Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/481

Chaf. xliii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 419 of Caesar, every circumstance is curious and important to the eyes of posterity; but the guilt or merit of these loyal or rebellious assassins could interest only the contemporaries of Procopius, who, by their hopes and fears, their friendship or resentment, were personally engaged in the revolutions of Africa. 7 That country was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism, Rebellion from whence it had been raised by the Phoenician colonies and Moors. Boman laws; and every step of intestine discord was marked [544] -558 by some deplorable victory of savage man over civilized society. The Moors, 8 though ignorant of justice, were impatient of oppression ; their vagrant life and boundless wilderness disap- pointed the arms, and eluded the chains, of a conqueror ; and experience had shewn that neither oaths nor obligations could secure the fidelity of their attachment. The victory of mount Auras had awed them into momentary submission ; but, if they respected the character of Solomon, they hated and despised the pride and luxury of his two nephews, Cyrus and Sergius, on whom their uncle had imprudently bestowed the provincial govermnents of Tripoli and Pentapolis. A Moorish tribe en- camped under the walls of Leptis, to renew their alliance and receive from the governor the customary gifts. Fourscore of their deputies were introduced as friends into the city ; but, on the dark suspicion of a conspiracy, they were massacred at the table of Sergius; and the clamour of arms and revenge was re-echoed through the valleys of mount Atlas, from both the Syrtes to the Atlantic ocean. A personal injury, the unjust execution or murder of his brother, rendered Antalas the enemy of the Komans. 9 The defeat of the Vandals had formerly signalized his valour ; the rudiments of justice and prudence 7 Yet I must not refuse him the merit of painting, in lively colours, the murder of Gontha ris. One of the assassins uttered a sentiment not unworthy of a Boman patriot : " If I fail," said Artasires, " in the first stroke, kill me on the spot lest the rack should extort a discovery of my accomplices ". 8 The Moorish wars are occasionally introduced into the narrative of Prooopius (Vandal. 1. ii. c. 19-23, 25, 27, 28 ; Gothic. 1. iv. c. 17) ; and Theophanes adds some prosperous and adverse events in the last years of Justinian. 9 [After the defeat of a.d. 534, Antala remained quiet for ten years (plenosque decern perfecerat annos, Corippus, Joh., 2, 35). He took up arms again in a.d. 544 (not 543, as Victor Tonn. states). This haB been proved by Partsch, Prooem. p. xvi. xvii. The plague was raging in the Roman provinces of Africa in 543, and the Moors were not likely to attack them then (see below, p. 466). The Moorish tribe whose deputies were murdered were the Laguantan (this is one of the numerous forms of the name used by Corippus) = AevaOai of Procopius.]