678 GENOVESI GENSERIC In February, 1848, at the outbreak of the revo- lution, he allied himself with the revolution- ary party in order to attempt a restoration of the Bourbons by a general vote of the people. When he saw that his efforts were fruitless he retired from public life. The bold advocacy of his principles in the Gazette de France involved him in 63 lawsuits, which cost him more than 100,000 francs. He wrote Lecons et modeles de litterature sacree (1837) ; Histoire de France (16 vols., 1844-'7) ; a new French translation of the Bible, with the Latin version, a transla- tion of the works of the fathers of the first three centuries, of those of St. Clement of Alexandria, &c. GENOVESI, Antonio, an Italian philosopher and political economist, born at Castiglione, near Salerno, Nov. 1, 1712, died in Naples, Sept. 22, 1769. He received priest's orders in Sa- lerno in 1736, and held in succession the chair of rhetoric in the seminary of Salerno, and that of metaphysics in the university of Naples. He substituted the scientific doubt of Descartes and the Baconian laws of induction for the traditional belief in authority. He was threat- ened with persecution, but explained his views in a satisfactory manner, and was protected by Benedict XIV. In 1754 a chair of public economy was established in the university for Genovesi, by his friend Interi, a wealthy Flor- entine, who prescribed as one of the conditions of his endowment that no monk should ever be appointed professor. This chair was the first of the kind in Europe. On the expulsion of the Jesuits from Naples in 1767, he was requested by the government to propose a plan of univer- sity education. He advised the establishment of chairs of physical science and history, the substitution of mathematics for scholastic phi- losophy, and a chair for the interpretation of Cicero's De Officiis. His favorite masters in philosophy, after Bacon and Descartes, were Leibnitz, Locke, and Vico. As an economist Genovesi advocated the abolition of the usury laws and of convents and monasteries, in- culcated the doctrines of free trade, and pro- claimed before Adam Smith the supremacy of labor in the creation of the wealth of nations. As early as 1764 he predicted the emancipation of the American colonies, the foundation of the United States, and the total failure of the colonial system. He died as his friends were reading to him the Phaedo of Plato. His works include Elementa MetapJiy sices ; Lezioni di commercio o di economia civile ; Diocesina, re- lating to the rights and duties of man ; Logica pei giovanetti; Instutizioni delle scienze meta- jisiche ; Meditazioni filosqfiche ; Elementi di fisica sperimentale ; Lettere ad un amico pro- vinciale; and Lettere accademiche sulla ques- tione se sieno piu felici gli ignoranti die gli scienziati. His life has been written in Latin by Fabroni. G. M. Galanti, one of his best pupils, published in 1771 Elogio storico deW abate Genovesi; and Racciopi's Genovesi ap- peared in 1871. GENSERIC (from Gaiserich, prince of the spear), a Vandal conqueror, bastard brother and successor of Gonderic, died in 477. The Vandals had passed the Alps and the Pyrenees, and devastated and conquered a large part of Spain. In 429, when the weak and debauched Valentinian III. occupied the throne of the crumbling western empire, they were called to the province of Africa by Boniface, the gover- nor, who had been induced by intrigues and the fear of a rival to betray his master. Eager for conquest, these northern barbarians prepared a fleet, and were ready to embark when the unex- pected attack of Hermanric, king of the Suevi, and the ravages of this people on the posses- sions of the Vandals, delayed their departure. Having routed the Suevi in a bloody battle near Augusta Emerita (Merida), Genseric em- barked with about 50,000 men, crossed the straits of Gibraltar, and conquered within two years all the cities in Mauritania. When Boni- face, repenting of his crime, desired Genseric to return to Spain, he refused and could not be expelled ; but he at last agreed in a treaty (435) to be satisfied with Mauritania and Nu- midia. But the native inhabitants of the Atlas mountains, so long oppressed by the Roman governors, and the Donatists, driven to despair by the persecutions of the orthodox church, joined the standard of Genseric, who soon took up arms again and subdued the whole province of Africa. In 439 he took Carthage and made it the capital of the Vandal empire, which now extended over the whole coast, and by piratical expeditions was established in parts of Italy, Sardinia, and Corsica. The at- tacks of the Huns in the north of the Roman empire made these aggressions on its southern provinces easier, and it was Genseric who in- vited Attila to his fatal march to Gaul (451). Rome escaped the hands of the Huns, but fell into those of the Vandals. Invited, as is said, by Eudoxia, widow of Valentinian III., who wanted to avenge the murder of her husband by Maximus, Genseric crossed the Mediterra- nean, sailed up the Tiber, took Rome, pillaged it for 14 days (June, 455), carried away Eu- doxia and her daughters, one of whom he gave to his son Hunneric, and sent the Roman treasures and captives to Carthage. All the shores of the Mediterranean, from Asia Minor and Egypt to the straits of Gibraltar, were now ravaged by the Vandals. A fleet, sent by the emperor Majorian (457) to check these ravages, was destroyed in the bay of Cartagena ; nor was another sent by the Byzantine .emperor Leo (468) more successful ; and Genseric reigned victoriously until his death. He was of middle stature, lame of one leg in consequence of a fall from a horse, slow and cautious in his speech, cunning, treacherous, cruel, an able general, and a skilful ruler. Professing the Arian creed, he compelled those who adhered to the ortho- dox faith to leave his domains, and when they remained treated them as slaves. He was suc- ceeded by Hunneric.
