But the
cunning Vandal was not thinking of peace. He only wanted time to
carry out a plan he had made to destroy the Roman fleet.
One dark night, during the truce, he filled the largest of his ships
with some of the bravest of his soldiers, and they sailed silently
and cautiously in among the Roman ships, towing behind them large
boats filled with material that would easily burn.
These boats were set on fire and floated against the Roman vessels,
which also were soon on fire. The flames quickly spread, and in
a very short time a great part of the Roman fleet was destroyed.
Basilicus fled with as many ships as he could save, and returned
to Constantinople.
This was the last attempt of the Romans to conquer the Vandals.
Genseric lived to a good old age, and when he died, in 477, all the
countries he had conquered during his life still remained parts of
the Vandal dominions.
Theodoric the Ostrogoth
King from 475-526 A.D.
I
The Ostrogoths, or East Goths, who had settled in Southern Russia,
at length pushed southward and westward to the mouth of the Danube.
They were continually invading countries belonging to the Romans
and their warlike raids were dreaded by the emperors of the Eastern
Roman Empire, who lived at Constantinople.
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