XLI. danger which threatened their monarchy and re- CHAP. ligion. The military strength of the nation advanced to battle; and fuch was the rapid increase, that, before their army reached Tricameron, about twenty miles from Carthage, they might boast, perhaps with fome exaggeration, that they furpassed, in a tenfold proportion, the diminutive powers of the Romans. But these powers were under the command of Belifarius; and, as he was confcious of their fuperior merit, he permitted the Barbarians to furprise him at an unseasonable hour. The Romans were instantly under arms; a rivulet covered their front; the cavalry formed the first line, which Belifarius fupported in the centre, at the head of five hundred guards; the infantry, at some distance, was posted in the fecond line; and the vigilance of the general watched the separate station and ambiguous faith of the Maffagetæ, who fecretly referved their aid for the conquerors. The historian has inferted, and the reader may eafily fupply, the fpeeches" of the commanders, who, by arguments the most appofite to their fituation, inculcated the importance of victory and the contempt of life. Zano, with the troops which had followed him to the conqueft of Sardinia, was placed in the centre; and the throne of Genferic might have stood, if the multitude of Vandals had imitated their intrepid refolution. Cafting away their lances and miffile weapons, they drew 21 Thefe orations always exprefs the fenfe of the times, and fometimes of the actors. I have condensed that fenfe, and thrown away declamation. XLI. CHAP. their fwords, and expected the charge: the Roman cavalry thrice paffed the rivulet; they were thrice repulfed; and the conflict was firmly maintained, till Zano fell, and the standard of Belifarius was displayed. Gelimer retreated to his camp; the Huns joined the purfuit; and the victors defpoiled the bodies of the flain. Yet no more than fifty Romans, and eight hundred Vandals, were found on the field of battle; fo inconfiderable was the carnage of a day, which extinguished a nation, and transferred the empire of Africa. In the evening, Belifarius led his infantry to the attack of the camp; and the pufillanimous flight of Gelimer expofed the vanity of his recent declarations, that, to the vanquished, death was a relief, like a burthen, and infamy the only object of terror. His departure was secret; but as foon as the Vandals difcovered that their king had deferted them, they haftily 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 refistance; and the wildest scenes of disorder were veiled in the darkness and confufion of the night. Every Barbarian who met their fwords was inhumanly maffacred; their widows and daughters, as rich heirs, or beautiful concubines, were embraced by the licentious foldiers; and avarice itfelf was almost fatiated with the treasures of gold and filver, the accumulated fruits of conqueft or œconomy in a long period of profperity and peace. In this frantic fearch, the troops even of Belifarius forgot their caution and refpect. Intoxicated XLI. toxicated with luft and rapine, they explored in CHAP. small parties, or alone, the adjacent fields, the woods, the rocks, and the caverns, that might,. poffibly conceal any defirable 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 efcaped. Deeply fenfible of the disgrace and danger, Belifarius paffed an apprehenfive night on the field of victory; at the dawn of day, he planted his standard on a hill, recalled his guards and veterans, and gradually reftored the modefty and obedience of the camp. It was equally the concern of the Roman general to fubdue the hostile, and to fave the prostrate Barbarian, and the suppliant Vandals, who could be found only in churches, were protected by his authority, difarmed, and separately confined, that they might neither disturb the public peace, nor become the victims of popular revenge. After dispatching 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 poffeffed the relics of St. Augustin 22. The 22 The relics of St. Auguftin were carried by the African bishops to their Sardinian exile (A. D.500); and it was believed in thẹ viiith century that Liutprand, king of the Lombards, transported them (A. D. 721) from Sardinia to Pavia. In the year 1695, the Augustin friars of that city found a brick arch, marble coffin, filver cafe, filk wrapper, bones, blood, &c. and perhaps an infcription of Agostino in Gothic letters. But this useful discovery has been difputed by reafon and jealousy (Baronius, Annal. A. D. 725, No-2-9. Tillemont, Mem. Ecclef. tom. xiii. p. 944. Montfaucon, XLI. CHAP. The feafon, and the certain intelligence that the Vandal had fled to the inacceffible country of the Moors, determined Belifarius to relinquish the vain purfuit, and to fix his winter quarters at Carthage. From thence he difpatched his principal lieutenant, to inform the emperor, that, in the space of three months, he had atchieved the conqueft of Africa. Conqueft of Africa by Belifarius, A.D. 534. The Belifarius fpoke the language of truth. furviving Vandals yielded, without refiftance, their arms and their freedom: the neighbourhood of Carthage fubmitted to his prefence; and the more diftant provinces were fucceffively fubdued by the report of his victory. Tripoli was confirmed in her voluntary allegiance; Sardinia and Corfica furrendered to an officer, who carried, inftead of a fword, the head of the valiant Zano; and the ifles of Majorca, Minorca, and Yvica, confented to remain an humble appendage of the African kingdom. Cæfarea, a royal city, which in loofer geography may be confounded with the modern Algiers, was fituate thirty days march to the weftward of Carthage: by land, the road was infefted by the Moors; but the fea was open, and the Romans were now mafters of the fea. An active and difcreet tribune failed as far as the Streights, where he occupied Septem or Ceuta13, which faucon, Diarium Ital. p. 26-30. Muratori, Antiq. Ital. Medij Evi, tom. v. differt. lviii. p. 9. who had composed a separate treatife before the decree of the bishop of Pavia, and Pope Benedict XIII.). 23 Τα της πολιτείας προοιμία, is the expreffion of Procopius (deEdific, 1. vi. c. 7.). Ceuta, which has been defaced by the Forty guefe, L XLI. which rifes oppofite to Gibraltar on the African CHAP. coast that remote place was afterwards adorned and fortified by Juftinian; and he seems to have indulged the vain ambition of extending his empire to the columns of Hercules. He received the meffengers 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 confeffed, in filence, the merit of his fuccessful 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 immunities, perhaps the most effential part of epifcopal religion, were restored and amplified with a liberal hand; the Arian worship was fuppreffed; the Donatift meetings were profcribed 25; and the fynod of Carthage, by the voice of two hundred and feventeen bishops ", applauded the just measure of pious retaliation. On fuch an oc 26 guese, flourished in nobles and palaces, in agriculture and manufactures, under the more profperous reign of the Arabs (l'Afrique de Marmol, tom. ii. p. 236.). 24 See the second and third preambles to the Digest, or Pandects, promulgated A. D. 533, December 16. To the titles of Vandalicus and Africanus, Juftinian, or rather Belifarius, had acquired a just claim; Gothicus was premature, and Francicus false, and offenfive to a great nation. 25 See the original acts in Baronius (A. D. 535, N° 21—54.). The emperor applauds his own clemency to the heretics, cum fufficiat eis vivere. 26 Dupin (Geograph. Sacra Africana, p. lix. ad Optat. Milev.) · obferves and bewails this epifcopal decay. In the more profperous age of the church, he had noticed 690 bishoprics; but however minute were the diocefes, it is not probable that they all exifted at the fame time. cafion, |