, into the city, among the soldiers and
sailors; and--disgrace and shame on us--nearly all the greatest
dignitaries, the generals, and also the army and the fleet were seized
with terror. All remembered the last great campaign against this
dreaded foe, when, two generations ago--it was under the Emperor
Leo--the full strength of the whole empire was employed. The ruler of
the Western Empire attacked the Vandals simultaneously in Sardinia and
Tripolis. Constantinople accomplished magnificent deeds. One hundred
and thirty thousand pounds of gold were used; Basiliscus, the Emperor's
brother-in-law, led a hundred thousand warriors to the Carthaginian
coast. All were destroyed in a single night. Genseric attacked with
firebrands the triremes packed too closely together at the Promontory
of Mercury, while his swift horsemen at the same time assailed the camp
on the shore; fleet and army were routed in blood and flame. Even to
the present day do the Prefect and the Treasurer lament the loss. "It
will be just the same now as it was then. The last money in the almost
empty coffers will be flung into the sea!" But the generals (except
Belisarius and Narses), what heroes they are! Each fears that the
Emperor will choose him. And how, even if they overcome the terrors of
the ocean, is a landing to be made upon a hostile coast defended by the
dreaded Germans? The soldiers, who have just returned from the Persian
War, have barely tasted the joys of home. They are talking mutinously
in every street; no sooner returned from the extreme East, they must be
sent to the farthest West, to the Pillars of Hercules, to fight with
Moors and Vandals. They were not used to sea-battles, were not trained
for them, were not enlisted for the purpose, and therefore were under
no obligations. The Prefect, especially, represented to the Emperor
that Carthage was a hundred and fifty days' march by land from Egypt,
while the sea was barred by the invincible fleet of the Vandals. "Don't
meddle with this African wasp's nest," he warned him. "Or the corsair
ships will ravage all our coasts and islands as they did in the days of
Genseric." And this argument prevailed. The Emperor has changed his
mind. How the hero Belisarius fumes and rages!

Theodora resents--in silence. But she vehemently desired this war! I am
really no favorite of hers. I am far too independent, too much the
master of my own thoughts, and my conscience pricks me often enough
for my insinc