ain dependence of the Western empire in its declining days on
Africa, not merely for the necessary supply of food, but even for the
chief resources and strength of the state in the midst of the desolation
of its European fields, Sismondi gives a striking account--"The loss of
Africa was at this period, (439 after Christ,) perhaps the greatest
calamity which the empire of the West could have undergone. It was its
only province the defence of which cost no trouble; the only one from
which _they drew money, arms, and soldiers, without its ever requiring
any back_. It was at the same time the granary of Rome and of Italy. The
gratuitous distributions of grain at Rome, Milan, and Ravenna, had, over
the whole Italian peninsula, destroyed the cultivation of grain.
Experience had proved that the return could not pay its expense; and the
reason was, that the more fertile fields of Africa furnished a part of
the harvest destined for the nourishment of the people of Italy. The
sudden stoppage of that supply by the conquest of Africa by the Vandals,
caused a cruel famine in Italy; which still further reduced its wretched
inhabitants."[58] And so entirely did Constantinople become dependent on
foreign importation of sea-borne grain from Egypt and the Ukraine for
its support, that "when the Persians, in the year 618, overran Egypt,
and stopped the usual supplies of grain from that province, the famine
became so alarming, that the government determined upon transferring
_the seat of empire to Carthage_ in Africa, as the most likely point
from whence the dominion of Syria and Egypt might be regained."[59] The
latter of these had long been regarded as _the most valuable province of
the empire_.[60]

When this entire dependence of the great cities in the northern parts of
the empire, for centuries together, on Spain, Sicily, Africa, and Egypt,
is considered, it must with every rational mind cease to be a matter of
surprise that its west and northern provinces declined in industry and
population; that these grain provinces to the south of the Mediterranean
alone retained their numbers and prosperity; and that under the constant
decline, in the European provinces, in the market for agricultural
produce, the rural population disappeared, and the recruiting of the
army in the country became impossible. It is not surprising that while
they were enrolling slaves in Italy, and enlisting barbarians on the
Danube and the Rhine, to defend the front