E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, jayam,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(/)
I
Jan. 17, 395 A.D.
Such, then, was the final outcome of the Persian War for the EmperorJustinian; and I shall now proceed to set forth all that he didagainst the Vandals and the Moors. But first shall be told whence camethe host of the Vandals when they descended upon the land of theRomans. After Theodosius, the Roman Emperor, had departed from theworld, having proved himself one of the most just of men and an ablewarrior, his kingdom was taken over by his two sons, Arcadius, theelder, receiving the Eastern portion, and Honorius, the younger, theWestern. But the Roman power had been thus divided as far back as thetime of Constantine and his sons; for he transferred his government toByzantium, and making the city larger and much more renowned, allowedit to be named after him.
Now the earth is surrounded by a circle of ocean, either entirely orfor the most part (for our knowledge is not as yet at all clear inthis matter); and it[4-9] is split into two continents by a sort ofoutflow from the ocean, a flow which enters at the western part andforms this Sea which we know, beginning at Gadira[1] and extending allthe way to the Maeotic Lake.[2] Of these two continents the one to theright, as one sails into the Sea, as far as the Lake, has received thename of Asia, beginning at Gadira and at the southern[3] of the twoPillars of Heracles. Septem[4] is the name given by the natives to thefort at that point, since seven hills appear there; for "septem" hasthe force of "seven" in the Latin tongue. And the whole continentopposite this was named Europe. And the strait at that point separatesthe two continents[5] by about eighty-four stades, but from there onthey are kept apart by wide expanses of sea as far as the Hellespont.For at this point they again approach each other at Sestus and Abydus,and once more at Byzantium and Chalcedon as far as the rocks called inancient times the "