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 38 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxvi demesnes, or private patrimony of the prince, supplied seventeen thousand pounds of gold ; forty-seven thousand pounds of gold, and seven hundred thousand of silver, were levied and paid into the treasury by the Praetorian praefects. But the cities were reduced to extreme poverty; and the diligent calculation of fines and forfeitures, as a valuable object of the revenue, does not suggest the idea of a just or merciful administration. The whole expense, by whatever means it was defrayed, of the African campaign amounted to the sum of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds of gold, about five millions two hundred thousand pounds sterling, at a time when the value of money appears, from the comparative price of corn, to have been some- what higher than in the present age. 95 The fleet that sailed from Constantinople to Carthage, consisted of eleven hundred and thirteen ships, and the number of soldiers and mariners exceeded one hundred thousand men. Basiliscus, the brother of the empress Verina, was entrusted with this important com- mand. His sister, the wife of Leo, had exaggerated the merit of his former exploits against the Scythians. But the discovery of his guilt, or incapacity, was reserved for the African war ; and his friends could only save his military reputation by asserting that he had conspired with Aspar to spare Genseric and to betray the last hope of the Western empire. Failure of Experience has shewn that the success of an invader most tion expe< " commonly depends on the vigour and celerity of his operations. The strength and sharpness of the first impression are blunted by delay ; the health and spirit of the troops insensibly languish in a distant climate ; the naval and military force, a mighty effort which perhaps can never be repeated, is silently consumed ; and every hour that is wasted in negotiation accustoms the enemy to contemplate and examine those hostile terrors which, on their first appearance, he deemed irresistible. The formid- able navy of Basiliscus pursued its prosperous navigation from 95 Thetprincipal sum is clearly expressed by Procopius (de Bell. Vandal. 1. i. c. 6, p. 191) ; the smaller constituent parts, which Tillemont (Hist, des Empereurs, torn. vi. p. 396) has laboriously collected from the Byzantine ■writers [Candidus, F. H. G. iv. p. 137], are less certain, and less important. The historian Malchus laments the public misery (Excerpt, ex Suida in Corp. Hist. Byzant. p. 58 [fr. 2a]), but he is surely unjust when he charges Leo with hoarding the treasures which he extorted from the people. [John Lydus, de Mag. 3, 43, computes the cost at 65,000 pounds of gold and 700,000 of silver ; which approaches the sum given by Procopius. The numbers of the men and ships must be received with some doubt.]