CHAPTER XV. SECOND TRUMPET. AFTER Six centuries of tranquillity, undisturbed in Italy by a foreign foe, and of dominion which held the whole world in subjection and awe, the union of the Roman empire was dissolved, on the sounding of the first trumpet; and in the short space of fourteen years, the empire was overspread with hosts of enemies, the transalpine provinces fell, and Rome itself was in the possession of savage and merciless Goths. Alaric died, A. D. 410,-the very year of the sack of Rome. The voice of the first trumpet had been answered and fulfilled. And, in the year 412, the Goths voluntarily retreated from Italy under the conduct of his successor Adolphus. "A decent and respectful attention was paid to the capital; the citizens were encouraged to rebuild the edifices which had been destroyed or damaged by hostile fire; and extraordinary supplies of corn were imported from the coast of Africa. The crowds that so lately fled before the sword of the barbarians were soon recalled by the hopes of plenty and pleasure; and Albinus, prefect of Rome, informed the court, with some anxiety and surprise, that in a single day, he had taken an account of the arrival of fourteen thousand strangers. In less than seven years, the vestiges of the Gothic invasion were almost obliterated; and the city appeared to resume its former splendour and tranquillity. The venerable matron replaced her crown of laurel, which had been ruffled by the STORM of war; and was still amused in the last moment of her decay with the prophecies of revenge, of victory, and of eternal dominion."* * Gibbon's Hist. vol. v. pp. 333, 334. chap. 31. But other prophecies were written; and remained to be fulfilled. And the first trumpet was to be succeeded by others. Africa had hitherto been the granary of Rome, and, in days of peril, the retreat and refuge of the Romans. "The apparent tranquillity," continues Gibbon' "was soon disturbed by the approach of an hostile armament from the country which afforded the daily subsistence of the Roman people. Heraclian, count of Africa, who, under the most difficult and distressful circumstances, had supported, with active difficulty, the cause of Honorius, was tempted, in the year of his consulship, to assume the character of a rebel and the title of an emperor. The ports of Africa were immediately filled with the naval forces, at the head of which he prepared to invade Italy; and his fleet, when he cast anchor at the mouth of the Tiber, indeed surpassed the fleets of Xerxes and Alexander, if all the vessels, including the royal galley and the smallest boat, did actually amount to the incredible number of three thousand two hundred. Yet with such an armament, which might have subverted or restored the greatest empires of the earth, the African usurper made a very faint and feeble impression on the provinces of his rival.” The sea began to be agitated, as the earth had before been laid waste; but in none of the stages of its overthrow was Rome destined to fall by internal dissension or revolt; but every part of the work of destruction was effected by external violence. As the storm of hail and fire was cast upon the earth, so a burning mountain was to be cast into the sea. About ten months before the sack of Rome by the Goths, "The gates of Spain, the passes of the Pyrenees,-were treacherously betrayed to the public enemy. The consciousness of guilt, and the thirst of rapine, prompted the mercenary guards of the Pyrenees to desert their station; to invite the arms of the Suevi, the Vandals, and the Alarici; and to swell the torrent which was poured with irresistible violence from the frontiers of Gaul to the SEA of Africa."* * Gibbon's Hist. vol. v. pp. 351, 352. In the year 427, Boniface, the governor of Africa, having revolted against the emperor, "Despatched a trusty friend to the court, or rather camp, of Gonderic, king of the Vandals, with a proposal of a strict alliance, and the offer of an advantageous and perpetual settlement. The vessels which the Vandals found in the harbour of Carthagena might easily transport them to the isles of Majorca or Minorca, where the Spanish fugitives, as in a secure recess, had vainly concealed their families and their fortunes. The experience of navigation, and, perhaps, the prospect encouraged the Vandals to accept the invitation which they received from Count Boniface; and the death of Gonderic served only to forward and animate the bold enterprise. In the room of a prince, not conspicuous for any superior powers of the mind or the body, they acquired his bastard brother, the TERRIBLE GENSERIC; a name, which, in the DESTRUCTION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, HAS DESERVED AN EQUAL RANK WITH THE NAMES OF ALARIC AND ATTILA."* The historian, having amply illustrated the first trumpet, thus furnishes, or rather holds forth in each hand, a key to the second and the third. After the storm of hail and fire had ceased, the burning mountain was soon seen to arise; and the terrible Genseric appeared, whose name deserves an equal rank with the names of Alaric and Attila, in the destruction of the Roman empire; or, in other words, who, as well as they, obeyed the trumpet that summoned each to the separate work of destruction, preparatory to the sounding of the fourth trumpet, or extinction of the western empire. In the year 429, Genseric, with fifty thousand effective men, landed on the shores of Africa : "The Vandals, who, in twenty years, had penetrated from the Elbe to Mount Atlas, were united under the command of their warlike king, and he reigned with equal authority over the Alarici, who had passed within the term of human life, from the cold of Scythia to the excessive heat of an African climate." * Gibbon's Hist. vol. v. pp. 351, 352. His band of barbarians formed but the nucleus of a growing power, which soon swelled into the magnitude, and assumed the likeness, of a burning mountain. "His own dexterity, and the discontents of Africa, soon fortified the Vandal powers by the accession of numerous and active allies. The ports of Mauritana, which border on the great desert and the Atlantic Ocean, were filled with a fierce and untractable race of men, whose savage temper had been exasperated rather than reclaimed by their dread of the Roman arms. The MOORS, regardless of any future consequences, embraced the alliance of the enemies of Rome; and a crowd of naked savages rushed from the woods and vallies of MOUNT ATLAS to satiate their revenge on the polished tyrants, who had injuriously expelled them from their native sovereignty of the land.* "The long and narrow tract of the African coast, was filled with frequent monuments of Roman art and magnificence. On a sudden, the seven fruitful provinces, from Tangiers to Tripoli, were overwhelmed by an invasion of the Vandals. The Vandals, where they found resistance, seldom gave quarter; and the deaths of their valiant countrymen were expiated by the ruin of the cities under whose walls they had fallen. The calamities of war were aggravated by the licentiousness of the Moors, and the fanaticism of the donatists. The maritime colony of Hippo, about two hundred miles westward of Carthage, had formerly acquired the distinguished epithet of Regius, from the residence of Numidian kings; and some remains of trade and populousness still adhere to the modern city, which is known in Europe by the corrupted name of Bona. The city of Hippo was burnt by the Vandals. The loss of a second battle irretrievably decided the fate of Africa. And Carthage was at length (in the year 439) surprised by the Vandals, five hundred and eighty years after the destruction of the city and republic by the younger Scipio.t "The Vandals and Alarici, who followed the successful standard of Genseric, had acquired a rich and fertile territory, which stretched along the coast from Tangier to Tripoli; but their narrow limits were pressed and confined on either side by the sandy desert and the Mediterranean. The discovery and conquest of the black nations that might dwell beneath the torrid zone, could not tempt the rational ambition of Genseric; but he cast his eyes towards the SEA; he resolved to create a new naval power, and his bold enterprise was executed with steady and active perseverance. The woods of Mount Atlas afforded an inexhaustible nursery of timber; his new subjects were skilled in the art of navigation and * Gibbon's Hist. vol. vi. pp. 14-16, chap. 33. ship-building; he animated his daring Vandals to embrace a mode of warfare which would render every maritime country accessible to their arms; the Moors and Africans were allured by the hope of plunder; and, after an interval of six centuries, the fleet that issued from the port of Carthage, again claimed the empire of the Mediterranean. The success of the Vandals, the conquest of Sicily, the sack of Palermo, and the frequent descents on the coast of Lucania, awakened and alarmed the mother of Valentinian, and the sister of Theodosius," &c.* Unlike the storm of hail and fire, which consisted of various elements, the great mountain was a single, or individual object, and was the symbol of Genseric alone, or of the destruction which he wrought along the whole coast of Africa, and on the fleets of Rome. The maritime colonies of Rome in Africa were for ever separated from the empire. The ports from which three thousand and two hundred vessels are said to have issued, in a previous revolt against Rome, were all finally reduced to the sway of Genseric, A.D. 439: a great part of the commerce and naval power of Rome was thus extinguished; its revenues and maritime supplies, as chiefly derived from Africa ceased; a line of coast extending to ninety days journey, formed no longer a part of the Roman empire; the third part of the sea became blood, and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died: and, LASTLY, it is said, the third part of the ships were destroyed. "The naval power of Rome was unequal to the task of saving even the imperial city from the ravages of the Vandals. Sailing from Africa, they disembarked at the port of Ostia, and Rome and its inhabitants were delivered to the licentiousness of Vandals and Moors, whose blind passions revenged the injuries of Carthage. The pillage lasted fourteen days and nights; and all that yet remained of public and private wealth, of sacred or profane treasure, was diligently transported to the vessels of Genseric. In the forty-five years that had elapsed since the Gothic invasion, the pomp and luxury of Rome were in some measure restored, and it was difficult either to escape or to satisfy the avarice of a * Gibbon's Hist, vol. vi, c. 36. pp. 145-146. |