re visited with every form of misfortune.

The Vandals and the Alani he arranged in companies, appointing over them
no less than eighty captains, whom he called "chiliarchs,"[27] making it
appear that his host of fighting men in active service amounted to
eighty thousand. And yet the number of the Vandals and Alani was said in
former times, at least, to amount to no more than fifty thousand men.
However, after that time by their natural increase among themselves and
by associating other barbarians with them they came to be an exceedingly
numerous people. But the names of the Alani and all the other
barbarians, except the Moors, were united in the name of Vandals. At
that time, after the death of Valentinian, Gizeric gained the support of
the Moors, and every year at the beginning of spring he made invasions
into Sicily and Italy, enslaving some of the cities, razing others to
the ground, and plundering everything; and when the land had become
destitute of men and of money, he invaded the domain of the emperor of
the East. And so he plundered Illyricum and the most of the Peloponnesus
and of the rest of Greece and all the islands which lie near it. And
again he went off to Sicily and Italy, and kept plundering and pillaging
all places in turn. And one day when he had embarked on his ship in the
harbour of Carthage, and the sails were already being spread, the pilot
asked him, they say, against what men in the world he bade them go. And
he in reply said: "Plainly against those with whom God is angry." Thus
without any cause he kept making invasions wherever chance might lead
him.

VI

And the Emperor Leon, wishing to punish the Vandals because of these
things, was gathering an army against them; and they say that this army
amounted to about one hundred thousand men. And he collected a fleet of
ships from the whole of the eastern Mediterranean, shewing great
generosity to both soldiers and sailors, for he feared lest from a
parsimonious policy some obstacle might arise to hinder him in his
desire to carry out his punishment of the barbarians. Therefore, they
say, thirteen hundred centenaria[28] were expended by him to no purpose.
But since it was not fated that the Vandals should be destroyed by this
expedition, he made Basiliscus commander-in-chief, the brother of his
wife Berine, a man who was extraordinarily desirous of the royal power,
which he hoped would come to him without a struggle if he won the
friendship of