and military stores, were safely disembarked, | journey from the camp, had the honor of beand five soldiers were left as a guard on ing foremost to open her gates and to resume board each of the ships, which were disposed her ancient allegiance; the larger cities of in the form of a semicircle. The remainder Leptis and Adrumetum imitated the examof the troops occupied a camp on the sea- ple of loyalty as soon as Belisarius appeared; shore, which they fortified, according to an- and he advanced without opposition as far as cient discipline, with a ditch and rampart; Grasse, a palace of the Vandal kings, at the and the discovery of a source of fresh water, distance of fifty miles from Carthage. The while it allayed the thirst, excited the super- weary Romans indulged themselves in the stitious confidence, of the Romans. The refreshment of shady groves, cool fountains next morning some of the neighboring gar- and delicious fruits; and the preference which dens were pillaged, and Belisarius, after chas- Procopius allows to these gardens over any tising the offenders, embraced the slight oc- that he had seen, either in the East or West, casion, but the decisive moment, of inculcat- may be ascribed either to the taste or the faing the maxims of justice, moderation and tigue of the historian. In three generations genuine policy. prosperity and a warm climate had dissolved the hardy virtue of the Vandals, who insensibly became the most luxurious of mankind. In their villas and gardens, which might deserve the Persian name of paradise, they enjoyed a cool and elegant repose, and after the daily use of the bath the barbarians were seated at a table profusely spread with the delicacies of the land and sea. Their silken robes, loosely flowing after the fashion of the Medes, were embroidered with gold; love and hunting were the labors of their life, and their vacant hours were amused by pantomimes, chariot-races and the music and dances of the theatre. "When I first accepted the commission of subduing Africa, I depended much less," said the general, "on the numbers, or even the bravery, of my troops than upon the friendly disposition of the natives and their immortal hatred to the Vandals. You alone can deprive me of this hope: if you continue to extort by rapine what might be purchased for a little money, such acts of violence will reconcile these implacable enemies and unite them in a just and holy league against the invaders of their country." These exhortations were enforced by a rigid discipline, of which the soldiers themselves soon felt and praised the salutary effects. The inhabitants, instead of deserting their houses or hiding their corn, supplied the Romans with a fair and liberal market; the civil officers of the province continued to exercise their functions in the name of Justinian; and the clergy, from motives of conscience and interest, assiduously labored to promote the cause of a Catholic emperor. The small town of Sullecte, one day's In a march of ten or twelve days the vigilance of Belisarius was constantly awake and active against his unseen enemies, by whom in every place and at every hour he might be suddenly attacked. An officer of confidence and merit, John the Armenian, led the vanguard of three hundred horse; six hundred Massagetæ covered at a certain distance the left flank; and the whole fleet, steering along the coast, seldom lost sight of the army, which moved each day about | He anticipated the hour of the attack, outtwelve miles, and lodged in the evening in stripped his tardy followers and was pierced strong camps or in friendly towns. with a mortal wound after he had slain with his own hand twelve of his boldest antagonists. His Vandals fled to Carthage; the highway-almost ten miles-was strewed with dead bodies, and it seemed incredible that such multitudes could be slaughtered by the swords of three hundred Romans. The nephew of Gelimer was defeated after a slight combat by the six hundred Massagetæ. 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 fainily by riding foremost and alone to shoot the first arrow against the enemy. The near approach of the Romans to Carthage filled the mind of Gelimer with anxiety and terror. He prudently wished to protract the war till his brother, with his veteran troops, should return from the conquest of Sardinia, and he now lamented the rash policy of his ancestors, who, by destroying the fortifications of Africa, had left him only the dangerous resource of risking a battle in the neighborhood of his capital. The Vandal conquerors, from their original number of fifty thousand, were multiplied, without including their women and children, to one hundred and sixty thousand fighting men; and such forces, animated with valor and union, might have crushed at their first landing the feeble and exhausted bands of the Roman general. But the friends of the captive king were more inclined to accept the invitations than to resist the progress of Belisarius, and many a proud barbarian disguised his aversion to war under the more specious name of his hatred to the usurper. Yet the authority and promises of Gelimer collected a formidable army, and his plans were concerted with some degree of military skill. An order was despatched to his brother Ammatas to collect all the forces of Carthage, and to encounter the van of the Roman army at the distance of ten miles from the city; his nephew Gibamund, with two thousand horse, was destined to attack their left when the monarch himself, who silently followed, should charge their rear in a situation which excluded them from the aid, or even the view, of their fleet. But the rashness of Ammatas was fatal to himself and his country. In the mean while, Gelimer himself, ignorant of the event and misguided by the windings of the hills, inadvertently passed 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 squadrons, 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 Belisarius, who, leaving Antonina and his infantry in the camp, pressed forward 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 discipline of the Romans. Gelimer re conquerors, sought a humble refuge in the sanctuary of the church; while the merchants of the East were delivered from the deepest dungeon of the palace by their affrighted keeper, who implored the protection of his captives and showed them, through an aperture in the wall, the sails of the Roman fleet. tired with hasty steps toward the desert of | dals, who had so lately indulged the vices of Numidia, but he had soon the consolation of learning that his private orders for the execution of Hilderic and his captive friends had been faithfully obeyed. The tyrant's revenge was useful only to his enemies. The death of a lawful prince excited the compassion of his people; his life might have perplexed the victorious Romans; and the lieutenant of Justinian, by a crime of which he was innocent, was relieved from the painful alternative of forfeiting his honor or relinquishing his conquests. As soon as the tumult had subsided the several parts of the army informed each other of the accidents of the day, and Belisarius pitched his camp on the field of victory, to which the tenth milestone from Carthage had applied the Latin appellation of decimus. From a wise suspicion of the stratagems and resources 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 repose, that he might not in darkness and disorder expose the city to the license of the soldiers, or the soldiers themselves to the secret ambush of the city. But, as the fears of Belisarius were the result of calm and intrepid reason, he was soon satisfied that he might confide without danger in the peaceful and friendly aspect of the capital. Carthage blazed with innumerable torches, the signals 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. One awful hour reversed the fortunes of the contending parties. The suppliant Van After their separation from the army the naval commanders had proceeded with slow caution along the coast till they reached the Hermaan promontory and obtained the first intelligence of the victory of Belisarius. Faithful to his instructions, they would have cast anchor about twenty miles from Carthage, if the more skilful seamen had not represented the perils of the shore and the signs of an impending tempest. Still ignorant of the revolution, they declined, however, the rash attempt of forcing the chain of the port; and the adjacent harbor and suburb of Mandracium were insulted only by the rapine of a private officer who disobeyed and deserted his leaders. But the imperial fleet, advancing with a fair wind, steered through the narrow entrance of the Goletta, and occupied in the deep and capacious Lake of Tunis a secure station about five miles from the capital. No sooner was Belisarius informed of their arrival than he despatched orders that the greatest part of the mariners should be immediately landed to join the triumph and to swell the apparent numbers of the Romans. Before he allowed them to enter the gates of Carthage he exhorted them, in a discourse worthy of himself and the occasion, not to disgrace the glory of their arms, and to remember that the Vandals had been the tyrants, but that they were the deliverers, of the Africans, who must now be respected as the voluntary and affectionate subjects of their common sovereign. The Romans marched through the streets in close ranks, prepared for battle if an enemy had appeared; the strict order maintained by the general imprinted on their minds the duty of obedience; and in an age in which custom and impunity almost sanctified the abuse of conquest the genius of one man repressed the passions of a victorious army. The voice of menace and complaint was silent; the trade of Carthage was not interrupted; while Africa changed her master and her government the shops continued open and busy; and the soldiers, after sufficient guards had been posted, modestly departed to the houses which were allotted for their reception. Belisarius fixed his residence in the palace, seated himself on the throne of Genseric, accepted and distributed the barbaric spoil, granted their lives to the suppliant Vandals and labored to repair the damage which the suburb of Mandracium had sustained in the preceding night. At supper he entertained his principal officers with the form and magnificence of a royal banquet. The victor was respectfully served by the captive officers of the household, and in the moments of festivity, when the impartial spectators applauded the fortune and merit of Belisarius, his envious flatterers secretly shed their venom on every word and gesture which might alarm the suspicions of a jealous monarch. One day was given to these pompous scenes, which may not be despised as useless if they attracted the popular veneration; but the active mind of Belisarius, which in the pride of victory could suppose a defeat, had already resolved that the Roman empire in Africa should not depend on the chance of arms or the favor of the people. The fortifications of Carthage had alone, been exempted from the general proscription, but in the reign of ninety-five years they were suffered to decay by the. thoughtless and indolent Vandals. A wiser conqueror restored with incredible despatch the walls and ditches of the city. His liberality encouraged the workmen ; the soldiers, the mariners and the citizens vied with each other in the salutary labor; and Gelimer, who had feared to trust his person in an open town, beheld with astonishment and despair the rising strength of an impregnable fortress. That unfortunate monarch, after the loss of his capital, applied himself to collect the remains of an army scattered rather than destroyed by the preceding battle, and the hopes of pillage attracted some Moorish bands to the standard of Gelimer. He encamped in the fields of Bulla, four days' journey from Carthage, insulted the capital, which he deprived of the use of an aqueduct, proposed a high reward for the head of every Roman, affected to spare the persons and property of his African subjects and secretly negotiated with the Arian sectaries and the confederate Huns. Under these circumstances, the conquest of Sardinia served only to aggravate his distress. He reflected with the deepest anguish that he had wasted in that useless enterprise five thousand of his bravest troops, and he read with grief and shame the victorious letters of his brother Zano, who expressed a sanguine confidence that the king, after the example of their ancestors, had already chastised the rashness of the Roman invader. Alas, my brother," replied Gelimer, | archy and religion. The military strength 'Heaven has declared against our unhappy of the nation advanced to battle, and such nation. While you have subdued Sardinia, was the rapid increase that before their army we have lost Africa. No sooner did Belisa- reached Tricameron, about twenty miles from rius appear with a handful of soldiers than Carthage, they might boast, perhaps with courage and prosperity deserted the cause of some exaggeration, that they surpassed in a the Vandals. Your nephew Gibamund, your tenfold proportion the diminutive powers of brother Ammatas, have been betrayed to the Romans. But these powers were under death by the cowardice of their followers. the command of Belisarius; and, as he was Our horses, our ships, Carthage itself, and all conscious of their superior merit, he permitted Africa, are in the power of the enemy. Yet the barbarians to surprise him at an unseathe Vandals still prefer an ignominious re- sonable hour. The Romans were instantly pose at the expense of their wives and chil- under arms. A rivulet covered their front; dren, their wealth and liberty. Nothing now the cavalry formed the first line, which Beliremains except the field of Bulla and the sarius supported in the centre, at the head of hope of your valor. Abandon Sardinia; five hundred guards; the infantry, at some fly to our relief. Restore our empire or distance, was posted in the second line, and perish by our side." the vigilance of the general watched the separate station and ambiguous faith of the Massagetæ, who secretly reserved their aid for the conquerors. The historian has inserted, and the reader may easily supply, the speeches of the commanders, who by arguments the most apposite to their situation inculcated the importance of victory and the contempt of life. On the receipt of this epistle Zano impart ed his grief to the principal Vandals, but the intelligence was prudently concealed from the natives of the island. The troops embarked in one hundred and twenty galleys at the port of Cagliari, cast anchor the third day on the confines of Mauritania and hastily pursued their march to join the royal standard in the camp of Bulla. Mournful was the interview. The two brothers embraced; they wept in silence. No questions were asked of the Sardinian victory; no inquiries were made of the African misfortunes they saw before their eyes the whole extent of their calamities; and the absence of their wives and children afford ed a melancholy proof that either death or captivity had been their lot. The languid spirit of the Vandals was at length awakened and united by the entreaties of their king, the example of Zano and the instant danger which threatened their mon Zano, with the troops which had followed him to the followed him to the conquest of Sardinia, was placed in the centre, and the throne of Genseric might have stood if the multitude of Vandals had imitated their intrepid resolution. Casting away their lances and missile weapons, they drew their swords and expected the charge. The Roman cavalry thrice passed the rivulet; they were thrice repulsed, and the conflict was firmly maintained till Zano fell and the standard of Belisarius 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 |