The partition of the lands of Italy, of which Theodoric assi

Produced by David Reed, Dale R. Fredrickson and David Widger

HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Edward Gibbon

With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman

Vol. 4

1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)

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, was born in the neighborhood of Vienna 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. 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; 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.

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. 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, 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. 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!"

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.

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. 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 MÊsia, on the solemn

assurance that before he reached Adrianople, he should meet a plentiful

convoy of provisions, and a reÎnforcement 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.

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 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. 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; 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.

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, GepidÊ, 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.

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_

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, reÎnforced 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 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.

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. 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, 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; 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.

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. 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.

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.

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,

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; 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. 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. Distress might sometimes provoke the indigent Roman

to assume the ferocious manners which were insensibly relinquished by

the rich and luxurious Barbarian; 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.

Chapter XXXIX: Gothic Kingdom Of Italy.--Part II.

Among the Barbarians of the West, the victory of Theodoric had spread

a general alarm. But as soon as it appeared that he was satisfied with

conquest and desirous of peace, terror was changed into respect, and

they submitted to a powerful mediation, which was uniformly employed

for the best purposes of reconciling their quarrels and civilizing their

manners. The ambassadors who resorted to Ravenna from the most distant

countries of Europe, admired his wisdom, magnificence, and courtesy; and

if he sometimes accepted either slaves or arms, white horses or

strange animals, the gift of a sun-dial, a water-clock, or a musician,

admonished even the princes of Gaul of the superior art and industry of

his Italian subjects. His domestic alliances, a wife, two daughters, a

sister, and a niece, united the family of Theodoric with the kings

of the Franks, the Burgundians, the Visigoths, the Vandals, and the

Thuringians, and contributed to maintain the harmony, or at least the

balance, of the great republic of the West. It is difficult in the dark

forests of Germany and Poland to pursue the emigrations of the Heruli,

a fierce people who disdained the use of armor, and who condemned their

widows and aged parents not to survive the loss of their husbands, or

the decay of their strength. The king of these savage warriors solicited

the friendship of Theodoric, and was elevated to the rank of his son,

according to the barbaric rites of a military adoption. From the shores

of the Baltic, the ∆stians or Livonians laid their offerings of native

amber at the feet of a prince, whose fame had excited them to undertake

an unknown and dangerous journey of fifteen hundred miles. With

the country from whence the Gothic nation derived their origin, he

maintained a frequent and friendly correspondence: the Italians were

clothed in the rich sables of Sweden; and one of its sovereigns, after

a voluntary or reluctant abdication, found a hospitable retreat in the

palace of Ravenna. He had reigned over one of the thirteen populous

tribes who cultivated a small portion of the great island or peninsula

of Scandinavia, to which the vague appellation of Thule has been

sometimes applied. That northern region was peopled, or had been

explored, as high as the sixty-eighth degree of latitude, where the

natives of the polar circle enjoy and lose the presence of the sun at

each summer and winter solstice during an equal period of forty days.

The long night of his absence or death was the mournful season of

distress and anxiety, till the messengers, who had been sent to

the mountain tops, descried the first rays of returning light, and

proclaimed to the plain below the festival of his resurrection.

The life of Theodoric represents the rare and meritorious example of a

Barbarian, who sheathed his sword in the pride of victory and the vigor

of his age. A reign of three and thirty years was consecrated to

the duties of civil government, and the hostilities, in which he was

sometimes involved, were speedily terminated by the conduct of his

lieutenants, the discipline of his troops, the arms of his allies, and

even by the terror of his name. He reduced, under a strong and regular

government, the unprofitable countries of RhÊtia, Noricum, Dalmatia,

and Pannonia, from the source of the Danube and the territory of the

Bavarians, to the petty kingdom erected by the GepidÊ on the ruins of

Sirmium. His prudence could not safely intrust the bulwark of Italy to

such feeble and turbulent neighbors; and his justice might claim the

lands which they oppressed, either as a part of his kingdom, or as the

inheritance of his father. The greatness of a servant, who was named

perfidious because he was successful, awakened the jealousy of the

emperor Anastasius; and a war was kindled on the Dacian frontier, by the

protection which the Gothic king, in the vicissitude of human affairs,

had granted to one of the descendants of Attila. Sabinian, a general

illustrious by his own and father's merit, advanced at the head of ten

thousand Romans; and the provisions and arms, which filled a long train

of wagons, were distributed to the fiercest of the Bulgarian tribes.

But in the fields of Margus, the eastern powers were defeated by the

inferior forces of the Goths and Huns; the flower and even the hope

of the Roman armies was irretrievably destroyed; and such was the

temperance with which Theodoric had inspired his victorious troops,

that, as their leader had not given the signal of pillage, the rich

spoils of the enemy lay untouched at their feet. Exasperated by this

disgrace, the Byzantine court despatched two hundred ships and eight

thousand men to plunder the sea-coast of Calabria and Apulia: they

assaulted the ancient city of Tarentum, interrupted the trade and

agriculture of a happy country, and sailed back to the Hellespont, proud

of their piratical victory over a people whom they still presumed to

consider as their _Roman_ brethren. Their retreat was possibly hastened

by the activity of Theodoric; Italy was covered by a fleet of a thousand

light vessels, which he constructed with incredible despatch; and his

firm moderation was soon rewarded by a solid and honorable peace. He

maintained, with a powerful hand, the balance of the West, till it was

at length overthrown by the ambition of Clovis; and although unable to

assist his rash and unfortunate kinsman, the king of the Visigoths, he

saved the remains of his family and people, and checked the Franks in

the midst of their victorious career. I am not desirous to prolong or

repeat this narrative of military events, the least interesting of the

reign of Theodoric; and shall be content to add, that the Alemanni were

protected, that an inroad of the Burgundians was severely chastised, and

that the conquest of Arles and Marseilles opened a free communication

with the Visigoths, who revered him as their national protector, and

as the guardian of his grandchild, the infant son of Alaric. Under

this respectable character, the king of Italy restored the prÊtorian

prÊfecture of the Gauls, reformed some abuses in the civil government

of Spain, and accepted the annual tribute and apparent submission of its

military governor, who wisely refused to trust his person in the palace

of Ravenna. The Gothic sovereignty was established from Sicily to the

Danube, from Sirmium or Belgrade to the Atlantic Ocean; and the Greeks

themselves have acknowledged that Theodoric reigned over the fairest

portion of the Western empire.

The union of the Goths and Romans might have fixed for ages the

transient happiness of Italy; and the first of nations, a new people of

free subjects and enlightened soldiers, might have gradually arisen from

the mutual emulation of their respective virtues. But the sublime merit

of guiding or seconding such a revolution was not reserved for the reign

of Theodoric: he wanted either the genius or the opportunities of a

legislator; and while he indulged the Goths in the enjoyment of rude

liberty, he servilely copied the institutions, and even the abuses,

of the political system which had been framed by Constantine and his

successors. From a tender regard to the expiring prejudices of Rome,

the Barbarian declined the name, the purple, and the diadem, of the

emperors; but he assumed, under the hereditary title of king, the whole

substance and plenitude of Imperial prerogative. His addresses to the

eastern throne were respectful and ambiguous: he celebrated, in pompous

style, the harmony of the two republics, applauded his own government as

the perfect similitude of a sole and undivided empire, and claimed above

the kings of the earth the same preeminence which he modestly allowed to

the person or rank of Anastasius. The alliance of the East and West was

annually declared by the unanimous choice of two consuls; but it should

seem that the Italian candidate who was named by Theodoric accepted a

formal confirmation from the sovereign of Constantinople. The Gothic

palace of Ravenna reflected the image of the court of Theodosius or

Valentinian. The PrÊtorian prÊfect, the prÊfect of Rome, the quÊstor,

the master of the offices, with the public and patrimonial treasurers,

* whose functions are painted in gaudy colors by the rhetoric of

Cassiodorus, still continued to act as the ministers of state. And

the subordinate care of justice and the revenue was delegated to seven

consulars, three correctors, and five presidents, who governed the

fifteen _regions_ of Italy according to the principles, and even the

forms, of Roman jurisprudence. The violence of the conquerors was

abated or eluded by the slow artifice of judicial proceedings; the civil

administration, with its honors and emoluments, was confined to the

Italians; and the people still preserved their dress and language, their

laws and customs, their personal freedom, and two thirds of their landed

property. It had been the object of Augustus to conceal the introduction

of monarchy; it was the policy of Theodoric to disguise the reign of a

Barbarian. If his subjects were sometimes awakened from this pleasing

vision of a Roman government, they derived more substantial comfort from

the character of a Gothic prince, who had penetration to discern, and

firmness to pursue, his own and the public interest. Theodoric loved the

virtues which he possessed, and the talents of which he was destitute.

Liberius was promoted to the office of PrÊtorian prÊfect for his

unshaken fidelity to the unfortunate cause of Odoacer. The ministers of

Theodoric, Cassiodorus, and Boethius, have reflected on his reign the

lustre of their genius and learning. More prudent or more fortunate than

his colleague, Cassiodorus preserved his own esteem without forfeiting

the royal favor; and after passing thirty years in the honors of the

world, he was blessed with an equal term of repose in the devout and

studious solitude of Squillace.

As the patron of the republic, it was the interest and duty of the

Gothic king to cultivate the affections of the senate and people.

The nobles of Rome were flattered by sonorous epithets and formal

professions of respect, which had been more justly applied to the merit

and authority of their ancestors. The people enjoyed, without fear or

danger, the three blessings of a capital, order, plenty, and public

amusements. A visible diminution of their numbers may be found even

in the measure of liberality; yet Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, poured

their tribute of corn into the granaries of Rome an allowance of bread

and meat was distributed to the indigent citizens; and every office was

deemed honorable which was consecrated to the care of their health and

happiness. The public games, such as the Greek ambassador might politely

applaud, exhibited a faint and feeble copy of the magnificence of the

CÊsars: yet the musical, the gymnastic, and the pantomime arts, had not

totally sunk in oblivion; the wild beasts of Africa still exercised

in the amphitheatre the courage and dexterity of the hunters; and the

indulgent Goth either patiently tolerated or gently restrained the

blue and green factions, whose contests so often filled the circus with

clamor and even with blood. In the seventh year of his peaceful reign,

Theodoric visited the old capital of the world; the senate and

people advanced in solemn procession to salute a second Trajan, a new

Valentinian; and he nobly supported that character by the assurance of

a just and legal government, in a discourse which he was not afraid to

pronounce in public, and to inscribe on a tablet of brass. Rome, in this

august ceremony, shot a last ray of declining glory; and a saint, the

spectator of this pompous scene, could only hope, in his pious fancy,

that it was excelled by the celestial splendor of the new Jerusalem.

During a residence of six months, the fame, the person, and the

courteous demeanor of the Gothic king, excited the admiration of the

Romans, and he contemplated, with equal curiosity and surprise, the

monuments that remained of their ancient greatness. He imprinted the

footsteps of a conqueror on the Capitoline hill, and frankly confessed

that each day he viewed with fresh wonder the forum of Trajan and his

lofty column. The theatre of Pompey appeared, even in its decay, as a

huge mountain artificially hollowed, and polished, and adorned by human

industry; and he vaguely computed, that a river of gold must have been

drained to erect the colossal amphitheatre of Titus. From the mouths of

fourteen aqueducts, a pure and copious stream was diffused into every

part of the city; among these the Claudian water, which arose at the

distance of thirty-eight miles in the Sabine mountains, was conveyed

along a gentle though constant declivity of solid arches, till it

descended on the summit of the Aventine hill. The long and spacious

vaults which had been constructed for the purpose of common sewers,

subsisted, after twelve centuries, in their pristine strength; and these

subterraneous channels have been preferred to all the visible wonders of

Rome. The Gothic kings, so injuriously accused of the ruin of antiquity,

were anxious to preserve the monuments of the nation whom they had

subdued. The royal edicts were framed to prevent the abuses, the

neglect, or the depredations of the citizens themselves; and a professed

architect, the annual sum of two hundred pounds of gold, twenty-five

thousand tiles, and the receipt of customs from the Lucrine port, were

assigned for the ordinary repairs of the walls and public edifices. A

similar care was extended to the statues of metal or marble of men or

animals. The spirit of the horses, which have given a modern name to the

Quirinal, was applauded by the Barbarians; the brazen elephants of

the _Via sacra_ were diligently restored; the famous heifer of Myron

deceived the cattle, as they were driven through the forum of peace; and

an officer was created to protect those works of rat, which Theodoric

considered as the noblest ornament of his kingdom.

Chapter XXXIX: Gothic Kingdom Of Italy.--Part III.

After the example of the last emperors, Theodoric preferred the

residence of Ravenna, where he cultivated an orchard with his own hands.

As often as the peace of his kingdom was threatened (for it was never

invaded) by the Barbarians, he removed his court to Verona on the

northern frontier, and the image of his palace, still extant on a coin,

represents the oldest and most authentic model of Gothic architecture.

These two capitals, as well as Pavia, Spoleto, Naples, and the rest

of the Italian cities, acquired under his reign the useful or splendid

decorations of churches, aqueducts, baths, porticos, and palaces. But

the happiness of the subject was more truly conspicuous in the busy

scene of labor and luxury, in the rapid increase and bold enjoyment

of national wealth. From the shades of Tibur and PrÊneste, the Roman

senators still retired in the winter season to the warm sun, and

salubrious springs of BaiÊ; and their villas, which advanced on solid

moles into the Bay of Naples, commanded the various prospect of the sky,

the earth, and the water. On the eastern side of the Adriatic, a new

Campania was formed in the fair and fruitful province of Istria, which

communicated with the palace of Ravenna by an easy navigation of

one hundred miles. The rich productions of Lucania and the adjacent

provinces were exchanged at the Marcilian fountain, in a populous fair

annually dedicated to trade, intemperance, and superstition. In the

solitude of Comum, which had once been animated by the mild genius of

Pliny, a transparent basin above sixty miles in length still reflected

the rural seats which encompassed the margin of the Larian lake; and

the gradual ascent of the hills was covered by a triple plantation of

olives, of vines, and of chestnut trees. Agriculture revived under the

shadow of peace, and the number of husbandmen was multiplied by the

redemption of captives. The iron mines of Dalmatia, a gold mine in

Bruttium, were carefully explored, and the Pomptine marshes, as well as

those of Spoleto, were drained and cultivated by private undertakers,

whose distant reward must depend on the continuance of the public

prosperity. Whenever the seasons were less propitious, the doubtful

precautions of forming magazines of corn, fixing the price, and

prohibiting the exportation, attested at least the benevolence of the

state; but such was the extraordinary plenty which an industrious people

produced from a grateful soil, that a gallon of wine was sometimes sold

in Italy for less than three farthings, and a quarter of wheat at about

five shillings and sixpence. A country possessed of so many valuable

objects of exchange soon attracted the merchants of the world, whose

beneficial traffic was encouraged and protected by the liberal spirit of

Theodoric. The free intercourse of the provinces by land and water was

restored and extended; the city gates were never shut either by day or

by night; and the common saying, that a purse of gold might be safely

left in the fields, was expressive of the conscious security of the

inhabitants.

A difference of religion is always pernicious, and often fatal, to the

harmony of the prince and people: the Gothic conqueror had been educated

in the profession of Arianism, and Italy was devoutly attached to the

Nicene faith. But the persuasion of Theodoric was not infected by

zeal; and he piously adhered to the heresy of his fathers, without

condescending to balance the subtile arguments of theological

metaphysics. Satisfied with the private toleration of his Arian

sectaries, he justly conceived himself to be the guardian of the

public worship, and his external reverence for a superstition which he

despised, may have nourished in his mind the salutary indifference of a

statesman or philosopher. The Catholics of his dominions acknowledged,

perhaps with reluctance, the peace of the church; their clergy,

according to the degrees of rank or merit, were honorably entertained in

the palace of Theodoric; he esteemed the living sanctity of CÊsarius

and Epiphanius, the orthodox bishops of Arles and Pavia; and presented a

decent offering on the tomb of St. Peter, without any scrupulous inquiry

into the creed of the apostle. His favorite Goths, and even his mother,

were permitted to retain or embrace the Athanasian faith, and his long

reign could not afford the example of an Italian Catholic, who, either

from choice or compulsion, had deviated into the religion of the

conqueror. The people, and the Barbarians themselves, were edified by

the pomp and order of religious worship; the magistrates were instructed

to defend the just immunities of ecclesiastical persons and possessions;

the bishops held their synods, the metropolitans exercised their

jurisdiction, and the privileges of sanctuary were maintained or

moderated according to the spirit of the Roman jurisprudence. With the

protection, Theodoric assumed the legal supremacy, of the church; and

his firm administration restored or extended some useful prerogatives

which had been neglected by the feeble emperors of the West. He was not

ignorant of the dignity and importance of the Roman pontiff, to whom the

venerable name of Pope was now appropriated. The peace or the revolt of

Italy might depend on the character of a wealthy and popular bishop,

who claimed such ample dominion both in heaven and earth; who had been

declared in a numerous synod to be pure from all sin, and exempt from

all judgment. When the chair of St. Peter was disputed by Symmachus and

Laurence, they appeared at his summons before the tribunal of an Arian

monarch, and he confirmed the election of the most worthy or the most

obsequious candidate. At the end of his life, in a moment of jealousy

and resentment, he prevented the choice of the Romans, by nominating

a pope in the palace of Ravenna. The danger and furious contests of a

schism were mildly restrained, and the last decree of the senate was

enacted to extinguish, if it were possible, the scandalous venality of

the papal elections.

I have descanted with pleasure on the fortunate condition of Italy; but

our fancy must not hastily conceive that the golden age of the poets,

a race of men without vice or misery, was realized under the Gothic

conquest. The fair prospect was sometimes overcast with clouds; the

wisdom of Theodoric might be deceived, his power might be resisted and

the declining age of the monarch was sullied with popular hatred and

patrician blood. In the first insolence of victory, he had been tempted

to deprive the whole party of Odoacer of the civil and even the natural

rights of society; a tax unseasonably imposed after the calamities

of war, would have crushed the rising agriculture of Liguria; a rigid

preemption of corn, which was intended for the public relief, must

have aggravated the distress of Campania. These dangerous projects were

defeated by the virtue and eloquence of Epiphanius and Boethius, who, in

the presence of Theodoric himself, successfully pleaded the cause of the

people: but if the royal ear was open to the voice of truth, a saint

and a philosopher are not always to be found at the ear of kings. The

privileges of rank, or office, or favor, were too frequently abused by

Italian fraud and Gothic violence, and the avarice of the king's nephew

was publicly exposed, at first by the usurpation, and afterwards by

the restitution of the estates which he had unjustly extorted from his

Tuscan neighbors. Two hundred thousand Barbarians, formidable even

to their master, were seated in the heart of Italy; they indignantly

supported the restraints of peace and discipline; the disorders of

their march were always felt and sometimes compensated; and where it was

dangerous to punish, it might be prudent to dissemble, the sallies of

their native fierceness. When the indulgence of Theodoric had remitted

two thirds of the Ligurian tribute, he condescended to explain the

difficulties of his situation, and to lament the heavy though inevitable

burdens which he imposed on his subjects for their own defence. These

ungrateful subjects could never be cordially reconciled to the origin,

the religion, or even the virtues of the Gothic conqueror; past

calamities were forgotten, and the sense or suspicion of injuries was

rendered still more exquisite by the present felicity of the times.