Chap, xli] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 303 As soon as the tumult had subsided, the several parts of the Reduction j j of Cartl1 - army informed each other of the accidents of the day; andage. a. d . J ..... 533, Sep. 15 Belisarius pitched his camp on the field of victory, to which the tenth mile-stone from Carthage had applied the Latin appella- tion of Decimus. From a wise suspicion of the stratagems and resources of the Vandals, he marched the next day in order of battle, halted in the evening before the gates of Carthage, and allowed a night of repose, that he might not in darkness and disorder expose the city to the licentiousness of the soldiers or the soldiers themselves to the secret ambush of the city. But, as the fears of Belisarius were the result of calm and intrepid reason, he was soon satisfied that he might confide, with- out danger, in the peaceful and friendly aspect of the capital. Carthage blazed with innumerable torches, the signals of the public joy ; the chain was removed that guarded the entrance of the port ; the gates were thrown open ; and the people, with acclamations of gratitude, hailed and invited their Roman de- liverers. The defeat of the Vandals and the freedom of Africa were announced to the city on the eve of St. Cyprian, when the churches were already adorned and illuminated for the festival of the martyr, whom three centuries of superstition had almost raised to a local deity. The Arians, conscious that their reign had expired, resigned the temple to the Catholics, who rescued their saint from profane hands, performed the holy rites, and loudly proclaimed the creed of Athanasius and Justinian. One awful hour reversed the fortunes of the contending parties. The suppliant Vandals, who had so lately indulged the vices of conquerors, sought an humble refuge in the sanctuary of the church ; while the merchants of the East were delivered from the deepest dungeon of the palace by their affrighted keeper, who implored the protection of his captives, and shewed them, through an aperture in the wall, the sails of the Eoman fleet. After their separation from the army, the naval commanders had proceeded with slow caution along the coast, till they reached the Hermaean promontory and obtained the first in- telligence of the victory of Belisarius. Faithful to his instruc- tions, they would have cast anchor about twenty miles from Carthage, if the more skilful seamen had not represented the perils of the shore and the signs of an impending tempest. Still ignorant of the revolution, they declined, however, the rash
