant danger which forgot their caution and respect. Intoxicated with threatened their monarchy and religion. The mili- lust and rapine, they explored in small parties, or tary strength of the nation advanced to battle; and alone, the adjacent fields, the woods, the rocks, and such was the rapid increase, that, before their army the caverns, that might possibly conceal any desirreached Tricameron, about twenty miles from Car- able prize: laden with booty, they deserted their thage, they might boast, perhaps with some exagge- ranks, and wandered without a guide, on the high ration, that they surpassed, in a tenfold proportion, road to Carthage; and if the flying enemies had the diminutive powers of the Romans. But these dared to return, very few of the conquerors would powers were under the command of Belisarius; and, have escaped. Deeply sensible of the disgrace and as he was conscious of their superior merit, he per- danger, Belisarius passed an apprehensive night in mitted the barbarians to surprise him at an unsea- the field of victory; at the dawn of day, he planted sonable hour. The Romans were instantly under his standard on a hill, recalled his guards and vetearms: a rivulet covered their front; the cavalry rans, and gradually restored the modesty and obeformed the first line, which Belisarius supported in dience of the camp. It was equally the concern of the centre, at the head of five hundred guards; the the Roman general to subdue the hostile, and to infantry, at some distance, was posted in the second save the prostrate, barbarian: and the suppliant line; and the vigilance of the general watched the Vandals, who could be found only in churches, * These orations always express the sense of the times, and sometimes of the actors. I have condensed that sense, and thrown away declamation.

LE

ted fro

of

the s

2Y 2

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. The season, and the certain intelligence that the Vandal had fled to the inaccessible country of the Moors, determined Belisarius to relinquish the vain pursuit, and to fix his winter-quarters at Carthage. From thence be despatched his principal lieutenant, to inform the emperor, that in the space of three months he had achieved the conquest of Africa.

A. D. 534.

synod of Carthage, by the voice of two hundred and seventeen bishops, 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 counsels 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 Belisarius spoke the language of of Tripoli, Leptis, Cirta, Cæsarea, and Sardinia, Conquest of Afri. ca by Belisarius, truth. The surviving Vandals yielded, and to compute the military force of palatines or without resistance, their arms and their borderers that might be sufficient for the defence freedom: the neighbourhood of Carthage submitted of Africa. The kingdom of the Vandals was not to his presence; and the more distant provinces unworthy of the presence of a prætorian præfect; were successively subdued by the report of his vic- and four consulars, three presidents, were appointed tory. Tripoli was confirmed in her voluntary alle- to administer the seven provinces under his civil giance; Sardinia and Corsica surrendered to an jurisdiction. The number of their subordinate officer, who carried, instead of a sword, the head of officers, clerks, messengers, or assistants, was mithe valiant Zano; and the isles of Majorca, Minorca, nutely expressed; three hundred and ninety-six and Yvica, consented to remain an humble append- for the præfect himself, fifty for each of his viceage of the African kingdom. Cæsarea, a royal city, gerents; and the rigid definition of their fees and which in looser geography may be confounded with salaries was more effectual to confirm the right, the modern Algiers, was situate thirty days' march than to prevent the abuse. These magistrates might to the westward of Carthage: by land, the road be oppressive, but they were not idle: and the subwas infested by the Moors; but the sea was open, tle questions of justice and revenue were infinitely and the Romans were now masters of the sea. An propagated under the new government, which proactive and discreet tribune sailed as far as the fessed to revive the freedom and equity of the Roman republic. The conqueror was solicitous to exact 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

Straits, where he occupied Septem or Ceuta, 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 empirehouses and lands of which their families had been

to the columns of Hercules. He received the mes

a

sengers of victory at the time when he was preparing to publish the pandects of the Roman law; and the devout or jealous emperor celebrated the divine goodness, and confessed, in silence, the merit of his successful general. 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 immunities, 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; and the y The relics of St. Augustin were carried by the African bishops to their Sardinian exile; (A. D. 500.) and it was believed in the eighth 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 Evi, tom. v. dissert. lviii. p. 9. who had composed a separate treatise before the decree of the bishop of Pavia, and pope Benedict XIII.)

1 Tα TNS TOλTelas poo, is the expression of Procopius. (de Edific. 1. 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 Marmol. tom. ii. p. 236.)

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 prætorian 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.d

tivity of Gelimer,

Yet the conquest of Africa was im- Distress and cap. perfect, till her former sovereign was delivered, either alive or dead, into

A. D. 534. the spring.

a 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, bad acquired a just claim: Gothicus was premature, and Francicus false, and offensive to

a great nation.

b See the original acts in Baronius, (A. D. 535, No. 21-54.) The emperor applauds his own clemency to the heretics, cum sufficiat els

vivere.

e Dupin (Geograph. Sacra Africana, p. lix. ad Optat. Milev.) 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.

d The African laws of Justinian are illustrated by his German biegrapher. (Cod. 1. i. tit. 27. Novell. 36, 37. 131. Vit. Justinian. [349-377.)

|

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

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 unfor-proffered deliverance, it degenerates into blind and tunate monarch, with some faithful followers, to the stupid despair." "I am not insensible," replied inaccessible mountain of Papua, in the inland the king of the Vandals, "how kind and rational country of Numidia. He was immediately besieged is your advice. But I cannot persuade myself to by Pharas, an officer whose truth and sobriety were become the slave of an unjust enemy, who has the more applauded, as such qualities could seldom deserved my implacable hatred. Him I had never be found among the Heruli, the most corrupt of the injured either by word or deed: yet he has sent barbarian tribes. To his vigilance Belisarius had against me, I know not from whence, a certain intrusted this important charge; and, after a bold Belisarius, who has cast me headlong from the attempt to scale the mountain, in which he lost a throne into this abyss of misery. Justinian is a hundred and ten soldiers, Pharas expected, during man; he is a prince; does he not dread for himself a winter siege, the operation of distress and famine a similar reverse of fortune? I can write no more: on the mind of the Vandal king. From the softest my grief oppresses me. Send me, I beseech you, habits of pleasure, from the unbounded command my dear Pharas, send me a lyre,s a spunge, and a of industry and wealth, he was reduced to share loaf of bread." From the Vandal messenger, the poverty of the Moors, supportable only to them- Pharas was informed of the motives of this singular selves by their ignorance of a happier condition. request. It was long since the king of Africa had In their rude hovels, of mud and hurdles, which tasted bread; a defluxion had fallen on his eyes, confined the smoke and excluded the light, they the effect of fatigue or incessant weeping; and he promiscuously slept on the ground, perhaps on a wished to solace the melancholy hours, by singing sheep-skin, with their wives, their children, and to the lyre the sad story of his own misfortunes. their cattle. Sordid and scanty were their garments; The humanity of Pharas was moved; he sent the the use of bread and wine was unknown; and their three extraordinary gifts; but even his humanity oaten or barley cakes, imperfectly baked in the prompted him to redouble the vigilance of his ashes, were devoured almost in a crude state by the guard, that he might sooner compel his prisoner to hungry savages. The health of Gelimer must have embrace a resolution advantageous to the Romans, sunk under these strange and unwonted hardships, but salutary to himself. The obstinacy of Gelimer from whatsoever cause they had been endured; but at length yielded to reason and necessity; the sohis actual misery was imbittered by the recollection lemn assurances of safety and honourable treatment of past greatness, the daily insolence of his protec- were ratified in the emperor's name, by the ambastors, and the just apprehension, that the light and sador of Belisarius; and the king of the Vandals venal Moors might be tempted to betray the rights descended from the mountain. The first public of hospitality. The knowledge of his situation interview was in one of the suburbs of Carthage; dictated the humane and friendly epistle of Pharas. and when the royal captive accosted his conqueror, "Like yourself," said the chief of the Heruli, "Ihe burst into a fit of laughter. The crowd might am an illiterate barbarian, but I speak the language naturally believe, that extreme grief had deprived of plain sense and an honest heart. Why will you Gelimer of his senses; but in this mournful state, persist in hopeless obstinacy? Why will you ruin unseasonable mirth insinuated to more intelligent yourself, your family, and nation? The love of free- observers, that the vain and transitory scenes of dom and abhorrence of slavery? Alas! my dearest human greatness are unworthy of a serious thought." 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

e 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.) εν τοις Νεμίδιας εσχάτοις.

f 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.

g By Procopius it is styled a lyre; perhaps harp would have been

rius,

Their contempt was soon justified by Return and tria new example of a vulgar truth; that umph of Belisaflattery adheres to power, and envy to A. D. 534. superior merit. The chiefs of the Ro

autumn,

man 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 more national. The instruments of music are thus distinguished by

Venantius Fortunatus:

Romanusque lyra tibi plaudat, Barbarus harpå.

h 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, (I. iii. c. 14.) In the interview of Paulus Emilins 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.

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 immedi- His sole consulately declared consul for the ensuing A. D. 535. year, and the day of his inauguration January 1. resembled the pomp of a second triumph; his curule chair was born aloft on the shoulders of captive Vandals; and the spoils of war, gold cups, and rich girdles, were profusely scattered among the populace.

ship,

himself on the throne of the Vandals. Justinian | where Justinian and Theodora were seated to relistened with too patient an ear; and his silence | ceive the homage of the captive monarch and the was the result of jealousy rather than of confidence. An honourable 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 honours of a triumph, a ceremony which the city of Constantinople had never seen, and which ancient Rome, since the reign of Tiberius, had reserved for the auspicious arms of the Cæsars. 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 armour, golden thrones, and the chariots of state which had been used by the Vandal queen: the massy furniture of the royal banquet, the splendour 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, 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 honour 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

k

i 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.

k 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; (Op. 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.

! In the Belisaire of Marmontel, the king and the conqueror of Africa meet, sup, and converse, without recollecting each other. It is

But the purest reward of Belisarius End of Gelimer was in the faithful execution of a treaty and the Vandals. for which his honour 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. The daughters of Hilderic were entertained with the respectful tenderness due to their age and misfortune; and Justinian and Theodora accepted the honour 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 valour, 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; 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." Africa had been their empire, it became their prison; nor could they 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 of their memory.

m Shaw, p. 59. Yet since Procopius (1. ii. c. 13.) speaks of a people of mount Atlas, as already distinguished by white bodies and yellow hair, the phænomenon (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.

The geographer of Ravenna (1. iii. c. xi. p. 129, 130, 131. Paris, 1688.) describes the Mauritania Gaditana, (opposite to Cadiz,) ubi gens Vandalorum, a Belisario devicta in Africa, fugit, et nunquam comparuit.