of Genseric; who alternately applied the arts of peace and war to the
establishment of his African kingdom. He subscribed a solemn treaty,
with the hope of deriving some advantage from the term of its
continuance, and the moment of its violation. The vigilance of his
enemies was relaxed by the protestations of friendship, which concealed
his hostile approach; and Carthage was at length surprised by the
Vandals, five hundred and eighty-five years after the destruction of the
city and republic by the younger Scipio. [37]

[Footnote 34: See Procopius, de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 4, p. 186.
Valentinian published several humane laws, to relieve the distress of
his Numidian and Mauritanian subjects; he discharged them, in a great
measure, from the payment of their debts, reduced their tribute to one
eighth, and gave them a right of appeal from their provincial
magistrates to the praefect of Rome. Cod. Theod. tom. vi. Novell. p. 11,
12.]

[Footnote 35: Victor Vitensis, de Persecut. Vandal. l. ii. c. 5, p. 26.
The cruelties of Genseric towards his subjects are strongly expressed in
Prosper's Chronicle, A.D. 442.]

[Footnote 36: Possidius, in Vit. Augustin. c. 28, apud Ruinart, p. 428.]

[Footnote 37: See the Chronicles of Idatius, Isidore, Prosper, and
Marcellinus. They mark the same year, but different days, for the
surprisal of Carthage.]

A new city had arisen from its ruins, with the title of a colony; and
though Carthage might yield to the royal prerogatives of Constantinople,
and perhaps to the trade of Alexandria, or the splendor of Antioch, she
still maintained the second rank in the West; as the Rome (if we may
use the style of contemporaries) of the African world. That wealthy and
opulent metropolis [38] displayed, in a dependent condition, the image
of a flourishing republic. Carthage contained the manufactures, the
arms, and the treasures of the six provinces. A regular subordination of
civil honors gradually ascended from the procurators of the streets and
quarters of the city, to the tribunal of the supreme magistrate, who,
with the title of proconsul, represented 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 th