Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/68

 48 THE DECLINE AND FALL Revolt of His father Nabal was one of the richest and most powerful A.D. 372 of the Moorish princes, who acknowledfijed the supremacy of Rome. But, as he left, either by his wives or concubines, a very numerous posterity, the wealthy inheritance was eagerly disputed ; and Zamma, one of his sons, was slain in a domestic quarrel by his brother Firmus. The implacable zeal with which Romanus prosecuted the legal revenge of this murder could be ascribed only to a motive of avarice, or personal hatred : but, on this occasion, his claims were just ; his influence was weighty ; and Firmus clearly understood that he must either present his neck to the executioner or appeal from the sentence of the Imperial consistory to his sword and to the people. ^-^ He was received as the deliverer of his country ; and, as soon as it ap- peared that Romanus was formidable only to a submissive province, the tyrant of Africa became the object of universal contempt. The ruin of C^esarea, which was plundered and burnt by the licentious Barbarians, convinced the refractory cities of the danger of resisUmce ; the power of Firmus was established, at least in the provinces of Mauritania and Numidia ; and it seemed to be his only doubt, whether he should assume the diadem of a Moorish king or the purple of a Roman emperor. But the imprudent and unhappy Africans soon discovered that, in this rash insurrection, they had not sufficiently consulted their own strength or the abilities of their leader. Before he could procure any certain intelligence that the emperor of the West had fixed the choice of a general, or that a fleet of transports was collected at the mouth of the Rhone, he was suddenly in- Theodosius formed that the great Theodosius, with a small band of veterans, ca. AD. had landed near Igilgilis, or Gigeri, on the African coast ; and the timid usurper sunk under the ascendant of virtue and military genius. Though Firmus possessed arms and treasures, his despair of victory immediately reduced him to the use of of the barbarians on the Tripolitan towns are fixed by Reiche, op. cit., to winter 363 and summer 365 ; Valentinian dispatches Nestorius and others to protect Africa, winter 365 (Amm. xxvi. 5, 14) ; Tripolis again invaded, summer 366; commission of Palladius, end of 366 ; embassy from Leptis, and return of Falladius, winter 367 ; second visit of Palladius to Africa, spring 368 ; Firmus rebels, winter 371 ; Theodosius arrives, summer 372 (between May and June 372 and Feb. 373 : Sievers, Studien, p. 288).] i-^ The chronology of Ammianus is loose and obscure : and Orosius (1. vii. c. 33, p. 551, edit. Havercanip.) seems to place the revolt of Firmus after the deaths of Valentinian and Vnlens. [Not so ; Gibbon has misread Orosius.] Tille- mont (Hist, des Emp. tom. v. p. 691) endeavours to pick his way. The patient and sure-footed mule of the Alps may be trusted in the most slippery paths. [Sievers and Reiche agree that the revolt was suppressed in 373; Cagnal prefers the date 374, L'arm^ romaine d'Afrique, p. 78. J 373