ternal state of Africa
afforded an honorable motive, and promised a powerful support, to the
Roman arms.

According to the testament of the founder, the African kingdom had
lineally descended to Hilderic, the eldest of the Vandal princes. A mild
disposition inclined the son of a tyrant, the grandson of a conqueror,
to prefer the counsels of clemency and peace; and his accession was
marked by the salutary edict, which restored two hundred bishops to
their churches, and allowed the free profession of the Athanasian creed.
But the Catholics accepted, with cold and transient gratitude, a favor
so inadequate to their pretensions, and the virtues of Hilderic offended
the prejudices of his countrymen. The Arian clergy presumed to insinuate
that he had renounced the faith, and the soldiers more loudly complained
that he had degenerated from the courage, of his ancestors. His
ambassadors were suspected of a secret and disgraceful negotiation in
the Byzantine court; and his general, the Achilles, as he was named, of
the Vandals, lost a battle against the naked and disorderly Moors. The
public discontent was exasperated by Gelimer, whose age, descent, and
military fame, gave him an apparent title to the succession: he assumed,
with the consent of the nation, the reins of government; and his
unfortunate sovereign sunk without a struggle from the throne to a
dungeon, where he was strictly guarded with a faithful counsellor, and
his unpopular nephew the Achilles of the Vandals. But the indulgence
which Hilderic had shown to his Catholic subjects had powerfully
recommended him to the favor of Justinian, who, for the benefit of his
own sect, could acknowledge the use and justice of religious toleration:
their alliance, while the nephew of Justin remained in a private
station, was cemented by the mutual exchange of gifts and letters; and
the emperor Justinian asserted the cause of royalty and friendship. In
two successive embassies, he admonished the usurper to repent of his
treason, or to abstain, at least, from any further violence which might
provoke the displeasure of God and of the Romans; to reverence the laws
of kindred and succession, and to suffer an infirm old man peaceably
to end his days, either on the throne of Carthage or in the palace of
Constantinople. The passions, or even the prudence, of Gelimer compelled
him to reject these requests, which were urged in the haughty tone of
menace and command; and he justified his amb