OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

• 28 !

was distributed, received it with a blush: and, chap.

hardened as they were in acts of violence, they.

dreaded the just reproaches of their friends andrelations. Throughout the Roman world a ge-neral cry of indignation was heard, imploringvengeance on the common enemy of humankind; and at length, by an act of private op-pression, a peaceful and unarmed province wasdriven into rebellion against him.”

The procurator of Africa was a servant worthy Revolt inof such a master, who considered the fines and A . u‘237confiscations of the rich as one of the most fruit- Apnl-ful branches of the imperial revenue. An ini-quitous sentence had been pronounced againstsome opulent youths of that country, the execu-tion ofifwhich would have stripped them of farthe greater part of their patrimony. In this ex-tremity, a resolution that must either completeor prevent their ruin, was dictated by despair.

A respite of three days, obtained with difficultyfrom the rapacious treasurer, was employed incollecting from their estates a great number ofslaves and peasants, blindly devoted to the com-mands of their lords, and armed with the rusticweapons of clubs and axes. The leaders of theconspiracy, as they were admitted to the audi-ence of the procurator, stabbed him with thedaggers concealed under their garments, and,by the assistance of their tumultuary train, seiz-ed on the little town of Thysdrus , a and erected

m Herodian, 1. vii, p. 238. Zosim. 1. i, p. 15.

“ In the fertile territory of Byzacium, one hundred and fifty mileato the south of Carthage . This city was decorated, probably by the

Gordians,