HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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bis allv. Genseric being promised by the same messenger considerable supportfrom Eudoxia, added to the assurance that he would meet with but little oppo-sition from those who were immediately under the controul of the usurper, readilyaccepted the invitation. The fleet of Carthage, repaired and by no means incon-siderably augmented since the Vandal had obtained possession of that city, affordedhim an easy entrance into the heart of Italy. Maximus fell a victim to the furyof the populace, on his attempting, by ignominious flight, to escape from thethreatened danger: Rome itself glutted the avarice of the invader by theplunder it afforded him; and Eudoxia, as a fit reward for the treason she hadcommitted against her native country, in the invitation given by her to thebarbarian, was, with her two daughters, led by him into captivity.

Flushed with the success of the measure, together with the immense trea-sure which he had acquired at so easy an expence of time and lives, Gensericattempted, in the following year, a similar expedition into the same quarter,for the purpose of carrying off those valuables which hurry or oversight duringhis former expedition might have caused his banditti to overlook. Here his goodfortune appears to have deserted him, and the ancient genius of Rome to haveresumed its former ascendance for a short time. Being met near Corsica bythe Roman fleet, the chief command of which had been bestowed on Ricimer,or as some call him Richimer, a Suevian, or Goth of noble birth, the Vandalswere totally defeated. No other particulars are afforded to the modern en-quirer either in regard to the action itself, or the force of the fleets engagedin it, but that a considerable revolution appears to have taken place in theopinions of both the contending parties, in respect to what constituted theforce of fleets. Within the space of the preceding twenty years, Genseric andhis imperial opponent had sent forth armaments, if the accounts of their num-bers are to be credited, each of them consisting of more than a thousand ves-sels. But on this occasion, notwithstanding the vandal fleet is said to have beenconsidered extremely formidable, and to have taken on board, in addition tothe natural crews which navigated it, a very powerful land force, for the pur-pose of carrying on the work of depredation, it is stated to have consistedof no more than sixty gallies, or, according to the term used, ships, whilethat of his conqueror, which is also represented in the same stile in respect toits magnitude and force, outnumbered it only by twenty. One very obviousremark naturally offers itself on this occasion ; it is, that the dimensions ofvessels intended for the purposes of war, must have been very considerably

encreased