Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/265

 they did not surpass, the gorgeousness of Rome in her proudest days; while in barbaric "pomp and circumstance," and in their Oriental and tawdry magnificence, they unquestionably stood alone. Moreover, the emperor at Constantinople was inaccessible alike to the complaints of his own people and to the menaces of his enemies, the peninsular position of the city rendering it during many centuries impregnable against the attack of foes from without, so that the barbarian armies which had swept Europe and Africa from end to end, turned aside from a fortress no military knowledge or skill then available could have reduced.

For some time it would seem that Genseric remained undisturbed, for Leo, the eastern emperor, was little disposed to avenge his brother of the west. At length, however, he was obliged, or persuaded, to join Egypt and Italy in an attempt to deliver the Mediterranean from the sway of the Vandals, Genseric having become as oppressive on land as he was formidable at sea. By extraordinary exertions a vast fleet was collected, chiefly, as the historians inform us, at the cost of the emperor himself; but it was feebly commanded, and its destruction inevitable as soon as it should come into collision with so veteran a general as Genseric. Though it would seem that, at the first landing near Carthage, the attack on the Vandals was successful, their wily leader, obtaining from the commander of the Greeks a hollow truce, and watching the opportunity of a favourable change of the wind, suddenly launched his fire-ships on his unsuspecting foes. More than half their fleet was destroyed, and Genseric