Roman senatorial families, whose once boundless
wealth the government had confiscated for real or alleged high treason,
or for persistent adherence to the Catholic faith. Not even a single
Roman of the better class was to be seen in the noisy, shouting crowd;
a priest of the orthodox religion, who on his way to a dying man could
not avoid crossing the square, glided timidly into the nearest side
street, fear, abhorrence, and indignation all written on his pallid
face. For this exulting throng was celebrating a Vandal victory.

In front of the returning troops surged the dense masses of the
Carthaginian populace, shouting, looking back, and often halting with
loud acclamations. Many pressed around the Vandal warriors, begging for
gifts. The latter were all mounted, many on fine, really noble steeds,
descendants of the famous breed brought from Spain and crossed with the
native horses. The westering sun streamed through the wide-open West
Gate along the Numidian Way; the stately squadrons glittered and
flashed in the vivid light which was dazzlingly reflected from the
white sandy soil and the white houses. Richly, almost too brilliantly,
gold and silver glittered on helmets and shields, broad armlets,
sword-hilts, and scabbards, even on the mountings which fastened the
lance-heads to the shafts, and, in inlaid work, on the shafts
themselves. In dress, armor, and ornaments upon rider and steed the
most striking hues were evidently the most popular. Scarlet, the Vandal
color, prevailed; this vivid light-red was used everywhere,--on the
long, fluttering cloaks, the silken kerchiefs on the helmets, which
fell over the neck and shoulders to protect them from the African sun,
on the gayly painted, richly gilded quivers, and even on the saddles
and bridles of the horses. Among the skins which the desert animals
furnished in great variety, the favorites were the spotted antelope,
the dappled leopard, the striped tiger, while from the helmets nodded
and waved the red plumage of the flamingo and the white feathers of the
ostrich. The procession closed with several captured camels, laden with
foemen's weapons, and about a hundred Moorish prisoners, men and women,
who, with hands tied behind their backs, clad only in brown and white
striped mantles, marched, bareheaded and barefooted, beside the
towering beasts, driven forward, like them, by blows from the spears of
their mounted guards.

On the steps of the basilica and the broad