"Like yourself," said the chief of the Heruli, "I am an illiterate Barbarian, but I speak the language of plain sense and an honest heart.

Why will you persist in hopeless obstinacy?
Why will you ruin yourself, your family, and nation?
The love of freedom and abhorrence of slavery?
Alas! my dearest Gelimer, are you not already the worst of slaves, the slave of the vile nation of the Moors?
Would it not be preferable to sustain at Constantinople a life of poverty and servitude, rather than to reign the undoubted monarch of the mountain of Papua?
Do you think it a disgrace to be the subject of Justinian?
Belisarius is his subject; and we ourselves, whose birth is not inferior to your own, are not ashamed of our obedience to the Roman emperor.

That generous prince will grant you a rich inheritance of lands, a place in the senate, and the dignity of patrician: such are his gracious intentions, and you may depend with full assurance on the word of Belisarius.

So long as Heaven has condemned us to suffer, patience is a virtue; but if we reject the proffered deliverance, it degenerates into blind and stupid despair." "I am not insensible" replied the king of the Vandals, "how kind and rational is your advice.

But I cannot persuade myself to become the slave of an unjust enemy, who has deserved my implacable hatred.