OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 401 The experience of navigation^ and perhaps the prospect of Afi'ica, 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 powei's of the mind or body, they acquired his bastard brother, the terrible Genseric : ^^ a name which, in the destruction of the Roman Genseric, king empire, has deserved an equal rank with the names of Alaric dais " and Attila. The king of the Vandals is described to have been of a middle stature, with a lameness in one leg, which he had contracted by an accidental fall from his horse. His slow and cautious speech seldom declared the deep purposes of his soul : he disdained to imitate the luxury of the vanquished ; but he indulged the sterner passions of anger and revenge. The ambition of Genseric was without bounds, and without scruples ; and the warrior could dexterously employ the dark engines of policy to solicit the allies who might be useful to his success, or to scatter among his enemies the seeds of hatred and conten- tion. Almost in the moment of his departure he was informed that Hermanric, king of the Suevi, had presumed to ravage the Spanish territories, which he was resolved to abandon. Im- patient of the insult, Genseric pursued the hasty retreat of the Suevi as far as Merida ; precipitated the king and his army into [Emerita] the river Anas ; and calmly returned to the sea-shore, to em- [Gnadiana] bark his victorious troops. The vessels which transported the He lands in Vandals over the modern Streights of Gibraltar, a channel only 429, May twelve miles in breadth,^'^ were furnished by the Spaniards, who anxiously wished their departure, and by the African general, who had implored their formidable assistances*^ 1-1 Gizericus (his name is variously expressed) statura mediocris et equi casu claudicans, animo profundus, sermone rarus, luxurise contemptor, ira turbidus habendi, cupidus, ad solicitandas gentes providentissimus, semina contentionum jacere, odia miscere paratus. Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 33, p. 657. This portrait, which is drawn with some skill, and a strong likeness, must have been copied from the Gothic history of Cassiodorius. [The right form of the name, now universally accepted, is Gaiseric (Idatius ; Geiseric, Prosper and Victor Vitensis). The nasalized form appears first in writers of the sixth century. Unfortunately there are no coins of this king ; see Friedlander's Die Miinzen der Vandalen.] 15 [It seems far more probable that the Vandals sailed directly to Cassarea than that they crossed the straits and undertook the long land march through the deserts of western Mauritania ; notwithstanding the statement of Victor Vitensis, i. i.] 16 See the Chronicle of Idatius. That bishop, a Spaniard and a contemporary, places the passage of the Vandals in the month of May, of the year of Abraham (which commences in October) 2444. This date, which coincides with A. D. 429, is confirmed [rather, adopted] by Isidore, another Spanish bishop, and is justly preferred to the opinion of those writers who have marked for that event one of the preceding years. See Pagi, Critica, torn. ii. p. 205, &c. [So too Clinton. But VOL. III. 26
