Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/147

 Punic tongue, even among the higher classes, as late as the reign of the Antonines. Again, the native races, known as the Moors, Kabyles, or Berbers, were more prone to live by war and rapine than to bow to the Roman sovereignty. On several occasions, therefore, the African provinces had been the scene of serious revolts which had to be suppressed with all the force of the Imperial arms. Christianity spread rapidly among this heterogeneous and hot-blooded population and, as might have been anticipated, assumed a very

proffering their aid; Athenaeus, v, 50.]
 * [Footnote: East (88 ) they were considerable enough to send him an embassy