they rejoiced with their compatriots who had met with such success, but that they were no longer able to guard the land of which he and his men had thought so little that they had settled in Libya.  They prayed therefore that, if they laid no claim to their fatherland, they would bestow it as an unprofitable possession upon themselves, so that their title to the land might be made as secure as possible, and if anyone should come to do it harm, they might by no means disdain to die in behalf of it.  Gizeric, accordingly, and all the other Vandals thought that they spoke fairly and justly, and they were in the act of granting everything which the envoys desired of them.  But a certain old man who was esteemed among them and had a great reputation for discretion said that he would by no means permit such a thing.  “For in human affairs,” he said, “not one thing stands secure; nay, nothing which now exists is stable for all time for men, while as regards that which does not yet exist, there is nothing which may not come to pass.”  When Gizeric heard this, he expressed approval and decided to send the envoys away with nothing accomplished.  Now at that time both he himself and the man who had given the advice were judged worthy of ridicule by all the Vandals, as foreseeing the impossible.  But when these things which have been told took place, the Vandals learned to take a different view of the nature of human affairs and realized that the saying was that of a wise man.

Now as for those Vandals who remained in their native land, neither remembrance nor any name of them has been preserved to my time.[59] For since, I suppose, they were a small number, they were either overpowered by the neighbouring barbarians or they were mingled with them not at all unwillingly and their name gave way to that of their conquerors.  Indeed, when the Vandals were conquered at that time by Belisarius, no thought occurred to them to go from there to their ancestral homes.  For they were not able to convey themselves suddenly from Libya to Europe, especially as they had no ships at hand, but paid the penalty[60] there for all the wrongs they had done the Romans and especially the Zacynthians.  For at one time Gizeric, falling suddenly upon the towns in the Peloponnesus, undertook to assault Taenarum.  And being repulsed from there and losing many of his followers he retired in complete disorder.  And while he was still filled with anger on account of this, he touched at Zacynthus, and having killed many of those he met and enslaved five hundred of the notables, he sailed away soon afterwards.  And when he reached the middle of the Adriatic Sea, as it is called, he cut into small pieces the bodies of the five hundred and threw them all about the sea without the least concern.  But this happened in earlier times.

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