History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 4
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
meanest of his vassals.38 The name and situation of this unhappy
people might indicate their descent from one common stock with
the conquerors of Africa. But the use of a Sclavonian dialect
more clearly represent them as the last remnant of the new
colonies, who succeeded to the genuine Vandals, already scattered
or destroyed in the age of Procopius.39
34 (return) [ In the Bélisaire of Marmontel, the king and the
conqueror of Africa meet, sup, and converse, without recollecting
each other. It is surely a fault of that romance, that not only
the hero, but all to whom he had been so conspicuously known,
appear to have lost their eyes or their memory.]
35 (return) [ Shaw, p. 59. Yet since Procopius (l. ii. c. 13)
speaks of a people of Mount Atlas, as already distinguished by
white bodies and yellow hair, the phenomenon (which is likewise
visible in the Andes of Peru, Buffon, tom. iii p. 504), may
naturally be ascribed to the elevation of the ground and the
temperature of the air.]
36 (return) [ The geographer of Ravenna (l. iii. c. xi. pp. 129,
130, 131, Paris, 1688) describes the Mauritania _Gaditana_
(opposite to Cadiz) ubi gens Vandalorum, a Belisario devicta in
Africâ, fugit, et nunquam comparuit.]
37 (return) [ A single voice had protested, and Genseric
dismissed, without a formal answer, the Vandals of Germany: but
those of Africa derided his prudence, and affected to despise the
poverty of their forests (Procopius, Vandal. l. i. c. 22)]
38 (return) [ From the mouth of the great elector (in 1687)
Tollius describes the secret royalty and rebellious spirit of the
Vandals of Brandenburgh. who could muster five or six thousand
soldiers who had procured some cannon, &c. (Itinerar. Hungar. p.
42, apud Dubos. Hist, de la Monarchie Françoise, tom. i. pp. 182,
183.) The veracity, not of the elector, but of Tollius himself,
may justly be suspected. * Note: The Wendish population of
Brandenburgh are now better known, but the Wends are clearly of
the Sclavonian race; the Vandals most probably Teutonic, and
nearly allied to the Goths.—M.]
39 (return) [ Procopius (l i. c. 22) was in total darkness— οὒτε
μνήμη τις οὒτε ὂνομα ἐς ἐμε σωζέται. Under the reign of Dagobert
(A.D. 630) the Sclavonian tribes of the Sorbi and Venedi already
bordered on Thuringia (Mascou Hist. of the Germans, xv. 3, 4,
5).]
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