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 22 THE DEC!LINE AND FALL admitted to his friendship and alhance a king whom he had found not unworthy of his arms. The beneficial, though pre- carious, reunion of the greatest part of Gaul and Spain was the eftect of persuasion, as well as of force ; °^ and the independent Bagaudae, who had escaped, or resisted, the oppression of former reigns, were disposed to confide in the virtues of Majorian. His camp was filled with Barbarian allies ; his throne was supported by the zeal of an affectionate people ; but the emperor had fore- seen that it was impossible, without a maritime power, to achieve the conquest of Africa. In the first Punic war, the republic had exerted such incredible diligence that, within sixty days after the first stroke of the axe had been given in the forest, a fleet of one hundred and sixty galleys proudly rode at anchor in the sea.^^ Under circumstances much less favourable, Majorian equalled the spirit and perseverance of the ancient Romans. The woods of the Apennine were felled ; the arsenals and manufactures of Ravenna and Misenum were restored ; Italy and Gaul vied with each other in liberal contributions to the public service ; and the Imperial navy, of three hundred large galleys, with an adequate propor- tion of transports and smaller vessels, was collected in the secure and capacious harbour of Carthagena in Spain.^'^ The intrepid countenance of Majorian animated his troops with a confidence of victory ; and, if we might credit the historian Procopius, his courage sometimes hurried him beyond the bounds of prudence. Anxious to explore, with his own eyes, the state of the Vandals he ventured, after disguising the colour of his hair, to visit Carthage in the character of his own ambassador ; and Genseric was afterwards mortified by the discovery that he had enter- tained and dismissed the einperor of the Romans. Such an anecdote may be rejected as an improbable fiction ; but it is a 54Ta (xef ottXoi?, TOL 6« Ad-yois, is the just and forcible distinction of Priscus (Excerpt. Legat. p. 42 [fr. 27]) in a short fragment, which throws much light on the history of Majorian. Jornandes has suppressed the defeat and alliance of the Visigoths, which were solemnly proclaimed in Gallicia, and are marked in the Chronicle of Idatius [§ 197, p. 31, ed. Mommsen]. 55 Floras, 1. ii. c. 2. He amuses himself with the poetical fancy that the trees had been transformed into ships ; and indeed the whole transaction, as it is related in the first book of Polybius, deviates too much from the probable course of human events. ^ Interea duplici te.xis dum littore classem Inferno superoque mari, cadit omnis in aequor Silva tibi, &c. Sidon. Panegyr. Majorian. 441-461. The numter of ships which Priscus fixes at 300 is magnified by an indefinite coni- parisorj with the fleets of Agamemrjon, Xer.xes, and Augustus.