random piracy

Gibbon on the annual Vandal pirate raids from Carthage, towards the 450’s A.D.:

“In the spring of each year they equipped a formidable navy in the port of Carthage; and Genseric himself, though in a very advanced age, still commanded in person the most important expeditions. His designs were concealed with impenetrable secrecy, till the moment that he hoisted sail. When he was asked by his pilot, what course he should steer; ‘Leave the determination to the winds (replied the Barbarian with pious arrogance); they will transport us to the guilty coast, whose inhabitants have provoked the divine justice;’ but, if Genseric himself deigned to issue more precise orders, he judged the most wealthy to be the most criminal.”