se magis
virilis fortitudinis esse crederent, qui maxime vires foeminei usus
probositate fregissent, (p. 268.) The streets of Carthage were polluted
by effeminate wretches, who publicly assumed the countenance, the dress,
and the character of women, (p. 264.) If a monk appeared in the city,
the holy man was pursued with impious scorn and ridicule; de testantibus
ridentium cachinnis, (p. 289.)]

[Footnote 41: Compare Procopius de Bell. Vandal. l. i. c. 5, p. 189,
190, and Victor Vitensis, de Persecut Vandal. l. i. c. 4.]

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, who
solicited the public compassion; and the benevolent epistles of Theod
oret still preserve the names and misfortunes of Caelestian and Maria.
[42] The Syrian bishop deplores the misfortunes of Caelestian, who, from
the state of a noble and opulent senator of Carthage, was reduced,
with his wife and family, and servants, to beg his bread in a foreign
country; but he applauds the resignation of the Christian exile, and the
philosophic temper, which, under the pressure of such calamities,
could enjoy more real happiness than was the ordinary lot of wealth
and prosperity. The story of Maria, the daughter of the magnificent
Eudaemon, is singular and interesting. In the sack of Carthage, she was
purchased from the Vandals by some merchants of Syria, who afterwards
sold her as a slave in their native country. A female attendant,
transported in the same ship, and sold in the same family, still
continued to respect a mistress whom fortune had reduced to the common
level of servitude; and the daughter of Eudaemon received from her
grateful affection the domestic services which she had once required
from her obedience. This remarkable behavior divulged the real condition
of Maria, who, in the absence of the bishop of Cyrrhus, was redeemed
from slavery oy the generosity of some soldiers of the garrison. The
liberality of Theodoret provided for her decent maintenance; and she
passed ten months among the deaconesses of the church; till she was
unexpecte