418 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xliii bat, but he smiled in the agonies of death, when he was in- formed that his own javelin had reached the heart of his antagonist. 4 The example of Stoza, and the assurance that a fortunate soldier had been the first king, encouraged the am- bition of Gontharis, and he promised, by a private treaty, to divide Africa with the Moors, if, with their dangerous aid, he should ascend the throne of Carthage. The feeble Areobindus, unskilled in the affairs of peace and war, was raised, by his marriage with the niece of Justinian, to the office of Exarch. 5 [a.d. 546] He was suddenly oppressed by a sedition of the guards, and his abject supplications, which provoked the contempt, could not move the pity, of the inexorable tyrant. After a reign of [a.d. 546] thirty days, Gontharis himself was stabbed at a banquet by the hand of Artaban ; and it is singular enough that an Armenian prince, of the royal family of Arsaces, should re-establish at Carthage the authority of the Eoman empire. 6 In the con- spiracy which unsheathed the dagger of Brutus against the life 4 [The battle in which Stutias fell was fought in a.d. 545, towards the end of the year, while Areobindus was Mag. Mil. The Romans were led by John son of Sisin- niolus. The battle consisted of two engagements, in the first of which the Romans had the worst of it, and in the second were distinctly defeated. Stutias was killed by an arrow from the hand of the Roman general, but John himself was also slain. See Corippus, Joh. 4, 103 sqq., and Partsch, Procemium to his edition of Corippus (see Appendix 1), p. xxii. The scene of the battles was Thacea (near the modern village of Bordjmassudi), about 26 Roman miles from Sicca Veneria (el Kef). See Victor Tonn. ap. Mommsen, Chron. Min. ii. p. 201.] 5 [Magister militum. The title exarch is not used yet (cp. App. 20). The order in which Gibbon relates the events in Africa renders the succession of governors a little confusing. Solomon (a.d. 534-6) was succeeded by Germanus (a.d. 537-9), whom he again suoceeded (a.d. 539-544 ; for the date of his death see below, n. 9). Solomon's nephew Sergius (who had previously been governor of the Tripolitane province) took his plaoe (a.d. 544), but Areobindus was sent out (utinam non ille Penates Poenorum vidisset iners ! — cries Corippus, 4, 85) and divided the command with him (a.d. 545) ; Sergius defending Numidia, and Areobindus Byzacena. On the defeat of Thacea, for which he was blamed, Sergius was recalled, and Areobindus remained sole governor (a.d. 546, January ?). Artaban succeeded him, but was superseded by John, the hero of the poem of Corippus, before the end of the same year. See Partsch, Procemium to Corippus, p. xxiv.] 6 [Procopius gives the whole praise to Artaban, and probably with justice. But Corippus, Joh. 4, 232 sqq., represents him as merely the tool of Athanasius, an old man who had been appointed to the Praet. Prefecture of Africa : — Nam pater ille bonus summis Athanasius Afros consiliis media rapuit de caede maligni. hie potuit Libyam Romanis reddcre fastis solus ot infestum leto damnare tyrannum. Armenius tanti fuerat tunc ille minister consilii. The success of Artaban in crushing Guntarith further depended on the temporary goodwill of the great chief of the Moors of Byzacium — Antala. See Corippus, ib. 368.]
