[b] G. F. HERTZBERG, _op. cit._
[c] GEORGE FINLAY, _op. cit._
[d] EDWARD GIBBON, _op. cit._
[e] H. GELZER, _op. cit._
[f] GEORGIOS PHRANZES, _Χρονίκον_.
[g] DUCAS, _Historia Byzantina_.
[For a further list of works on the Later Roman Empire in the East, see
the General Bibliography of Roman History in Volume VI.]
BOOK II
THE LATER ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST
_INTRODUCTION_
HISTORY IN OUTLINE OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE
A PRELIMINARY SURVEY COMPRISING A CURSORY VIEW OF THE SWEEP OF EVENTS AND
A TABLE OF CHRONOLOGY
Having followed the fortunes of the Later Roman Empire in the East to
the final collapse, we return now to the ancient seat of the Roman
Empire, where we are to witness a process at once of disintegration and
of development--disintegration of the old Roman influence, development
of civilisation and power in the new peoples of the north. Our caption
“Later Roman Empire in the West” or “Western Empire” must be understood
as applying rather loosely to the peoples now under consideration. We
have already (in Vol. VI) witnessed the overthrow of Rome by the Goths
and the deposition of the last legitimate emperor of the old Roman line.
It has been urged, however, that no really critical alteration in the
sweep of world-historic events attended this change.
The fall of Rome marks a convenient epoch in the retrospective view of
the historian; it was scarcely an event that could greatly have impressed
contemporary witnesses. Odoacer acknowledged the authority of Zeno,
emperor of the West, and when Odoacer himself was assailed and overthrown
by Theodoric, the latter acted under the influence and authority of
the same emperor. And for some centuries the rulers of Italy regarded
themselves either as representatives or opponents of the Roman Empire.
The Goths, the Lombards, and the Franks in turn invaded Italy and came
to dominate her affairs. Yet in theory the Western Empire was still the
Roman Empire--though Rome herself had long since fallen from her old time
position as capital. It will be recalled that as early as the time of
Diocletian the seat of government for the Western division of the empire
was transferred to Mediolanum (Milan), and that, at a later day, Honorius
made Ravenna his capital. Still the traditional glory of old Rome could
not be altogether effaced, and as time went on the ancient city came once
more to be regarded as the centre of Italian influence. It was in Rome
that Charlemagne was crowned as emperor of the West in the year 800,
and his successors repaired to the same ancient capital to receive the
imperial dignity for some centuries afterward.
Meantime the real centre of world influence in the West had been shifting
to the north. The true capital of the empire of Charlemagne was Aachen
(Aix la Chapelle). The land of his nativity and the seat of his chief
activities lay to the north of the Alps. In a word, notwithstanding the
retention of the old name, the Roman emperor of the West was ruler over
a principality that differed radically from the old Roman principality.
There was no longer any life in the Latin race. Its time of decadence
had come. All hope for progress and development, all prospect of new
world influences, lay with the peoples of the north--peoples of wonderful
capacities, whose greatest traits could only hope to be developed after
many generations of civilisation. A barbarian race cannot attain at
once to all the fruits of higher culture. Just as in the early day the
Greek and Roman worked their way slowly up to the high plane of world
historical influence through many pre-historic generations, so these new
races of the north must be given time for development before they could
hope to rival in the fruits of their civilisation the works of the old
empires of the south. They were to make progress rapidly, partly because
they had the old civilisation as a model after which to build; but it
was not to be expected that even this aid would enable them to cross the
chasm between barbarism and higher civilisation at a bound.
In point of fact, they required some centuries for this development. And
since during this time the old civilisation at the south had ceased to
be productive, these centuries are known to posterity as the Dark Ages.
Nevertheless, there are here and there rays of light in the gloom. At its
worst the Western world did not recede into utter barbarism, though it
certainly sank far back from the intellectual level of the earlier day.
Fortunately, scholarship sufficed to produce records that enable us to
form as complete a picture of the life and development of the period as
need be desired. Following our custom we shall first outline the sweep of
events in chronological epitome before turning to the detailed narrative.
FROM THE STIRRING OF THE HUNS TO THE FOUNDATION OF THE VISIGOTHIC KINGDOM
(375-415 A.D.)
The intrusion of the barbaric tribes from the north into the
Roman Empire is one of the main events of world history. The
dozen or so Indo-Germanic peoples settled between the Volga
and the Rhine, together with the Huns, a race believed to be
of Mongolian origin, are chiefly concerned in this movement.
It begins towards the end of the fourth century A.D., when
the Huns and the Alani invade the territory of the Ostrogoths
in southern Russia. The latter unite with their invaders and
proceed against the Visigoths in eastern Hungary and Rumania.
The Christian element of the Visigoths, owing to disputes with
the Romans, advances to the west.
378 A.D. The imperial forces oppose them at Hadrianopolis. The
emperor Valens is slain.
382 His successor Theodosius makes peace with them for pay and
lands.
396 =Alaric= the Visigoth chieftain, not receiving his pay
from Arcadius, marches into the Peloponnesus, ravaging as
he goes. Stilicho opposes but allows him to escape. Alaric
installed as dux in eastern Illyricum.
403 Alaric returns to Illyricum after an unsuccessful attempt
to invade Italy.
405-6 Defeat of Radagaisus and his German bands who have
invaded Italy. The Vandals, Suevi, and Alani leave the Danube,
advance to the Rhine, are driven off by the Gauls, and
409 settle in Spain (see Visigothic kingdom). Meanwhile the Salic
Franks are leaving the Rhine delta and settling in northern
Gaul (see Merovingian kings) and the Burgundians on the middle
Rhine (see kingdom of Burgundy).
410 Alaric on his second invasion captures Rome and sacks it.
Death of Alaric.
411 =Atawulf=, brother of Alaric’s wife, leads the Visigoths
into Gaul. He takes with him Honorius’ sister, a hostage, and
marries her (414).
415 Hard pressed by the Romans Atawulf goes to Spain and
conquers Barcelona. He is murdered. =Sigeric= succeeds him,
reigning only a few days. =Wallia= succeeds. He makes a
treaty of alliance with Honorius and receives territory in
southern Gaul, under Roman supremacy, and the Visigothic
kingdom of Tolosa [Tolosa (Toulouse) the capital] is founded.
This alliance, the first sign of fusion between the Latin
and German people, may be said to mark _the beginning of the
modern world_.
THE VISIGOTHIC KINGDOM IN FRANCE AND SPAIN (415-711 A.D.)
At the time of foundation of the Visigothic kingdom there
exist two states established by the barbaric peoples--the
Suevi and the Vandals, who, as we have seen, invaded and
settled in Spain (409). The Suevi have six kings until
they are reduced by the Visigoths in 469. =Godigisdus= or
=Modigisdus= and his son =Gunderic= rule the Vandals until
425, when =Genseric=, brother of Gunderic succeeds. In 429
Genseric, on invitation it is said of Boniface the Roman
governor of Africa, leads the whole of his people and a
portion of the Alani to Carthage (see kingdom of the Vandals
in Africa).
415-418 =Wallia= as the ally of Rome wages war on the Vandals,
Suevi, and Alani in Spain.
420 =Theodoric I=, son of Alaric, elected king on death of
Wallia. The Visigoths begin to free themselves from Rome.
429 The Vandals leave for Africa.
439 Defeat of the Romans by Theodoric at Tolosa. Treaty of
peace with Avitus.
451 The Romans and Visigoths unite against the invasion of
Attila, king of the Huns. Defeat of Attila, at battle of
Châlons in which Theodoric falls. His son =Torismond= succeeds.
452 Torismond killed by his brother, =Theodoric II=.
456 As the ally of Rome, Theodoric crosses into Spain and
nearly exterminates the Suevi in battle near Astorga. He
strengthens his own power and makes no attempt to restore the
country to Rome.
466 Theodoric killed by his brother =Euric=.
469 Euric makes the Suevi tributary. The Visigoths become
completely independent of Rome. Euric is a legislator as well
as a warrior and publishes a code of laws.
484 Death of Euric. His son =Alaric II= succeeds. During his
reign the code _Breviarium Alaricianum_ is published. Founded
on the Theodosian code, it impresses Roman institutions and
ideas on the whole people.
507 Death of Alaric in a battle with Clovis, the Merovingian
king, at Voulon. =Gesalric= his natural son succeeds.
The Ostrogoths unite with the Visigoths and defeat the
Merovingians at Arles. Theodoric the Great takes possession of
most of the Visigothic possessions in southern France.
511 =Amalaric=, legitimate son of Alaric II, succeeds. He
is grandson of Theodoric the Great, who rules his realm for
him. The capital transferred from Tolosa to Toledo. Amalaric
marries daughter of Clovis.
526 Death of Theodoric the Great. The Ostro- and Visigothic
kingdoms become definitely separated.
531 Death of Amalaric in a battle with Merovingian Franks.
=Theudes= succeeds.
542 Theudes repels a Frankish invasion of Spain.
548 =Theudisela= succeeds Theudes.
549 =Agila= succeeds. In his reign the Romans recover many
towns on the sea coast in an attempt to regain the peninsula.
554 Imprisonment and murder of Agila. =Atanagild=, his
political opponent, succeeds.
567 =Liuva= or =Levua I= succeeds. =Leuvigild= becomes
associated with him the following year.
572 Death of Liuva. Leuvigild sole king. He recovers some of
the towns taken by the Romans.
584 Final conquest of the Suevi. Their country becomes a
province of the Visigothic kingdom.
586 =Recared I= succeeds. In his reign, 587, the Visigoths are
converted from Arianism to orthodox Catholicism.
601 Death of Recared, succeeded by =Liuva II=.
603 Assassination of Liuva succeeded by =Witteric=. He
recovers some towns from the Romans.
610 =Gundemar= succeeds Witteric who is murdered.
612 =Sisibut= succeeds.
621 =Recared II=, who is followed the same year by =Suintila=.
All the territory seized by the Romans is regained. The whole
peninsula is Visigothic for the first time.
631 Suintila dethroned and =Sisenando= made king.
636 =Chintella= succeeds, followed by
640 =Tulga= or =Tulea=.
642 =Cindasuinto= becomes king.
649 =Recesuinto= becomes associated on the throne.
652 Recesuinto sole ruler at death of Cindasuinto.
672 =Wamba= becomes king.
680 Dethronement of Wamba. He retires to a monastery.
=Ervigius= succeeds.
687 =Ergica= or =Ergiza= succeeds.
698 =Witiza= becomes associate king.
702 Witiza sole king.
709 =Roderic= “the last of the Goths” usurps the throne.
710 The first Saracens land in Spain.
711 Saracen army under Tarik invades Spain. Battle of Xeres.
Defeat and death of Roderic. The Saracens easily accomplish
the conquest of Spain as far as the mountainous districts in
the north. End of the Visigothic kingdom.
KINGDOM OF THE VANDALS IN AFRICA (439-534 A.D.)
429 The entire Vandal nation settled in Spain, numbering about
80,000, under the leadership of Genseric, crosses over to
Africa, invited, it is said, by Boniface, governor of Africa,
then in disgrace at the court of Ravenna. These Vandals pursue
a rapid plan of conquest, and are soon in the possession of
the whole of Roman Africa except Carthage, Hippo, and Cirta.
431 Capture of Hippo after long siege. Death of St. Augustine.
435 Treaty between Genseric and Valentinian III, by which the
Romans retain only Carthage and vicinity.
439 Without any provocation =Genseric= or =Gaiseric= suddenly
attacks and captures Carthage. He dates the foundation of his
kingdom from this year. His reign is one of warfare. He builds
a large fleet for piratical purposes and makes Carthage the
leading maritime power of the Mediterranean. The Catholic
Christians are much persecuted.
455 Capture and sack of Rome by Genseric, at invitation of
Valentinian’s widow Eudoxia.
477 =Huneric=, Genseric’s eldest son, married to Eudocia,
daughter of Eudoxia, succeeds at death of Genseric. An ardent
Arian, he persecutes the Catholics.
484 =Gunthamund= or =Gundamund=, cousin of Huneric, succeeds
him at his death.
496 =Thrasamund= becomes king on Gunthamund’s death. The
people are rapidly becoming degenerate through effects of
climate, luxury, and vice.
523 On death of Thrasamund, =Hilderic=, son of Huneric,
succeeds. He favours Catholicism and restores bishops and
churches.
531 The unpopular Hilderic dethroned and imprisoned, his
cousin =Gelimer= placed on the throne.
533 To avenge the wrongs of Hilderic, Justinian sends
Belisarius to invade kingdom. Capture of Carthage. Battle of
Tricamarum and rout of the Vandals. Flight of Gelimer.
534 Surrender of Gelimer. End of the kingdom. The Vandals
carried to Constantinople and sent to serve against the
Parthians. A few hundred escape to Africa and take part in
an insurrection against Belisarius which he quells with
difficulty (536). The Vandals disappear from history.
THE HERULIANS AND OSTROGOTHS IN ITALY (476-555 A.D.)
Attila, king of the Huns, does not succeed in founding a state
in the Roman Empire. At his death (453) the kingdom of the
Huns falls to pieces. The Gepids recover their liberty; the
Slavonic tribes follow suit, and gradually make their way into
Eastern Europe, their present home.
475 =Odoacer= or =Odovaker=, leader of the Herulians, a
military commander in the employ of the emperor, is moved by
the act of Orestes in deposing Julius Nepos to attack Orestes
in Pavia. Capture and execution of Orestes.
476 This leads to the deposition of the emperor Romulus
Augustulus, son of Orestes, and Odoacer is proclaimed king.
The emperor Zeno at Constantinople, who, with his successors,
remains only titular emperor of Italy, confers the patrician
dignity on Odoacer.
488 Zeno commissions Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, to
undertake the affairs of Italy.
493 Defeat of Odoacer by =Theodoric the Great= at Ravenna.
Theodoric kills Odoacer and becomes king of Italy. He settles
at Ravenna, the capital of the Western Empire since the time
of Honorius, and assumes name of Flavius. Is recognised by
Anastasius at Constantinople. Though professing allegiance to
Rome, Theodoric establishes an independent monarchy.
507 After defeat of the Visigoths at Voulon, Theodoric assists
them in defeating the Merovingians at Arles. Theodoric adds
most of the Visigothic possessions in France to his kingdom.
He also governs the Visigothic kingdom for his young grandson
Amalaric.
524 Theodoric has the philosopher Boethius and his
father-in-law Symmachus put to death for their efforts on
behalf of Albinus.
526 Death of Theodoric. His young grandson =Athalaric=
succeeds under regency of his mother, Amalasuntha.
534 Athalaric dies of the plague. =Theodatus= or =Theodahad=,
a nephew of Theodoric, is elected king. He murders Athalaric’s
mother, and in consequence brings on a war with the empire.
536 Theodatus defeated by Belisarius and killed by his own
soldiers. =Witiges= is elected king. Belisarius continues the
war against the Ostrogoths.
537-538 Siege of Rome by Belisarius.
540 Witiges captured by Belisarius and taken to Constantinople
where he dies three years later. =Theodebald= or =Hildibald=
elected.
541 Theodebald gains a victory over Belisarius, but is
murdered by his body-guard, and =Eraric= succeeds him. He
enters into negotiations with Justinian, which displeases his
subjects, and =Totila= or =Baduila= is elected in his place.
542 Totila captures Naples.
546 Totila captures Rome. Belisarius recovers it the following
year.
552 Narses replaces Belisarius in Italy. Defeat and death of
Totila at battle of Taginæ. =Theias= or =Teias= is elected
king.
553 Defeat and death of Theias at the Draco. The Ostrogoths
conclude the war on condition that they be allowed to leave
Italy. Failure of the expedition of the Alamannian leaders,
Leutharis and Butilin, to oppose Narses. Italy once more
becomes part of the Roman Empire.
THE EXARCHATE OVER ALL ITALY (553-568 A.D.)
553 =Narses= rules Italy in the Byzantine emperors’ names as
an exarch. He holds court at Ravenna.
562 Narses takes Verona and Brixia (Brescia).
565 Narses recalled to Constantinople by an insulting message
from the empress. It is said that on account of this he
invites the Lombard chief, Alboin, to seize Italy. =Longinus=
succeeds him.
568 Invasion of Alboin, the king of the Lombards, assisted
by the Gepids. He wrests northern and central Italy as far
as the Tiber from the Byzantines. Venice, Ravenna, Genoa and
the Liguria, Naples, and southern Italy except Beneventum,
continue to form the exarchate, and their history is part of
the eastern division of the empire. We must now distinguish
three centres of rule in Italy--Pavia, the Lombard capital;
Ravenna, the strong seat of the Byzantine exarchate, while at
Rome, to which the Lombard power is only feebly extended, the
pope is fast acquiring strength and influence.
THE LOMBARD KINGDOM OF ITALY (568-774 A.D.)
=Alboin=, before his invasion of Italy, had conquered the
Gepids with the aid of the Avars (567). Then together with the
Gepids he sweeps down upon Italy in 568.
571 Capture of Pavia after a three years’ resistance. Alboin
makes it his capital.
573 Murder of Alboin by his wife, Rosamund, because, it is
said, he attempts to make her drink from the skull of her
father, the Gepid king. =Cleph= succeeds. He extends the
Lombard conquests into southern Italy.
575 Cleph is assassinated, and the dukes do not elect another
sovereign for ten years. No central power.
584 Election of =Authari=, son of Cleph, to the throne.
588 Smaragdus, the Byzantine exarch, forms a coalition of the
Franks, Romans, and Avars to destroy the Lombards. It comes to
nothing. The Lombards begin to be converted to orthodoxy.
590 =Agilulf= succeeds Authari. Territory in northeast Italy,
including Cremona, conquered from the exarch. Continuance of
conversion to orthodox Catholicism by Gregory the Great.
593 Agilulf threatens to invade Rome, but is bought off by
Gregory.
615 =Adalwald= succeeds his father; he is poisoned, and
625 =Ariwald= elected. He is an Arian.
636 =Rothari= succeeds to the throne. He conquers Genoa and
the Liguria from the exarchate.
642 The exarch and the Romans suffer a great defeat at hands
of Rothari on the banks of the Scultenna (Tanaro).
644 Publication of the Lombard code of laws.
652 =Rodwald= succeeds his father.
653 Assassination of Rodwald. =Aribert I=, a Bavarian, elected
king. He proscribes Arianism.
661 Aribert succeeded by his sons =Perctarit= and =Godebert=.
662 =Grimwald=, duke of Benevento, usurps the throne. He
completes conversion of the Lombards.
671 =Perctarit= reinstated.
686 Death of Perctarit. His son =Cunincbert= succeeds.
700 =Liutbert= succeeds. Is dethroned by
701 =Raginbert=. =Aribert II= also king the same year.
712 =Ansprand= defeats Aribert in battle and takes throne.
Death of Ansprand. =Liutprand=, his son, succeeds. Liutprand
is a great prince and sets out to complete the subjugation of
Italy, but succeeds only in breaking up the independence of
the two southern duchies of Spoleto and Benevento.
726 On account of iconoclastic controversy, Gregory II allies
himself with Liutprand and throws off allegiance to the
Byzantine Empire. The autonomy of Rome is established.
728 Liutprand captures Classis near Ravenna, but the exarch
Eutychius retakes it the following year. The pope appeals to
Charles Martel for aid against the Lombards in vain.
744 Liutprand’s nephew =Hildebrand= succeeds on his death,
but is shortly deposed and =Ratchis= made king. He continues
Liutprand’s plan of conquest but is also deposed,
749 and enters a monastery. His brother =Aistulf= succeeds.
751 Aistulf captures Ravenna. The Byzantine Empire loses all
possessions in central Italy. Pepin, Austrasian mayor of the
palace, responds to the continued appeals of the pope for
assistance against the Lombards.
753 Pepin forces Aistulf to sue for peace.
755 Aistulf violates peace and with the northern and
Beneventine Lombards attacks Rome. Pepin comes a second
time, and forces Aistulf to relinquish all his acquisitions.
Ravenna, Pentapolis, and other territory turned over to the
pope, and the first foundations of the papal states are
laid. The Byzantine possessions are confined to southern
Italy. Venice remains independent though nominally subject to
Constantinople.
756 Death of Aistulf. =Desiderius=, duke of Tuscany, succeeds.
He allies himself with the Greeks against the pope and the
dukes of Spoleto and Benevento.
771 On accession of Pope Adrian I, quarrels with papacy break
out. Desiderius plunders the territory of Rome. Adrian appeals
to Charlemagne, who is Desiderius’ father-in-law, for help.
774 Charlemagne captures Desiderius in Pavia, and assumes
title of king of the Lombards. End of the Lombard kingdom. The
Lombards become incorporated with the Italian population, and
their country is one of the great provinces of Italy, until
the Lombard cities regain their independence (1183).
THE FRANKISH KINGS AND EMPERORS IN NORTH AND CENTRAL ITALY (774-888 A.D.)
774-781 =Charlemagne (Charles the Great)= remains the king of
the Lombards. The pope retains the territory granted him by
Pepin.
780 The pope summons Charles against a coalition of the
Byzantines and the dukes of Spoleto and Benevento.
781 Charlemagne crowns his son =Pepin= “king of Italy.” This
is the first time the title is used.
786 Charlemagne reduces Arichis of Benevento to subjection.
The Italian dominions now extend to Calabria, although
Benevento never becomes entirely dependent.
800 Coronation of Charlemagne as emperor.
812 Death of Pepin. His son =Bernhard= succeeds.
817 The emperor Louis I, le Débonnaire, arranges for his
succession, which arrangement does not please Bernhard and
he rebels. =Louis= captures Bernhard, puts out his eyes, and
takes the crown of Italy. Death of Bernhard.
822 Louis makes his son =Lothair I= king of Italy.
840 Death of Louis.
843 At Treaty of Verdun, Lothair confirmed as emperor,
receives Italy as part of his kingdom.
844 =Louis II=, son of Lothair, is crowned king of Italy.
850 Louis shares the imperial dignity with his father.
855 Lothair gives up the reins of government, and retiring to
a monastery, dies same year.
875 On death of Louis, his uncle =Charles the Bald= invades
Italy and seizes the crown. The pope crowns him emperor.
877 The pope summons Charles to drive the Saracens from Italy,
but he dies on the way. =Carloman of Bavaria=, son of Ludwig
the German, seizes the crown of Italy.
879 On death of Carloman the crown comes to his brother
=Charles the Fat=.
888 Deposition of Charles the Fat. The empire which, during
his reign, has been restored to the extent of Charlemagne’s
dominions is again sundered.
THE QUASI-ITALIAN SUCCESSION (888-962 A.D.)
888 Italy (excepting, of course, the papal dominions and
the territory under control of the Byzantine Empire) is now
divided between Berengar of Friuli (grandson of Louis le
Débonnaire) and Guido of Spoleto. The estate of Lombardy
chooses =Berengar I= king.
889 =Guido=, disappointed in his hopes of obtaining the crown
of France, returns to Italy and drives Berengar into Germany.
891 Guido and his son Lambert crowned emperors by Pope
Formosus.
894 Death of Guido. His son =Lambert= succeeds as sole emperor.
896 The East Frankish king Arnulf invades Italy on request of
the exiled Berengar, and is crowned emperor.
898 Death of Lambert. Berengar regains his kingdom. During
these struggles the Saracens make frequent incursions into
Italy.
900 The Magyars invade Italy and badly defeat Berengar. This
is the cause of much dissatisfaction with Berengar among the
nobles.
901 =Louis of Provence= invades Italy, and is crowned emperor
=Louis III= by Benedict IV. Berengar flees to Germany, but
returns and regains possession of his kingdom the following
year (902).
905 After many struggles Berengar captures Louis and puts out
his eyes.
915 Berengar crowned emperor by John X in reward for exertions
against the Saracens.
921 Conspiracy of nobles against Berengar; the crown offered
to Rudolf II of Burgundy. Berengar calls in aid of the Magyars.
924 The people of Verona, disgusted at Berengar’s alliance,
slay him. The Hungarians pillage Pavia and withdraw from
Italy. =Rudolf of Burgundy= succeeds.
926 Rudolf retires to Burgundy, owing to lack of support in
Italy. =Hugo=, count of Arles, is placed on the throne by a
powerful party.
931 Hugo associates his son, =Lothair II=, in the kingship.
They are little more than puppets in the hands of a
demoralised aristocracy. Hugo fails in attempt to obtain
imperial dignity. He renounces his possessions in Provence to
Rudolf on condition that the latter make no further attempts
upon Italy.
946 Berengar, marquis of Ivrea, takes up arms against Hugo on
account of his tyranny and oppression. Hugo dethroned. Lothair
retains title, but Berengar is real ruler.
950 Death of Lothair. =Berengar II= and his son =Adalbert= are
elected kings of Italy. Berengar tries to compel Adelheid,
widow of Lothair, to marry Adalbert. On her refusal he treats
her most cruelly.
951 On account of Adelheid’s wrongs Otto I, the East Frankish
king, invades Italy and compels the two kings to become his
vassals. Otto marries Adelheid.
962 Deposition of Berengar and Adalbert. Otto crowned emperor.
The kingdoms of Italy and Germany (East Francia) are united.
THE FIRST KINGDOM OF BURGUNDY (413-534 A.D.)
The Burgundians, a Gothic tribe, invade Gaul in 275, but are
driven out by the emperor Probus. Returning in 287 they settle
on the Neckar and the Rhine, and
413 they establish a kingdom with =Gundicar=, their leader, as king.
436 =Gunderis= succeeds his father. He extends the kingdom,
which reaches from the Saône and lower Rhone and from Dijon,
to the Mediterranean.
470 The kingdom is divided among Gunderis’ four sons:
=Chilperic=, =Gundobald=, =Godegisil=, and =Gondemar=, but it
is soon reunited under Gundobald, who makes the Burgundian
code of laws.
516 =Sigismund= succeeds his father, Gundobald, and he in turn
is succeeded by =Gundimar=.
534 Conquest of the kingdom of Burgundy by the sons of Clovis.
It forms a part of the Frankish kingdom.
561 The Frankish kingdom is redivided among the sons of
Clotaire. Burgundy a separate kingdom until 613 (see
Merovingian kings).
THE SECOND KINGDOM OF BURGUNDY OR ARLES (879-1032 A.D.)
When Carloman seizes the kingdom of Italy in 877 he compels
Boson, the imperial governor of Charles the Bald, to retire
to France, where he possesses himself of Provence and
neighbouring territories.
879 =Boson= founds the kingdom Cisjuran or Lower Burgundy with
capital at Arles.
882 Boson compelled to recognise Charles the Fat as his
suzerain.
887 Death of Boson. His son =Louis= succeeds for three years
under his mother’s regency.
888 =Rudolf I=, a Guelf count, establishes the kingdom of
Transjuran or Upper Burgundy. His country consists of modern
Switzerland as far east as the Reuss.
901 Louis of Provence, or Cisjuran Burgundy, invades Italy and
is crowned emperor Louis III.
905 Berengar regains possession of Italy and puts out Louis’
eyes. Louis returns to Arles.
911 Death of Rudolf I of Upper Burgundy. His son. =Rudolf II=,
succeeds.
921 Rudolf invited to invade Italy. He is proclaimed king. He
becomes real ruler on death of Berengar, 924.
925 Hugo, count of Arles, who is ruling in the name of the
blind Louis, compels Rudolf to retire and takes the throne of
Italy.
927 Death of Louis. =Hugo= succeeds him.
931 Hugo exchanges the Cisjuran kingdom for Rudolf’s claim on
Italy. The Cisjuran and Transjuran kingdoms of Burgundy become
united under Rudolf.
937 Death of Rudolf. His son =Conrad= succeeds.
993 Death of Conrad. His son, =Rudolf III=, succeeds.
1016 Rudolf cedes the kingdom to the emperor Henry II, but is
to remain in possession until his death.
1032 Death of Rudolf. The kingdom claimed by Eudes, count
of Champagne. But the emperor, Conrad II, causes himself to
be crowned king of Burgundy, and the next year, on death
of Eudes, enters into peaceful possession of the country.
Burgundy becomes part of the Holy Roman Empire.
THE KINGDOM OF THURINGIA
The Thuringians in the fourth and fifth century have an
extensive kingdom from the Elbe to the Danube. In 531, when
=Hermanfrid= is king, they are attacked by the Merovingian
Franks (sons of Clovis) and the Saxons who become allied for
this purpose. Hermanfrid is defeated and slain. The northern
part of the kingdom is taken by the Saxons and the southern
becomes Frankish territory.
THE KINGDOM OF THE SALIC FRANKS OR MEROVINGIANS (486-751 A.D.)
The Salic Franks or Merovingians, together with the Ripuarian
Franks, have, by the beginning of the fifth century, settled
along the Rhine and its tributaries from Mainz to the sea.
They serve in the legions of the empire. In 406 they offer
great resistance to the Vandals, Suevi, and Alani, who cross
the Rhine and finally settle in Spain. The Salians begin to
spread over northern Gaul, and in 429, under their chief
=Clodion=, they win a great battle at Cambray and reach the
Loire.
447 =Merovæus= or =Mérovée=, son-in-law of Clodion, succeeds
as chief.
451 The Franks lend assistance to Aëtius, the Roman general,
at his victory over Attila at Châlons.
458 =Childeric=, son of Merovæus, succeeds as the Salic chief.
481 =Clovis=, son of Childeric, succeeds at age of fifteen.
486 Clovis attacks the Romans under Syagirus at Soissons in
northern Gaul. His great victory destroys the last vestiges
of Roman power in the country, and the Salic kingdom is
established. Clovis makes Soissons his capital.
493 Clovis marries Clotilda, a Christian princess.
496 Victory of Clovis over the Alamanni. Conversion of Clovis
and the Franks to orthodox Christianity.
507 Clovis defeats the Visigoths at the great battle of
Voulon, and kills Alaric the king. He now possesses the
country from the Loire to the Pyrenees, and transfers his
capital to Paris, where he occupies himself with securing his
kingdom by destruction of all powerful neighbours, showing
neither scruple nor pity.
511 Promulgation of the Salic law. Death of Clovis and
division of the kingdom among his four sons.
(1) =Theodoric= or =Thierry I= takes the northeastern part
(afterwards Austrasia), capital at Metz.
(2) =Childebert I=, the central district, capital Paris.
(3) =Clodomir=, western Gaul along the Loire, capital Orleans.
(4) =Clotaire=, the old Salic land, capital Soissons.
In spite of the division, national unity is maintained, and
the Franks continue their attacks on their neighbours on all
sides.
524 Death of Clodomir in battle. His brothers seize his
possessions.
531 Conquest of the Thuringians.
532 Conquest of the kingdom of Burgundy.
534 Death of Theodoric. =Theudebert= succeeds at Metz.
548 =Theudebald= succeeds Theudebert at Metz.
555 Clotaire takes possession of Theudebald’s kingdom.
558 On death of Childebert, Clotaire becomes sole ruler of the
reunited kingdom. First application of the Salic law.
561 Death of Clotaire. The kingdom again divided.
(1) =Charibert= rules at Paris.
(2) =Gontram= at Orleans.
(3) =Sigebert= at Metz.
(4) =Chilperic= at Soissons.
567 Death of Charibert. Chilperic of Soissons seizes
Charibert’s kingdom. The three Frankish kingdoms now take
definite form. They are known as (1) Austrasia, capital
Rheims. (2) Burgundy, capital Orleans. (3) Neustria, capital
Soissons. The family division leads to terrible feuds, in
which Austrasia and Neustria take the principal parts.
Burgundy is weak and sides first with one and then the other.
The office of mayor of the palace rises to importance. The
Benedictines come from Italy and help to keep culture alive.
575 Sigebert of Austrasia, at war with Chilperic, is killed
by assassins hired by Chilperic’s wife Fredegund. His son
=Childebert II= succeeds.
584 Assassination of Chilperic of Neustria (called the “Nero
and Herod of his time”) probably at instigation of Fredegund.
His infant son =Clotaire II= succeeds under regency of
Fredegund who has had Chilperic’s sons by a former wife put to
death.
593 Death of Gontram of Burgundy. By his will the kingdom
passes to his nephew Childebert II of Austrasia.
596 Death of Childebert II. His young sons =Theodoric= or
=Thierry II= and =Theudebert II= take the crowns of Burgundy
and Austrasia respectively under regency of their grandmother
Brunehild. A terrible feud between Fredegund and Brunehild
begins.
598 On Fredegund’s death, =Brunehild= seizes almost the whole
of Neustria. She aims to make the power of Austrasia secure
against the nobles, who, with Arnulf bishop of Metz, and Pepin
of Landen (ancestor of the Carlovingians), wages war with her.
613 In battle with the nobles and Clotaire II, Brunehild’s
army deserts her. She is captured and put to death by torture,
also Theudebert’s sons and =Sigebert II=, successor of
Theodoric II. Clotaire II becomes sole king of the Franks, but
the real power has now passed to the mayors of the palace, to
which title the race of the Pepins have acquired an hereditary
claim in Austrasia. The rest of the Merovingians are known as
“les rois fainéants.”
628 On death of Clotaire his son =Dagobert I= succeeds. The
Merovingian power is now at its height.
638 Death of Dagobert, who divides the kingdom between his two
young sons.
(1) =Clovis II= receives Burgundy and Neustria.
(2) =Sigebert III= receives Austrasia.
654 Death of Sigebert. His son Dagobert is sent to Ireland and
reported dead. Clovis rules the whole Frankish kingdom.
656 Death of Clovis. His son =Clotaire III= receives Neustria
and Burgundy, and another son, =Childeric II=, receives
Austrasia.
670 Death of Clotaire, without issue. Childeric annexes his
possessions.
673 Assassination of Childeric, his wife and son. His brother
=Theodoric=, or =Thierry III=, succeeds.
674 =Dagobert II= returns from Ireland and seizes the kingdom
of Austrasia.
679 Assassination of Dagobert. The struggle for the supremacy
between Neustria and Austrasia is now entirely between Ebroin,
mayor of the palace of Neustria, and Martin and =Pepin of
Heristal= of Austrasia. The kings have lost all vestige of
ruling power.
681 Assassination of Ebroin succeeded by Berthar, who is too
weak to resist Pepin of Heristal.
687 Victory of Pepin of Heristal over Berthar at Textri. End
of the struggle between the two Frankish powers. =Pepin of
Heristal= real monarch of the Franks. He assumes title of dux
and princeps Francorum.
691 Death of Thierry III. His young son =Clovis III= succeeds
as nominal king.
695 Death of Clovis. His brother =Childebert (III) the Just=
becomes nominal king.
711 =Dagobert III= succeeds his father as nominal king.
714 Death of Pepin of Heristal. He leaves the kingdom to
his grandson under guardianship of =Plectrudis= his widow.
Plectrudis imprisons Pepin’s natural son Charles. A state of
confusion at once arises. Neustria shakes off the yoke and
Austrasia is assailed on all sides. The Austrasians release
=Charles Martel= from prison and make him the ruler of the
Franks.
715 Death of Dagobert. =Chilperic II=, son of Childeric II,
succeeds.
717 Charles defeats the Neustrians at Vincy, and drives back
the invading Saxons from the Rhine. Chilperic is deposed by
Charles, and =Clotaire IV=, of obscure origin, is made king.
720 Death of Clotaire, and recall of Chilperic who dies
shortly after. Charles now invests =Theodoric= or =Thierry
IV=, a son of Dagobert III, with the title of royalty.
732 Battle of Tours (or Poitiers). Charles goes to the aid of
Duke Eudes of Aquitania, who has been invaded by the Saracens,
and drives them back to Spain.
737 On death of Thierry IV, Charles makes no attempt to
appoint a new king. He continues warfare upon his foes.
741 Death of Charles Martel, leaving the power to his two sons
=Pepin le Bref= and =Carloman=.
742 =Childeric (III) the Stupid=, son of Chilperic II, is
allowed to assume the name and form of royalty. War with the
Alamanni and other hostile peoples continued.
747 Carloman renounces his principality, the Germanic part of
the kingdom (Austrasia, Swabia, and Thuringia), and becomes a
Benedictine monk. Pepin le Bref sole ruler.
751 Deposition of Childeric who is placed in a monastery.
Pepin is raised to title of king and confirmed by the pope.
THE CARLOVINGIAN KINGS (751-800 A.D.)
751 =Pepin= king of the Franks. He conducts a successful
campaign against the Saxons. Campaign against Aistulf of
Lombardy.
755 Pepin proceeds a second time against Aistulf, who violates
peace, and compels him to relinquish Ravenna, Emilia, the
Pentapolis, and the duchy of Rome to the pope. This “Donation
of Pepin” is the foundation of the pope’s temporal power.
758 Capture of Narbonne, the Saracen capital. The Mohammedans
driven out. Pepin overruns Aquitania.
768 Death of Pepin, leaving the kingdom to his two sons
=Charlemagne= and =Carloman=.
771 Death of Carloman. Charlemagne proclaimed sole ruler. He
suppresses a rising in Aquitania, and makes his son Louis king.
772 Beginning of conquest and conversion of the Saxons--a
thirty years’ struggle. Storming of Ehresburg. Overthrow of
the idol, Irmincul, which compels the Westphalian Saxons to
submit.
774 Charlemagne, who has been summoned to Italy by Pope Adrian
I, whom Desiderius the Lombard king is attacking, captures
Desiderius at Pavia and assumes the crown of Lombardy. The
Saxons expel the Frankish garrisons and renew their ravages.
776 Charlemagne makes his son Pepin king of Italy.
777 The Saxons are apparently subdued after two campaigns. At
Paderborn Charlemagne receives their homage. Large numbers of
them are baptised. Charles visits Spain to receive homage.
778 On the return from Spain the rear guard under command
of Roland is attacked at Roncesvalles and Roland slain. The
Saxons, aided by the Danes, break out in revolt.
779 Charlemagne again subdues the Saxons, but as soon as he
leaves the country they rebel.
782 Great massacre of the Saxons at Verdun.
785 The Saxons again quieted. Conversion of Wittikind, the
leader, and his followers. Germany becomes Christian.
788 Bavaria incorporated in Charlemagne’s dominions.
791-798 Campaigns against the Avars ending in their conquest.
Pannonia added to the kingdom. The Danes, Wends, and Czechs
also become subjects. The duke of Benevento is obliged to give
homage. Charles’ rule extends from the Eider to Sicily and
from the Ebro to the Theiss. Fresh revolts among the Saxons.
799 Pope Leo III expelled from Rome seeks Charlemagne’s camp
at Paderborn. The king restores him to Rome.
THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE AND THE KINGDOM OF EAST FRANCIA (800-961 A.D.)
800 =Charlemagne= crowned emperor of the Romans by Leo on
Christmas eve.
801 Harun ar-Rashid sends an embassy with presents to
Charlemagne.
804 New revolts among the Saxons and Danes suppressed. The
Saxons are finally conquered. Gottfried, king of Denmark,
invades Frankish provinces.
808 Defeat of the Danes by Charles son of Charlemagne.
810 Charlemagne proceeds against Gottfried in person. Murder
of Gottfried by his servants and peace with the Danes.
813 Charlemagne crowns his sole surviving son =Louis (I) le
Débonnaire=, emperor.
814 Death of Charlemagne. Louis succeeds to the whole empire
except Italy, which is in the hands of Pepin’s son Bernhard.
817 Louis declares his eldest son, Lothair, his successor
to the empire, giving him Austrasia and the greater part of
Germany. Pepin receives Aquitania, and Ludwig Bavaria and
adjacent province. Dissatisfied at this Bernhard of Italy
rebels. He is captured and blinded by Louis and the kingdom
given to Lothair (820).
829 Louis re-divides the empire in favour of his youngest son
Charles (born 823). This dissatisfies the three other sons,
and civil war breaks out.
833 Capture of Louis by his sons on the Field of Lies at
Compiègne.
834 Louis released by his son Ludwig and placed again on
throne.
838 Death of Pepin. Lothair and Charles divide his share of
the empire, which causes Ludwig to rebel against them.
840 Death of Louis in the midst of the civil war. His son
=Lothair I= succeeds to the title of emperor, and claims right
to govern the whole of the empire. His brothers Ludwig and
Charles combine against him.
841 Defeat of Lothair at Fontenay, leading to
843 Treaty of Verdun, dividing the empire among the brothers
as follows:
(1) =Lothair I= retains imperial title. He receives Italy, and
the centre of the Frankish lands--a narrow strip reaching to
the North Sea, Provence, and the greater part of Burgundy.
(2) =Ludwig the German=, the eastern part of the Frankish
lands between the Rhine and Elbe.
(2) =Charles the Bald=, the western lands, Neustria,
Aquitania, North Burgundy, Septimania, and the Spanish March.
The history of France, distinct from Germany, begins.
Lothair’s territory north of Italy is called the kingdom of
Lotharingia or Lorraine.
849 Lothair associates his son Louis II in the empire.
850 Lothair divides his possessions among his three sons.
(1) Louis II (emperor) receives Italy (see Italy).
(2) Lothair II receives Lorraine. He cedes Alsace to the
emperor Louis II.
(3) Charles receives Provence, etc.
Death of Lothair I.
858 Ludwig the German attacks dominions of Charles the Bald,
but is obliged to retreat.
863 Death of Charles of Provence. His kingdom is divided
between the emperor Louis and Lothair II of Lorraine.
869 Death of Lothair. Charles the Bald seizes Lorraine and has
himself crowned.
870 Treaty of Mersen between Charles the Bald and Ludwig the
German. Ludwig takes the eastern half of Lothair’s kingdom,
and Charles the western.
875 Ludwig the German expects the imperial crown on death of
Louis II. Charles the Bald obtains it, and Ludwig prepares to
avenge his wrongs.
876 Death of Ludwig the German. His three sons amicably divide
the kingdom.
(1) =Carloman= takes Bavaria, Bohemia, and the eastern
provinces.
(2) =Ludwig= or =Louis III= takes Saxony, Franconia,
Friesland, and northern Lorraine.
(3) =Charles the Fat=, the remainder.
The emperor, Charles the Bald, attempts to seize Ludwig’s
territory, upon which Carloman of Bavaria seizes the crown of
Italy.
877 Death of Charles the Bald, and beginning of struggle
between Ludwig III and Carloman for the imperial crown.
880 Death of Carloman. His natural son Arnulf claims the
Bavarian crown, but being satisfied with the gift of
Carinthia, it is given to Ludwig. Charles the Fat seizes Italy
and
881 Is crowned emperor by Pope John VIII.
882 Death of Ludwig without issue. The entire dominion of
Germany becomes vested in Charles the Fat.
884 Charles becomes king of France (see France). The entire
empire of Charlemagne (with the exception of Arles) is once
more united under one ruler, but he proves utterly unfit for
his charge and
887 After the disgraceful treaty with the Northmen (see
France) he is deposed at Tribur and dies almost immediately
afterward.
East Francia (afterwards Germany), West Francia (France),
and Italy are once more divided. The East Franks or Germans
elect =Arnulf of Carinthia=, illegitimate son of Carloman of
Bavaria, as their king.
891 Arnulf defeats the Northmen at Loewen.
893 He allies himself with the Magyars or Hungarians, a
Finnish tribe that has made its way into Hungary from the Ural
region, for a campaign against the king of Moravia. He is only
partially successful, and opens a way for the Magyar invasion
of western Europe.
895 Arnulf seizes the West Frankish province of Lorraine and
makes it into a kingdom for his natural son Zwentibold.
896 Arnulf invades Italy in the interests of the exiled king
Berengar I. He defeats the emperor Lambert and restores
Berengar. The pope crowns him emperor, which title he holds
without dispute on death of Lambert (898).
899 Death of Arnulf. His six-year-old son =Ludwig (IV) the
Child= becomes king of East Francia (Germany). He is under the
influence of Hatto, archbishop of Mainz.
900 Revolt of the subjects of Zwentibold. He is killed by the
rebels, and Lorraine passes to Ludwig.
908 The Magyar invasion begins to assume serious proportions.
910 Ludwig defeated by the Magyars on the Lech.
911 Death of Ludwig--the last Carlovingian prince in Germany.
The feudal system has now become firmly established in Germany
and the royal power is but a shadow of that exercised by
the early Carlovingians. The crown is refused by Otto the
Illustrious of Saxony and =Conrad I= duke of Franconia is
elected king.
911-918 The Danes, Slavs, and Magyars continue their invasion.
The duke of Lotharingia or Lorraine transfers his allegiance
to the king of France. Conrad sends armies to France but is
unable to prevent the loss of Lorraine. He struggles against
the rising power of the dukes, especially with that of Henry
of Saxony--a quarrel forced by the clergy. Conrad repents of
this and on his death-bed advises election of Henry as his
successor.
918 On death of Conrad =Henry (I) the Fowler= is elected king
of East Francia. The Saxon line begins and the German monarchy
is founded. Henry is a wise and great ruler. In the first year
of his reign he obtains acknowledgment of his supremacy from
the refractory dukes of Swabia and Bavaria.
924 Henry makes a nine years’ truce with the still troublesome
Magyars, and pays them yearly tribute.
925 Lorraine is again added to Germany to which it belongs for
the next eight centuries.
929 Victory at Lenzen over Wends and Danes.
933 On expiration of truce, Henry refuses further tribute to
the Magyars. They make a fresh inroad but are totally defeated
by Henry in Thuringia.
936 Henry prepares to go to Rome to claim the imperial crown
won by no German since Arnulf. He dies before he can get
started. His son by Matilda, =Otto (I) the Great=, is elected
to succeed him.
937 An attempted Magyar invasion is repelled, and the invaders
turn off into France.
938 Otto quells rebellion of the dukes of Bavaria and
Franconia and his own half brother Thankmar, who falls at the
battle on the Eresburg.
939 Rebellion of Otto’s brother Henry aided by the duke of
Lorraine. They are defeated at Birten, and call on French for
help.
941 Henry, forgiven, becomes a firm ally of Otto, and is made
duke of Bavaria (946).
944 Otto makes Conrad the Red, duke of Lorraine.
948 Otto appoints his son, Ludolf, duke of Swabia.
946-950 Otto interferes in the civil wars of France.
950 Successful war with the Wends. Submission of the duke of
Bohemia.
951 First expedition of Otto into Italy to avenge wrongs of
Adelheid. Marriage of Otto and Adelheid. Berengar II submits
to Otto.
953 Rebellion of Ludolf and Conrad.
954 First invasion of the Magyars, joined by the rebels.
Ludolf and Conrad submit but are deprived of their duchies.
Subjection of Bavaria by Henry.
955 Great victory over the Hungarians on the Lechfeld. They
do not again invade Germany. Otto conducts a victorious
expedition against the Wends. The Bavarian Ostmark (afterwards
duchy of Austria) re-established.
961 The pope appeals to Otto for help against Berengar II.
Otto goes to Italy and deposes Berengar and Adalbert. Otto’s
son Otto II crowned king of Germany.
962 Otto crowned emperor by John XII. Union of the German
kingdom and the empire.
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
THE SAXON EMPERORS (962-1024 A.D.)
Otto discards title of _Rex Francorum Orientalium_ for that of
_Imperator Augustus_. The pope realises that Otto will be a
hard master and allies himself with the deposed Adalbert.
963 Otto captures Rome and deposes John XII. Leo VIII is
elected in his place.
964 The Romans rebel and replace John. Berengar compelled to
surrender in an attempt to recover Italy. Death of John and
election of Benedict V. Otto takes Rome a second time and
restores Leo VIII. He returns to Germany carrying Benedict
with him.
967 Otto avenges the deposition of Leo’s successor, John XIII,
by great cruelty to the Romans. Otto summons Otto II to Rome,
where John XIII gives him the imperial crown. Two great maxims
of the empire are established.
(1) The election of the pope to be invalid without consent of
emperor.
(2) The German king to be king of Italy and Rome, though not
to assume imperial title until crowned by the pope.
968 Invasion of the Greek provinces by Otto on account of
difficulties over the marriage arrangements of Otto II and
Theophano, daughter of the Byzantine emperor. The matter is
pacifically arranged on accession of Joannes Zimisces.
973 Death of Otto I. =Otto II= sole possessor of the royal and
imperial titles.
976 Conspiracy of Otto’s cousin, Henry the Wrangler, of
Bavaria, who has caused himself to be crowned at Ratisbon. He
is defeated and deposed.
977 War with France over Lorraine. Narrow escape of Otto at
Aachen.
980 Peace with France. Otto holds Lorraine as a benefice of
France.
981 Otto goes to Rome to settle internecine quarrels.
982 Otto invades southern Italy in an attempt to conquer the
Byzantine provinces. After a victory he encounters defeat by
the Greeks and their Saracen allies in Calabria.
983 The Danes and Wends successfully invade the northern
provinces. Death of Otto. His three-year-old son =Otto III=
succeeds as king of Germany and Italy. Theophano conducts
regency in Germany, and Adelheid in Italy.
991 Death of Theophano. Adelheid and Willigis, archbishop of
Cologne, assume regency in Germany.
995 Otto takes up conduct of affairs.
996 Otto summoned to Rome on account of difficulties between
the Pope and Crescentius, the Roman consul. Coronation of Otto
as emperor by Gregory V. Crescentius swears obedience to Otto,
but breaks his oath.
998 Otto comes a second time to Rome and puts Crescentius to
death.
999 Otto and Pope Silvester II plan for a great union of the
Eastern and Western Empires under Otto.
1000 A widespread belief that the world will end this year
brings great troops of pilgrims to Rome. Poland acknowledges
the supremacy of the emperor.
1001 Revolt of the Romans.
1002 Death of Otto. The nobles and bishops of Italy at once
choose =Arduin=, marquis of Ivrea, king of Italy. He is
crowned at Pavia. The Germans, after a bitter contest, elect
=Henry II=, son of Henry the Wrangler, king of Germany.
1004 Henry, having pacified Germany, marches against the
unpopular Arduin, is proclaimed king of Italy and crowned. The
Germans burn Pavia. War with Poland compels Henry to return to
Germany without reducing Arduin.
Boleslaw, duke of Poland, has seized Bohemia, and Henry
compels him to give it up, but Boleslaw continues to wage
war for some years. War with Flanders. Baldwin reduced to
submission, but he obtains the country of Valenciennes and a
large part of Zeeland.
1014 Henry proceeds a second time against Arduin, who gives up
resistance and retires to a monastery. Coronation of Henry as
emperor at Rome.
1015 The Normans settle in southern Italy.
1016 Rudolf III of Burgundy surrenders his crown to Henry,
holding the kingdom until his death.
1018 Peace made with Poland.
1021 Henry proceeds against the Byzantines in southern Italy.
The newly arrived Normans assist him. Capua and Salerno are
reduced, but the plague compels him to withdraw (1022). Henry
exhorts the Lombards and Normans to expel the Greeks.
1024 Death of Henry without issue.
THE FRANCONIAN OR SALIAN EMPERORS (1024-1137 A.D.)
1024 Election of =Conrad II= of Carinthia to the kingship of
Germany. Insurrection in Pavia. The crown of Italy offered to
various French nobles, but they refuse it.
1025 Revolt of Duke Ernst of Swabia.
1026 Conrad proceeds to Italy. Crowned king of Italy at Milan.
Pavia and Ravenna reduced to submission by force.
1027 Coronation of Conrad as emperor. Schleswig abandoned to
the Danes.
1030 Disastrous invasion of the Poles. Ten thousand Germans
carried to Poland.
1031 Conrad forces Poles to restore captives and reunites
Lusatia to the empire.
1033 Conrad unites Burgundy to the empire after a struggle
with a claimant, Count Eudes of Champagne.
1035 Civil war in Lombardy brings Conrad to Italy.
1037 Promulgation of the feudal edict of Conrad. Fruitless
siege of Milan. Conrad withdraws on account of pestilence.
1039 Death of Conrad. His son =Henry III=, already crowned
king of Germany (1026), succeeds. Height of the imperial
power. Civil war in Italy continues.
1041 Campaign against Bretislaw of Bohemia, who offers his
country as a fief of the crown.
1042-1044 Campaign against Hungary where German supremacy is
first asserted. King Peter becomes a vassal of the empire.
1044 Fall of Milan before Henry.
1046 At council of Sutri Henry deposes the three rival popes,
and puts Clement II in the holy see. He also nominates the
three succeeding popes.
1047 Clement crowns Henry emperor. Henry goes to southern
Italy and invests the Normans with the territories they have
conquered. He afterwards repents of this generosity, and helps
Leo IX against the encroaching strangers.
1049 After a long struggle with Gottfried of Lorraine the
duchy is given to Gerhard, the ancestor of the modern house of
Lorraine.
1052 Henry gives up a contest with the great dukes, who
fear he is attempting to bring the duchies under his direct
authority. He besieges Pressburg for ten months, but suddenly
abandons it.
1055 Henry returns to Italy to contend with the powerful duke
of Tuscany.
1056 Death of Henry. His son =Henry IV=, six years old,
succeeds. He has been crowned king two years before. The
empress Agnes is the regent, but she is carefully watched by
Henry, archbishop of Augsburg. Rebellion of Otto of Thuringia,
against the young king, put down.
1062 Hanno, archbishop of Cologne, abducts the king from the
custody of the archbishop of Augsburg. The influence of Agnes
ends. Hanno finds a powerful rival in Adalbert, archbishop of
Bremen, who controls the supreme power in 1065.
1066 Henry assumes the government. Hanno contrives the
banishment of Adalbert.
1069 Recall of Adalbert. Restored to power he influences the
Saxons against Henry.
1072 Death of Adalbert, and revolt of the Saxons.
1073 The Saxons cause Henry to flee from the Harzburg.
Humiliating peace.
1075 Henry defeats the Saxons on the Unstrut. He dictates
his own terms of peace. Henry appeals to Pope Gregory VII to
degrade the prelate, who sided with the rebellious Saxons.
Gregory responds by calling on the king to answer certain
charges brought against him by his subjects. The pope issues a
bull against lay investiture.
1076 Henry calls a council at Worms and declares the pope
deposed. Gregory excommunicates the king, who is suspended
from his royal office by the Diet of Tribur. Beginning of the
war of the investitures--ecclesiastical against the civil
power.
1077 Deserted by many adherents, Henry humbles himself before
the pope at Canossa. The Germans elect =Rudolf of Swabia= king.
1080 After a victory of Rudolf, Gregory recognises him as
king. Henry calls a council of the clergy faithful to him. It
declares Gregory deposed and elects Clement III. Rudolf slain
in battle. Defeat of the army raised by Countess Matilda.
Second excommunication of Henry. He at once lays siege to Rome.
1084 Henry takes possession. Gregory shuts himself up in the
castle of St. Angelo. Coronation of Henry by the anti-pope
Clement III. Robert Guiscard releases Gregory, who dies the
following year, at Salerno.
1085 Defeat of Henry by =Hermann of Luxemburg=, who has been
elected to succeed Rudolf of Swabia.
1087 Resignation of Hermann. =Eckbert of Meissen= elected to
succeed him.
1089 Death of Eckbert. The rebellious faction comes to terms
with Henry.
1090 Henry goes to Rome to support the anti-pope Clement III.
Mantua captured, but in general he is unsuccessful.
1092 Revolt of Henry’s eldest son Conrad, who has been
anointed king of Germany in 1087. Conrad is crowned king
of Italy, and promised the imperial crown by the pope on
condition that he yield on the great question of investitures.
1096 Henry returns to Germany.
1097 The first band of crusaders crosses Germany.
1099 The Germans declare Conrad deposed as king and elect his
brother Henry.
1101 Death of Conrad.
1105 Henry’s son Henry, abetted by Pope Paschal II, rebels
against him. The emperor flees to Liège.
1106 Death of Henry IV. =Henry V= succeeds.
1107 Milan makes herself into a republic.
1110 Assured of the support of the German princes, Henry goes
to Rome to settle the question of investitures. The Treaty of
Sutri, compromising the rights of the church.
1111 The pope refuses to crown Henry on account of this Treaty
of Sutri, and Henry imprisons the pope and cardinals. The pope
is compelled to bestow the imperial crown.
1112 When Henry leaves, the Lateran council declares the
concessions of Sutri invalid and the emperor excommunicated.
1114 Rebellion in Germany headed by Lothair of Saxony and the
archbishops of Mainz and of Cologne.
1115 Victory of the rebels near Mansfeld. Contest with the
pope over the division of the countess Matilda’s estate.
1116 Henry visits Rome, and causes himself to be recrowned in
the absence of Paschal.
1119 Excommunication of Henry and his anti-pope Gregory by
Pope Calixtus II.
1122 War of the investitures settled by the Concordat of
Worms. It is a compromise, but the papacy remains master of
the field. Absolution of Henry.
1125 Henry prepares to attack Rheims, but dies at Nimeguen.
=Lothair II of Saxony= elected to succeed him.
1127 War between Frederick of Swabia and Conrad of Franconia,
nephews of Henry V. Frederick soon yields his claims in favour
of Conrad and the latter enters Lombardy.
1128 Coronation of Conrad as king of Italy.
1130 Alliance of the anti-pope Anacletus and Roger II of
Sicily against Lothair.
1132 Lothair goes to Italy against the alliance and Conrad.
The latter retires.
1133 Coronation of Lothair as emperor by Innocent II. He
receives the allodial possessions of Matilda as a fief from
the pope.
1134 Albrecht the Bear conquers Brandenburg.
1135 Conrad and Frederick submit to the emperor.
1137 Siege of Salerno in campaign of Lothair and Innocent II
against Roger. Roger driven from Italy. Death of Lothair on
his way back to Germany. By this time the supreme power in
Germany has been gradually transferred from the emperor to
the diet, and the fiefs have been converted into hereditary
dominions. End of the Franconian Dynasty.
We interrupt the story of the “Western Empire” or “Holy Roman Empire” at
this point partly as a matter of convenience, partly because the empire
has ceased to be Roman in any traditional sense of the word. In so far
as it remains an empire, it has become essentially German. There is
little unity of interest between the northern and the southern domains.
Later emperors sometimes fail to come to Italy at all; sometimes come as
invaders and conquerors rather than as recognised sovereigns. For a long
time the German domains are by no means securely unified, and the Italian
states are utterly inharmonious. The story of internecine strife in each
of these domains, leading finally, after centuries of contention, to the
development of the Italian kingdom and the Austrian and German empires of
our own day, will be told in later volumes.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER I
ODOACER TO THE TRIUMPH OF NARSES
[476-568 A.D.]
[Sidenote: [476-489 A.D.]]
The unfortunate phrase “Fall of the Western Empire” has given a false
importance to the affair of 476: it is generally thought that the date
marks a great era of the world. But no empire fell in 476; there was no
Western Empire to fall. There was only one Roman Empire, which sometimes
was governed by two or more augusti. If, on the death of Honorius in 423,
there had been no Valentinian to succeed him, and if Theodosius II had
assumed the reins of government over the Western provinces, and if, as is
quite conceivable, no second Augustus had arisen again before the Western
provinces had all passed under the sway of Teutonic rulers, surely no
one would have spoken of the “Fall of the Western Empire.” And yet this
hypothetical case is formally the same as the actual event of 476. The
fact that the union of East and West under Zeno’s name was accompanied
by the rule of the Teuton in Italy has disguised the true aspect. And in
any case it might be said that Julius Nepos was still emperor; he was
acknowledged by Zeno, he was acknowledged in southern Gaul; so that one
might just as legitimately place the “Fall of the Western Empire” in 480,
the year of his death. The Italian provinces were now, like Africa, like
Spain, like the greater part of Gaul, practically an independent kingdom,
but theoretically the Roman Empire was once more as it had been in the
days of Theodosius the Great or in the days of Julian.
When the Count Marcellinus[e] in his _Chronicle_ wrote that on the death
of Aëtius “the Hesperian realm fell,” he could justify his statement
better than those who place 476 among the critical dates of the world’s
history. It is more profitable to recognise the continuity of history
than to impose upon it arbitrary divisions; it is more profitable to
grasp that Odovacar[95] was the successor of Merobaudes, than to dwell
with solemnity on the imaginary fall of an empire.[b]
The humiliation of Rome was completed by the events recorded in the
preceding volume. There was still, no doubt, a legal fiction according
to which Rome and Italy yet belonged to the empire, and were under the
dominion of the successor of Augustus, who reigned not in Old Rome by the
Tiber, but in New Rome by the Thracian Bosporus. In fact, however, one
will was supreme in Italy, the will of the tall barbarian who in sordid
dress once strode into the cell of Severinus, the leader of the Herulian
and Rugian mutineers, the conqueror of Pavia, Odoacer.
For thirteen years this soldier of fortune swayed with undisputed mastery
the Roman state. He employed, no doubt, the services of Roman officials
to work the machine of government. He paid a certain deference on many
occasions to the will of his nominal superior, Zeno, the emperor at
Constantinople. He watched, we may be sure much more anxiously, the
shifting currents of opinion among the rough mercenaries who had bestowed
on him the crown, and on whom he had bestowed the third part of the lands
of Italy. But on the whole, and looking at the necessity of concentrated
force in such a precarious state as that which the mercenaries had
founded, we shall probably not be far wrong if we attribute to Odoacer
the effective power, though of course he used not the name, of Autocrat.
The highest praise that can be bestowed on the government of this
adventurer from the Danubian lands is that we hear so little about it.
Some hardship, perhaps even some violence, probably accompanied the
compulsory expropriation of the Romans from one-third of the lands of
Italy. There is some reason for supposing, however, that this would
be in the main only a loss of property, falling on the large landed
proprietors.[c]
Odoacer was the first barbarian who reigned in Italy, over a people who
had once asserted their just superiority above the rest of mankind. The
disgrace of the Romans still excites our respectful compassion, and we
fondly sympathise with the imaginary grief and indignation of their
degenerate posterity. But the calamities of Italy had gradually subdued
the proud consciousness of freedom and glory. In the age of Roman virtue,
the provinces were subject to the arms, and the citizens to the laws, of
the republic; till those laws were subverted by civil discord, and both
the city and the provinces became the servile property of a tyrant. The
forms of the constitution, which alleviated or disguised their abject
slavery, were abolished by time and violence; the Italians alternately
lamented the presence or the absence of the sovereigns whom they detested
or despised; and the succession of five centuries inflicted the various
evils of military license, capricious despotism, and elaborate oppression.
During the same period, the barbarians had emerged from obscurity and
contempt, and the warriors of Germany and Scythia were introduced into
the provinces, as the servants, the allies, and at length the masters,
of the Romans, whom they insulted or protected. The hatred of the people
was suppressed by fear; they respected the spirit and splendour of the
martial chiefs who were invested with the honours of the empire; and
the fate of Rome had long depended on the sword of those formidable
strangers. The stern Ricimer, who trampled on the ruins of Italy, had
exercised the power, without assuming the title, of a king; and the
patient Romans were insensibly prepared to acknowledge the royalty of
Odoacer and his barbaric successors.
The king of Italy was not unworthy of the high station to which his
valour and fortune had exalted him; his savage manners were polished by
the habits of conversation; and he respected, though a conqueror and a
barbarian, the institutions, and even the prejudices, of his subjects.
After an interval of seven years, Odoacer restored the consulship of the
West. For himself, he modestly, or proudly, declined an honour which
was still accepted by the emperors of the East; but the curule chair
was successively filled by eleven of the most illustrious senators; and
the list is adorned by the respectable name of Basilius, whose virtues
claimed the friendship and grateful applause of Sidonius, his client.
The laws of the emperors were strictly enforced, and the civil
administration of Italy was still exercised by the prætorian prefect
and his subordinate officers. Odoacer devolved on the Roman magistrates
the odious and oppressive task of collecting the public revenue; but he
reserved for himself the merit of seasonable and popular indulgence. Like
the rest of the barbarians, he had been instructed in the Arian heresy;
but he revered the monastic and episcopal characters; and the silence of
the Catholics attests the toleration which they enjoyed. The peace of the
city required the interposition of his prefect Basilius in the choice of
a Roman pontiff; the decree which restrained the clergy from alienating
their lands was ultimately designed for the benefit of the people, whose
devotion would have been taxed to repair the dilapidations of the church.
Italy was protected by the arms of its conqueror; and its frontiers were
respected by the barbarians of Gaul and Germany, who had so long insulted
the feeble race of Theodosius. Odoacer passed the Adriatic, to chastise
the assassins of the emperor Nepos, and to acquire the maritime province
of Dalmatia. He passed the Alps, to rescue the remains of Noricum from
Fava, or Feletheus, king of the Rugians, who held his residence beyond
the Danube. The king was vanquished in battle, and led away prisoner; a
numerous colony of captives and subjects was transplanted into Italy; and
Rome, after a long period of defeat and disgrace, might claim the triumph
of her barbarian master.
Notwithstanding the prudence and success of Odoacer, his kingdom
exhibited the sad prospect of misery and desolation. Since the age of
Tiberius, the decay of agriculture had been felt in Italy; and it was a
just subject of complaint that the life of the Roman people depended on
the accidents of the winds and waves. In the division and the decline of
the empire, the tributary harvests of Egypt and Africa were withdrawn;
the numbers of the inhabitants continually diminished with the means of
subsistence; and the country was exhausted by the irretrievable losses
of war, famine, and pestilence. St. Ambrose has deplored the ruin of
a populous district, which had been once adorned with the flourishing
cities of Bononia (Bologna), Mutina (Modena), Regium (Reggio), and
Placentia (Piacenza).
Pope Gelasius was a subject of Odoacer, and he affirms, with strong
exaggeration, that in Æmilia, Tuscany, and the adjacent provinces, the
human species was almost extirpated. The plebeians of Rome, who were
fed by the hand of their master, perished or disappeared, as soon as
his liberality was suppressed; the decline of the arts reduced the
industrious mechanic to idleness and want; and the senators, who might
support with patience the ruin of their country, bewailed their private
loss of wealth and luxury. One-third of those ample estates, to which
the ruin of Italy is originally imputed, was extorted for the use of the
conquerors. Injuries were aggravated by insults; the sense of actual
sufferings was embittered by the fear of more dreadful evils; and as
new lands were allotted to new swarms of barbarians, each senator was
apprehensive lest the arbitrary surveyors should approach his favourite
villa, or his most profitable farm. The least unfortunate were those
who submitted without a murmur to the power which it was impossible to
resist. Since they desired to live, they owed some gratitude to the
tyrant who had spared their lives; and since he was the absolute master
of their fortunes, the portion which he left must be accepted as his pure
and voluntary gift.
The distress of Italy was mitigated by the prudence and humanity of
Odoacer, who had bound himself, as the price of his elevation, to
satisfy the demands of a licentious and turbulent multitude. The kings
of the barbarians were frequently resisted, deposed, or murdered, by
their native subjects; and the various bands of Italian mercenaries,
who associated under the standard of an elective general, claimed a
larger privilege of freedom and rapine. A monarchy destitute of national
union, and hereditary right, hastened to its dissolution. After a reign
of fourteen years, Odoacer was oppressed by the superior genius of
Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, a hero alike excellent in the arts of
war and of government, who restored an age of peace and prosperity, and
whose name still excites and deserves the attention of mankind.
THE RISE 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 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 neighbourhood of Vienna, two
years after the death of Attila.[96] 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 favourite 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.
[Sidenote: [473-476 A.D.]]
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 valour 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
neighbourhood 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 entrusted 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.
[Sidenote: [476-488 A.D.]]
Whatever fear or 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 honourable 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 Mœsia, on the
solemn assurance that before he reached Hadrianopolis, he should meet a
plentiful convoy of provisions, and a reinforcement 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 neighbouring
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.”[97] A language so well suited to
the temper of the Goths, excited clamour 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.
[Illustration: EARLY GOTHIC HELMET AND AXE]
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[98] 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.[d]
Theodoric’s speech, quoted above, is given by Jordanes,[h] who is
believed to be quoting from Cassiodorus,[i] the friend and minister
of Theodoric. Procopius,[j] however, says that Zeno, being skilful in
temporary expedients, “advised Theodoric to march to Italy, and, by a
contest with Odoacer, win the Western Empire for himself and his Goths.
He showed him that it was better for him to rule over the Italians
than to fight the emperor at so much hazard.” The anonymous _Valesian
Fragment_[k] is even more definite as to Zeno’s share in the idea; it
says that Zeno “sent him to Italy,” and offered him “as a reward for his
pains,” that “until Zeno himself arrived” he might consider himself ruler.
Hodgkin[c] says: “More important than the question of priority of
invention between Zeno and Theodoric is the uncertainty in which the
rights of the contracting parties were, no doubt intentionally, left. The
Goth asks the emperor’s leave to invade Italy. If Italy was recognised as
permanently lost to the Roman Empire, if it was like Dacia or Britain,
why was this leave necessary? He says that he will hold the new kingdom
as his adoptive father’s gift. Did that gift fasten any responsibilities
to the receiver? Did it entitle the giver to be consulted in the
subsequent disposal of the crown? All that we can say, apparently, is
that Theodoric was despatched on his hazardous expedition with the
imperial approval; that the future relations between the parties were
left to accident to determine; but that there was, underlying the whole
conversation, a recognition of the fact that Italy and Rome still formed
part of the Respublica Romana; and out of this fact would spring claims
which any imperator, who was strong enough to do so, was certain to
enforce.” Leaving, then, both the question of priority and the equally
unsolvable riddle as to the political implication of title, let us follow
the fortunes of Theodoric and Odoacer to the battle-ground, where, like
two noble stags, they lock antlers over the disputed conquest of Italy.[a]
THE GOTHS MOVE UPON ITALY
[Sidenote: [488-493 A.D.]]