fented to leave the Western emperor in the undisturbed pof- C H A P. feffion of the three Mauritanias (34). This moderation, XXXIII. which cannot be imputed to the justice, must be afcribed to the policy, of the conqueror. His throne was encompaffed with domeftic enemies; who accufed the bafeness of his birth, and afferted the legitimate claims of his nephews, the fons of Gonderic. Thofe nephews, indeed, he facrificed to his fafety; and their mother, the widow of the deceafed king, was precipitated, by his order, into the river Ampfaga. But the public discontent burst forth in dangerous and frequent confpiracies; and the warlike tyrant is fuppofed to have shed more Vandal blood by the hand of the executioner, than in the field of battle (35). The convulfions of Africa, which had favoured his attack, oppofed the firm eftablishment of his power; and the various feditions of the Moors and Germans, the Donatifts and Catholics, continually difturbed, or threatened, the unfettled reign of the conqueror. As he advanced towards Carthage, he was forced to withdraw his troops from the Western provinces; the feacoaft was exposed to the naval enterprises of the Romans of Spain and Italy; and, in the heart of Numidia, the strong inland city of Corta ftill perfifted in obftinate indepen dence (36). Thefe difficulties were gradually fubdued by the fpirit, the perfeverance, and the cruelty of Genferic; who alternately applied the arts of peace and war to the establishment of his African kingdom. He fubfcribed a folemn treaty, with the hope of deriving fome advantage from the term of its continuance, and the moment of its violation. The vigilance of his enemies was relaxed by the proteftations of friendship, which concealed his hoftile approach; and Carthage was at length furprised by the Vandals, five hundred and eighty-five years after the deftruction of the city and republic by the younger Scipio (37).

A new

(34) See Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 4. p. 186. Valentinian published several humane laws, to relieve the diftrefs of his Numidian and Mauritanian fubjects; he difcharged them, in a great measure, from the payment of their debts, reduced their tribute to one-eighth, and gave them a right of appeal from their provincial magiftrates to the præfect of Rome. Cod. Theod. tom, vi. Novell. p. 11, 12.

(35) Victor Vitenfis, de Perfecut, Vandal, 1. ii, c. 5. p. 26. The cruelties of Genforic towards his fubjects, are ftrongly expreffed in Profper's Chronicle, A. D. 442.

(36) Poffidius, in Vit. Auguftin, c. 28. apud Ruinart, p. 428.

(37) See the Chronicles of Idatius, Ifidcre, Profper, and Marcellinus. They mark the fame year, but different days, for the furprifal of Carthage.

They furprite Car

thage,

o&. 9.

С НАР. A new city had arifen from its ruins, with the title of a XXXIII. colony; and though Carthage might yield to the royal prerogatives of Conftantinople, and perhaps to the trade of Alexandria, or the fplendor of Antioch, fhe still maintained the second rank in the Weft; as the Rome (if we may use the A. D. 439, ftyle of contemporaries) of the African world. That wealthy and opulent metropolis (38) difplayed, in a dependent condition, the image of a flourishing republic. Carthage contained the manufactures, the arms, and the treasures of the fix provinces. A regular fubordination of civil honours, gradually afcended from the procurators of the streets and quarters of the city, to the tribunal of the fupreme magiftrate, who, with the title of proconful, reprefented the itate and dignity of a conful of ancient Rome. Schools and gymnafia were inftituted for the education of the African youth; and the liberal arts and manners, grammar, rhetoric, and philofophy, were publicly taught in the Greek and Latin languages. The buildings of Carthage were uniform and magnificent: a fhady grove was planted in the midst of the capital; the new port, a fecure and capacious harbour, was fubfervient to the commercial industry of citizens and strangers; and the fplendid games of the Circus and theatre were exhibited almost in the prefence of the Barbarians. The reputation of the Carthaginians was not equal to that of their country, and the reproach of Punic faith ftill adhered to their fubtle and faithless character (39). The habits of trade, and the abuse of luxury, had corrupted their manners; but their impious contempt of monks, and the fhameless practice of unnatural lufts, are the two abominations which excite the pious vehemence of Salvian, the preacher of the age (40).

The

(38) The picture of Carthage, as it flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries, is taken from the Expofitio totius Mundi, p. 17, 18. in the third volume of Hudfon's Minor Geographers, from Aufonius de Claris Urbibus, p. 228, 229.; and principally from Salvian, de Gubernatione Dei, 1. vii. p. 257, 258. I am furprifed that the Notitia fhould not place either a mint, or an arsenal, at Carthage; but only a gynecæum, or female manufac ture.

(39) The anonymous author of the Expofitio totius Mundi, compares, in his barbarous Latin, the country and the inhabitants, and, after stigmatifing their want of faith, he coolly concludes, Difficile autem inter eos invenitur bonus, tamen in multis pauci boni effe poffunt, p. 18.

(40) He declares, that the peculiar vices of each country were collected in the fink of Carthage (1. vii. p. 257.). In the indulgence of vice, the Africans applauded their manly virtue. Et illi fe magis virilis fortitudinis effe Grederent qui maximè viros fœminei usus probrofitate fregiffent (p. 268).

The

XXXIII.

The king of the Vandals feverely reformed the vices of a CHA P. voluptuous people; and the ancient, noble, ingenuous, freedom of Carthage (thefe expreffions of Victor are not without energy), was reduced by Genferic into a state of ignominious fervitude. After he had permitted his licentious troops to fatiate their rage and avarice, he instituted a more regular fyftem of rapine and oppreffion. An edict was promulgated, which injoined all perfons, without fraud or delay, to deliver their gold, filver, jewels, and valuable furniture or apparel, to the royal officers; and the attempt to fecrete any part of their patrimony, was inexorably punished with death and torture, as an act of treafon against the ftate. The lands of the proconfular province, which formed the immediate diftrict of Carthage, were accurately meafured, and divided among the Barbarians; and the conqueror referved for his peculiar domain, the fertile territory of Byzacium, and the adjacent parts of Numidia and Getulia (41).

It was natural enough that Genferic fhould hate thofe African exwhom he had injured: the nobility and fenators of Carthage iles and were expofed to his jealoufy and refentment; and all thofe captives, who refused the ignominious terms, which their honour and religion forbade them to accept, were compelled by the Arian tyrant to embrace the condition of perpetual banishment. Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the Eaft, were filled with a crowd of exiles, of fugitives, and of ingenuous captives, who folicited the public compaflion: and the benevolent epiftles of Theodoret, ftill preferve the names and misfortunes of Cæleftian and Maria (42). The Syrian bishop deplores the misfortunes of Cæleftian, who, from the ftate of a noble and opulent fenator of Carthage, was reduced, with his wife and family, and fervants, to beg his bread in a foreign country; but he applauds the refignation of the Chriftian exile, and the philofophic temper, which, under the preffure of fuch calamities, could enjoy more real happiness,

The ftreets of Carthage were polluted by effeminate wretches, who pubJicly affumed the countenance, the drefs, and the character of women (p. 264.). It a monk appeared in the city, the holy man was pursued with impious fcorn and ridicule; deteftantibus ridentium cachinnis (p. 289.),

(41) Compare Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 5. p. 189, 190.; and Victor Vitentis, de Perfecut. Vandal. 1 i. c. 4.

(42) Ruinart (P. 444-457.) has collected from Theodoret, and other authors, the misfortunes, real and tabulous, of the inhabitants of Car thage.

XXXIII.

CHA P. happiness, than was the ordinary lot of wealth and profperity. The ftory of Maria, the daughter of the magnificent Eudæmon, is fingular and interesting. In the fack of Carthage, fhe was purchased from the Vandals by fome merchants of Syria, who afterwards fold her as a flave in their native country. A female attendant, transported in the fame fhip, and fold in the fame family, ftill continued to respect a mistress whom fortune had reduced to the common level of fervitude; and the daughter of Eudæmon received from her grateful affection the domeftic fervices, which fhe had once required from her obedience. This remarkable behaviour divulged the real condition of Maria; who, in the abfence of the bishop of Cyrrhus, was redeemed from flavery by the generofity of fome foldiers of the garrifon. The liberality of Theodoret provided for her decent maintenance; and the paffed ten months among the deaconeffes of the church; till she was unexpectedly informed, that her father, who had escaped from the ruin of Carthage, exercised an honourable office in one of the Western provinces. Her filial impatience was feconded by the pious bishop: Theodoret, in a letter ftill extant, recommends Maria to the bishop of Ægæ, a maritime city of Cilicia, which was frequented, during the annual fair, by the veffels of the Weft; moft earnestly requefting, that his colleague would ufe the maiden with a tenderness suitable to her birth; and that he would entrust her to the care of fuch faithful merchants, as would efteem it a fufficient gain, if they reftored a daughter, loft beyond all human hope, to the arms of her afflicted parent.

Fable of the

crs,

Among the infipid legends of ecclefiaftical history, I am feven fleep- tempted to diftinguifh the memorable fable of the SEVEN SLEEPERS (43): whose imaginary date corresponds with the reign of the younger Theodofius, and the conqueft of Africa by the Vandals (44). When the emperor Decius perfecuted the Christians,

(43) The choice of fabulous circumstances is of small importance; yet I have confined myself to the narrative which was tranflated from the Syriac by the care of Gregory of Tours (de Gloriâ Martyrum, 1. i. c. 95. in Max. Bibliothecâ Patrum, tom. xi. p. 856.), to the Greek acts of their martyrdom (apud Photium, p. 1400, 1401.), and to the Annals of the Patriarch Eutychius (tom, i. p. 391. 531, 532. 535. Verf. Pocock.).

(44) Two Syriac writers, as they are quoted by Affemanni (Bibliot, Oriental. tom. i. p. 336. 338.), place the refurrection of the Seven Sleepers in the year 736 (A. D. 425.), or 748 (A. D. 437.), of the æra of the Seleucides. Their Greek ads, which Photius had read, affign the date of the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Theodofius, which may coincide either with A. D. 439

XXXIII.

Chriftians, feven noble youths of Ephefus concealed them- CHA P. felves in a spacious cavern in the fide of an adjacent mountain; where they were doomed to perifh by the tyrant, who gave orders that the entrance fhould be firmly fecured with a pile of huge ftones. They immediately fell into a deep flumber, which was miraculously prolonged, without injuring the powers of life, during a period of one hundred and eighty-feven years. At the end of that time, the flaves of Adolius, to whom the inheritance of the mountain had defcended, removed the ftones, to fupply materials for fome ruftic edifice: the light of the fun darted into the cavern, and the seven sleepers were permitted to awake. After a flumber, as they thought of a few hours, they were preffed by the calls of hunger; and refolved that Jamblichus, one of their number, fhould fecretly return to the city, to purchafe bread for the ufe of his companions. The youth (if we may still employ that appellation) could no longer recognife the once familiar afpect of his native country; and his furprife was increased by the appearance of a large cross, triumphantly erected over the principal gate of Ephefus. His fingular dress, and obfolete language, confounded the baker, to whom he offered an ancient medal of Decius as the current coin of the empire; and Jamblichus, on the fufpicion of a secret treasure, was dragged before the judge. Their mutual enquiries produced the amazing discovery, that two centuries were almoft elapfed fince Jamblichus, and his friends, had efcaped from the rage of a Pagan tyrant. The bishop of Ephefus, the clergy, the magiftrates, the people, and as it is said the emperor Theodofius himself, haftened to vifit the cavern of the Seven Sleepers; who bestowed their benediction, related their story, and at the fame inftant peaceably expired. The origin of this marvellous fable cannot be afcribed to the pious fraud and credulity of the mo dern Greeks, fince the authentic tradition may be traced within half a century of the fuppofed miracle. James of Sarug, a Syrian bishop, who was born only two years after the death of the younger Theodofius, has devoted one of his two hundred and thirty homilies to the praife of the young

men

A. D. 439, or 446. The period which had elapfed fince the perfecution of Decius is cafily afcertained; and nothing less than the ignorance of Mahomet, or the legendaries, could fuppofe an interval of three or four hundred years.