CHAPTER XVIII

ORIGIN OF THE MOORS. MUNIFICENCE OF JUSTINIAN IN AFRICA

PROCOPIUS mentions another circumstance, unnoticed before his time, but one that can scarcely be regarded with sufficient wonder. He states that the Moors of Lybia settled in that country after being dislodged from Palestine, and that they are those whom the divine oracles mention as the Girgashites and Jebusites, and the other nations subdued by Joshua the son of Nun. He concludes the entire truth of the story from an inscription in Phœnician characters, which he says that he himself had read, and that it was near a fountain, where were two pillars of white stone on which were engraved these words: “We are those who fled from the face of Joshua the robber, the son of Nun.”

Such was the end of these transactions, in Africa becoming again subject to the Romans, and paying, as before, an annual tribute.

Justinian is said to have restored one hundred and fifty cities in Africa, some of which had been altogether, and others extensively ruined; and this he did with surpassing magnificence, in private and public works and embellishments, in fortifications, and other vast structures by which cities are adorned and the Deity propitiated: also in aqueducts for use and ornament, the supply of water having been in some cases conveyed to the cities for the first time, in others restored to its former state.