Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/146

 Tiber of the corn fleets from Carthage was a matter of vital importance at Rome.

The character of the Africans has been painted in the blackest colours by more than one writer of this age, and it appears to be indisputable that for the extremes of luxury, vice, and perfidy they were justly censured by their fellow subjects. It was possible, we are told, that, owing to the populousness of the country, a few virtuous citizens might be found; but the most obvious impression was that all without exception were addicted to drunkenness and immorality of the vilest form. The prostitution of both sexes had attained to a degree elsewhere unknown; and the streets of Carthage were thronged with males, who unsexed themselves habitually by adopting the manners and costume of the opposite sex. Ethnologically it is certain that the population was extremely mixed, and the Semitic factor was well represented for many centuries after the Roman conquest. Hence the Latin language had not displaced the*