ABSTRACT
Africa and Italy were governed respectively by Hil-· deric,28 King of the Vandals, 523-30, and son of theArian persecutor Huneric, 477-t84, and by Amalasuntha t535, daughter of Theoderic the Ostrogoth, as regent211 for his grandson Athalaric, 525-t 34. Both were unpopular: Hilderic, as a Catholic (he was the grandson of Valentinian II!.) with his Arian subjects: and Amalasuntha, as a woman and a friend of Roman civilisation, with her barbarian nobles. No time could have been better for Justinian to intervene in the W est. Further .. the Catholics in Africa would welcome his intervention .. for it would deliver them from their Arian oppressors;. while the closing of the Acacian Schism would weaken the government of Amalasuntha because it had given hersecurity that her Catholic subjects in Italy would have: nothing to do with the Empire while it was practically Monophysite. Moreover, the Empire itself had recovered: its strength. In 476 it was distracted by the rivalries of Zeno and Basiliscus, and too weak to come to the aid of the last Western Emperor: but it was now strong again: in reliance upon the hoarded wealth of Anastasius,8o 491 -t518. Justinian found the moment favourable toreassert its claims upon the West.
