only twelve miles in breadth, were
furnished by the Spaniards, who anxiously wished their departure; and by
the African general, who had implored their formidable assistance. [14]

[Footnote 12: See the Chronicles of Prosper and Idatius. Salvian (de
Gubernat. Dei, l. vii. p. 246, Paris, 1608) ascribes the victory of the
Vandals to their superior piety. They fasted, they prayed, they
carried a Bible in the front of the Host, with the design, perhaps, of
reproaching the perfidy and sacrilege of their enemies.]

[Footnote 13: Gizericus (his name is variously expressed) statura
mediocris et equi casu claudicans, animo profundus, sermone rarus,
luxuriae contemptor, ira turbidus, habendi cupidus, ad solicitandas
gentes providentissimus, semina contentionum jacere, odia miscere
paratus. Jornandes, de Rebus Geticis, c. 33, p. 657. This portrait,
which is drawn with some skill, and a strong likeness, must have been
copied from the Gothic history of Cassiodorus.]

[Footnote 14: See the Chronicle of Idatius. That bishop, a Spaniard and
a contemporary, places the passage of the Vandals in the month of May,
of the year of Abraham, (which commences in October,) 2444. This date,
which coincides with A.D. 429, is confirmed by Isidore, another Spanish
bishop, and is justly preferred to the opinion of those writers who have
marked for that event one of the two preceding years. See Pagi Critica,
tom. ii. p. 205, &c.]

Our fancy, so long accustomed to exaggerate and multiply the martial
swarms of Barbarians that seemed to issue from the North, will perhaps
be surprised by the account of the army which Genseric mustered on the
coast of Mauritania. The Vandals, who in twenty years had penetrated
from the Elbe to Mount Atlas, were united under the command of their
warlike king; and he reigned with equal authority over the Alani, who
had passed, within the term of human life, from the cold of Scythia
to the excessive heat of an African climate. The hopes of the bold
enterprise had excited many brave adventurers of the Gothic nation; and
many desperate provincials were tempted to repair their fortunes by the
same means which had occasioned their ruin. Yet this various multitude
amounted only to fifty thousand effective men; and though Genseric
artfully magnified his apparent strength, by appointing eighty
chinarchs, or commanders of thousands, the fallacious increase of old
men, of children, and of slaves, would scarcely have swelled his arm