Goths and Ita. lians.

Dis

empt 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.s tress 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 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 valour 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 licence of judicial combat and private revenge.i

f See the acknowledgment of Gothic liberty, Var. v. 30.

g Procopius, Goth. I. i. c. 2. The Roman boys learnt the language (Var. viii. 21.) of the Goths. Their general ignorance is not destroyed by the exceptions of Amalasuntha, a female, who might study without shame, or of Theodatus, whose learning provoked the indignation and contempt of his countrymen.

h A saying of Theodoric was founded on experience: " Romanus miser imitatur Gothum; et utilis (dives) Gothus imitatur Romanum." (See the Fragment and Notes of Valesius, p. 719.)

The view of the military establishment of the Goths in Italy, is collected from the Epistles of Cassiodorius. (Var. i. 24, 40. iii. 3. 24. 48. iv. 13, 14. v. 26, 27. viii. 3, 4. 25.) They are illustrated by the learned Mascou. (Hist. of the Germans, 1. xi. 40-44. Annotation xiv.)

k See the clearness and vigour of his negociations in Ennodius, (p. 1607.) and Cassiodorius, (Var. iii. 1-4. iv. 13. v. 43, 44.) who gives the different styles of friendship, counsel, expostulation, &c.

1 Even of his table (Var. vi. 9.) and palace, (vii. 5.) The admiration of strangers is represented as the most rational motive to justify these vain expenses, and to stimulate the diligence of the officers to whom those provinces were intrusted.

m See the public and private alliances of the Gothic monarch, with the Burgundians, (Var. i. 45, 46.) with the Franks, (ii. 40.) with the Thuringians, (iv. i.) and with the Vandals, (v. i.) Each of these epis. tles affords some curious knowledge of the policy and manners of the barbarians.

His political system may be observed in Cassiodorius, (Var. iv. 1.

Among the barbarians of the west, Foreign policy the victory of Theodoric had spread a · of Theodoric. 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 prince 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 armour, 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 Estians, 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

r

ix. 1.) Jornandes, (c. 58. p. 698, 699.) and the Valesian Fragment, (p. 720, 721.) Peace, honourable peace, was the constaut aim of Theodoric.

The curious reader may contemplate the Heruli of Procopius, (Goth. 1. ii. c. 14.) and the patient reader may plunge into the dark and minute researches of M. de Buat. (Hist. des Peuples Anciens, tom. ix. p. 348-396.)

p Variarum, iv. 2. The spirit and forms of this martial institution are noticed by Cassiodorius; but he seems to have only translated the sentiments of the Gothic king into the language of Roman eloquence. q Cassiodorius, who quotes Tacitus to the Estians, the unlettered savages of the Baltic, (Var. v. 2.) describes the amber for which their shores have been famous, as the gum of a tree, hardened by the sun and purified and wafted by the waves. When that singular substance is analyzed by the chemists, it yields a vegetable oil and a mineral acid. r Scanzia, or Thule, is described by Jornandes, (c. 3. p. 610-613.) and Procopius. (Goth. 1. ii. c. 15.) Neither the Goth nor the Greek had visited the country: both had conversed with the natives in their exile at Ravenna or Constantinople.

Sapherinas pelles. In the time of Jornandes, they inhabited Suethans, the proper Sweden; but that beautiful race of animals has gradually been driven into the eastern parts of Siberia. See Buffon, (Hist. Nat. tom. xiii. p. 309–313. quarto edition,) Pennant, (System of Quadrupeds, vol. i. p. 322-328.) Gmelin, (Hist. Gen. des Voyages, tom, xviii. p. 257, 258.) and Levesque, (Hist. de Russic, tom, v. p. 165, 166. 514, 515.)

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."

His defensive

wars.

The life of Theodoric represents the rare and meritorious example of a barbarian, who sheathed his sword in the pride of victory and the vigour 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 Rhætia, Noricum, Dalmatia, and Pannonia, from the source of the Danube and the territory of the Bavarians, to the petty kingdom erected by the Gepida on the ruins of Sirmium. His prudence could not safely intrust the bulwark of Italy to such feeble and turbulent neighbours; 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 waggons, 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

t In the system or romance of M. Bailly, (Lettres sur les Sciences et sur l'Atlantide, tom. i. p. 249-256. tom. ii. p. 114-139.) the phoenix of the Edda, and the annual death and revival of Adonis and Osiris, are the allegorical symbols of the absence and return of the sun in the Arctic regions. The ingenious writer is a worthy disciple of the great Buffon; nor is it easy for the coldest reason to withstand the magic of their philosophy.

- Αυτή τε θυλιταις ή μεγιση των ἑορτων επι, says Procopius. At present a rude Manicheism (generous enough) prevails among the Samoyedes in Greenland and in Lapland; (Hist. des Voyages, tom. xviii. p. 508, 509. tom. xix. p. 105, 106. 527, 528.) yet, according to Grotius, Samojutæ cœlum atque astra adorant, numina haud aliis iniquiora; (de Rebus Belgicis, 1. iv. p. 338. folio edition;) a sentence which Tacitus would not have disowned.

x See the Hist. des Peuples Anciens, &c. tom. ix. p. 255-273. 396501. The count de Buat was French minister at the court of Bavaria: a liberal curiosity prompted his inquiries into the antiquities of the country, and that curiosity was the germ of twelve respectable volumes.

y See the Gothic transactions on the Danube and in Illyricum, in Jornandes, (c. 58. p. 699.) Ennodius, (p. 1607-1610.) Marcellinus, (in

ment,

A. D. 509.

lay untouched at their feet. Exaspe- His naval armarated 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 agricul→ ture 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 honourable 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 both as a national protector, and as the guardian of his grandchild, the infant son of Alaric. Under this respect able character, the king of Italy restored the prætorian præfecture 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.

b

Chron. p. 44. 47, 48.) and Cassiodorius, (in Chron. and Var. iii. 23. 50. iv. 13. vii. 4. 24. viii. 9, 10, 11. 21. ix. 8, 9.)

z I cannot forbear transcribing the liberal and classic style of Count Marcellinus: Romanus comes domesticorum, et Rusticus comes scho. lariorum cum centum armatis navibus, totidemque dromonibus, octo millia militum armatorum secum ferentibus, ad devastanda Italiæ littora processerunt, et usque ad Tarentum antiquissimam civitatem aggressi sunt; remensoque mari inhonestam victoriam quam piratico ausu Romani ex Romanis rapuerunt, Anastasio Cæsari reportarunt, (in Chron. p. 48.) See Variar. i. 16. ii. 38.

a See the royal orders and instructions. (Var. iv. 15. v. 16-20.) These armed boats should be still smaller than the thousand vessels of Agamemnon at the siege of Troy. b Supra, p. 624, 625.

e Ennodius (p. 1610.) and Cassiodorius, in the royal name, (Var. ii. 41.) record his salutary protection of the Alemanni.

d The Gothic transactions in Gaul and Spain are represented with some perplexity in Cassiodorius, (Var. iii. 32. 38. 41. 43, 44. v. 39.) Jornandes, (c. 58. p. 698, 699.) and Procopius, (Goth. 1. i. e. 12.) I will neither hear nor reconcile the long and contradictory arguments of the Abbé Dubos and the Count de Buat, about the wars of Burgundy. e Theophanes, p. 113.

h

ing 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 pre-eminence 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 prætorian præfect, the præfect of Rome, the quæstor, the master of the offices, with the public and patrimonial treasurers, whose functions are painted in gaudy colours by the rhetoric of Cassiodorius, 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 honours 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

f Procopius affirms that no laws whatsoever were promulgated by Theodoric and the succeeding kings of Italy. (Goth. I. ii. c. 6.) He must mean in the Gothic language. A Latin edict of Theodoric is still extant, in one hundred and fifty-four articles.

The image of Theodoric is engraved on his coins: his modest successors were satisfied with adding their own name to the head of the reigning emperor. (Muratori Antiquitat. Italiæ Medii Ævi, tom. ii. dissert. xxvii. p. 577-579. Giannone Istoria Civile di Napoli, tom. i. p. 166.)

h The alliance of the emperor and the king of Italy are represented by Cassiodorius (Var. i. 1. ii. 2, 3. vi. 1.) and Procopius, (Goth. I. ii. c. 6. l. iii. c. 21.) who celebrate the friendship of Anastasius and Theodoric: but the figurative style of compliment was interpreted in a very different sense at Constantinople and Ravenna.

i To the seventeen provinces of the Notitia, Paul Warnefrid the deacon (De Reb. Longobard. I. ii. c. 14-22.) has subjoined an eighteenth, the Apennine. (Muratori Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom, i. p. 431-433.) But of these Sardinia and Corsica were possessed by the Vandals, and the two Rhætias, as well as the Cottian Alps, seem to have been abandoned to a military government. The state of the four provinces that now form the kingdom of Naples, is laboured by Gianuone (tom. i. p. 172. 178.) with patriotic diligence.

k See the Gothic history of Procopius, (l. i. c. 1. 1. ii. c. 6.) the Epis

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 prætorian præfect for his unshaken fidelity to the unfortunate cause of Odoacer. The ministers of Theodoric, Cassiodorius' and Boethius, have reflected on his reign the lustre of their genius and learning. More prudent or more fortunate than his colleague, Cassiodorius preserved his own esteem without forfeiting the royal favour; and after passing thirty years in the honours of the world, he was blessed with an equal term of repose in the devout and studious solitude of Squillace.

Rome.

As the patron of the republic, it was Prosperity of the interest and duty of the Gothic king to cultivate the affections of the senatem 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 honourable which was consecrated to the care of their health and happi

ness.

The public games, such as a Greek ambassador might politely applaud, exhibited a faint and feeble copy of the magnificence of the Cæsars: 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 clamour and even with blood." In the seventh year Visit of Theoof 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

doric, A. D. 500.

tles of Cassiodorius, (passim, but especially the fifth and sixth books, which contain the formule, or patents of offices,) and the Civil History of Giannone, (tom. i. I. ii. iii.) The Gothic counts, which he places in every Italian city, are annihilated, however, by Maffei, (Verona Illus trata, P. i. I. viii. p. 227.) for those of Syracuse and Naples (Var. vi. 22, 23.) were special and temporary commissions.

1 Two Italians of the name of Cassiodorius, the father (Var. i. 24. 40.) and the son, (ix. 24, 25.) were successively employed in the admi. nistration of Theodoric. The son was born in the year 479: his various epistles as quæstor, master of the offices, and prætorian præfect, extend from 509-539, and he lived as a monk about thirty years. (Tiraboschi Storia della Letteratura Italiana, tom. iii. p. 7-24. Fabricius, Bibliot. Let. Med. vi, tom. i. p. 357, 358. edit. Mansi.)

m See his regard for the senate in Cochlæus. (Vit. Theod. viii. p. 72-80.)

n No more than 120,000 modii, or four thousand quarters. (Anonym. Valesian, p. 721. and Var. i. 35. vi. 18, xi. 5. 39.)

o See his regard and indulgence for the spectacles of the circus, the amphitheatre, and the theatre, in the Chronicle and Epistles of Cassio. dorius, (Var. i. 20. 27. 30, 31, 32. iii. 51. iv. 51. illustrated by the fourteenth Annotation of Mascou's History,) who has contrived to sprinkle the subject with ostentatious though agreeable learning.

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 splendour of the New Jerusalem.a During a residence of six months, the fame, the person, and the courteous demeanour 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 p Anonym. Vales. p. 721. Marius Aventicensis in Chron. In the scale of public and personal merit, the Gothic conqueror is at least as much above Valentinian, as he may seem inferior to Trajan. q Vit. Fulgentii in Baron. Annal. Eccles, A. D. 500. No. 10.

r Cassiodorius describes in his pompous style the forum of Trajan, (Var. vii. 6.) the theatre of Marcellus, (iv. 51.) and the amphitheatre of Titus, (v. 42.) and his descriptions are not unworthy of the reader's perusal. According to the modern prices, the Abbé Barthelemy computes that the brick work and masonry of the Coliseum would now cost twenty millions of French livres. (Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 585, 586.) How small a part of that stupendous fabric!

s For the aqueducts and cloacæ, see Strabo, (1. v. p. 360.) Pliny, (Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 24.) Cassiodorius, (Var. iii. 30, 31. vi. 6.) Procopius, (Goth. I. i. c. 19.) and Nardini, (Roma Antica, p. 514–552. How such works could be executed by a king of Rome, is yet a problem.

For the Gothic care of the buildings and statues, see Cassiodorius, (Var. i. 21. 25. ii. 34. iv. 30. vii. 6. 13. 15.) and the Valesian Fragment, (p. 721.)

u Var. vii. 15. These horses of Monte Cavallo had been transported from Alexandria to the baths of Constantine. (Nardini, p. 188.) Their sculpture is disdained by the Abbé Dubos, (Reflexions sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture, tom. i. section 39.) and admired by Winkleman. (Hist. de l'Art, tom. ii. p. 159.)

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 art, which Theodoric considered as the noblest ornament of his kingdom.

a

After the example of the last empe- Flourishing state rors, Theodoric preferred the residence of Italy. 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, porticoes, and palaces. But the happiness of the subject was more truly conspicuous in the busy scene of labour and luxury, in the rapid increase and bold enjoyment of national wealth. From the shades of Tibur and Præneste, the Roman senators still retired in the winter season to the warm sun, and salubrious springs, of Baiæ; 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 Hadriatic, 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 bason 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 chesnut 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

x Var. x. 10. They were probably a fragment of some triumphal car. (Cuper de Elephantis, ii. 10.)

y Procopius (Goth. 1. iv. c. 21.) relates foolish story of Myron's cow, which is celebrated by the false wit of thirty-six Greek epigrams, (Antholog. 1. iv. p. 302-306. edit. Hen. Steph. Auson. Epigram. Iviii-lxviii.)

z See an epigram of Ennodius (ii. 3. p. 1893, 1894.) on this garden and the royal gardener.

a His affection for that city is proved by the epithet of "Verona tua," and the legend of the hero; under the barbarous name of Dietrich of Bern (Peringsciold ad Cochlæum, p. 240.) Maffei traces him with knowledge and pleasure in his native country, (l. ix. p. 230–236.) b See Maffei, (Verona Illustrata, part i. p. 231, 232. 308, &c.) He imputes Gothic architecture, like the corruption of language, writing, &c. not to the barbarians, but to the Italians themselves. Compare his sentiments with those of Tiraboschi, (tom. iii. p. 61.)

e The villas, climate, and landskip of Baiæ, (Var. ix. 6. See Cluver. Italia Antiq. 1. iv. c. 2. p. 1119, &c.) Istria, (Var. xii. 22. 26.) and Comum, (Var. xi. 14. compare with Pliny's two villas, ix. 7.) are agreeably painted in the Epistles of Cassiodorius.

d In Liguria numerosa agricolarum progenies. (Ennodius, p. 1678, 1679, 1680.) St. Epiphanius of Pavia redeemed by prayer or ransom 6000 captives from the Burgundians of Lyons and Savoy. Such deeds are the best of miracles.

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."

Theodoric an Arian.

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 subtle 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 His toleration of may have nourished in his mind the the catholics. 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 honourably entertained in the palace of Theodoric; he esteemed the living sanctity of Cæsarius 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 favourite Goths, and even his mother, were permitted to retain or embrace the Athanasian faith,

The political economy of Theodoric (see Anonym. Vales. p. 721. and Cassiodorius, in Chron.) may be distinctly traced under the following heads: iron mine, (Var. i. 23.) gold mine, (ix. 3.) Pomptine marshes, (ii. 32, 33.) Spoleto, (ii. 21.) corn, (i. 34. x. 27, 28. xi. 11, 12.) trade, (vi. 7. 9. 23.) fair of Leucothoe or St. Cyprian in Lucania, (viii. 33.) plenty, (xii. 4.) the cursus, or public post, (i. 29. ii. 31. iv. 47. v. 5. vi. 6. vii. 33.) the Flaminian way, (xii. 18.)

f LX modii tritici in solidum ipsius tempore fuerunt, et vinum xxx amphoras in solidum. (Fragment. Vales.) Corn was distributed from the granaries at fifteen or twenty-five modii for a piece of gold, and the price was still moderate.

g See the life of St. Cæsarius in Baronitis. (A. D. 508. No. 12, 13, 14.) The king presented him with 300 gold solidi, and a discus of silver of the weight of sixty pounds.

h Ennodius in Vit. St. Epiphanii, in Sirmond Op. tom. i. p. 16721690. Theodoric bestowed some important favours on this bishop, whom he used as a counsellor in peace and war.

Devotissimus ac si catholicus; (Anonym. Vales. p. 720.) yet his offering was no more than two silver candlesticks (cerostrata) of the weight of seventy pounds, far inferior to the gold and gems of Constan.

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.1 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. 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."

At

I have descanted with pleasure on Vices of his the fortunate condition of Italy; but government. 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

tinople and France. (Anastasius in Vit. Pont. in Hormisda, p. 34. edit. Paris.) The tolerating system of his reign (Ennodius, p. 1612. Anonym. Vales. p. 719. Procop. Goth. 1. i. c. 1. I. ii. c. 6.) may be studied in the Epistles of Cassiodorius, under the following heads: bishops, (Var. i. 9. viii. 15. 24. xi. 23.) immunities, (i. 26. ii. 29, 30.) church lands, (iv. 17. 20.) sanctuaries, (ii. 11. iii. 47.) church plate, (xii. 20.) discipline, (iv. 44.) which prove at the same time that he was the head of the church as well as of the state.

1 We may reject a foolish tale of his beheading a catholic deacon who turned Arian. (Theodor. Lector. No. 17.) Why is Theodoric surnamed Afer! From Vafer? (Vales, ad loc.) A light conjecture.

m Ennodius, p. 1621, 1622. 1636. 1638. His libel was approved and registered (synodaliter) by a Roman council. (Baronius, A. D. 503. No. 6. Franciscus Pagi in Breviar. Pont. Rom. tom. i. p. 242.)

n See Cassiodorius, (Var. viii. 15. ix. 15, 16.) Anastasius, (in Symmacho, p. 31.) and the eighteenth Annotation of Mascou. Baronius, Pagi, and most of the catholic doctors, confess, with an angry grow!, this Gothic usurpation.

. He disabled them-a licentiâ testandi; and all Italy mourned