Opening the text

The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 07 : $b the history of the later Roman Empire

History

The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 07 : $b the history of the later Roman Empire

World history

The example of Stozas, and the assurance that a fortunate soldier
had been the first king, encouraged the ambition of Gontharis, and
he promised by a private treaty to divide Africa with the Moors, if,
with their dangerous aid, he should ascend the throne of Carthage.
The feeble Areobindus, unskilled in the affairs of peace and war, was
raised by his marriage with the niece of Justinian to the office of
exarch. He was suddenly oppressed by a sedition of the guards; and his
abject supplications, which provoked the contempt, could not move the
pity, of the inexorable tyrant. After a reign of thirty days, Gontharis
himself was stabbed at a banquet, by the hand of Artaban; and it is
singular enough that an Armenian prince, of the royal family of Arsaces,
should re-establish at Carthage the authority of the Roman Empire. In
the conspiracy which unsheathed the dagger of Brutus against the life
of Cæsar, every circumstance is curious and important to the eyes of
posterity; but the guilt or merit of these loyal or rebellious assassins
could interest only the contemporaries of Procopius, who, by their hopes
and fears, their friendship or resentment, were personally engaged in the
revolutions of Africa.

That country was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism, from
whence it had been raised by the Phœnician colonies and Roman laws; and
every step of intestine discord was marked by some deplorable victory
of savage man over civilised society. The Moors, though ignorant of
justice, were impatient of oppression; their vagrant life and boundless
wilderness disappointed the arms and eluded the chains of a conqueror,
and experience had shown that neither oaths nor obligations could secure
the fidelity of their attachment. The victory of Mount Aurasius had awed
them into momentary submission; but if they respected the character of
Solomon, they hated and despised the pride and luxury of his two nephews,
Cyrus and Sergius, on whom their uncle had imprudently bestowed the
provincial governments of Tripolis and Pentapolis.

[Illustration: GOLD MEDALLION OF JUSTINIAN]

[Sidenote: [558-559 A.D.]]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 07 : $b the history of the later Roman Empire

World history

The example of Stozas, and the assurance that a fortunate soldier
had been the first king, encouraged the ambition of Gontharis, and
he promised by a private treaty to divide Africa with the Moors, if,
with their dangerous aid, he should ascend the throne of Carthage.
The feeble Areobindus, unskilled in the affairs of peace and war, was
raised by his marriage with the niece of Justinian to the office of
exarch. He was suddenly oppressed by a sedition of the guards; and his
abject supplications, which provoked the contempt, could not move the
pity, of the inexorable tyrant. After a reign of thirty days, Gontharis
himself was stabbed at a banquet, by the hand of Artaban; and it is
singular enough that an Armenian prince, of the royal family of Arsaces,
should re-establish at Carthage the authority of the Roman Empire. In
the conspiracy which unsheathed the dagger of Brutus against the life
of Cæsar, every circumstance is curious and important to the eyes of
posterity; but the guilt or merit of these loyal or rebellious assassins
could interest only the contemporaries of Procopius, who, by their hopes
and fears, their friendship or resentment, were personally engaged in the
revolutions of Africa.

That country was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism, from
whence it had been raised by the Phœnician colonies and Roman laws; and
every step of intestine discord was marked by some deplorable victory
of savage man over civilised society. The Moors, though ignorant of
justice, were impatient of oppression; their vagrant life and boundless
wilderness disappointed the arms and eluded the chains of a conqueror,
and experience had shown that neither oaths nor obligations could secure
the fidelity of their attachment. The victory of Mount Aurasius had awed
them into momentary submission; but if they respected the character of
Solomon, they hated and despised the pride and luxury of his two nephews,
Cyrus and Sergius, on whom their uncle had imprudently bestowed the
provincial governments of Tripolis and Pentapolis.

[Illustration: GOLD MEDALLION OF JUSTINIAN]

[Sidenote: [558-559 A.D.]]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 07 : $b the history of the later Roman Empire

The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 07 : $b the history of the later Roman Empire

No reviews yet