enterprise. The importance and danger of Africa were deeply felt by the regent of the west. Placidia implored the assistance of her eastern ally; and the Italian fleet and army were reinforced by Aspar, who sailed from Constantinople with a powerful armament. As soon as the force of the two empires was united under the command of Boniface, he boldly marched against the Vandals; and the loss of a second battle irretrievably decided the fate of Africa. He embarked with the precipitation of despair; and the people of Hippo were permitted, with their families and effects, to occupy the vacant place of the soldiers, the greatest part of whom were either slain or made prisoners by the Vandals. The count, whose fatal credulity had wounded the vitals of the republic, might enter the palace of Ravenna with some anxiety, which was soon removed by the smiles of Placidia. Boniface accepted with gratitude the rank of patrician, and the dignity of master-general of the Roman armies; but he must have blushed at the sight of those medals, in which he was represented with the name and attributes of Victory. The discovery of his fraud, the displeasure of the empress, and the distinguished favour of his rival, exasperated the haughty and perfidious soul of Ætius. He hastily returned from Gaul to Italy, with a retinue, or rather with an army, of barbarian followers; and such was the weakness of the government, that the two generals decided their private quarrel in a bloody battle. Boniface was successful; but he received in the conHis death, flict a mortal wound from the spear of his adversary, of which he expired within a few days, in such Christian and charitable sentiments, that he exi Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 67. On one side, the head of Valentinian; on the reverse, Boniface, with a scourge in one hand, and a palm in the other, standing in a triumphal car, which is drawn by four horses, or, in another medal, by four stags; an unlucky emblem! I should doubt whether another example can be found of the head of a subject on the reverse of an imperial medal. See Science des Medailles, by the père Jobert, tom. 1. p. 132–150. edit. of 1739, by the baron de la Bastie. A. D. 432. horted his wife, a rich heiress of Spain, to accept Ætius for her second husband. But Etius could not derive any immediate advantage from the generosity of his dying enemy; he was proclaimed a rebel by the justice of Placidia; and though he attempted to defend some strong fortresses erected on his patrimonial estate, the imperial power soon compelled him to retire into Pannonia, to the tents of his faithful Huns. The republic was deprived, by their mutual discord, of the service of her two most illustrious champions.* Progress Vandals in -439. It might naturally be expected, after the retreat of Boniface, that the Vandals would achieve, without resistance or delay, the conA.D. 431 quest of Africa. Eight years, however, elapsed, from the evacuation of Hippo to the reduction of Carthage. In the midst of that interval, the ambitious Genseric, in the full tide of apparent prosperity, negotiated a treaty of peace, by which he gave his son Hunneric for a hostage; and consented to leave the western emperor in the undisturbed possession of the three Mauritanias.' This moderation, which cannot be imputed to the justice, must be ascribed to the policy, of the conqueror. His throne was encompassed with domestic enemies; who accused the baseness of his birth, and asserted the legitimate claims of his nephews, the sons of Gonderic. Those nephews, indeed, he sacrificed to his safety; and their mother, the widow of the deceased king, was precipitated, by his order, into the river Ampsaga. But the public discontent burst forth in dangerous and frequent conspiracies; and the warlike * Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. lib. 1. c. 3. p. 185.) continues the history of Boniface no farther than his return to Italy. His death is mentioned by Prosper and Marcellinus; the expression of the latter, that Ætius, the day before, had provided himself with a longer spear, implies something like a regular duel. See Procopius de Bell. Vandal. lib. 1. c. 4. p. 186. Valentinian published several humane laws, to relieve the distress of his Numidian and Mauritanian subjects he discharged 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 the provincial magistrates to the prefect of Rome. Cod. Theod. tom. 6. Novell. p. 11, 12. tyrant is supposed to have shed more Vandal blood by the hand of the executioner, than in the field of battle." The convulsions of Africa, which had favoured his attack, opposed the firm establishment of his power; and the various seditions of the Moors and Germans, the Donatists and Catholics, continually disturbed, or threatened, the unsettled reign of the conqueror. As he advanced towards Carthage, he was forced to withdraw his troops from the western provinces; the seacoast 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 still persisted in obstinate independence." These difficulties were gradually subdued by the spirit, the perseverance, and the cruelty of Genseric, who alternately applied the arts of peace and war to the establishment of his African kingdom. He subscribed a solemn treaty, with the hope of deriving some advantage from the term of its continuance, and the moment of its violation. The vigilance of his enemies was relaxed by the protestations of friendship, which concealed his hostile approach; and Carthage was at length surprised by the Vandals, five hundred and eighty-five years after the destruction of the city and republic by the younger Scipio. They sur A new city had arisen from its ruins, with the prise Car- title of a colony; and though Carthage might A.D. 439, yield to the royal prerogatives of Constanti thage. nople, and perhaps to the trade of Alexandria, or the splendour of Antioch, she still maintained the second rank in the west; as the Rome (if we may use the style of contemporaries) of the African world. That wealthy and opulent metropolis displayed, in a depend m Victor Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal. lib. 2. c. 5. p. 26. The cruelties of Genseric towards his subjects, are strongly expressed in Prosper's Chronicle, A.D. 442. n Possidius in Vit. Augustin. c. 28. apud Ruinart, p. 428. • See the Chronicles of Idatius, Isidore, Prosper, and Marcellinus. They mark the same year, but different days, for the surprisal of Carthage. P The picture of Carthage, as it flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries, is taken from the Expositio totius Mundi, p. 17, 18. in the third volume of Hudson's ant condition, the image of a flourishing republic. Carthage contained the manufactures, the arms, and the treasures of the six provinces. A regular subordination of civil honours, gradually ascended from the procurators of the streets and quarters of the city, to the tribunal of the supreme magistrate, who, with the title of proconsul, represented the state and dignity of a consul of ancient Rome. Schools and gymnasia were instituted for the education of the African youth; and the liberal arts and manners, grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, were publicly taught in the Greek and Latin languages. The buildings of Carthage were uniform and magnificent; a shady grove was planted in the midst of the capital; the new port, a secure and capacious harbour, was subservient to the commercial industry of citizens and strangers; and the splendid games of the circus and theatre were exhibited almost in the presence of the barbarians. The reputation of the Carthaginians was not equal to that of their country, and the reproach of Punic faith still adhered to their subtle and faithless character. The habits of trade, and the abuse of luxury, had corrupted their manners; but their impious contempt of monks, and the shameless practice of unnatural lusts, are the two abominations which excite the pious vehemence of Salvian, the preacher of the age. The king of the Vandals severely reformed the vices of a voluptuous people; and the ancient, noble, Minor Geographers; from Ausonius de Claris Urbibus, p. 228, 229. and principally from Salvian, de Gubernatione Dei, lib. 7. p. 257, 258. I am surprised that the Notitia should not place either a mint, or an arsenal, at Carthage: but only a gynecæum, or female manufacture. 4 The anonymous author of the Expositio totius Mundi, compares, in his barba rous Latin, the country and the inhabitants; and, after stigmatizing their want of faith, he coolly concludes, Difficile autem inter eos invenitur bonus, tamen in multis pauci boni esse possunt. P. 18. He declares, that the peculiar vices of each country were collected in the sink of Carthage. (lib. 7. p. 257.) In the indulgence of vice, the Africans applauded their manly virtue. Et illi se magis virilis fortitudinis esse crederent, qui maxime viros fœminei usûs probrositate fregissent. (p 268.) The streets of Carthage were polluted by effeminate wretches, who publicly assumed the countenance, the dress, and the character of women. (p. 264.) If a monk appeared in the city, the holy man was pursued with impious scorn and ridicule; detestantibus ridentium cachinnis. (p. 289.) ingenuous freedom of Carthage (these expressions of Victor are not without energy), was reduced by Genseric into a state of ignominious servitude. After he had permitted his licentious troops to satiate their rage and avarice, he instituted a more regular system of rapine and oppression. An edict was promulgated, which enjoined all persons, without fraud or delay, to deliver their gold, silver, jewels, and valuable furniture or apparel, to the royal officers; and the attempt to secrete any part of their patrimony, was inexorably punished with death and torture, as an act of treason against the state. The lands of the proconsular province, which formed the immediate district of Carthage, were accurately measured, and divided among the barbarians: and the conqueror reserved, for his peculiar domain, the fertile territory of Byzancium, and the adjacent parts of Numidia and Getulia.' African and cap It was natural enough that Genseric should exiles hate those whom he had injured: the nobility tives. and senators of Carthage were exposed to his jealousy and resentment; and all those, 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 east, were filled with a crowd of exiles, of fugitives, and of ingenuous captives, who solicited the public compassion: and the benevolent epistles of Theodoret still preserve the names and misfortunes of Cælestian and Maria. The Syrian bishop deplores the misfortunes of Calestian, who, from a state of a noble and opulent senator of Carthage, was reduced, with his wife and family, and servants, to beg his bread in a foreign country; but he applauds the resignation of the Christian exile, and the philoso Compare Procopius de Bell. Vandal. lib. 1. c. 5. p. 189, 190. and Victor Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal. lib. 1. c. 4. Ruinart (p. 444-457.) has collected from Theodoret, and other authors, the misfortunes, real and fabulous, of the inhabitants of Carthage. |