228 A. D. 523. 



neceflary than gold. Cafliodorus remarks their cuflom of tying their 

 boats to their walls, as people tye their horfes and cows in other places ; 

 their navigation through their country, or city; their fafe and pleafant 

 voyages upon the rivers of the adjacent continent, wherein their vefTels 

 appear to a fpedator, who does not fea the water, to be gliding through 

 the meadows, and the mariner, exempted from all danger of fliipwreck, 

 inftead of being carried by his veffel, drags it along with a rope, while 

 he walks upon the dry land. [CaJJiodori Var. L. xii, epiji. 24.] 



533 — The profperity of Europe and Africa was interrupted by the 

 weak ambition, or avarice, of Juflinian, who, being defirous to recover 

 the Weflern empire from the barbarians, fent againft Africa a fleet con- 

 fifting of five hundred tranfports, from thirty to five hundred tuns, 

 which carried thirty-five thoufand men, five thoufand horfes, warlike 

 ftores, provifions, &c. and thefe were proteded by ninety-two dromones, 

 or warlike fhips. This fleet, not half fo numerous as thofe which had 

 been fitted out by the preceding emperors for the fame purpofe, com- 

 pletely broke the power of the Vandals, and added the African provin- 

 ces, Sardinia, and Corfica, to the eaftern Roman empire. But it was 

 conduced by Belifarius : and fuch was the eflfed of the fuperior talents 

 of one man. 



c^'^^ — The fame vidlorious general was employed to wrefl: Sicily from 

 the Goths : and their government being at this time in fome confufion, 

 that fertile ifland fubmitted to Belifarius, almofl; without oppofition. 

 He next attacked Italy, and he even got pofl^eflion of Rome, (a°. 536), the 

 inhabitants of which rejoiced in being again fubjed to a fovereign, who 

 had the name of a /?o;7Zrt« emperor. The great talentsof Belifarius, who, 

 though a native of Thrace, and living in a degenerate age, mayjuftly 

 be called one of the beft, and the laft, of the Roman generals, were emi- 

 nently diiplayed in fuftaining a fiege of above a year by a very great, 

 but ill-conduded, army of the Goths. 



537 Rome being in want of flour during the fiege, and the fmall 



ftreams, by which the mills were turned, being in the pofleflion of the 

 Goths, the provident genius of BeUfarius contrived to moor barges in 

 the flream of the Tiber, and on them he conftruded mills, which ground 

 corn for the fupport of the people, as long as the fiege continued. 

 \Froc'jp. Gothic. L. i, c. 19,] 



538 — Belifarius, having repelled the enemy from Rome, purfued his 

 advantages, till he brought the kingdom of the Goths in Italy to the 

 brink of ruin, and fent their king Vitiges a prifoner to Conftantinople. 



At the commencement of this war the Goths ceded the cities of Are- 

 late (Aries), and Maflllia (Marfeille) the antient colony of the Phocteans^ 

 with the adjacent territories, to the Franks, who were already mafters of 

 almoft all the refl: of Gaul and a confiderable part of Germany, and now 

 by the pofleflion of the fouth coaft of Gaul acquired the command of 



