CHAPTER VIII
CARTHAGE UNDER THE ROMANS: RECOVERY OF AFRICA FROM THE VANDALS
The Vandalic settlement of Africa (in Imperial nomenclature
the name was officially reserved to the north-*west
portion of that continent) was more keenly resented
by the Romans than the barbaric occupation of any other
province of the Western Empire. In other instances disintegration
had been gradual and the territory had been
resigned to the new possessors with a sense of political
inability to retain them, whilst a semblance of fealty to the
Eastern Emperor indulged his pretensions to supremacy;
but Africa had been snatched away by a sudden conquest,
and became a hostile centre from which depredations against
the opposite shores of Europe were for long the avowed
object of its ruler.
Subsequent kings of the Vandals found the means to cement an alliance with the Empire, and Justinian himself was in amicable relationship with the contemporary member of the dynasty. Internal dissensions, however, had recently effected the abrupt overthrow of his ally and the Emperor vainly intervened on his behalf. A rupture of diplomatic relations followed, smouldering enmities were rekindled, and the question of despatching a military force for the recon-
