d
the languid efforts of the West added some weight to the immense
preparations of the Eastern Romans. The expense of the naval armament,
which Leo sent against the Vandals, has been distinctly ascertained; and
the curious and instructive account displays the wealth of the declining
empire. The Royal demesnes, or private patrimony of the prince, supplied
seventeen thousand pounds of gold; forty-seven thousand pounds of gold,
and seven hundred thousand of silver, were levied and paid into the
treasury by the Praetorian praefects. But the cities were reduced to
extreme poverty; and the diligent calculation of fines and forfeitures,
as a valuable object of the revenue, does not suggest the idea of a just
or merciful administration. The whole expense, by whatsoever means
it was defrayed, of the African campaign, amounted to the sum of one
hundred and thirty thousand pounds of gold, about five millions two
hundred thousand pounds sterling, at a time when the value of money
appears, from the comparative price of corn, to have been somewhat
higher than in the present age. [86] The fleet that sailed from
Constantinople to Carthage, consisted of eleven hundred and thirteen
ships, and the number of soldiers and mariners exceeded one hundred
thousand men. Basiliscus, the brother of the empress Vorina, was
intrusted with this important command. His sister, the wife of Leo, had
exaggerated the merit of his former exploits against the Scythians. But
the discovery of his guilt, or incapacity, was reserved for the
African war; and his friends could only save his military reputation by
asserting, that he had conspired with Aspar to spare Genseric, and to
betray the last hope of the Western empire.

[Footnote 83: Itaque nos quibus totius mundi regimen commisit superna
provisio.... Pius et triumphator semper Augustus filius noster
Anthemius, licet Divina Majestas et nostra creatio pietati ejus plenam
Imperii commiserit potestatem, &c..... Such is the dignified style of
Leo, whom Anthemius respectfully names, Dominus et Pater meus Princeps
sacratissimus Leo. See Novell. Anthem. tit. ii. iii. p. 38, ad calcem
Cod. Theod.]

[Footnote 84: The expedition of Heraclius is clouded with difficulties,
(Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. vi. p. 640,) and it requires
some dexterity to use the circumstances afforded by Theophanes, without
injury to the more respectable evidence of Procopius.]

[Footnote 85: The march of Cato from Berenice, in the