t both their faults and their
virtues vie in preserving them and increasing their wealth and their
numbers, while the Germans destroy themselves, their lives, their
possessions, and their power by boundless indolence and boundless
revelling no less than by their boundless obstinacy and their stupid
heroism of honor. (True, these Vandals in their carousing have even
forgotten their obstinacy and their love of fighting!) We hate and
despise the Jews; I think we ought to fear and--in their good qualities
strive to excel them.

* * * * *

I have read aloud my opinion of the Germans to my friend Fara, whose
thirst for honor did not impel him toward reading and writing; he heard
me quietly to the end, drained a cup of unmixed wine, stroked his long
reddish-yellow beard thoughtfully, and said:

"Little Greek! You are a shrewd little Greek! Perhaps you are not
altogether wrong. But to me my German faults are much dearer than the
virtues of all other nations."

Gradually--so we learn--all the rest of the Barbarian kingdom will be
plucked leaf by leaf, like an artichoke, without a sword-stroke, for
Justinian's wide-open mouth. Belisarius's first care, after his victory
over the land forces, was to secure the hostile fleet.

He discovered its landing-place from the prisoners, and also learned
that it was lying at anchor almost wholly without men; Zazo had taken
all his troops to his brother. A few of our triremes, sent from
Carthage, were sufficient to capture the one hundred and fifty galleys
which were occupied only by sailors; not a single spear flew.
Genseric's much-dreaded dragon-ships were towed to Carthage; they
allowed themselves to be captured without resistance, like a flock of
wild swans, which, storm-beaten, wearied, and crippled, enter an
inclosed pond; the proud birds can be grasped with the hand. One of
Belisarius's commanders obtained Sardinia; it was necessary, but amply
sufficient, to show them Zazo's head on a spear; the islanders would
not believe in the defeat of the Vandals before; now that they could
touch the head of their dreaded conqueror, they did believe it.

Corsica, too, submitted. Also populous Caesarea in Mauritania, and one
of the Pillars of Hercules; Septa, with Ebusa and the Balearic Isles.
Tripolis was besieged by Moors, who, during the battle between the
Byzantines and the Vandals, were trying to win land and people on their
own account. The city was oc