HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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himself with the hope of humbling the emperor by a continuance of war-fare, and a repetition of success, he followed his victory with an immediateapplication for peace. No circumstance can be more strongly indicative ofthe superior rank, speaking comparatively with that of other nations, particu-larly the Vandals, which the Roman navy then held in the opinion of the world.The subsequent naval operations of the same nation appear to have been con-verted, for some years after this time, into those short desultory expeditions,which bear much stronger resemblance to the depredations of a pirate, than theopen and avowed system of hostility, committed under the sanction of a govern-ment regularly established. Italy, however, became reduced to the lowest ebbas well in respect to pow'er, as to finances. Marcellinus, a Roman general, whohad revolted from Valentinian, and raised himself to w'hat might be consideredthe throne of Dalmatia, collected a fleet far from inconsiderable, .by theassistance of which he first assumed the naval sovereignty of the Adriatic, andafterwards extended his excursions not only along the coasts of Italy, but madeAfrica itself feel the force of his arms.

Notwithstanding the wretched inhabitants whom the Vandals had destinedfor their victims were conscious that the return of spring would, as an almostnatural consequence, be productive of the return of their miseries, they were soincapable of applying the necessary remedy to them, that not only the pro-vinces of Liguria, Tuscany, Campania, Calabria, Brutium, Apulia, Lucania,and Venetia, were in rotation the scenes of their devastations, but the coast ofSpain, Greece, Epirus, and Sicily, were at times equal sufferers with theformer, as a punishment for not having avowedly thrown off all submissionand allegiance to the personage who still retained the empty title of Emperorof the west. Sardinia, situated as it was in the center of the Mediterranean,formed an object too valuable, in pqint of situation, to be neglected, or sufferedto escape the yoke of Genseric, who spread the terror of his power with suc-cess, from the Pillars of Hercules even to the mouth of the Nile, and w ho, in ailthe insolence, though profound policy, of barbaric warfare, is reported to haveuniformly made his designs, and the place of his destination, a profound secret,even tiom those most in his confidence. It is said, that when once asked by hispilot what course he should steer, he made the following haughty reply, whichcould not have suggested itself to any person but one who W'as perfectly secure inthe consciousness of his own strength.—“ Leave the determination,” replied thechief, “ to the w ; inds, they will transport us to the guilty coast w’hose inhabitants

have