y; and Firmus
clearly understood, that he must either present his neck to the
executioner, or appeal from the sentence of the Imperial consistory, to
his sword, and to the people. [122] He was received as the deliverer
of his country; and, as soon as it appeared that Romanus was formidable
only to a submissive province, the tyrant of Africa became the object of
universal contempt. The ruin of Caesarea, which was plundered and burnt
by the licentious Barbarians, convinced the refractory cities of the
danger of resistance; the power of Firmus was established, at least in
the provinces of Mauritania and Numidia; and it seemed to be his only
doubt whether he should assume the diadem of a Moorish king, or the
purple of a Roman emperor. But the imprudent and unhappy Africans soon
discovered, that, in this rash insurrection, they had not sufficiently
consulted their own strength, or the abilities of their leader. Before
he could procure any certain intelligence, that the emperor of the West
had fixed the choice of a general, or that a fleet of transports was
collected at the mouth of the Rhone, he was suddenly informed that
the great Theodosius, with a small band of veterans, had landed near
Igilgilis, or Gigeri, on the African coast; and the timid usurper
sunk under the ascendant of virtue and military genius. Though Firmus
possessed arms and treasures, his despair of victory immediately reduced
him to the use of those arts, which, in the same country, and in a
similar situation, had formerly been practised by the crafty Jugurtha.
He attempted to deceive, by an apparent submission, the vigilance of the
Roman general; to seduce the fidelity of his troops; and to protract the
duration of the war, by successively engaging the independent tribes
of Africa to espouse his quarrel, or to protect his flight. Theodosius
imitated the example, and obtained the success, of his predecessor
Metellus. When Firmus, in the character of a suppliant, accused his
own rashness, and humbly solicited the clemency of the emperor, the
lieutenant of Valentinian received and dismissed him with a friendly
embrace: but he diligently required the useful and substantial pledges
of a sincere repentance; nor could he be persuaded, by the assurances
of peace, to suspend, for an instant, the operations of an active war.
A dark conspiracy was detected by the penetration of Theodosius; and he
satisfied, without much reluctance, the public indignation, which he
ha