nted the state and dignity of a
consul of ancient Rome. Schools and _gymnasia_ were instituted for
the education of the African youth; and the liberal arts and manners,
grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, were publicly taught in the Greek and
Latin languages. The buildings of Carthage were uniform and magnificent;
a shady grove was planted in the midst of the capital; the _new_ port, a
secure and capacious harbor, was subservient to the commercial industry
of citizens and strangers; and the splendid games of the circus and
theatre were exhibited almost in the presence of the Barbarians. The
reputation of the Carthaginians was not equal to that of their country,
and the reproach of Punic faith still adhered to their subtle and
faithless character. The habits of trade, and the abuse of luxury, had
corrupted their manners; but their impious contempt of monks, and the
shameless practice of unnatural lusts, are the two abominations which
excite the pious vehemence of Salvian, the preacher of the age. The king
of the Vandals severely reformed the vices of a voluptuous people; and
the ancient, noble, ingenuous freedom of Carthage (these expressions of
Victor are not without energy) was reduced by Genseric into a state of
ignominious servitude. After he had permitted his licentious troops to
satiate their rage and avarice, he instituted a more regular system
of rapine and oppression. An edict was promulgated, which enjoined all
persons, without fraud or delay, to deliver their gold, silver, jewels,
and valuable furniture or apparel, to the royal officers; and the
attempt to secrete any part of their patrimony was inexorably punished
with death and torture, as an act of treason against the state. The
lands of the proconsular province, which formed the immediate district
of Carthage, were accurately measured, and divided among the Barbarians;
and the conqueror reserved for his peculiar domain the fertile territory
of Byzacium, and the adjacent parts of Numidia and Getulia.

It was natural enough that Genseric should hate those whom he had
injured: the nobility and senators of Carthage were exposed to his
jealousy and resentment; and all those who refused the ignominious
terms, which their honor and religion forbade them to accept, were
compelled by the Arian tyrant to embrace the condition of perpetual
banishment. Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the East, were filled
with a crowd of exiles, of fugitives, and of ingenuous captives