THE

DECLINE AND FALL

OF

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

CHAP. 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.

A.D. 476

AFTER the fall of the Roman empire in the -527. 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.

Birth and

Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the fourteenth in education lineal descent of the royal line of the Amali,

of Theo

doric.

A. D.

.: 455 was born in the neighbourhood of Vienna," two years after the death of Attila. A recent victory had restored the independence of the Ostrogoths;

-475.

⚫ 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 demigods, who lived about the time of Domitian. Cassiodorius, the first who celebrates the royal race of the Amali, (Variar. 8. 5. 9. 25. 10. 2. 11. 1.) reckons the grandson of Theodoric as the seventeenth in descent. Peringsciold (the Swedish commentator of Cochlous, 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. 1. p. 350.)

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 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

d

The four first letters of his name (OENA) 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, lib. 1. c. 2. p. 311.) far outweighs the vague praises of Ennodius (Sirmond Opera, tom. 1. p. 1596.) and Theophanes. (Chronograph. p. 112.)

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.

At the

degenerated from the valour of his ancestors. 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 succeeded after his father's death to the hereditary throne of the Amali.

The reign

A. D. 474

A hero, descended from a race of kings, must of Zeno. have despised the base Isaurian who was in491, Feb. Vested with the Roman purple, without any enApr. 9. dowments of mind or body, 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 Martian 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

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.

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 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, accord

...

f Theophanes (p. 111.) inserts a copy of her sacred letters to the provinces ; ισε ότι βασίλειον ἡμετερον εσι . . . και ότι προχειρησάμεθα βασιλέα Τζασκαλλισαιον, &c. Such female pretensions would have astonished the slaves of the first Cæsars. Suidas, tom. 1. p. 332, 333. edit. Kuster.

Vol. 4. c. 36.

ing 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 pasius, A.D. lace, who survived his elevation above twentyApril 11, seven years, and whose character is attested by the acclamation of the people,-Reign as you

Of Anasta

491-518,

July 8.

have lived!i

Service and

Theodoric.

A. D. 475

-488.

Whatever fear or affection could bestow, was revolt of 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;

k

i 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 Historia) 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. 6. 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. 1. Sirmond.) to transport his hero (on a flying dragon!) into Ethiopia, beyond the tropic of Cancer. The evidence of the Valesian Fragment, (p. 717.) Liberatus, (Brev. Eutych. c. 25. p. 118.) and Theophanes, (p. 12.) is more sober and rational.