says the emperor himself.]

[Footnote 160: According to Julius Africanus, &c., the world was created
the first of September, 5508 years, three months, and twenty-five days
before the birth of Christ. (See Pezron, Antiquite des Tems defendue,
p. 20--28.) And this aera has been used by the Greeks, the Oriental
Christians, and even by the Russians, till the reign of Peter I The
period, however arbitrary, is clear and convenient. Of the 7296 years
which are supposed to elapse since the creation, we shall find 3000
of ignorance and darkness; 2000 either fabulous or doubtful; 1000 of
ancient history, commencing with the Persian empire, and the Republics
of Rome and Athens; 1000 from the fall of the Roman empire in the West
to the discovery of America; and the remaining 296 will almost complete
three centuries of the modern state of Europe and mankind. I regret
this chronology, so far preferable to our double and perplexed method of
counting backwards and forwards the years before and after the Christian
era.]

[Footnote 161: The aera of the world has prevailed in the East since the
vith general council, (A.D. 681.) In the West, the Christian aera was
first invented in the vith century: it was propagated in the viiith by
the authority and writings of venerable Bede; but it was not till the
xth that the use became legal and popular. See l'Art de Veriner les
Dates, Dissert. Preliminaire, p. iii. xii. Dictionnaire Diplomatique,
tom. i. p. 329--337; the works of a laborious society of Benedictine
monks.]

Chapter XLI: Conquests Of Justinian, Charact Of Balisarius.--Part I.

Conquests Of Justinian In The West.--Character And First
Campaigns Of Belisarius--He Invades And Subdues The Vandal
Kingdom Of Africa--His Triumph.--The Gothic War.--He
Recovers Sicily, Naples, And Rome.--Siege Of Rome By The
Goths.--Their Retreat And Losses.--Surrender Of Ravenna.--
Glory Of Belisarius.--His Domestic Shame And Misfortunes.

When Justinian ascended the throne, about fifty years after the fall of
the Western empire, the kingdoms of the Goths and Vandals had obtained
a solid, and, as it might seem, a legal establishment both in Europe and
Africa. The titles, which Roman victory had inscribed, were erased
with equal justice by the sword of the Barbarians; and their successful
rapine derived a more venerable sanction from time, from treaties,
and from the oaths of fidelity, already repeated by a second or t