insect. Under their direction the eggs were hatched at the proper season by the artificial heat of dung; and the worms thus produced living and labouring in a foreign climate, Europe ceased to be dependent for her supply of this now necessary article on the chances of war or of Asiatic caprice.[1]
Naval expedition of Justinian against the Vandals, A.D. 533,
and conquest of Carthage.
But the mind of Justinian was more occupied by
foreign conquests than by commerce. Among his
earliest maritime expeditions may be ranked the
invasion of Africa and the overthrow of the Vandals,
the preparations for which were not unworthy
of the last contest between Rome and Carthage.
Five hundred transports, navigated by twenty thousand
mariners of Egypt, Cilicia, and Ionia, were
collected in the harbour of Constantinople. If the
smallest of these are computed at thirty, and the
largest at five hundred tons, the average will supply
an allowance liberal, if not profuse, of about one
hundred thousand tons, for the reception of thirty-five
thousand soldiers and sailors, and five thousand
horses, with military stores and provisions sufficient
for a three months' voyage. When the fleet lay
moored ready for sea before the gardens of the palace,
the Patriarch, amid great pomp and solemnity, pronounced
his benediction for its safety and success; and
when the emperor had signified his last commands,
the expedition, at the sound of a trumpet, got under
way. It was attended with the most complete success.
Carthage became subject to Justinian; and
the Romans were again masters of the sea—a position
they maintained until a more formidable power arose
- ↑ Gibbon, c. 40. Procop. Gothic, iv. c. 17. Anced. c. 25: Theoph. Byzant. ap. Photium.
