Reign of the younger Justin.-Embassy of the Avars.-Their settlement on the Danube.-Conquest of Italy by the Lombards.-Adoption and reign of Ti- berius.-Of Maurice.-State of Italy under the Lombards and the exarchs of Ravenna.-Distress of Rome.-Character and pontificate of Gregory the Alboin, king of the Lombards-his valour, love, and revenge Weakness of the emperor Justin Revolutions of Persia after the death of Chosroes or Nushirvan.-His son Hormouz, a tyrant, is deposed.Usurpation of Bahram.-Flight and re- storation of Chosroes II.-His gratitude to the Romans.-The chagan of the Avars.-Revolt of the army against Maurice.-His death.-Tyranny of Phocas.-Elevation of Heraclius.-The Persian war.— ·Chosroes subdues Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor.-Siege of Constantinople by the Persians and Avars.-Persian expeditions.—Victories and triumph of Heraclius. Death of Bahram . 591-603. Restoration and policy of Chosroes 570-600. Pride, policy, and power of the chagan of the Avars ib. THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAPTER XXXIX. Zeno and Anastasius, emperors of the East.-Birth, education, and first exploits of Theodoric the Ostrogoth. His invasion and conquest of Italy.—The Gothic kingdom of Italy.—State of the West.Military and civil government.-The senator Boethius.-Last acts and death of Theodoric. -527. AFTER the fall of the Roman empire in the West, CHAP. an interval of fifty years, till the memorable reign of XXXIX. Justinian, is faintly marked by the obscure names A.D. 476 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 a a Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 13, 14. p. 629, 630. edit. Grot.) has drawn the pedigree of Theodoric from Gapt, one of the Anses or demi-gods, who lived B VOL. V. education of -475. CHAP. the neighbourhood of Vienna' two years after the XXXIX. death of Attila. A recent victory had restored the Birth and independence of the Ostrogoths; and the three broTheodoric, thers, Walamir, Theodemir, and Widimir, who ruled A. D. 455 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 about the time of Domitian. Cassiodorius, the first who celebrates the royal race of the Amali (Variar. viii. 5. ix. 25. x. 2. xi. 1.), reckons the grandson of Theodoric as the xviith in descent. Peringsciold (the Swedish commentator of Cochlæus, Vit. Theodoric. p. 271, &c. Stockholm, 1699) labours to connect this genealogy with the legends or traditions of his native country. b More correctly on the banks of the lake Pelso (Nieusiedler-see) near Carnuntum, almost on the same spot where Marcus Antoninus composed his meditations (Jornandes, c. 52. p. 659. Severin. Pannonia Illustrata, p. 22. Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq. tom. i. p. 350). The four first letters of his name (OEOA) were inscribed on a gold plate, and when it was fixed on the paper, the king; drew his pen through the intervals (Anonym. Valesian. ad calcem Amm. Marcellin. p. 722). This authentic fact, with the testimony of Procopius, or at least of the contemporary Goths (Gothic. 1. i. c. 2. p. 311), far outweighs the vague praises of Ennodius (Sirmond. Opera, tom. i. p. 1596) and Theophanes (Chronograph. p. 112). |