contentious character. Thus the fiercest schismatics and sectarians who arose in the West, the Donatists and the Novatians, had their origin exclusively or mainly at Carthage.[1] A fair proportion of the eminent men by whom the Latin half of the Empire was distinguished were Africans by birth, and, perhaps, by blood. Among the Pagans we find the incomparable dramatist Terence, who flourished during the time of the Republic; the last of the great soldiers who ruled the Empire integrally before it began to succumb to the barbarians, the Emperor Septimius Severus; and the elegant writer Apuleius, whose apologue of Cupid and Psyche has secured a place in the literature of all modern languages. The Christian Africans also produced perhaps the most notable of the advocates and authors who illustrated the early centuries of the Church; the vehement Tertullian, whose fierce style would lead us to suspect him of kinship with the restless autochthons of the land; the scarcely less ardent Cyprian, the masterful champion of episcopal vigour, who suffered martyrdom under Valerian; and the diligent Augustine, devout, mild, and imaginative, to whom the theology of the West owes its distinctive character.
The romantic story of the loss of Africa, the veiled rivalry of Aetius and Bonifacius, and the treachery of the former, so fraught with evil to his country, is an oft-read tale to which a passing allusion will suffice for this page. The Count of Africa, being led to believe by his insidious friend that the Empress Placidia meditated his ruin, attempted to secure himself by inviting Genseric,[2] king of the Vandals*
