numbers and fierce aspect of the barbarians. He proposed a treaty, solicited a reconciliation, and offered to bind himself by the most solemn oaths. "By what oaths can he bind himself?" interrupted the indignant Moors. "Will he swear by the gospels, the divine books of the Christians t It was on those books that the faith of his nephew Sergius was pledged to eighty of our innocent and unfortunate brethren. Before we trust them a second time, let us try their efficacy in the chastisement of perjury and the vindication of their own honour." Their honour was vindicated in the field of Tebeste,[1] by the death of Solomon and the total loss of his army. [A.D. 544] The arrival of fresh troops and more skilful commanders, soon checked the insolence of the Moors; seventeen of their princes were slain in the same battle; and the doubtful and transient submission of their tribes was celebrated with lavish applause by the people of Constantinople. Successive inroads had reduced the province of Africa to one third of the measure of Italy; yet the Roman emperors continued to reign above a century over Carthage and the fruitful coast of the Mediterranean. But the victories and the losses of Justinian were alike pernicious to mankind; and such was the desolation of Africa that in many parts a stranger might wander whole days without meeting the face either of a friend or an enemy. The nation of the Vandals had disappeared; they once amounted to an hundred and sixty thousand warriors, without including the children, the women, or the slaves. Their numbers were infinitely surpassed by the number of the Moorish families extirpated in a relentless war; and the same destruction was
- ↑ [The battle was fought near Cillium, or Colonia Cillitana (now Kasrin), s.e. of Theveste, and a little north of Thelepte. See Victor Tonn. in the improved text of Mommsen (Chron. Min. 2, p. 201): Stuzas tyrannus gentium multitudine adunata Solomoni magistro militiæ ac patricio Africa ceterisque Romanæ militiæ ducibus Cillio occurrit, ubi congressione facta peccantis Africæ Romanæ reipublicæ militia superatur. Solomon utriusque potestatis vir strenuus prœlio moritur. (For Cillium cp. C. I. L., 8. 210.) Solomon was assisted not only by his two nephews but by Cusina, chief of a Moorish tribe which, driven out of Byzacium by Solomon in 535 (Procop. B. V. 2, 10), was now established in the neighbourhood of Lambaesis. Cp. Corippus, Joh., 3405 sqq. For a full account see Partsch, Proœm. p. xviii.-.x.]
tom. ii. p. 442, 443. Shaw's Travels, p. 64, 65, 66). [The road was constructed in A.D. 123. See C. I. L., 8, p. 865 and inscr. No. 10,048, sqq. Theveste (the name suggested Thebes, and hence the town was known as Hecatompylos; cf. Diodorus 4, 18) was rebuilt by Justinian after the Moorish victories of Solomon, as the following inscription records (C. I. L., 8, 1863): —
Nutu divmo feliciss. teniporib. piissimor. dominor. nostror. Iustiniani et Theodoræ Augg. post abscisos ex Africa Vandalos extinctamque per Solomonem gloriosiss. et excell. magistro militum ex consul, præfect. Libyæ ac patricio universam Maurusiam gentem provi (dentia ejus) dem æminentissimi viri Theveste (civitas) a (f)undament. ædificata est.]
