XLI.

themselves foon felt and praised the falutary effects. CHAP.
The inhabitants, instead of deferting their houses,
or hiding their corn, fupplied the Romans with a
fair and liberal market: the civil officers of the
province continued to exercife their functions in
the name of Juftinian; and the clergy, from mo-
tives of conscience and intereft, affiduously la-
boured to promote the cause of a Catholic em-
peror. The small town of Sullecte ", one day's
journey from the camp, had the honour of being
foremost to open her gates, and to refume her
ancient allegiance: the larger cities of Leptis and
Adrumetum imitated the example of loyalty as
foon as Belifarius appeared; and he advanced
without oppofition as far as Graffe, a palace of
the Vandal kings, at the distance of fifty miles
from Carthage. The weary Romans indulged
themselves in the refreshment of fhady groves,
cool fountains, and delicious fruits; and the pre-
ference which Procopius allows to thefe gardens
over any that he had feen, either in the Eaft or
West, may be ascribed either to the taste or the
fatigue of the historian. In three generations
prosperity and a warm climate had diffolved the
hardy virtue of the Vandals, who infenfibly be-
came the moft luxurious of mankind. In their
villas and gardens, which might deferve the Per-

17 Sullede is perhaps the Turris Hannibalis, an old building, now as large as the tower of London. The march of Belifarius to Leptis, Adrumetum, &c. is illuftrated by the campaign of Cæfar (Hirtius, de Bello Africano with the Analyfe of Guichardt), and Shaw's Travels (p. 105-113.) in the fame country.

fian

1

XLI.

CHA P. fian name of paradife ", they enjoyed a cool and elegant repofe; and, after the daily use of the bath, the Barbarians were feated at a table profufely spread with the delicacies of the land and fea. Their filken robes, loosely flowing after the fashion of the Medes, were embroidered with gold: love and hunting were the labours of their life, and their vacant hours were amufed by pantomimes, chariot-races, and the mufic and dances of the theatre.

Defeats
the Van-

dals in a
firft battle.

In a march of ten or twelve days, the vigilance of Belifarius was conftantly awake and active against his unfeen enemies, by whom in every place, and at every hour, he might be fuddenly attacked. An officer of confidence and merit, John the Armenian, led the vanguard of three hundred horse; fix hundred Maffagetæ covered at a certain diftance the left flank; and the whole fleet fteering along the coaft, feldom loft fight of the army, which moved each day about twelve miles, and lodged in the evening in ftrong camps, or in friendly towns. The near approach of the Romans to Carthage filled the mind of Gelimer with anxiety and terror. He prudently wifhed to protract the war till his brother, with his veteran troops, fhould return from the conqueft of Sardinia; and he now lamented the rash policy of

18 Παραδεισο καλλις άπαντων ὧν ημεις ισμεν. The paradifes, a name and fashion adopted from Perfia, may be reprefented by the royal garden of Ispahan (Voyage d'Olearius, p. 774.). See, in the Greek romances, their most perfect model (Longus, Paftoral. 1. iv. Pr99o. Achilles Tatus, 1, i, p. 22, 23.).

XLI.

his ancestors, who, by destroying the fortifica- CHAP.
tions of Africa, had left him only the dangerous
refource of rifking a battle in the neighbourhood
of his capital. The Vandal conquerors, from
their original number of fifty thoufand, were mul-
tiplied, without including their women and child-
ren, to one hundred and fixty thousand fighting
men: and fuch forces, animated with valour and
union, might have crushed, at their first landing,
the feeble and exhaufted bands of the Roman ge
neral. But the friends of the captive king were
more inclined to accept the invitations, than to
refift the progrefs, of Belifarius; and many a
proud Barbarian disguised his averfion to war un-
der the more fpecious name of his hatred to the
ufurper. Yet the authority and promises of Ge-
limer collected a formidable army, and his plans
were concerted with fome degree of military fkill.
An order was dispatched to his brother Ammatas,
to collect all the forces of Carthage, and to en-
counter the van of the Roman army at the dif
tance of ten miles from the city: his nephew
Gibamund, with two thousand horfe, was de-
ftined to attack their left, when the monarch him-
felf, who filently followed, fhould charge their
rear, in a fituation which excluded them from the
aid or even the view of their fleet. But the rash-
nefs of Ammatas was fatal to himself and his
country. He anticipated the hour of attack,
outstripped his tardy followers, and was pierced
with a mortal wound, after he had flain with his
own hand twelve of his boldeft antagonists. His
Vandals fled to Carthage; the highway, almost

ten

XLI.

CHAP. ten miles, was ftrewed with dead bodies; and it feemed incredible that fuch multitudes could be flaughtered by the fwords of three hundred Romans. The nephew of Gelimer was defeated after a flight combat by the fix hundred Maffa. getæ they did not equal the third part of his numbers; but each Scythian was fired by the example of his chief, who gloriously exercised the privilege of his family, by riding foremost and alone to fhoot the firft arrow against the enemy. In the mean while Gelimer himself, ignorant of the event, and mifguided by the windings of the hills, inadvertently paffed the Roman army, and reached the scene of action where Ammatas had fallen. He wept the fate of his brother and of Carthage, charged with irresistible fury the advancing fquadrons, and might have pursued, and perhaps decided the victory, if he had not wasted those inestimable moments in the discharge of a vain, though pious, duty to the dead. While his spirit was broken by this mournful office, he heard the trumpet of Belifarius, who leaving Antonina and his infantry in the camp, preffed forwards with his guards and the remainder of the cavalry to rally his flying troops, and to restore the fortune of the day. Much room could not be found in this disorderly battle for the talents of a general; but the king fled before the hero; and the Vandals, accustomed only to a Moorish enemy, were incapable of withstanding the arms and difcipline of the Romans. Gelimer retired with hafty steps towards the defert of Numidia; but he had foon the confolation of learning that his private

XLI.

private orders for the execution of Hilderic and CHA P. his captive friends had been faithfully obeyed. The tyrant's revenge was ufeful only to his enemies. The death of a lawful prince excited the compaffion of his people; his life might have perplexed the victorious Romans; and the lieutenant of Juftinian, by a crime of which he was innocent, was relieved from the painful alternative of forfeiting his honour or relinquishing his conquefts.

As foon as the tumult had fubfided, the feveral parts of the army informed each other of the accidents of the day; and Belifarius 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 wife fufpicion of the ftratagems and refources 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 repofe, that he might not, in darkness and diforder, expofe the city to the license of the foldiers, or the foldiers themselves to the secret ambush of the city. But as the fears of Belifarius were the result of calm and intrepid reafon, he was foon fatisfied that he might confide, without danger, in the peaceful and friendly afpect of the capital. Carthage blazed with innuinerable torches, the fignals 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 VOL. VII. announced

N

Reduction
thage,
A. D. 533,

of Car

Sept. 15.