Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/72

 52 THE DECLINE AND FALL would have trembled at the strange intelligence that the countries on either side of the equator Avere filled with in- numerable nations, who differed only in their colour from the ordinary appearance of the human species ; and the subjects of the Roman empire might have anxiously expected that the swarms of Barbarians which issued from the North would soon be encountered from the South by new swarms of Barbarians, equally fierce, and equally formidable. These gloomy terrors would indeed have been dispelled by a more intimate acquaintance with the character of their African enemies. The inaction of the negroes does not seem to be the effect either of their virtue or of their pusillanimity. They in- dulge, like the rest of mankind, their passions and appetites ; and the adjacent tribes are engaged in frequent acts of hos- tility.^^^ But their rude ignorance has never invented any effectual weapons of defence or of destruction ; they appear in- capable of forming any extensive plans of governmemc or con- quest ; and the obvious inferiority of their mental faculties has been discovered and abused by the nations of the temperate zone. Sixty thousand blacks are annually embarked from the coast of Guinea, never to return to their native country ; but they are embarked in chains : i"*^ and this constant emigra- tion, which, in the space of two centuries, might have furnished armies to overrun the globe, accuses the guilt of Europe and the Aveakness of Africa. IV. The ignominious treaty which saved the army of Jovian had been faithfully executed on the side of the Romans : and, as they had solemnly renomiced the sovereignty and alliance of Armenia and Iberia, those tributaiy kingdoms were exposed, without protection, to the arms of the Persian monarch.^^^ Sapor entered the Armenian territories at the head of a formidable host of cuirassiers, of archers, and of mercenary foot ; but it was the invariable practice of Sapor to mix war and i3-'>The third and fourth volumes of the valuable Histoire des Voyages describe the present state of the negroes. The nations of the sea-coast have been polished by European commerce, and those of the inland country have been improved by Moorish colonies. 1'"' Histoire Philosophique et Politique, &c., torn. iv. p. 192. ^•'"The evidence of Animianus is original and decisive (xxvii. 12). Moses of Chorene (1. iii. c. 17, p. 249, and c. 34 p. 269) and Procopius (de Etell. Persico, 1. i. c. 5, p. 17, edit. Louvre) have been consulted ; but those historians, who confound distinct facts, repeat the same events, and introduce strange stories, must be used with diffidence and caution. [The account in the text of the war about Armenia is vitiated by numerous confusions. The only good sources are Faustus and Ammian. See above, vol. ii. App. 18.]