konourable treatment were ratified in the emperor's name, by the ambassador of Belisarius: and the king of the Vandals descended from the mountain. The first public interview was in one of the suburbs of Carthage; and when the royal captive accosted his conqueror, he burst into a fit of laughter. The crowd might naturally believe, that extreme grief had deprived Gelimer of his senses; but in this mournful state, unseasonable mirth insinuated to more intelligent observers, that the vain and transitory scenes of human greatness are unworthy of a serious thought.31 Their contempt was soon justified by a new example of a vulgar truth; that flattery adheres to power, and envy to superior merit. The chiefs of the Roman army presumed to think themselves the rivals of an hero. Their private dispatches maliciously affirmed, that the conqueror of Africa, strong in his reputation and the public love, conspired to seat himself on the throne of the Vandals. Justinian listened with too patient an ear: and his silence was the result of jealousy rather than of confidence. An honourable alternative, of remaining in the province, or of returning to the capital, was indeed submitted to the discretion of Belisarius; but he wisely concluded, from intercepted letters, and the knowledge of his sovereign's temper, that he must either resign his head, erect his standard, or confound his enemies by his presence and submission. Innocence and courage decided his choice: his guards, captives, and treasures, were diligently embarked; and so prosperous was the navigation, that his arrival at Constantinople preceded any certain account of his departure from the port of Carthage. Such unsuspecting loyalty removed the apprehensions of Justinian: envy was silenced and inflamed by the public gratitude; and the third Africanus obtained the honours of a triumph, a ceremony which the city of Constantine had never seen, and 31 Herodotus elegantly describes the strongest effects of grief in another royal capove Pramn.etichus of Egypt, who wept at the lesser, and was silent at the greatest of his calamities (1. iii. c. 14). In the interview of Padus Amics and Perses, Belisarius night study his part: but it is probable that re ever read either Livy or Plutarch; and it is certain that his generosity did not need a tutor. CHAP. XLI. Return and triumph of A. D. 534 Autumn. CHAP. XLI. which ancient Rome, since the reign of Tiberius, had reserved for the auspicious arms of the Cæsars.32 From the palace of Belisarius, the procession was conducted through the principal streets to the hippodrome; and this memorable day seemed to avenge the injuries of Genseric, and to expiate the shame of the Romans. The wealth of nations was displayed, the trophies of martial or effeminate luxury; rich armour, golden thrones, and the chariots of state which had been used by the Vandal queen; the massy furniture of the royal banquet, the splendour of precious stones, the elegant forms of statues and vases, the more substantial treasure of gold, and the holy vessels of the Jewish temple, which, after their long peregrination, were respectfully deposited in the Christian church of Jerusalem. A long train of the noblest Vandals reluctantly exposed their lofty stature and manly countenance. Gelimer slowly advanced: he was clad in a purple robe, and still maintained the majesty of a king. Not a tear escaped from his eyes, not a sigh was heard; but his pride or picty derived some secret consolation from the words of Solomon, which he repeatedly pronounced, VANITY! VANITY! ALL IS VANITY! Instead of ascending a triumphal car drawn by four horses or elephants, the modest conqueror marched on foot at the head of his brave companions: his prudence might decline an honour too conspicuous for a subject: and his magnanimity might justly disdain what had been so often sullied by the vilest of tyrants. The glorious procession entered the gate of the hippodrome; was saluted by the acclamations of the senate and people; and halted before the throne where Justinian and Theodora were seated to receive the homage of the captive monarch and the victorious hero. They both per 32 After the title of imperator had lost the old military sense, and the Roman auspices were abolished by Christianity (see La Bleterie, Mem. de l'Academie, tom. xxi. p. 302...332), a triumph might be given with less inconsistency to a private general. 33 If the Ecclesiastes be truly a work of Solomon, and not, like Prior's poem, a pious and moral composition of more recent times, in his name, and on the subject of his repentance. The latter is the opinion of the learned and free-spirited Grotius (Opp. Theolog. tom. i. p. 258); and indeed the Ecclesiastes and Proverbs display a larger compass of thought and experience than seem to belong either to a Jew or a king. XLI. formed the customary adoration; and falling prostrate on CHAP. the ground, respectfully touched the footstool of a prince who had not unsheathed his sword, and of a prostitute, who had danced on the theatre: some gentle violence was used to bend the stubborn spirit of the grandson of Genseric; and however trained to servitude, the genius of Belisarius must have secretly rebelled. He was immediately declared consul for the ensuing year, and the day of his inauguration resembled the pomp of a second triumph: his curule chair was borne aloft on the shoulders of captive Vandals; and the spoils of war, gold cups, and rich girdies, were profusely scattered among the populace. His sole consulship, A. D. 535, January 1. Gelimer and the But the purest reward of Belisarius was in the faithful End of execution of a treaty for which his honour had been pledg ed to the king of the Vandals. The religious scruples of Vandals Gelimer, who adhered to the Arian heresy, were incompatible with the dignity of senator or patrician: but he received from the emperor an ample estate in the province of Galatia, where the abdicated monarch retired with his family and friends, to a life of peace, of affluence, and perhaps of content.34 The daughters of Hilderic were entertained with the respectful tenderness due to their age and misfortune; and Justinian and Theodora accepted the honour of educating and enriching the female descendants of the great Theodosius. The bravest of the Vandal youth were distributed into five squadrons of cavalry, which adopted the name of their benefactor, and supported in the Persian wars the glory of their ancestors. But these rare exceptions, the reward of birth or valour, are insufficient to explain the fate of a nation, whose numbers, before a short and bloodless war, amounted to more than six hundred thousand persons. After the exile of their king and nobles, the servile crowd might purchase their safety, by abjuring their character, religion, and language; and their degenerate posterity would be insensibly mingled with the common herd of African subjects. Yet even in the present age, and in the heart of the Moorish tribes, a cu 34 In the Belisaire of Marmontel, the king and the conqueror of Africa meet, sup, and converse, without recollecting each other. It is surely a fault of that romance, that not only the hero, but all to whom he had been so conspicuously known, appear to have lost their eyes or their memory. XLI. CHAP. rious traveller has discovered the white complexion and long flaxen hair of a northern race ;35 and it was formerly believed, that the boldest of the Vandals fied beyond the power, or even the knowledge, of the Romans, to enjoy their solitary freedom on the shores of the Atlantic ocean.36 Africa had been their empire, it became their prison; nor could they entertain an hope, or even a wish, of returning to the banks of the Elbe, where their brethren, of a spirit less adventurous, still wandered in their native forests. It was impossible for cowards to surmount the barriers of unknown seas and hostile Barbarians: it was impossible for brave men to expose their nakedness and defeat before the eyes of their countrymen, to describe the kingdoms which they had lost, and to claim a share of the humble inheritance, which, in a happier hour, they had almost unanimously renounced.37 In the country between the Elbe and the Oder, several populous villages of Lusatia are inhabited by the Vandals: they still preserve their language, their customs, and the purity of their blood; support with some impatience, the Saxon, or Prussian yoke; and serve with secret and voluntary allegiance, the descendant of their ancient kings, who in his garb and present fortune is confounded with the meanest of his vassals.38 The name and situation of this unhappy people might indicate their descent from one common stock with the conquerors of Africa. But the use of the Sclavonian dialect more clearly represents them as the last remnant of the new colonies, 35 Shaw, p. 59. Yet since Procopius (I. ii. c. 13 ) speaks of a people of mount Arias, as already disonguished by white bodies and yellow bär, the phænomenon (which is likewise visbie in the Andes of Peru, Bulon, tom. iii. p. 504.) may naturally be ascribed to the elevation of the ground and the temperature of the air.". 36 The geographer of Ravenna (1. iii. c. xi. p. 129, 130, 131. Paris, 1658) describe the Mauritania Gaditana (opposite to Cadiz), ub' gens Vandalorum, a Belisario devicia in Africâ, fugit, et nunquam comparuit. 37 A single voice had protested, and Genseric disassed, without a formal answer, the Vandals of Germany: but those of Africa derided is prudence, and afecred to despise the poverty of their forests (Procopius, Vandal. 1. i. c. 24). 33 From the mouth of the great elector (in 1687), Tollies describes the secret royal and rebelFous spirit of the Vandals of Brandenburgh, who could mus er live or six thousand slurs who had precured some cunaon, &c. (erar. Hungar. p. 42. apud Dubes, Hist. de la Monarchie Françoise, tom. i. p. 152, 183). The veracity, not of the elector, but of Tollius himsel, may justly be suspected. who succeeded to the genuine Vandals, already scattered CHAP. or destroyed in the age of Procopius.39 XLI. of the A. D. 535. If Belisarius had been tempted to hesitate in his Manners allegiance, he might have urged, even against the emperor and defeat himself, the indispensable duty of saving Africa from an Moors, enemy more barbarous than the Vandals. The origin of the Moors is involved in darkness: they were ignorant of the use of letters.40 Their limits cannot be precisely defined: a boundless continent was open to the Libyan shepherds; the changes of seasons and pastures regulated their motions; and their rude huts and slender furniture were transported with the same ease as their arms, their families, and their cattle, which consisted of sheep, oxen, and camels. During the vigour of the Roman power, they observed a respectful distance from Carthage and the sea-shore; under the feeble reign of the Vandals, they invaded the cities of Numidia, occupied the sea-coast from Tangier to Cæsarea, and pitched their camps, with impunity, in the fertile province of Byzacium. The formidable strength and artful conduct of Belisarius secured the neutrality of the Moorish princes, whose vanity aspired to receive, in the emperor's name, the ensigns of their regal dignity.42 They were astonished by the rapid event, and trembled in the presence of their conqueror. But his approaching departure soon relieved the apprehensions of a savage and superstitious people; the number of their wives allowed them to disregard the safety of 39 Procopius (1. i. c. 22.) was in total darkness ...de μνήμη τις δε OVOμX EGEμE OWZETα. Under the reign of Dagobert (A. D. 630), the Sclavonian tribes of the Serbi and Venedi already bordered on the Thuringia (Mascou, Hist. of the Germans, xv. 3, 4, 5). 40 Sallust represents the Moors as a remnant of the army of Heracles (de Bell. Jugurth. c. 21.) and Procopius (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 19.) as the posterity of the Cananæans who fled from the robber Joshua (Anons). He quotes two columns, with a Phoenician inscription. I believe in the columns I doubt the inscription....and Ireject the pedigree. 41 Virgil (Georgic iii. 339.) and Pomponius Mela (i. 8.) describe the wandering life of the African shepherds, similar to that of the Arabs and Tartars; and Shaw (p. 222.) is the best commentator on the poet and the geographer. 42 The customary gifts were a sceptre, a crown or cap, a white cloak, a figured tunic and shoes, all adorned with gold and silver; nor were these precious metals less acceptable in the shape of coin (Procop. Vandal. I. i. c. 25). |
