Gibbon's The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
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Chapter XXXIX: Gothic Kingdom Of Italy.
Part I.
Zeno And Anastasius, Emperors Of The East. - Birth,
Education, And First Exploits Of Theodoric The Ostrogoth. - His
Invasion And Conquest Of Italy. - The Gothic Kingdom Of Italy. -
State Of The West. - Military And Civil Government. - The Senator
Boethius. - Last Acts And Death Of Theodoric.
After the fall of the Roman empire in the West, an interval
of fifty years, till the memorable reign of Justinian, is faintly
marked by the obscure names and imperfect annals of Zeno,
Anastasius, and Justin, who successively ascended to the throne
of Constantinople. During the same period, Italy revived and
flourished under the government of a Gothic king, who might have
deserved a statue among the best and bravest of the ancient
Romans.
Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the fourteenth in lineal descent of
the royal line of the Amali, ^1 was born in the neighborhood of
Vienna ^2 two years after the death of Attila. ^! A recent
victory had restored the independence of the Ostrogoths; and the
three brothers, Walamir, Theodemir, and Widimir, who ruled that
warlike nation with united counsels, had separately pitched their
habitations in the fertile though desolate province of Pannonia.
The Huns still threatened their revolted subjects, but their
hasty attack was repelled by the single forces of Walamir, and
the news of his victory reached the distant camp of his brother
in the same auspicious moment that the favorite concubine of
Theodemir was delivered of a son and heir. In the eighth year of
his age, Theodoric was reluctantly yielded by his father to the
public interest, as the pledge of an alliance which Leo, emperor
of the East, had consented to purchase by an annual subsidy of
three hundred pounds of gold. The royal hostage was educated at
Constantinople with care and tenderness. His body was formed to
all the exercises of war, his mind was expanded by the habits of
liberal conversation; he frequented the schools of the most
skilful masters; but he disdained or neglected the arts of
Greece, and so ignorant did he always remain of the first
elements of science, that a rude mark was contrived to represent
the signature of the illiterate king of Italy. ^3 As soon as he
had attained the age of eighteen, he was restored to the wishes
of the Ostrogoths, whom the emperor aspired to gain by liberality
and confidence. Walamir had fallen in battle; the youngest of
the brothers, Widimir, had led away into Italy and Gaul an army
of Barbarians, and the whole nation acknowledged for their king
the father of Theodoric. His ferocious subjects admired the
strength and stature of their young prince; ^4 and he soon
convinced them that he had not degenerated from the valor of his
ancestors. At the head of six thousand volunteers, he secretly
left the camp in quest of adventures, descended the Danube as far
as Singidunum, or Belgrade, and soon returned to his father with
the spoils of a Sarmatian king whom he had vanquished and slain.
Such triumphs, however, were productive only of fame, and the
invincible Ostrogoths were reduced to extreme distress by the
want of clothing and food. They unanimously resolved to desert
their Pannonian encampments, and boldly to advance into the warm
and wealthy neighborhood of the Byzantine court, which already
maintained in pride and luxury so many bands of confederate
Goths. After proving, by some acts of hostility, that they could
be dangerous, or at least troublesome, enemies, the Ostrogoths
sold at a high price their reconciliation and fidelity, accepted
a donative of lands and money, and were intrusted with the
defence of the Lower Danube, under the command of Theodoric, who
succeeded after his father's death to the hereditary throne of
the Amali. ^5
[Footnote 1: Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 13, 14, p. 629, 630,
edit. Grot.) has drawn the pedigree of Theodoric from Gapt, one
of the Anses or Demigods, who lived about the time of Domitian.
Cassiodorus, the first who celebrates the royal race of the
Amali, (Viriar. viii. 5, ix. 25, x. 2, xi. 1,) reckons the
grandson of Theodoric as the xviith in descent. Peringsciold
(the Swedish commentator of Cochloeus, Vit. Theodoric. p. 271,
&c., Stockholm, 1699) labors to connect this genealogy with the
legends or traditions of his native country.
Note: Amala was a name of hereditary sanctity and honor
among the Visigoths. It enters into the names of Amalaberga,
Amala suintha, (swinther means strength,) Amalafred, Amalarich.
In the poem of the Nibelungen written three hundred years later,
the Ostrogoths are called the Amilungen. According to Wachter it
means, unstained, from the privative a, and malo a stain. It is
pure Sanscrit, Amala, immaculatus. Schlegel. Indische
Bibliothek, 1. p. 233. - M.]
[Footnote 2: More correctly on the banks of the Lake Pelso,
(Nieusiedler- see,) near Carnuntum, almost on the same spot where
Marcus Antoninus composed his meditations, (Jornandes, c. 52, p.
659. Severin. Pannonia Illustrata, p. 22. Cellarius, Geograph.
Antiq. (tom. i. p. 350.)]
[Footnote !: The date of Theodoric's birth is not accurately
determined. We can hardly err, observes Manso, in placing it
between the years 453 and 455, Manso, Geschichte des Ost
Gothischen Reichs, p. 14. - M.]
[Footnote 3: The four first letters of his name were inscribed on
a gold plate, and when it was fixed on the paper, the king drew
his pen through the intervals (Anonym. Valesian. ad calcem Amm.
Marcellin p. 722.) This authentic fact, with the testimony of
Procopius, or at least of the contemporary Goths, (Gothic. 1. i.
-
2, p. 311,) far outweighs the vague praises of Ennodius
(Sirmond Opera, tom. i. p. 1596) and Theophanes, (Chronograph. p.
112.)
Note: Le Beau and his Commentator, M. St. Martin, support,
though with no very satisfactory evidence, the opposite opinion.
But Lord Mahon (Life of Belisarius, p. 19) urges the much
stronger argument, the Byzantine education of Theodroic. - M.]
[Footnote 4: Statura est quae resignet proceritate regnantem,
(Ennodius, p. 1614.) The bishop of Pavia (I mean the ecclesiastic
who wished to be a bishop) then proceeds to celebrate the
complexion, eyes, hands, &c, of his sovereign.]
[Footnote 5: The state of the Ostrogoths, and the first years of
Theodoric, are found in Jornandes, (c. 52 - 56, p. 689 - 696) and
Malchus, (Excerpt. Legat. p. 78 - 80,) who erroneously styles him
the son of Walamir.]
A hero, descended from a race of kings, must have despised
the base Isaurian who was invested with the Roman purple, without
any endowment of mind or body, without any advantages of royal
birth, or superior qualifications. After the failure of the
Theodosian life, the choice of Pulcheria and of the senate might
be justified in some measure by the characters of Martin and Leo,
but the latter of these princes confirmed and dishonored his
reign by the perfidious murder of Aspar and his sons, who too
rigorously exacted the debt of gratitude and obedience. The
inheritance of Leo and of the East was peaceably devolved on his
infant grandson, the son of his daughter Ariadne; and her
Isaurian husband, the fortunate Trascalisseus, exchanged that
barbarous sound for the Grecian appellation of Zeno. After the
decease of the elder Leo, he approached with unnatural respect
the throne of his son, humbly received, as a gift, the second
rank in the empire, and soon excited the public suspicion on the
sudden and premature death of his young colleague, whose life
could no longer promote the success of his ambition. But the
palace of Constantinople was ruled by female influence, and
agitated by female passions: and Verina, the widow of Leo,
claiming his empire as her own, pronounced a sentence of
deposition against the worthless and ungrateful servant on whom
she alone had bestowed the sceptre of the East. ^6 As soon as she
sounded a revolt in the ears of Zeno, he fled with precipitation
into the mountains of Isauria, and her brother Basiliscus,
already infamous by his African expedition, ^7 was unanimously
proclaimed by the servile senate. But the reign of the usurper
was short and turbulent. Basiliscus presumed to assassinate the
lover of his sister; he dared to offend the lover of his wife,
the vain and insolent Harmatius, who, in the midst of Asiatic
luxury, affected the dress, the demeanor, and the surname of
Achilles. ^8 By the conspiracy of the malecontents, Zeno was
recalled from exile; the armies, the capital, the person, of
Basiliscus, were betrayed; and his whole family was condemned to
the long agony of cold and hunger by the inhuman conqueror, who
wanted courage to encounter or to forgive his enemies. ^* The
haughty spirit of Verina was still incapable of submission or
repose. She provoked the enmity of a favorite general, embraced
his cause as soon as he was disgraced, created a new emperor in
Syria and Egypt, ^* raised an army of seventy thousand men, and
persisted to the last moment of her life in a fruitless
rebellion, which, according to the fashion of the age, had been
predicted by Christian hermits and Pagan magicians. While the
East was afflicted by the passions of Verina, her daughter
Ariadne was distinguished by the female virtues of mildness and
fidelity; she followed her husband in his exile, and after his
restoration, she implored his clemency in favor of her mother.
On the decease of Zeno, Ariadne, the daughter, the mother, and
the widow of an emperor, gave her hand and the Imperial title to
Anastasius, an aged domestic of the palace, who survived his
elevation above twenty-seven years, and whose character is
attested by the acclamation of the people, "Reign as you have
lived!" ^9 ^!
[Footnote 6: Theophanes (p. 111) inserts a copy of her sacred
letters to the provinces. Such female pretensions would have
astonished the slaves of the first Caesars.]
[Footnote 7: Vol. iii. p. 504 - 508.]
[Footnote 8: Suidas, tom. i. p. 332, 333, edit. Kuster.]
[Footnote *: Joannes Lydus accuses Zeno of timidity, or, rather,
of cowardice; he purchased an ignominious peace from the enemies
of the empire, whom he dared not meet in battle; and employed his
whole time at home in confiscations and executions. Lydus, de
Magist. iii. 45, p. 230. - M.]
[Footnote *: Named Illus. - M.]
[Footnote 9: The contemporary histories of Malchus and Candidus
are lost; but some extracts or fragments have been saved by
Photius, (lxxviii. lxxix. p. 100 - 102,) Constantine
Porphyrogenitus, (Excerpt. Leg. p. 78 - 97,) and in various
articles of the Lexicon of Suidas. The Chronicles of Marcellinus
(Imago Historiae) are originals for the reigns of Zeno and
Anastasius; and I must acknowledge, almost for the last time, my
obligations to the large and accurate collections of Tillemont,
(Hist. des Emp. tom. vi. p. 472 - 652).]
[Footnote !: The Panegyric of Procopius of Gaza, (edited by
Villoison in his Anecdota Graeca, and reprinted in the new
edition of the Byzantine historians by Niebuhr, in the same vol.
with Dexippus and Eunapius, viii. p. 488 516,) was unknown to
Gibbon. It is vague and pedantic, and contains few facts. The
same criticism will apply to the poetical panegyric of Priscian
edited from the Ms. of Bobbio by Ang. Mai. Priscian, the gram
marian, Niebuhr argues from this work, must have been born in the
African, not in either of the Asiatic Caesareas. Pref. p. xi. -
Whatever fear of affection could bestow, was profusely
lavished by Zeno on the king of the Ostrogoths; the rank of
patrician and consul, the command of the Palatine troops, an
equestrian statue, a treasure in gold and silver of many thousand
pounds, the name of son, and the promise of a rich and honorable
wife. As long as Theodoric condescended to serve, he supported
with courage and fidelity the cause of his benefactor; his rapid
march contributed to the restoration of Zeno; and in the second
revolt, the Walamirs, as they were called, pursued and pressed
the Asiatic rebels, till they left an easy victory to the
Imperial troops. ^10 But the faithful servant was suddenly
converted into a formidable enemy, who spread the flames of war
from Constantinople to the Adriatic; many flourishing cities were
reduced to ashes, and the agriculture of Thrace was almost
extirpated by the wanton cruelty of the Goths, who deprived their
captive peasants of the right hand that guided the plough. ^11 On
such occasions, Theodoric sustained the loud and specious
reproach of disloyalty, of ingratitude, and of insatiate avarice,
which could be only excused by the hard necessity of his
situation. He reigned, not as the monarch, but as the minister of
a ferocious people, whose spirit was unbroken by slavery, and
impatient of real or imaginary insults. Their poverty was
incurable; since the most liberal donatives were soon dissipated
in wasteful luxury, and the most fertile estates became barren in
their hands; they despised, but they envied, the laborious
provincials; and when their subsistence had failed, the
Ostrogoths embraced the familiar resources of war and rapine. It
had been the wish of Theodoric (such at least was his
declaration) to lead a peaceful, obscure, obedient life on the
confines of Scythia, till the Byzantine court, by splendid and
fallacious promises, seduced him to attack a confederate tribe of
Goths, who had been engaged in the party of Basiliscus. He
marched from his station in Maesia, on the solemn assurance that
before he reached Adrianople, he should meet a plentiful convoy
of provisions, and a reenforcement of eight thousand horse and
thirty thousand foot, while the legions of Asia were encamped at
Heraclea to second his operations. These measures were
disappointed by mutual jealousy. As he advanced into Thrace, the
son of Theodemir found an inhospitable solitude, and his Gothic
followers, with a heavy train of horses, of mules, and of wagons,
were betrayed by their guides among the rocks and precipices of
Mount Sondis, where he was assaulted by the arms and invectives
of Theodoric the son of Triarius. From a neighboring height, his
artful rival harangued the camp of the Walamirs, and branded
their leader with the opprobrious names of child, of madman, of
perjured traitor, the enemy of his blood and nation. "Are you
ignorant," exclaimed the son of Triarius, "that it is the
constant policy of the Romans to destroy the Goths by each
other's swords? Are you insensible that the victor in this
unnatural contest will be exposed, and justly exposed, to their
implacable revenge? Where are those warriors, my kinsmen and thy
own, whose widows now lament that their lives were sacrificed to
thy rash ambition? Where is the wealth which thy soldiers
possessed when they were first allured from their native homes to
enlist under thy standard? Each of them was then master of three
or four horses; they now follow thee on foot, like slaves,
through the deserts of Thrace; those men who were tempted by the
hope of measuring gold with a bushel, those brave men who are as
free and as noble as thyself." A language so well suited to the
temper of the Goths excited clamor and discontent; and the son of
Theodemir, apprehensive of being left alone, was compelled to
embrace his brethren, and to imitate the example of Roman
perfidy. ^12 ^*
[Footnote 10: In ipsis congressionis tuae foribus cessit invasor,
cum profugo per te sceptra redderentur de salute dubitanti.
Ennodius then proceeds (p. 1596, 1597, tom. i. Sirmond.) to
transport his hero (on a flying dragon?) into Aethiopia, beyond
the tropic of Cancer. The evidence of the Valesian Fragment, (p.
717,) Liberatus, (Brev. Eutych. c. 25 p. 118,) and Theophanes,
-
112,) is more sober and rational.]
[Footnote 11: This cruel practice is specially imputed to the
Triarian Goths, less barbarous, as it should seem, than the
Walamirs; but the son of Theodemir is charged with the ruin of
many Roman cities, (Malchus, Excerpt. Leg. p. 95.)]
[Footnote 12: Jornandes (c. 56, 57, p. 696) displays the services
of Theodoric, confesses his rewards, but dissembles his revolt,
of which such curious details have been preserved by Malchus,
(Excerpt. Legat. p. 78 - 97.) Marcellinus, a domestic of
Justinian, under whose ivth consulship (A.D. 534) he composed his
Chronicle, (Scaliger, Thesaurus Temporum, P. ii, p. 34 - 57,)
betrays his prejudice and passion: in Graeciam debacchantem
...Zenonis munificentia pene pacatus ...beneficiis nunquam
satiatus, &c.]
[Footnote *: Gibbon has omitted much of the complicated intrigues
of the Byzantine court with the two Theodorics. The weak emperor
attempted to play them one against the other, and was himself in
turn insulted, and the empire ravaged, by both. The details of
the successive alliance and revolt, of hostility and of union,
between the two Gothic chieftains, to dictate terms to the
emperor, may be found in Malchus. - M.]
In every state of his fortune, the prudence and firmness of
Theodoric were equally conspicuous; whether he threatened
Constantinople at the head of the confederate Goths, or retreated
with a faithful band to the mountains and sea-coast of Epirus.
At length the accidental death of the son of Triarius ^13
destroyed the balance which the Romans had been so anxious to
preserve, the whole nation acknowledged the supremacy of the
Amali, and the Byzantine court subscribed an ignominious and
oppressive treaty. ^14 The senate had already declared, that it
was necessary to choose a party among the Goths, since the public
was unequal to the support of their united forces; a subsidy of
two thousand pounds of gold, with the ample pay of thirteen
thousand men, were required for the least considerable of their
armies; ^15 and the Isaurians, who guarded not the empire but the
emperor, enjoyed, besides the privilege of rapine, an annual
pension of five thousand pounds. The sagacious mind of Theodoric
soon perceived that he was odious to the Romans, and suspected by
the Barbarians: he understood the popular murmur, that his
subjects were exposed in their frozen huts to intolerable
hardships, while their king was dissolved in the luxury of
Greece, and he prevented the painful alternative of encountering
the Goths, as the champion, or of leading them to the field, as
the enemy, of Zeno. Embracing an enterprise worthy of his
courage and ambition, Theodoric addressed the emperor in the
following words: "Although your servant is maintained in
affluence by your liberality, graciously listen to the wishes of
my heart! Italy, the inheritance of your predecessors, and Rome
itself, the head and mistress of the world, now fluctuate under
the violence and oppression of Odoacer the mercenary. Direct me,
with my national troops, to march against the tyrant. If I fall,
you will be relieved from an expensive and troublesome friend:
if, with the divine permission, I succeed, I shall govern in your
name, and to your glory, the Roman senate, and the part of the
republic delivered from slavery by my victorious arms." The
proposal of Theodoric was accepted, and perhaps had been
suggested, by the Byzantine court. But the forms of the
commission, or grant, appear to have been expressed with a
prudent ambiguity, which might be explained by the event; and it
was left doubtful, whether the conqueror of Italy should reign as
the lieutenant, the vassal, or the ally, of the emperor of the
East. ^16
[Footnote 13: As he was riding in his own camp, an unruly horse
threw him against the point of a spear which hung before a tent,
or was fixed on a wagon, (Marcellin. in Chron. Evagrius, l. iii.
-
25.)]
[Footnote 14: See Malchus (p. 91) and Evagrius, (l. iii. c. 35.)]
[Footnote 15: Malchus, p. 85. In a single action, which was
decided by the skill and discipline of Sabinian, Theodoric could
lose 5000 men.]
[Footnote 16: Jornandes (c. 57, p. 696, 697) has abridged the
great history of Cassiodorus. See, compare, and reconcile
Procopius, (Gothic. l. i. c. i.,) the Valesian Fragment, (p.
718,) Theophanes, (p. 113,) and Marcellinus, (in Chron.)]
The reputation both of the leader and of the war diffused a
universal ardor; the Walamirs were multiplied by the Gothic
swarms already engaged in the service, or seated in the
provinces, of the empire; and each bold Barbarian, who had heard
of the wealth and beauty of Italy, was impatient to seek, through
the most perilous adventures, the possession of such enchanting
objects. The march of Theodoric must be considered as the
emigration of an entire people; the wives and children of the
Goths, their aged parents, and most precious effects, were
carefully transported; and some idea may be formed of the heavy
baggage that now followed the camp, by the loss of two thousand
wagons, which had been sustained in a single action in the war of
Epirus. For their subsistence, the Goths depended on the
magazines of corn which was ground in portable mills by the hands
of their women; on the milk and flesh of their flocks and herds;
on the casual produce of the chase, and upon the contributions
which they might impose on all who should presume to dispute the
passage, or to refuse their friendly assistance. Notwithstanding
these precautions, they were exposed to the danger, and almost to
the distress, of famine, in a march of seven hundred miles, which
had been undertaken in the depth of a rigorous winter. Since the
fall of the Roman power, Dacia and Pannonia no longer exhibited
the rich prospect of populous cities, well-cultivated fields, and
convenient highways: the reign of barbarism and desolation was
restored, and the tribes of Bulgarians, Gepidae, and Sarmatians,
who had occupied the vacant province, were prompted by their
native fierceness, or the solicitations of Odoacer, to resist the
progress of his enemy. In many obscure though bloody battles,
Theodoric fought and vanquished; till at length, surmounting
every obstacle by skilful conduct and persevering courage, he
descended from the Julian Alps, and displayed his invincible
banners on the confines of Italy. ^17
[Footnote 17: Theodoric's march is supplied and illustrated by
Ennodius, (p. 1598 - 1602,) when the bombast of the oration is
translated into the language of common sense.]
Odoacer, a rival not unworthy of his arms, had already
occupied the advantageous and well-known post of the River
Sontius, near the ruins of Aquileia, at the head of a powerful
host, whose independent kings ^18 or leaders disdained the duties
of subordination and the prudence of delays. No sooner had
Theodoric gained a short repose and refreshment to his wearied
cavalry, than he boldly attacked the fortifications of the enemy;
the Ostrogoths showed more ardor to acquire, than the mercenaries
to defend, the lands of Italy; and the reward of the first
victory was the possession of the Venetian province as far as the
walls of Verona. In the neighborhood of that city, on the steep
banks of the rapid Adige, he was opposed by a new army,
reenforced in its numbers, and not impaired in its courage: the
contest was more obstinate, but the event was still more
decisive; Odoacer fled to Ravenna, Theodoric advanced to Milan,
and the vanquished troops saluted their conqueror with loud
acclamations of respect and fidelity. But their want either of
constancy or of faith soon exposed him to the most imminent
danger; his vanguard, with several Gothic counts, which had been
rashly intrusted to a deserter, was betrayed and destroyed near
Faenza by his double treachery; Odoacer again appeared master of
the field, and the invader, strongly intrenched in his camp of
Pavia, was reduced to solicit the aid of a kindred nation, the
Visigoths of Gaul. In the course of this History, the most
voracious appetite for war will be abundantly satiated; nor can I
much lament that our dark and imperfect materials do not afford a
more ample narrative of the distress of Italy, and of the fierce
conflict, which was finally decided by the abilities, experience,
and valor of the Gothic king. Immediately before the battle of
Verona, he visited the tent of his mother ^19 and sister, and
requested, that on a day, the most illustrious festival of his
life, they would adorn him with the rich garments which they had
worked with their own hands. "Our glory," said he, "is mutual
and inseparable. You are known to the world as the mother of
Theodoric; and it becomes me to prove, that I am the genuine
offspring of those heroes from whom I claim my descent." The wife
or concubine of Theodemir was inspired with the spirit of the
German matrons, who esteemed their sons' honor far above their
safety; and it is reported, that in a desperate action, when
Theodoric himself was hurried along by the torrent of a flying
crowd, she boldly met them at the entrance of the camp, and, by
her generous reproaches, drove them back on the swords of the
enemy. ^20
[Footnote 18: Tot reges, &c., (Ennodius, p. 1602.) We must
recollect how much the royal title was multiplied and degraded,
and that the mercenaries of Italy were the fragments of many
tribes and nations.]
[Footnote 19: See Ennodius, p. 1603, 1604. Since the orator, in
the king's presence, could mention and praise his mother, we may
conclude that the magnanimity of Theodoric was not hurt by the
vulgar reproaches of concubine and bastard.
Note: Gibbon here assumes that the mother of Theodoric was
the concubine of Theodemir, which he leaves doubtful in the text.
[Footnote 20: This anecdote is related on the modern but
respectable authority of Sigonius, (Op. tom. i. p. 580. De
Occident. Impl. l. xv.:) his words are curious: "Would you
return?" &c. She presented and almost displayed the original
recess.
Note: The authority of Sigonius would scarcely have weighed
with Gibboa except for an indecent anecdote. I have a
recollection of a similar story in some of the Italian wars. -
-
]
From the Alps to the extremity of Calabria, Theodoric
reigned by the right of conquest; the Vandal ambassadors
surrendered the Island of Sicily, as a lawful appendage of his
kingdom; and he was accepted as the deliverer of Rome by the
senate and people, who had shut their gates against the flying
usurper. ^21 Ravenna alone, secure in the fortifications of art
and nature, still sustained a siege of almost three years; and
the daring sallies of Odoacer carried slaughter and dismay into
the Gothic camp. At length, destitute of provisions and hopeless
of relief, that unfortunate monarch yielded to the groans of his
subjects and the clamors of his soldiers. A treaty of peace was
negotiated by the bishop of Ravenna; the Ostrogoths were admitted
into the city, and the hostile kings consented, under the
sanction of an oath, to rule with equal and undivided authority
the provinces of Italy. The event of such an agreement may be
easily foreseen. After some days had been devoted to the
semblance of joy and friendship, Odoacer, in the midst of a
solemn banquet, was stabbed by the hand, or at least by the
command, of his rival. Secret and effectual orders had been
previously despatched; the faithless and rapacious mercenaries,
at the same moment, and without resistance, were universally
massacred; and the royalty of Theodoric was proclaimed by the
Goths, with the tardy, reluctant, ambiguous consent of the
emperor of the East. The design of a conspiracy was imputed,
according to the usual forms, to the prostrate tyrant; but his
innocence, and the guilt of his conqueror, ^22 are sufficiently
proved by the advantageous treaty which force would not sincerely
have granted, nor weakness have rashly infringed. The jealousy
of power, and the mischiefs of discord, may suggest a more decent
apology, and a sentence less rigorous may be pronounced against a
crime which was necessary to introduce into Italy a generation of
public felicity. The living author of this felicity was
audaciously praised in his own presence by sacred and profane
orators; ^23 but history (in his time she was mute and
inglorious) has not left any just representation of the events
which displayed, or of the defects which clouded, the virtues of
Theodoric. ^24 One record of his fame, the volume of public
epistles composed by Cassiodorus in the royal name, is still
extant, and has obtained more implicit credit than it seems to
deserve. ^25 They exhibit the forms, rather than the substance,
of his government; and we should vainly search for the pure and
spontaneous sentiments of the Barbarian amidst the declamation
and learning of a sophist, the wishes of a Roman senator, the
precedents of office, and the vague professions, which, in every
court, and on every occasion, compose the language of discreet
ministers. The reputation of Theodoric may repose with more
confidence on the visible peace and prosperity of a reign of
thirty-three years; the unanimous esteem of his own times, and
the memory of his wisdom and courage, his justice and humanity,
which was deeply impressed on the minds of the Goths and
Italians.
[Footnote 21: Hist. Miscell. l. xv., a Roman history from Janus
to the ixth century, an Epitome of Eutropius, Paulus Diaconus,
and Theophanes which Muratori has published from a Ms. in the
Ambrosian library, (Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. i. p. 100.)]
[Footnote 22: Procopius (Gothic. l. i. c. i.) approves himself an
impartial sceptic. Cassiodorus (in Chron.) and Ennodius (p. 1604)
are loyal and credulous, and the testimony of the Valesian
Fragment (p. 718) may justify their belief. Marcellinus spits
the venom of a Greek subject - perjuriis illectus, interfectusque
est, (in Chron.)]
[Footnote 23: The sonorous and servile oration of Ennodius was
pronounced at Milan or Ravenna in the years 507 or 508, (Sirmond,
tom. i. p. 615.) Two or three years afterwards, the orator was
rewarded with the bishopric of Pavia, which he held till his
death in the year 521. (Dupin, Bibliot. Eccles. tom. v. p. 11 -
-
See Saxii Onomasticon, tom. ii. p. 12.)]
[Footnote 24: Our best materials are occasional hints from
Procopius and the Valesian Fragment, which was discovered by
Sirmond, and is published at the end of Ammianus Marcellinus.
The author's name is unknown, and his style is barbarous; but in
his various facts he exhibits the knowledge, without the
passions, of a contemporary. The president Montesquieu had
formed the plan of a history of Theodoric, which at a distance
might appear a rich and interesting subject.]
[Footnote 25: The best edition of the Variarum Libri xii. is that
of Joh. Garretius, (Rotomagi, 1679, in Opp. Cassiodor. 2 vols. in
fol.;) but they deserved and required such an editor as the
Marquis Scipio Maffei, who thought of publishing them at Verona.
The Barbara Eleganza (as it is ingeniously named by Tiraboschi)
is never simple, and seldom perspicuous]
The partition of the lands of Italy, of which Theodoric
assigned the third part to his soldiers, is honorably arraigned
as the sole injustice of his life. ^* And even this act may be
fairly justified by the example of Odoacer, the rights of
conquest, the true interest of the Italians, and the sacred duty
of subsisting a whole people, who, on the faith of his promises,
had transported themselves into a distant land. ^26 Under the
reign of Theodoric, and in the happy climate of Italy, the Goths
soon multiplied to a formidable host of two hundred thousand men,
^27 and the whole amount of their families may be computed by the
ordinary addition of women and children. Their invasion of
property, a part of which must have been already vacant, was
disguised by the generous but improper name of hospitality; these
unwelcome guests were irregularly dispersed over the face of
Italy, and the lot of each Barbarian was adequate to his birth
and office, the number of his followers, and the rustic wealth
which he possessed in slaves and cattle. The distinction of noble
and plebeian were acknowledged; ^28 but the lands of every
freeman were exempt from taxes, ^* and he enjoyed the inestimable
privilege of being subject only to the laws of his country. ^29
Fashion, and even convenience, soon persuaded the conquerors to
assume the more elegant dress of the natives, but they still
persisted in the use of their mother- tongue; and their contempt
for the Latin schools was applauded by Theodoric himself, who
gratified their prejudices, or his own, by declaring, that the
child who had trembled at a rod, would never dare to look upon a
sword. ^30 Distress might sometimes provoke the indigent Roman to
assume the ferocious manners which were insensibly relinquished
by the rich and luxurious Barbarian; ^31 but these mutual
conversions were not encouraged by the policy of a monarch who
perpetuated the separation of the Italians and Goths; reserving
the former for the arts of peace, and the latter for the service
of war. To accomplish this design, he studied to protect his
industrious subjects, and to moderate the violence, without
enervating the valor, of his soldiers, who were maintained for
the public defence. They held their lands and benefices as a
military stipend: at the sound of the trumpet, they were prepared
to march under the conduct of their provincial officers; and the
whole extent of Italy was distributed into the several quarters
of a well- regulated camp. The service of the palace and of the
frontiers was performed by choice or by rotation; and each
extraordinary fatigue was recompensed by an increase of pay and
occasional donatives. Theodoric had convinced his brave
companions, that empire must be acquired and defended by the same
arts. After his example, they strove to excel in the use, not
only of the lance and sword, the instruments of their victories,
but of the missile weapons, which they were too much inclined to
neglect; and the lively image of war was displayed in the daily
exercise and annual reviews of the Gothic cavalry. A firm though
gentle discipline imposed the habits of modesty, obedience, and
temperance; and the Goths were instructed to spare the people, to
reverence the laws, to understand the duties of civil society,
and to disclaim the barbarous license of judicial combat and
private revenge. ^32
[Footnote *: Compare Gibbon, ch. xxxvi. vol. iii. p. 459, &c. -
Manso observes that this division was conducted not in a violent
and irregular, but in a legal and orderly, manner. The
Barbarian, who could not show a title of grant from the officers
of Theodoric appointed for the purpose, or a prescriptive right
of thirty years, in case he had obtained the property before the
Ostrogothic conquest, was ejected from the estate. He conceives
that estates too small to bear division paid a third of their
produce. - Geschichte des Os Gothischen Reiches, p. 82. - M.]
[Footnote 26: Procopius, Gothic, l. i. c. i. Variarum, ii. Maffei
(Verona Illustrata, P. i. p. 228) exaggerates the injustice of
the Goths, whom he hated as an Italian noble. The plebeian
Muratori crouches under their oppression.]
[Footnote 27: Procopius, Goth. l. iii. c. 421. Ennodius
describes (p. 1612, 1613) the military arts and increasing
numbers of the Goths.]
[Footnote 28: When Theodoric gave his sister to the king of the
Vandals she sailed for Africa with a guard of 1000 noble Goths,
each of whom was attended by five armed followers, (Procop.
Vandal. l. i. c. 8.) The Gothic nobility must have been as
numerous as brave.]
[Footnote *: Manso (p. 100) quotes two passages from Cassiodorus
to show that the Goths were not exempt from the fiscal claims. -
Cassiodor, i. 19, iv. 14 - M.]
[Footnote 29: See the acknowledgment of Gothic liberty, (Var. v.
-
]
[Footnote 30: Procopius, Goth. l. i. c. 2. The Roman boys learnt
the language (Var. viii. 21) of the Goths. Their general
ignorance is not destroyed by the exceptions of Amalasuntha, a
female, who might study without shame, or of Theodatus, whose
learning provoked the indignation and contempt of his
countrymen.]
[Footnote 31: A saying of Theodoric was founded on experience:
"Romanus miser imitatur Gothum; ut utilis (dives) Gothus imitatur
Romanum." (See the Fragment and Notes of Valesius, p. 719.)]
[Footnote 32: The view of the military establishment of the Goths
in Italy is collected from the Epistles of Cassiodorus (Var. i.
24, 40; iii. 3, 24, 48; iv. 13, 14; v. 26, 27; viii. 3, 4, 25.)
They are illustrated by the learned Mascou, (Hist. of the
Germans, l. xi. 40 - 44, Annotation xiv.)
Note: Compare Manso, Geschichte des Ost Gothischen Reiches,
-
114. - M.]
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