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a

CHA P. their swords, and expected the charge : the Ro.

man cavalry thrice passed the rivulet; they were thrice repulsed ; and the conflict was firmly maintained, till Zano fell, and the standard of Beli. sarius was displayed. Gelimer retreated to his camp; the Huns joined the pursuit ; and the victors despoiled the bodies of the slain. Yet no more than fifty Romans and eight hundred Vandals, were found on the field of battle; so inconsiderable was the carnage of a day, which extinguished a nation, and transferred the empire of Africa. In the evening Belisarius led his infantry to the attack of the camp; and the pusillanimous flight of Gelimer exposed the vanity of his recent declarations, that, to the vanquished, death was a relief, life a burden, and infamy the only object of terror. His departure was secret ; but as soon as the Vandals discovered that their king had deserted them, they hastily dispersed, anxious only for their personal safety, and careless of every object that is dear or valuable to maukind. The Romans entered the camp without resistance; and the wildest scenes of disorder were veiled in the darkness and confusion of the night. Every Barbarian who met their swords was in. humanly massacred; their widows and daughters, as rich heirs or beautiful concubines, were embraced by the licentious soldiers; and avarice itself was almost satiated with the treasures of gold and silver, the accumulated fruits of conquest or economy in a long period of prosperity and peace. In this frantic search, the troops even of Belisarius forgot their caution and respect. Intoxicated with lust and rapine, they explored, in c H A P. small parties, or alone, the adjacent fields, the XLI. woods, the rocks, and the caverns, that might possibly conceal any desirable prize : laden with booty, they deserted their ranks, and wandered, without a guide, on the high road to Carthage 3 and if the flying enemies had dared to return, very few of the conquerors would have escaped. Deeply sensible of the disgrace and danger, Belisarius passed an apprehensive 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 restored the modesty and obedience of the camp. It was equally the concern of the Roman general to subdue the hostile and to save the prostrate Barbarian: and the

suppliant Vandals, who could be found only in churches, 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 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 possessed the relics of St. Augustin *.

The

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CHAP. 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 he dispatched his principal lieutenant, to inform the emperor, that, in the space of three months, he had achieved the conquest of Africa.

Conquest of

Belisarius,

Belisarius spoke the language of truth. The Africa by surviving Vandals yielded, without resistance, A. D. 534. their arms and their freedom: the neighbourhood of Carthage submitted to his presence; and the more distant provinces were successively subdued by the report of his victory. Tripoli was con. firmed in her voluntary allegiance; Sardinia and Corsica surrendered to an officer, who carried, instead of a sword, the head of the valiant Zano; and the isles of Majorca, Minorca, and Yvica, consented to remain an humble appendage of the African kingdom. Cæsarea, a royal city, which in looser geography may be confounded with the modern Algiers, was situate thirty days march to the westward of Carthage: by land the road was infested by the Moors; but the sea was open, and the Romans were now masters of the sea. An active and discreet tribune sailed as far as the Streights, where he occupied Septem or Ceuta *,

which

rium Ital. p. 26-30. Muratori, Antiq. Ital. Medii Ævi, tom. v. dissert. lviii. p. 9. who had composed a separate treatise before the decree of the bishop of Pavia, and Pope Benedict XIII.).

* Τα της πολιτείας προοιμια, 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.).

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which rises opposite to Gibraltar on the African CHA P. coast that remote place was afterwards adorned and fortified by Justinian; and he seems to have indulged the vain ambition of extending his empire to the columns of Hercules. He received the messengers 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 t; and the 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

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, had acquired a just claim: Gothicus was premature, and Francicus false, and offensive to a great nation.

+ See the original acts in Baronius (A. D. 535, No. 2154.). The emperor applauds his own clemency to the heretics, cum sufficiat eis vivere.

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.

XLI.

CHAP. thodox prelates were absent; but the comparative

smallness of their number, which in ancient coun, cils 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 of Tripoli, Leptis, Cirta, Cæsarea, and Sardinia, and to compute the military force of palatines or borderers that might be sufficient for the defence of Africa, The kingdom of the Vandals was not unworthy of the presence of a prætorian præfect; and four consulars, three presidents, were appointed to administer the seven provinces under his civil jurisdiction. The number of their subordinate officers, clerks, messengers, or assistants, was minutely expressed; three hundred and ninety-six for the præfect himself, fifty for each of his vicegerents ; and the rigid definition of their fees and salaries was more effectual to confirm the right, than to prevent the abuse. These magistrates might be oppressive, but they were not idle: and the subtle questions of justice and revenue were infinitely propagated under the new government, which professed to revive the freedom and equity of the Roman republic. The conqueror was solicitous to exact a prompt and plentiful supply from his

African