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THE DECLINE AND FALL

chap. Black sea . A regular subsidy was promised,corn, oil, and of every supply whichcould be useful either in peace or war. But itwas thought that the Sarmatians were sufficient-ly rewarded by their deliverance from impend-ing ruin; and the emperor, perhaps with toostrict an economy, deducted some part of theexpences of the war from the customary gratifi-cations which were allowed to that turbulentnation.

ofThisar Exasperated by this apparent neglect, the Sar-matians, matians soon forgot, with the levity of barba-'rians, the services which they had so lately re-ceived, and the dangers which still threatenedtheir safety. Their inroads on the territory ofthe empire provoked the indignation of Constan-tine to leave them to their fate, and he no longeropposed the ambition of Geberic , a renownedwarrior , who had recently ascended the Gothicthrone. Wisumar, the Vandal king, whilst aloneand unassisted, he defended his dominions withundaunted courage, was vanquished and slainin a decisive battle, which swept away the flowerof the Sarmatian youth. The remainder of thenation embraced the desperate expedient ofarming their slaves, a hardy race of hunters andherdsmen, by whose tumultuary aid, they re-venged their defeat, and expelled the invaderfrom their confines. But they soon discoveredthat they had exchanged a foreign for a domes-tic enemy, more dangerous and more implaca-ble. Enraged by their former servitude, elatedby their present glory, the slaves, under thename of Limigantes, claimed and usurped the