Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/483

 chap, xliii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 421 Successive inroads had reduced the province of Africa to one third of the measure of Italy; yet the Eoman emperors con- tinued to reign above a century over Carthage and the fruitful coast of the Mediterranean. But the victories and the losses of Justinian were alike pernicious to mankind ; and such was the desolation of Africa that in many parts a stranger might wander whole days without meeting the face either of a friend or an enemy. The nation of the Vandals had disappeared ; they once amounted to an huudred and sixty thousand warriors, without including the children, the women, or the slaves. Their num- bers were infinitely surpassed by the number of the Moorish families extirpated in a relentless war ; and the same destruction was retaliated on the Romans and their allies, who perished by the climate, their mutual quarrels, and the rage of the Bar- barians. When Procopius first landed, he admired the popu- lousness of the cities and country, strenuously exercised in the labours of commerce and agriculture. In less than twenty years, that busy scene was converted into a silent solitude ; the wealthy citizens escaped to Sicily and Constantinople ; and the secret historian has confidently affirmed that five millions of Africans were consumed by the wars and government of the emperor Justinian. 1 ' 2 The jealousy of the Byzantine court had not permitted Revolt of Belisarius to achieve the conquest of Italy; and his abrupt ad. 540 departure revived the courage of the Goths, 13 who respected his genius, his virtue, and even the laudable motive which had urged the servant of Justinian to deceive and reject them. They had lost their king (an inconsiderable loss), their capital, their treasures, the provinces from Sicily to the Alps, and the military force of two hundred thousand Barbarians, magnifi- cently equipped with horses and arms. Yet all was not lost, as long as Pavia was defended by one thousand Goths, inspired 12 Procopius, Anecdot. c. 18. The series of the African history attests this melancholy truth. 13 In the second (c. 30) and third books (c. 1-40), Procopius continues the history of the Gothic war from the fifth to the fifteenth year of Justinian [leg. year of the war]. As the events are less interesting than in the former period, he allots only half the space to double the time. Jornandes, and the Chronicle of Marcellinus, afford some collateral hints. Sigonius, Pagi, Muratori, Mascou, and De Buat are useful, and have been uBed. [The space allotted by Procopius to the various events depends on his presence at, or absence from, the scene of war. Cp. Haury, Pro- copiana, i. p. 8.]