310 
The Western Empire. ROME. The Western Empire. 
racter of a sovereign who loved his people, who sympathized 
in their distress, who had studied the causes of the decline 
of the empire, and who was capable of applying (as far as 
such reformation was practicable) judicious and effectual 
remedies to the public disorders. From the first hour of his 
reign, he was solicitous (I translate his own words) to relieve 
the weary fortunes of the provincials, oppressed by the accu¬ 
mulated weight of indictions and superindictions. With 
this view, he granted an universal amnesty, a final and abso¬ 
lute discharge of all arrears of tribute, of all debts, which, 
under any pretence, the fiscal officers might demand from 
the people. 
In the assessment and collection of taxes, Majorian re¬ 
stored the ordinary jurisdiction of the provincial magis¬ 
trates ; and suppressed the extraordinary commission which 
had been introduced, in the name of the emperor him¬ 
self, or of the Praetorian praefects. He urges, and even 
compels the return of the municipal corporations to their 
respective cities; but he removes the grievance which 
had forced them to desert the exercise of their municipal 
functions. They are directed, under the authority of the 
provincial magistrates, to resume their office of levying the 
tribute, but, instead of being made responsible for the whole 
sum assessed on their district, they are only required to pro¬ 
duce a regular account of the payments which they have 
actually received, and of the defaulters who are still indebted 
to the public. Posterity has also to thank Majorian for 
his spirited opposition to the destruction of the famous edi¬ 
fices which still delight us. Such was the degeneracy of 
Rome, that the monuments of consular, or Imperial, great¬ 
ness were no longer revered, as the immortal glory of the 
capital; they were only esteemed as an inexhaustible mine of 
materials cheaper, and more convenient, than the distant 
quarry. The fairest forms of architecture were rudely defaced 
for the sake of some paltry, or pretended repairs. Majorian, 
who had often sighed over the desolation of the city, applied 
a severe remedy to the growing evil. He reserved to the 
prince and senate the sole cognizance of the extreme cases 
which might justify the destruction of an ancient edifice; 
imposed a fine of fifty pounds of gold (two thousand pounds 
sterling), on every magistrate, who should presume to grant 
such illegal and scandalous licence; and threatened to chas¬ 
tise the criminal obedience of their subordinate officers, by 
a severe whipping, and theamputation of both their hands. 
The emperor conceived, that it was his interest to in¬ 
crease the number of his subjects; that it was his duty 
to guard the purity of the marriage-bed: but the means 
which he employed to accomplish these salutary pur¬ 
poses, are of an ambiguous and perhaps exceptionable 
kind. The pious maids, who consecrated their virgi¬ 
nity to Christ, were restrained from taking the veil, till 
they had reached their fortieth year. Widows under that 
age were compelled to form a second alliance within the 
term of five years, by the forfeiture of half their wealth to 
their nearest relations, or to the state. .The punishment of 
confiscation and exile was deemed so inadequate to the guilt 
of adultery, that if the criminal returned to Italy, he might, 
by the express declaration of Majorian, be slain with impunity. 
While the emperor Majorian assiduously laboured to re¬ 
store the happiness and virtue of the Romans, he encountered 
the arms of Genseric, from his character and situation, their 
most formidable enemy. A fleet of Vandals and Moors 
landed at the mouth of the Liris, or Garigliano : but the Im¬ 
perial troops surprised and attacked the disorderly barba¬ 
rians, who were encumbered with the spoils of Campania; 
they were chased with slaughter to their ships, and their 
leader, the king’s brother-in-law, was found in the number 
ofthe slain. Such vigilance might announce the character 
of the new reign; but the strictest vigilance, and the most 
numerous forces were insufficient to protect the long-extended 
coast of Italy from the depredations of a naval war. 
Majorian wisely considered that a fleet would be necessary 
to ensure his success ; and accordingly three hundred galleys 
were equipped and collected in the spacious harbour of Car- 
thagena. Genseric, who had long defied the Roman power, 
now began to fear the event, and sued in vain for a peace. 
In a fit of despair, the Vandal tyrant reduced Mauritania to a 
desert, to check the invader’s progress ; but his alarm was 
soon dissipated, and the hopes of Majorian blasted by the 
false friends of the Romans. In consequence of treacherous 
information, the usurper of Africa surprised the unguarded 
fleet in the bay of Carthagena; and the preparations of three 
years were destroyed in a single day. The Vandal again 
renewed his solicitations for peace, which were now ac- 
ceeded to, that Majorian might obtain time to repair his 
fleet; but a dreadful sedition, fomented by Count Ricimer, 
soon after obliged Majorian to resign the sceptre; and four 
days after his resignation, it was reported that he died of a 
dysentery. With Majorian expired the hopes of Italy, and 
of the Roman name. 
That Ricimer, who for some time had held the destiny of 
the western empire in his hands, might not be again eclipsed 
by superior merit, he invested with the purple an obscure 
person, named Lebius Severus ; but bounded his dominions 
by the Alps. Marcellinus and Aegidius, however, disdained 
to acknowledge this phantom of an emperor; the former ot 
whom occupied Pannonia, and the latter the countries be¬ 
yond the Alps. The authority of Aegidius ended only with 
his life, but it is supposed this was shortened by the insidious 
arts of Ricimer. 
The life and reign of Severus, which lasted no longer than 
they were agreeable to his patron, were protracted for six 
years. During that period, Italy was afflicted by the inces¬ 
sant depredations of the Vandals, who spread the terrors of 
their arms from the pillars of Hercules to the mouth of the 
Nile. Genseric, however, found out a plausible pretence for 
his hostilities. He had married Eudocia, the eldest daughter 
of Eudoxia, the empress, whom he had carried away captive, 
to his eldest son Hunneric; and in consequence of this, as¬ 
serted a legal claim to a part of the imperial patrimony. 
Ricimer, who had the ambition to make emperors, but 
the policy not to be one himself, embarrassed by the diffi¬ 
culties of his situation, long solicited in vain the assistance 
of Constantinople; and, at last, as the price of alliance, was 
compelled to accept a master from the choice of the Byzan¬ 
tine court. 
Leo, listening to the complaints of the Italians, resolved 
to put an end to the tyranny of the Vandals, and invested 
Anthemius with the purple of the West. 
The nuptials of the new emperor’s daughter with the 
patrician Ricimer, promised to secure the fidelity of that 
formidable barbarian; and the campaign agamst the Van¬ 
dals was opened by the praefect Heraclius, who subdued the 
province of Tripoli, and prepared to join the imperial army 
under the walls of Carthage. Marcellinus became reconciled 
to the two emperors, and evinced his allegiance to Anthe¬ 
mius, by expelling the Vandals from the Island of Sardinia. 
The immense preparations of the East at last began to be 
put in motion. A fleet of eleven hundred and thirteen ships 
sailed from Constantinople for Carthage; and the number 
of soldiers and mariners exceeded one hundred thousand. 
Basiliscus, the brother of the empress of the East, was entrust¬ 
ed with the important command; and the troops, after a 
prosperous navigation, were landed at Cape Bona, about 
forty miles from Carthage. The imperial general was sup¬ 
ported by the army of Heraclius, and the fleet of Marcellinus, 
and the Vandals were repeatedly vanquished. At this crisis, 
had Basiliscus boldly advanced, Carthage must have fallen; 
but Genseric, having recourse to his wonted artifices, solicit¬ 
ed and obtained a truce of five days. During this short 
interval, the wind becoming favourable to the Vandal chief, 
he manned the largest of his ships with the most resolute of 
his followers, who towing after them several barks filled 
with combustibles, impelled them, under cover of the night, 
against the unguarded fleet of the Romans; and while they 
endeavoured to escape the fire-ships, they were assaulted by 
the galleys of the Vandals. Basiliscus fled on the com¬ 
mencement of the action, and returned to Constantinople 
with the loss of more than half his fleet and army, not with¬ 
out the suspicion of treason, though he escaped punishment 
through 
