A feeble and ineffectual resistance was opposed to the
Vandal sovereign, who succeeded in his grand enterprise, plundered Rome,
and landed safely in Carthage with his rich spoils. The emperor Leo,
alarmed at this success, fitted out a fleet of 1113 ships, at the expense,
it is calculated, of nearly five millions sterling. This fleet, with an
immense army on board, sailed from Constantinople to Carthage, but it
effected nothing. Genseric, taking advantage of a favourable wind, manned
his largest ships with his bravest and most skilful sailors; and they towed
after them vessels filled with combustible materials. During the night they
advanced against the imperial fleet, which was taken by surprise; confusion
ensued, many of the imperial ships were destroyed, and the remainder saved
themselves by flight. Genseric thus became master of the Mediterranean; and
the coasts of Asia, Greece, and Italy, were exposed to his depredations.
Towards the end of the fifth century, the Romans under Theodoric exhibited
some slight and temporary symptoms of reviving commerce. His first object
was to fit out a fleet of 1000 small vessels, to protect the coast of Italy
from the incursions of the African Vandals and the inhabitants of the
Eastern empire. And as Rome could no longer draw her supplies of corn from
Egypt, he reclaimed and brought into cultivation the Pomptine marshes and
other neglected parts of Italy.
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