Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 4 (1897).djvu/415

 OF THE KOMAN EMPIRE 391 fortunate soldier had been the first king, encouraged the am- bition of Gontharis, and he promised, by a private treaty, to divide Africa with the Moors, if, with their dangerous aid, he should ascend the throne of Carthage. The feeble Areobindus, unskilled in the affairs of peace and war, was raised, by his marriage with the niece of Justinian, to the office of Exarch.'" He was suddenly oppressed by a sedition of the guards, and [a d. 546] his abject supplications, which provoked the contempt, could not move the pity, of the inexorable tyrant. After a reign of thirty days, Gontharis himself was stabbed at a banquet by the [a.d. 546] hand of Artaban ; and it is singular enough that an Armenian prince, of the royal family of Arsaces, should re-establish at Carthage the authority of the Roman empire." In the con- spiracy which unsheathed the dagger of Brutus against the life of Ca?sar, every circumstance is curious and important to the eyes of posterity ; but the guilt or merit of these loyal or rebellious assassins could interest only the contemporaries of Procopius, who, by their hopes and fears, their friendship or resentment, were personally engaged in the revolutions of Africa.' was also slain. See C'orippus, Joh. 4, 103, sqq. and Partseh, Procemium, p. xxii. The scene of the battles was Thacea (near the modern village of Bordjmassudi), about 26 Roman miles from Sicca Veneria (el Kef). See Victor Tonn. ap. Momm- sen, Chron. Min. ii. p. 201.] ^ [Magister militum. The title exarch is not used yet (cp. App. 19). The order in which Gibbon relates the events in Africa renders the succession of governors a little confusing. Solomon (A.D. 534-6) was succeeded by Germanus (A. I). 537-9), whom he again succeeded (a.d. 539-544; for date of his death see belov,-, n. 9). Solomon's nephew Sergius (who had previously been governor of the Tripolitane province) took his place (A.D. 544), but Areobindus was sent out (utinam non ille Penates Poenorum vidisset iners !— cries Corippus, 4, 85) and divided the command with him (A.O. 545) ; .Sergius defending Numidia, and Areobindus Byzaeena. On the defeat of Thacea, for which he was blamed, Sergius was recalled, and Areobindus remained sole governor (a. D. 546, January?). Artaban succeeded him, but was superseded by John, the hero of the poem of Corippus, before the end of the same year. See Partseh, Prooemium to Corippus, p. xxiv.] '' [Procopius gives the whole praise to Artaban, and probably with justice. But Corippus, Joh. 4, 232, sqq., represents him as merely the tool of Athanasius, an old man who had been appointed to the Prset. Prefecture of Africa : — Nam pater ille bonus summis Athanasius Afros consiliis media rapuit de caede maligni. hie potuit Libyam Romanis reddere fastis solus et infestum leto damnare tyrannum. .A.rmenius tanti fuerat tunc ille minister consilii. Tlie success of Artaban in crushing Guntarith further depended on the temporary goodwill of the great chief of the Moors of Byzacium— Antala. See Corippus, //; 368.] ' Yet I must not refuse him the merit of painting, in lively colours, the murder of Gontharis. One of the assassins uttered a sentiment not unworthy of a Roman patriot : " If I fail," said .Artasires, " in the first stroke, kill me on the spot lest the rack should extort a discovery of my accomplices".