Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/166

 of Jerusalem, translated to Rome by Vespasian and Titus, and afterwards pillaged from thence by the insatiable Genseric, who carried them off to Carthage. Justinian sat aloft upon his throne, and Gelimer, still invested with the insignia of a King, was conducted to his feet. There he was stripped of his purple robe and forced to kiss the ground before the triumphant monarch. After his illustrious captive the victorious general rendered a similar homage to his Imperial master. Throughout the ceremony the Vandal King maintained a dignified composure, but he repeated aloud continually the words of Scripture, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Subsequently ample estates in Galatia were conferred on him, but the patriciate was withheld, as he declined to abjure his Arian faith. All the scions of Vandal royalty had been transported to Constantinople, and among them were the daughters of Hilderic, who in the female line were the direct descendants of the last Emperors of the West. These princesses were consigned to the care of Theodora, and the ultimate representatives of the dynasty founded by the great Theodosius became the pensioners of the fortunate prostitute. As for the treasures of the extinct Hebrew nationality, a Jewish spectator of the pageantry inferred, within the hearing of Justinian, that the retention of these sacred relics had brought destruction to Rome, and determined the doom of Carthage, whence he foreboded that the Byzantine capital would fall under the ban of the