hood of Vienna,* two years after the death of Attila. A recent victory had restored the independence of the Ostrogoths; and the three brothers, Walamir, Theodemir, and Widimir, who ruled that warlike nation with united counsels, had separately pitched their habitations in the fertile though desolate province of Pannonia. The Huns still threatened their revolted subjects, but their hasty attack was repelled by the single forces of Walamir, and the news of his victory reached the distant camp of his brother in the same auspicious moment that the 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. As soon as he had Cella long forgotten (longa oblivione celatos), and did not know even by tradition. Where he can have read this, except in his own imagination, is a profound mystery.-ED.] *More correctly on the banks of the lake Pelso (Neusiedler-see), near Carnuntum, almost on the same spot where Marcus Antoninus composed his meditations. (Jornandes, c. 52, p. 659. Severin. Pannonia Illustrata, p. 22. rius, Geograph. Antiq. tom. i, p. 350.) [Carnuntum is said by Cellarius (1. 44) to have occupied the site of the present town of Haimburg, opposite to the confluence of the Marus (Morava) with the Danube, and some miles to the northward of the lake. It was in ancient times far more important than its neighbour, Vindobona, now the metropolis of the Austrian empire.-ED.] The first four letters of his name (EOA) were inscribed on a gold plate, and when it was fixed on the paper, the king drew his pen through the intervals. (Anonym. Valesian. ad calcem Amm. Marcellin. p. 722.) This authentic fact, with the testimony of Procopius, or at least of the contemporary Goths (Gothic. 1. 1, c. 2, p. 311), far outweighs the vague praises of Ennodius (Sirmond. Opera, tom. i, p. 1596) and Theophanes (Chronograph, p. 112.) [We are here told that "the royal hostage was educated at Constantinople with care and tenderness." Yet he was not taught to write. Such was education in those days. The want of such accomplishments does not detract from, but heightens 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 intrusted with the defence of the Lower Danube, under the command of Theodoric, who suceeded after his father's death to the hereditary throne of the Amali.+ A hero, descended from a race of kings, must have despised the base Isaurian who was invested with the Roman purple, without any endowments of mind or body, the merit of Theodoric.-ED.] *Statura est quæ resignet proceritate regnantem. (Ennodius, p. 1614.) The bishop of Pavia (I mean the ecclesiastic who wished to be a bishop) then proceeds to celebrate the complexion, eyes, hands, &c., of his sovereign. The state of the Ostrogoths, and the first years of Theodoric, are found in Jornandes (c. 52-56, p. 689-696) and Malchus (Excerpt. Legat. p. 78-80) who erroneously styles him the son of Walamir. [Such errors are so frequent, that they ought to make us very circumspect in drawing inferences from names given by ancient writers. Although the early pedigree of the Ostrogothic kings, as given by Jornandes, be altogether fictitious, there can be no doubt that Cassiodorus, who composed it, knew the parentage of Theodoric.—ED.] without any advantages of royal birth, or superior qualifications. After the failure of the Theodosian line, the choice of Pulcheria and of the senate might be justified in some measure by the characters of Marcian and Leo, but the latter of these princes confirmed and dishonoured his reign by the perfidious murder of Aspar and his sons, who too rigorously exacted the debt of gratitude and obedience. The inheritance of Leo and of the East was peaceably devolved on his infant grandson, the son of his daughter Ariadne; and her Isaurian husband, the fortunate Trascalisseus, exchanged that barbarous sound for the Grecian appellation of Zeno. After the decease of the elder Leo, he approached with unnatural respect the throne of his son, humbly received as a gift the second rank in the empire, and soon excited the public suspicion on the sudden and premature death of his young colleague, whose life could no longer promote the success of his ambition. But the palace of Constantinople was ruled by female influence, and agitated by female passions; and Verina, the widow of Leo, claiming his empire as her own, pronounced a sentence of deposition against the worthless and ungrateful servant on whom she alone had bestowed the sceptre of the East.* As soon as she sounded a revolt in the ears of Zeno, he fled with precipitation into the mountains of Isauria, and her brother Basiliscus, already infamous by his African expedition,† was unanimously proclaimed by the servile senate. But the reign of the usurper was short and turbulent. Basiliscus presumed to assassinate the lover of his sister; he dared to offend the lover of his wife, the vain and insolent Harmatius, who, in the midst of Asiatic luxury, affected the dress, the demeanour, and the surname of Achilles. By the conspiracy of the malecontents, Zeno was recalled from exile; the armies, the capital, the person, of Basiliscus, were betrayed; and his whole family was condemned to the long agony of cold and hunger by the inhuman conqueror, who wanted courage to encounter or to forgive his enemies. The haughty spirit of Verina was * Theophanes (p. 111) inserts a copy of her sacred letters to the provinces; ἵστε ὅτι τὸ βασίλειον ἡμέτερον ἐστὶ καὶ ὅτι προχειρη σάμεθα βασιλέα Τρασκαλλισαῖον, &c. Such female pretensions would have astonished the slaves of the first Cæsars. c. 36. Suidas, tom. i, p. 332, 333, edit. Kuster. + Vol. iv, still incapable of submission or repose. She provoked the enmity of a favourite general, embraced his cause as soon as he was disgraced, created a new emperor in Syria and Egypt, raised an army of seventy thousand men, and persisted to the last moment of her life in a fruitless rebellion, which, according to the fashion of the age, had been predicted by Christian hermits and Pagan magicians. While the East was afflicted by the passions of Verina, her daughter Ariadne was distinguished by the female virtues of mildness and fidelity; she followed her husband in his exile, and after his restoration she implored his clemency in favour of her mother. On the decease of Zeno, Ariadne, the daughter, the mother, and the widow of an emperor, gave her hand and the imperial title to Anastasius, an aged domestic of the palace, who survived his elevation above twenty-seven years, and whose character is attested by the acclamation of the people,-"Reign as you have lived !"* lived!”* 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 * The contemporary histories of Malchus and Candidus are lost; but some extracts or fragments have been saved by Photius (78, 79, p. 100-102), Constantine Porphyrogenitus (Excerpt. Leg. p. 78—97), and in various articles of the Lexicon of Suidas. The Chronicle of Marcellinus (Imago Historiæ) are originals for the reigns of Zeno and Anastasius; and I must acknowledge, almost for the last time, my obligations to the large and accurate collections of Tillemont. (Hist. des Emp. tom. vi, p. 472-652.) In ipsis congressionis tuæ foribus cessit invasor, cum profugo per te sceptra redderentur de salute dubitanti. Ennodius then proceeds (p. 1596, 1597, tom. i Sirmond.) to transport his hero (on a flying dragon !) into Æthiopia, beyond the tropic of Cancer, The evidence of the Valesian Fragment (p. 717), Liberatus (Brev. Eutych. c. 25, p. 118), and Theophanes, 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 Moesia, on the solemn assurance that before he reached Adrianople, 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 (p. 1. 12) is more sober and rational. *This cruel practice is specially imputed to the Triarian Goths, less barbarous, as it should seem, than the Walamirs: but the son of Theodemir is charged with the ruin of many Roman cities. (Malchus, Excerpt. Leg. p. 95.) [Malchus is the only authority for this; and we have seen how little he is to be depended upon. Is it probable that the Goths should have mutilated prisoners, whom they wanted to employ, or sell as slaves, or obtain tribute from as subjects? We have been watching their cognate races through a long course of contests, victories, and government; but of so horrid a practice we have never seen a single trace, while they have carried blessings wherever they have settled. There very Ostrogoths we shall soon find equally beneficent in Italy. Of Malchus we know nothing, except by a few preserved fragments of his history, and ought not to take his bare assertion as a proof of what circumstances contradict.-ED.] |