and obedience of the
camp. It was equally the concern of the Roman general to subdue the
hostile, and to save the prostrate, Barbarian; and the suppliant
Vandals, who could be found only in churches, were protected by his
authority, disarmed, and separately confined, that they might neither
disturb the public peace, nor become the victims of popular revenge.
After despatching a light detachment to tread the footsteps of Gelimer,
he advanced, with his whole army, about ten days' march, as far as Hippo
Regius, which no longer possessed the relics of St. Augustin. [22] The
season, and the certain intelligence that the Vandal had fled to an
inaccessible country of the Moors, determined Belisarius to relinquish
the vain pursuit, and to fix his winter quarters at Carthage. From
thence he despatched his principal lieutenant, to inform the emperor,
that in the space of three months he had achieved the conquest of
Africa.

[Footnote 2012: Gibbon had forgotten that the bearer of the "victorious
letters of his brother" had sailed into the port of Carthage; and that
the letters had fallen into the hands of the Romans. Proc. Vandal. l. i.
c. 23.--M.]

[Footnote 21: These orations always express the sense of the times, and
sometimes of the actors. I have condensed that sense, and thrown away
declamation.]

[Footnote 22: The relics of St. Augustin were carried by the African
bishops to their Sardinian exile, (A.D. 500;) and it was believed, in
the viiith century, that Liutprand, king of the Lombards, transported
them (A.D. 721) from Sardinia to Pavia. In the year 1695, the Augustan
friars of that city found a brick arch, marble coffin, silver case, silk
wrapper, bones, blood, &c., and perhaps an inscription of Agostino in
Gothic letters. But this useful discovery has been disputed by reason
and jealousy, (Baronius, Annal. A.D. 725, No. 2-9. Tillemont, Mem.
Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 944. Montfaucon, Diarium Ital. p. 26-30. Muratori,
Antiq. Ital. Medii Aevi, tom. v. dissert. lviii. p. 9, who had composed
a separate treatise before the decree of the bishop of Pavia, and Pope
Benedict XIII.)]

Belisarius spoke the language of truth. The surviving Vandals yielded,
without resistance, their arms and their freedom; the neighborhood of
Carthage submitted to his presence; and the more distant provinces were
successively subdued by the report of his victory. Tripoli was confirmed
in her voluntary allegiance; Sardinia and Corsica surrendered t