 Chapter 39 Part 1 of THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN IMPIRE, VOL. 4 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 to 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 and lineal descent of the royal line of the Amali, was born in the neighborhood of Vienna two years after the death of Attila. 1. Giornandes has drawn the pedigree of Theodoric from Gopt, one of the Ansis or demigods who lived about the time of Domitian. Cassiodorus, the first who celebrates the royal race of the Amali, reckons the grandson of Theodoric as the seventeenth in descent. Parents killed labors to connect this genealogy with the legends or traditions of his native country. Note, Amala was a name of hereditary sanctity and honor among the Visigoths. Footnote 2, regarding Theodoric's birth, more correctly on the banks of the Lake Pelso, near Carnuntum, almost on the same spot where Marcus Antoninus composed his meditations. A recent victory had restored the independence of the Ostrogoths and the three brothers of Volomir, Theodomir and Vitomir who ruled that warlike nation with united councils 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 Volomir and the news of his victory reached the distant camp of his brother in the same auspicious moment that the favorite concubine of Theodomir 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 skillful 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. Footnote 3. The four first letters of his name were inscribed on a gold plate and when it was fixed on the paper the king drew his pen through the intervals. This authentic fact with the testimony of Procopius, or at least of the contemporary Goths, far outweighs the vague praises of Inodius. Note, LeBeau and his commentator, Monsieur Saint-Martin, support, though with no very satisfactory evidence, the opposite opinion, but Lord Mahon urges the much stronger argument, the Byzantine education of Theodoric. As soon as he had attained the age of 18 he was restored to the wishes of the Ostrogoths whom the emperor aspired to gain by liberality and confidence. Volomir had fallen in battle. The youngest of the brothers, Vitamir, 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 the young prince and he soon convinced them that he had not degenerated from the valor 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 Singedunum, or Belgrade, and soon returned to his father with the spoils of a Sarmatian king whom he had vanquished in slain. Such triumphs, however, were productive only of fame and the invincible Ostrogoths were reduced to extreme distress by the one of clothing and food. They unanimously resolved to desert their Panonian encampments and boldly to advance into the warm and wealthy neighborhood 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 defense of the lower Danube under the command of Theodoric, who succeeded after his father's death to the hereditary throne of the Amali. The state of the Ostrogoths and the first years of Theodoric are found in Jornandes and Malchus, who erroneously styles him the son of Volomir. A hero descended from a race of kings must have despised the base Isarian who was invested with the Roman purple without any endowment of mind or body, without any advantage of royal birth or superior qualifications. After the failure of the Theodosian life, the choice of Plocheria and of the Senate might be justified in some measure by the characters of Marton and Leo, but the latter of these princes confirmed and dishonored his reign by the perfidious murder of Aspar and his sons, who too rigorously exacted the dead 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 Isarian husband, the fortunate Trascalicius, exchanged that barbarous sound for the Grecian Appalachian 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 Verena, 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 scepter of the East. 6 Theophanes inserts a copy of her sacred letters to the provinces. Such female pretensions would have astonished the slaves of the first Caesars. As soon as she sounded a revolt in the ears of Zeno, he fled with precipitation into the mountains of Isaria, and her brother, Bacilluscus, already infamous by his African expedition, was unanimously proclaimed by the Servial Senate. But the reign of the usurper was short and turbulent. Bacilluscus presumed to assassinate the lover of his sister. He dared to offend the lover of his wife, the vain and insolent Hermatheus, who in the midst of Asiatic luxury affected the dress, the demeanor, and the surname of Achilles. By the conspiracy of the malcontents, Zeno was recalled from exile, the armies, the capital, the person of Bacilluscus, 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 Verena was still incapable of submission or repose. She provoked the enmity of a favorite 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 Verena, 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 favor 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 Anastatius, 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, rain as you have lived. Whatever fear of 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 honorable 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 Volomirs, 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 plow. This cruel practice is especially imputed to the trierian Goths, less barbarous as it should seem, than the Volomirs, but the son of Theodomir is charged with the ruin of many Roman cities. 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 provinciales, and when their subsistence had failed the Ostrogoths embraced the familiar resources of war and raping. 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 Basiliskus. He marched from his station in Macea 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 Heraklia to second his operations. These measures were disappointed by Mutual's jealousy. As he advanced into Thrace the son of Theodomir 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 Sundus, where he was assaulted by the arms and invectives of Theodoric, the son of Triarius. From a neighboring height his artful rival harangued the camp of the Volomirs, and branded their leader with the approbrious names of Child, of Madman, of Perjured Trader, 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 the standard? Each of them was then master of three or four horses. They now follow the 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. A language so well suited to the temper of the Goths, excited clamor and discontent, and the son of Theodomir, apprehensive of being a left alone, was compelled to embrace his brethren, and to imitate the example of Roman perfidy. Gibbon has omitted much of the complicated intrigues of the Byzantine court with the two Theodorics. The weak emperor attempted to play them one against the other, and was himself, in turn, insulted, and the empire ravaged by both. The details of the successive alliance and revolt of hostility and of union between the two Gothic chieftains to dictate terms to the emperor may be found in Malchus. 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 ban to the mountains and sea coast of Epirus. At length the accidental death of the son of Triarius 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, footnote 13 in reference to the son of Triarius, as he was riding in his own camp an unruly horse threw him against the point of a spear which hung before a tent, or was fixed on a wagon. 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 2,000 pounds of gold with the ample pay of 13,000 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 raping an annual pension of 5,000 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 in 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. The reputation both of the leader and of the war diffused a universal ardor. The volumiers were multiplied by the gothic swarms already engaged in the service or seated in the provinces of the empire, and each bold barbarian who had heard of the wealth and beauty of Italy was impatient to seek, through the most perilous adventures, the possession of such enchanting objects. The march of Theodoric must be considered as the emigration of an entire people, the wives and children of the Goths, their aged parents, and most precious effects were carefully transported, and some idea may be formed of the heavy baggage that now followed the camp by the loss of two thousand wagons which had been sustained in a single action in the war of Epirus. For their subsistence the Goths depended on the magazines of corn which was ground in portable mills by the hands of their women, on the milk and flesh of their flocks and herds, on the casual produce of the chase, and upon the contributions which they might impose on all who should presume to dispute the passage or to refuse their friendly assistance. Notwithstanding these precautions they were exposed to the danger and almost to the distress of famine in a march of 700 miles which had been undertaken in the depth of a rigorous winter. Since the fall of the Roman power, Dacia and Panonia no longer exhibited the rich prospect of populous cities, well-cultivated fields, and convenient highways, the reign of barbarism and desolation was restored, and the tribes of Bulgarians, Gepidi, and Sarmatians who had occupied the vacant province were prompted by their native fierceness or the solicitations of Odoacer to resist the progress of his enemy. In many obscure, though bloody battles, Theodoric fought and vanquished, till at length, surmounting every obstacle by skillful conduct and persevering courage, he descended from the Julian Alps and displayed his invincible banners on the confines of Italy. 17 Theodoric's march is supplied and illustrated by Anodius when the bombast of the oration is translated into the language of common sense. Odoacer, a rival not unworthy of his arms, had already occupied the advantageous and well-known post of the River Sontius near the ruins of Aquilaea, at the head of a powerful host whose independent kings or leaders disdained the duties of subordination and the prudence of delays. No sooner had Theodoric gained a short repose and refreshment to his wearied cavalry than he boldly attacked the fortifications of the enemy. The Ostrogoths showed more ardor to acquire than the mercenaries to defend the lands of Italy, and the reward of the first victory was the possession of the Venetian province as far as the walls of Verona. In the neighborhood of that city, on the steep banks of the rapid Adige, he was opposed by a new army, reinforced in its numbers, and not impaired in its courage. The contest was more obstinate, but the event was still more decisive. Odoacer fled to Ravenna, Theodoric advanced to Milan, and the vanquished troops saluted their conqueror with loud acclamations of respect and fidelity. But their want, either of constancy or of faith, soon exposed him to the most imminent danger. His vanguard, with several gothic counts, which had been rashly entrusted to a deserter, was betrayed and destroyed near Fenza by his double treachery. Odoacer again appeared, master of the field, and the invader, strongly entrenched in his camp of Pavia, was reduced to solicit the aid of a kindred nation, the Visigoths of Gaul. In the course of this history the most voracious appetite for war will be abundantly satiated, nor can I much lament that our dark and imperfect materials do not afford a more ample narrative of the distress of Italy and of the fierce conflict which was finally decided by the abilities, experience, and valor of the Gothic King. Immediately before the battle of Verona he visited the tent of his mother and sister, and requested that on a day the most illustrious festival of his life they would adorn him with the rich garments which they had worked with their own hands. Our glory, said he, is mutual and inseparable. You are known to the world as the mother of Theodoric, and it becomes me to prove that I am the genuine offspring of those heroes from whom I claim my descent. The wife or concubine of Theodomir was inspired with the spirit of the German matrons who esteemed their son's honor far above their safety, and it is reported that in a desperate action when Theodoric himself was hurried along by the torrent of a flying crowd, she boldly met them at the entrance of the camp, and by her generous reproaches drove them back on the swords of the enemy. 20. This anecdote is related in the modern but respectable authority of Segonius. His words are curious. Would you return, etc.? She presented and almost displayed the original recess. No, the authority of Segonius would scarcely have weighed with Gibbon except for an indecent anecdote. I have a recollection of a similar story in some of the Italian wars. From the Alps to the extremity of Calabria Theodoric reigned by the right of conquest. The vandal ambassadors surrendered the island of Sicily as a lawful appendage of his kingdom, and he was accepted as the Deliverer of Rome by the Senate and the people who had shut their gates against the flying usurper. Ravenna alone, secure in the fortifications of art and nature, still sustained a siege of almost three years, and the daring sallies of Odoace are carried slaughter and dismay into the Gothic camp. At length destitute of provisions and hopeless of relief, that unfortunate monarch yielded to the groans of his subjects and the clamors of his soldiers. A treaty of peace was negotiated by the Bishop of Ravenna. The Ostrogoths were admitted into the city, and the hostile kings consented under the sanction of an oath to rule with equal and undivided authority the provinces of Italy. The event of such an agreement may be easily foreseen, after some days had been devoted to the semblance of joy and friendship Odoacer in the midst of a solemn banquet was stabbed by the hand, or at least by the command, of his rival. Secret ineffectual orders had been previously dispatched, the faithless and rapacious mercenaries at the same moment and without trace were universally massacred, and the royalty of Theodoric was proclaimed by the Goths with the tardy, reluctant, ambiguous consent of the Emperor of the East. The design of the conspiracy was imputed according to the usual forms to the prostrate tyrant, but his innocence and the guilt of his conqueror are sufficiently proved by the advantageous treaty which force would not sincerely have granted, nor weakness have rashly infringed. The jealousy of power and the mischiefs of discord may suggest a more decent apology, and a sentence less rigorous may be pronounced against a crime which was necessary to introduce into Italy a generation of public felicity. The living author of this felicity was audaciously praised in his own presence by sacred and profane orators, but history, in his time she was mute and inglorious, has not left any just representation of the events which displayed or of the defects which clouded the virtues of Theodoric. One record of his fame, the volume of public epistles composed by Cassiodorus in the royal name, is still extant and has obtained more implicit credit than it seems to deserve. They exhibit the forms rather than the substance of his government, and we should vainly search for the pure and spontaneous sentiments of the barbarian amidst the declamation and learning of a sophist, the wishes of a Roman senator, the precedents of office, and the vague professions which in every court and on every occasion compose the language of discrete ministers. The reputation of Theodoric may repose with more confidence on the visible peace and prosperity of a reign of thirty-three years. The unanimous esteem of his own times, and the memory of his wisdom and courage, his justice and humanity which was deeply impressed on the minds of the Goths and Italians. The partition of the lands of Italy of which Theodoric assigned the third part to his soldiers is honourably arraigned as the sole injustice of his life. Footnote. Monzo observes that this division was conducted not in a violent and irregular but in a legal and orderly manner. The barbarian, who could not show a title of grant from the officers of Theodoric appointed for the purpose, or a prescriptive right of thirty years in case he had obtained the property before the Ostrogothic conquest, was ejected from the estate. He conceives that estates too small to bear division paid a third of their produce. And even this act may be fairly justified by the example of Odoacer, the rights of conquest, the true interest of the Italians, and the sacred duty of subsisting a whole people who, on faith of his promises, had transported themselves into a distant land. Footnote. Twenty-six. Procopius exaggerates the injustice of the Goths, whom he hated as an Italian noble. The plebeian moratory crouches under their oppression. Under the reign of Theodoric and in the happy climate of Italy, the Goths soon multiplied to a formidable host of two hundred thousand men, and the whole amount of their families may be computed by the ordinary addition of women and children. Their invasion of property, a part of which must have been already vacant, was disguised by the generous but improper name of hospitality. These unwelcome guests were regularly dispersed over the face of Italy, and the lot of each barbarian was adequate to his birth in office, the number of his followers and the rustic wealth which he possessed in slaves and cattle. The distinction of noble and plebeian were acknowledged, but the lands of every free man were exempt from taxes, and he enjoyed the inestimable privilege of being subject only to the laws of his country. Footnote. Twenty-eight. When Theodoric gave his sister to the king of the Vandals, she sailed for Africa with a guard of one thousand noble Goths, each of whom was attended by five armed followers. The Gothic nobility must have been as numerous as brave. Fashions 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. Footnote. Thirty. The Roman boys learnt the language of the Goths. Their general ignorance is not destroyed by the exceptions of Amalasuntha, a female who might study without shame, or of Theodotus, whose learning provoked the indignation and contempt of his countrymen. Distress 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 Italians and Goths, reserving the former for the acts 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 innervating the valor of his soldiers who were maintained for the public defense. They held their lands and benefits 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 license of judicial combat and private revenge. Among the barbarians of the West, the victory of theodoric had spread a 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 sundial, a water clock, or a musician, admonished even the princes 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 immigrations of the Heruli, a fierce people who disdain the use of armour, and who condemn 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 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 1500 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 hospital retreat in the palace of Ravenna. He had reigned over one of 13 populist tribes who cultivated the small portion of the great island or peninsula of Scandinavia, to which the vague appellation of thul has been sometimes applied. The northern region was peopled or had been explored as high as the 68th degree of latitude, where the natives of the polar circle enjoy and lose the presence of the sun at each summer and winter solestice during an equal period of 40 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 mountaintops described the first rays of returning light and proclaimed to the plain below the festival of his resurrection. The life of Theodoric represents a rare and meritorious example of a barbarian who sheathed his sword in the pride of victory and the bigger 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 the terror of his name. He reduced under a strong and regular government the unprofitable countries of Rethia, Noricum, Dalmatia and Pannonia from the source of the Danube and the territory of the barbarians to the petty kingdom erected by the Gepide on the ruins of Sirmium. His prudence could not safely entrust the bulwark of Italy to such feeble and turbulent neighbors 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 the 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 10,000 Romans and the provisions and arms which filled a long train of wagons were distributed to the fiercest of the Bulgarian tribes. But in the fields of Margris 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 the Odryk had inspired his victorious troops that as their leader had not given the sign of pillage the rich spoils of the enemy lay untouched at their feet. Exasperated by this disgrace the Byzantine court dispatched 200 ships and 8,000 men to blunder the seacoast of Calabria and Apulia. They assaulted the ancient city of Tarentum interrupted the trade and agriculture 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 the Odryk. Italy was covered by a fleet of a thousand light vessels which he constructed with incredible dispatch and his firm moderation was soon rewarded by a solid and honorable 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'm not desirous to prolong or repeat this narrative of military events the least interesting of the reign of the Odryk and shall be content to add that the Alemani were protected that an inroad of the Burgundians was severely chastised and that the conquest of Arland Marseille opened a free communication with the Visigoths who revered him as their national protector and as the guardian of his grandchild the infant son of Aleryk. Under this respectable character the king of Italy restored the Praetorian prefecture 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 Sermium or Belgrade to the Atlantic Ocean and the Greeks themselves have acknowledged that the Odryk reigned over the fairest portion of the Western Empire. The union of the Goths and Romans might have fixed for ages the transient happiness of Italy and the first of nations and new people of free subjects and enlightened soldiers might have gradually arisen from the mutual emulation of their respective virtues that the sublime merit of guiding or seconding such a revolution was not reserved for the reign of the Odryk. He wanted either the genius or the opportunities of a legislator and while he indulged the Goths in the enjoyment of rude liberty he servily 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 soul and undivided empire and claimed above the kings of the earth the same preeminence 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 theodryk accepted a formal confirmation from the sovereign of Constantineople. The gothic palace of Ravenna reflected the image of the court of theodosius of Valentinian. The Praetorian prefect the prefect of Rome the questor the master of the offices with the public and patrimonial treasures whose functions are painted in gaudy colors by the rhetoric of Cassiodorus still continued to act as the ministers of state and the subordinate care of justice and the revenue was delegated to seven consulas three correctors and five presidents who governed the 15 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 artifacts of judicial proceedings. The civil administration with its honors 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 the 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 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 praetorian prefect for his unshaken fidelity to the unfortunate cause of our darker. The ministers of Theodoric, Cassiodorus and Boethius have reflected on his reign the lustre of their genius and learning. More prudent or more fortunate than his colleague, Cassiodorus preserved his own esteem without forfeiting the royal favor and after passing 30 years in the honors of the world he was blessed with an equal term of repose in the devout and studious solitude of squillas. As the pattern of the republic it was the interest and duty of the gothic king to cultivate the affections of the senate and people. The nobles of Rome were flattered by Sonoros' epithets and former 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 the 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 tributes of corn into the granaries of Rome and allowance of bread and meat was distributed to the indigent citizens and every office was deemed honorable which was consecrated to the care of their health and happiness. The public gains such as the Greek ambassador might politely applaud exhibited a faint and feeble copy of the magnificence of the Caesars. Yet the musical, the gymnastic and the pantomime arts had not totally sunk in oblivion. The wild beasts of Africa still exercised in the amphitheater the courage and dexterity of the hunters and the indulgent goth either patiently tolerated or gently restrained the blue and green factions whose contests often filled the circus with clamour and even with blood. In the seventh year of 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 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 fierce fancy that it was excelled by the celestial splendor of the new Jerusalem. During a residence of six months the fame, the person, and the courteous demeanor 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 capital line hill and frankly confessed that each day he viewed with fresh wonder the forum of Traja and his lofty column. The theater of Pompeii appeared even in its decay as a huge mountain artificially hollowed and polished and adorned by human industry, and he vaguely computed that the river of gold must have been drained to erect the colossal amphitheater 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 eclivity of solid arches till it descended on the summit of the eventine hill. A long and spacious walls, which had been constructed for the purpose of commensures, subsisted after twelve centuries in their pristine strength, and these subterranean 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, all the depredations of the citizens themselves, and the 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 man or animals. The spirit of the horses, which have given a modern name to the criminal, was applauded by the barbarians. The brazen elephants of the Via Sacra were diligently restored. The famous heifer of Miran deceived the cattle as they were driven through the forum of peace, and an officer was created to protect those works of rat, which Theodoric considered as the noblest ornaments of his kingdom. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. After the example of the last emperors, Theodoric preferred the residence of Ravenna, where he cultivated and 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 labor and luxury, in the rapid increase and bold enjoyment of national wealth. From the shades of Tiber and Prennesty, the Roman senators still retired in the winter season to the warm sun and celebration springs of Baye, 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 Adriatic, 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 100 miles. The rich productions of Luchiana and the adjacent provinces were exchanged at the Marcillian 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 basin above 60 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 chestnut 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 Brudium, were carefully explored, and the pumpkin 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 export, 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 far things, and a quarter of wheat at about five shillings and six pence. 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. 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 persecution of Theodoric was not infected by zeal, and he piously adhered to the hearsay of his fathers, without condescending to balance the subtle arguments of theological metaphysics. Satisfied with a 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 may have nourished in his mind the 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 honorably entertained in the palace of Theodoric. He esteemed the living sanctity of Caesarius 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 favorite goths, and even his mother, were permitted to retain or embrace the Athanasian faith, 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. 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 metropolitan exercised their jurisdiction, and the privileges of sanctuary were maintained or moderated according to the spirit of 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 Symecus and Lawrence, they appeared at his summons before the tribunal of an Aryan monarch, and he confirmed the election of the most worthy or the most obsequious candidate. At 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 finality of the papal elections. I have discounted with pleasure on the fortunate condition of Italy, but our fancy must not hastily conceive that the golden age of the poets, a race of men without vise 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 solely 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. Attacks unseasonably imposed after the calamities of war would have crushed the rising agriculture of Liguria. A rigid preemption of corn, which was intended for the public relief, must have aggravated the distress of Campania. These dangerous projects were defeated by the virtue and eloquence of Epiphanius and Boethius, who, in the presence of Theodoric himself, successfully pleaded the cause of the people. But if the royal ear was open to the voice of truth, a saint and a philosopher are not always to be found at the ear of kings. The privileges of rank or office or favor were too frequently abused by Italian fraud and Gothic violence, and the avarice of the king's nephew was publicly exposed at first by the usurpation and afterwards by the restitution of the estates which he had unjustly extorted from his Tuscan neighbors. 200,000 barbarians, formidable even to their master, were seated in the heart of Italy. They indignantly supported the restraints of peace and discipline. The disorders of their march were always felt and sometimes compensated. And where it was dangerous to punish, it might be prudent to disassemble the sallies of their native fierceness. When the indulgence of Theodoric had remitted two-thirds of the Ligurian tribute, he condescended to explain the difficulties of his situation and to lament the heavy though inevitable burdens which he imposed on his subjects for their own defense. These ungrateful subjects could never be cordially reconciled to the origin, the religion, or even the virtues of the Gothic conqueror. Past calamities were forgotten, and the sense or suspicion of injuries was rendered still more exquisite by the present felicity of the times. Even the religious toleration which Theodoric had the glory of introducing into the Christian world was painful and offensive to the orthodox zeal of the Italians. They respected the armed hearsay of the Goths, but their pious rage was safely pointed against the rich and defenseless Jews who had formed their establishments at Naples, Rome, Ravenna, Milan, and Genoa for the benefit of trade and under the sanction of the laws. Their persons were insulted, their effects were pillaged, and their synagogues were burned by the mad populace of Ravenna and Rome, inflamed as it should seem by the most frivolous or extravagant pretenses. The government which could neglect would have deserved such an outrage. A legal inquiry was instantly directed, and as the authors of the tumult had escaped in the crowd, the whole community was condemned to repair the damage, and the obstinate bigots who refused their contributions were whipped through the streets by the hand of the executioner. This simple act of justice exasperated the discontent of the Catholics, who applauded the merit and patience of these holy confessors. Three hundred pulpits deplored the persecution of the church, and if the chapel of St. Stephen at Verona was demolished by the command of Theodoric, it is probable that some miracle hostile to his name and dignity had been performed on a sacred theater. At the close of a glorious life, the King of Italy discovered that he had excited the hatred of a people whose happiness he had so assiduously labored to promote, and his mind was soured by indignation, jealousy, and the bitterness of unrequited love. The Gothic conqueror condescended to disarm the unwarlike natives of Italy, interdicting all weapons of offense, and accepting only a small knife for domestic use. The Deliverer of Rome was accused of conspiring with the vilest informers against the lives of senators whom he suspected of a secret and reasonable correspondence with the Byzantine court. After the death of Anastasius, the diadem had been placed on the head of a feeble old man, but the powers of government were assumed by his nephew Justinian, who already meditated the extirpation of Hirsi and the conquest of Italy and Africa. A rigorous law, which was published at Constantinople, to reduce the Aryans by the dread of punishment within the pale of the Church, awakened the just resentment of Theodoric, who claimed for his distressed brethren of the East the same indulgence which he had so long granted to the Catholics of his dominion. At his stern command, the Roman Pontiff, with four illustrious senators, embarked on an embassy of which he must have alight dreaded the failure or the success. The singular veneration shown to the first pope who had visited Constantinople was punished as a crime by his jealous monarch. The artful or preemptory refusal of the Byzantine court might excuse an equal and would provoke a larger measure of retaliation. And a mandate was prepared in Italy to prohibit, after a stated day, the exercise of the Catholic worship. By the bigotry of his subjects and enemies, the most tolerant of princes was driven to the brink of persecution, and the life of Theodoric was too long, since he lived to condemn the virtue of Boethius and Symachus. The Senator Boethius is the last of the Romans whom Cato or Tully could have acknowledged for their countrymen. As a wealthy orphan, he inherited the patrimony and honors of the Anisian family, a name ambitiously assumed by the kings and emperors of the age, and the appellation of Manlius asserted his genuine or fabulous descent from a race of consuls and dictators who had repulsed the Gauls from the capital and sacrificed their sons to their discipline of the Republic. In the youth of Boethius, the studies of Rome were not totally abandoned. A Virgil is now extant, corrected by the hand of a consul, and the professors of Grammar, Rhetoric, and Jurisputence were maintained in their privileges and pensions by the liberality of the Gauls. But the erudition of the Latin language was insufficient to satiate his ardent curiosity, and Boethius is said to have employed eighteen laborious years in the schools of Athens, which were supported by the zeal, the learning, and the diligence of Proclus and his disciples. The reason and piety of their Roman pupil were fortunately saved from the contagion of mystery and magic, which polluted the groves of the Academy, but he imbibed the spirit and imitated the method of his dead and living masters, who attempted to reconcile the strong and subtle sense of Aristotle with the devout contemplation and sublime fancy of Plato. After his return to Rome and his marriage with the daughter of his friend, the patrician Simacus, Boethius still continued in a palace of Ivarian marble to prosecute the same studies. The church was edified by his profound defense of the Orthodox creed against the Arian, the Eutician, and the Nestorian heresies, and the Catholic unity was explained or exposed in a formal treaties by the indifference of three distinct, though consubstantial persons. For the benefit of his Latin readers, his genius submitted to teach the first elements of the arts and sciences of Greece. The geometry of Euclid, the music of Pythagoras, the arithmetic of Nicomachus, the mechanics of Archimedes, the astronomy of Ptolemy, the theology of Plato, and the logic of Aristotle with the commentary of Porphyry were translated and illustrated by the indefatigable pen of the Roman senator. And he alone was esteemed capable of describing the wonders of art, a sundial, a water clock, or a sphere which represented the motions of the planets. From these obtruse speculations, Boethius stooped, or to speak more truly, he rose to the social duties of public and private life. The indigent were relieved by his liberality and his eloquence, which flattery might compare to the voice of Demosthenes or Cicero, was uniformly exerted in the cause of innocence and humanity. Such conspicuous merit was felt and rewarded by a discerning prince. The dignity of Boethius was adorned with the titles of consul and patrician, and his talents were usefully employed in the important station of master of the offices. Notwithstanding the equal claims of the east and west, his two sons were created in their tender youth, the consuls of the same year. On the memorable day of their inauguration, they proceeded in solemn pomp from their palace to the forum amidst the applause of the senate and people, and their joyful father, the true consul of Rome, after pronouncing an oration in the praise of his royal benefactor, distributed a triumphal largest in the games of the circus. Prosperous in his fame and fortunes, in his public honors and private alliances, in the cultivation of science and the consciousness of virtue, Boethius might have been styled happy if that precarious epithet could be safely applied before the last term of the life of man. A philosopher, liberal of his wealth and parsimonious of his time, might be insensible to the common allurements of ambition, the thirst of gold and employment, and some credit may be due to the assertion of Boethius, that he had reluctantly obeyed the divine Plato, who enjoins every virtuous citizen to rescue the state from the usurpation of vice and ignorance. For the integrity of his public conduct, he appeals to the memory of his country. His authority had restrained the pride and oppression of the royal officers, and his eloquence had delivered Pollyanus from the dogs of the palace. He had always pitied and often relieved the distress of the provincials, whose fortunes were exhausted by public and private repine, and Boethius alone had courage to oppose the tyranny of the barbarians, elated by conquest, excited by avarice, and as he complains encouraged by impunity. In these honorable contests his spirit soared above the consideration of danger and perhaps prudence. And we may learn from the example of Cato, that a character of pure and inflexible virtue is the most apt to be misled by prejudice, to be heeded by enthusiasm, and to confound private enemies with public justice. The disciple of Plato might exaggerate the infirmities of nature and the imperfections of society, and the mildest form of a Gothic kingdom, even the weight of allegiance and gratitude, must be insupportable to the free spirit of a Roman patriot. But the favor and fidelity of Boethy is declined in just proportion with the public happiness, and an unworthy colleague was imposed to divide and control the power of the master of the offices. In the last gloomy season of Theodoric he indignantly felt that he was a slave, but as his master had only power over his life, he stood without arms and without fear against the face of an angry barbarian, who had been provoked to believe that the safety of the Senate was incompatible with his own. The Senator Albinus was accused and already convicted on the presumption of hoping, as it was said, the liberty of Rome. If Albinus be criminal, exclaim the order, the Senate and myself are all guilty of the same crime. If we are innocent, Albinus is equally entitled to the protection of the laws. These laws might not have punished the simple and barren wish of an unattainable blessing, but they would have shown less indulgence to the rash confession of Boethius, that had he known of a conspiracy the tyrant never should. The advocate of Albinus was soon involved in the danger and perhaps the guilt of his client. Their signature, which they denied as a forgery, was affixed to the original address, inviting the emperor to deliver Italy from the Goths. And three witnesses of honorable rank, perhaps of infamous reputation, attested the treasonable designs of the Roman patrician. Yet his innocence must be presumed, since he was deprived by Theodoric of the means of justification, and rigorously confined in the tower of Pavia, while the Senate, at the distance of five hundred miles, pronounced the sentence of confiscation and death against the most illustrious of its members. At the command of the barbarians, the occult science of a philosopher was stigmatized with the names of sacrilege and magic. A devout and dutiful attachment to the Senate was condemned as criminal by the trembling voices of the Senators themselves. And their ingratitude deserved the wish or prediction of Boethius, that after him none should be found guilty of the same offense. While Boethius, oppressed with fetters, expected each moment the sentence or the stroke of death, he composed in the tower of Pavia the consolation of philosophy a golden volume not unworthy of the leisure of Plato or Tully, but which claims incomparable merit from the barbarism of the times and the situation of the author. The celestial guide whom he had so long invoked at Rome and Athens now condescended to illuminate his dungeon, to revive his courage and to pour into his wounds her salutary bomb. She taught him to compare his long prosperity and his recent distress, and to conceive new hopes from the inconstancy of fortune. Reason had informed him of the precarious condition of her gifts. Experience had satisfied him of their real value. He had enjoyed them without guilt, he might resign them without a sigh, and calmly disdain the impotent malice of his enemies, who had left him happiness, since they had left him virtue. From the earth Boethius ascended to heaven in search of the supreme good, explored the metaphysical labyrinth of chance and destiny, of prescience and free will, of time and eternity, and generously attempted to reconcile the perfect attributes of the deity with the apparent disorders of his moral and physical government. Such topics of consolation, so obvious, so vague, or so abstruse, are ineffectual to subdue the feelings of human nature. Yet the sense of misfortune may be diverted by the labor of thought, and the sage who could artfully combine in the same work the various riches of philosophy, poetry, and eloquence must already have possessed the intrepid calmness which he affected to seek. Suspense, the worst of evils, was at length determined by the ministers of death, who executed and perhaps succeeded the inhuman mandate of Theodoric. A strong cord was fastened round the head of Boethius and forcibly tightened till his eyes almost started from their sockets, and some mercy may be discovered in the milder torture of beating him with clubs till he expired. But as genius survived to diffuse a ray of knowledge over the darkest ages of the Latin world, the writings of the philosopher were translated by the most glorious of the English kings, and the third emperor of the name of Otto removed to a more honorable tomb the bones of the Catholic saint, who from his Aryan persecutors had acquired the honors of martyrdom and the fame of miracles. In his last hours of Boethius he derived some comfort from the safety of his two sons of his wife and of his father-in-law the venerable Symachus. But the grief of Symachus was indiscreet and perhaps disrespectful. He had presumed to lament he might dare to revenge the death of an injured friend. He was dragged in chains from Rome to the palace of Ravenna and the suspicious of Theodoric could only be appeased by the blood of an innocent and aged senator. Humanity will be disposed to encourage any report which testifies the jurisdiction of conscience and the remorse of kings. And philosophy is not ignorant that the most horrid specters are sometimes created by the powers of a disordered fancy and the weakness of a distempered body. After a life of virtue and glory Theodoric was now descending with shame and guilt into the grave. His mind was humbled by the contrast of the past and justly alarmed by the invisible terrors of futurity. One evening as it is related when the head of a large fish was served on the royal table he suddenly exclaimed that he beheld the angry countenance of Symachus his eyes glaring fury and revenge and his mouth armed with long sharp teeth which threatened to devour him. The monarch instantly retired to his chamber and as he laid trembling with anguish cold under a weight of bedclothes he expressed and broken murmurs to his physician Elpidius his deep repentance for the murders of Boethius and Symachus. His malady increased and after a dysentery which continued three days he expired in the palace of Ravenna in the 33rd or if we compute from the invasion of Italy in the 37th year of his reign. Conscious of his approaching end he divided his treasures and provinces between his two grandsons and fixed the Rhine as their common boundary. Amalaric was restored to the throne of Spain. Italy with all the conquests of the Ostrogoths was bequeathed to Athalaric whose age did not exceed ten years but who was cherished as the last male offspring of the line of Amali by the short-lived marriage of his mother Amalasuntha with the royal fugitive of the same blood. In the presence of the dying monarch the Gothic chiefs and Italian magistrates mutually engaged their faith and loyalty to the young prince and to his guardian mother and received in the same awful moment his last salutary advice to maintain the laws to love the senate and people of Rome and to cultivate with decent reverence the friendship of the emperor. The monument of Theodoric was erected by his daughter Amalasuntha in a conspicuous situation which commanded the city of Ravenna the harbor and the adjacent coast. A chapel of a circular form thirty feet in diameter is crowned by a dome of one entire piece of granite. From the center of the dome four columns arose which supported in a vase of porphyry the remains of the Gothic king surrounded by the brazen statues of the 12 apostles. His spirit after some previous expiation might have been permitted to mingle with the benefactors of mankind if an Italian hermit had not been witness in a vision to the damnation of Theodoric whose soul was plunged by the ministers of divine vengeance and to the volcano of Lapari one of the flaming mouths of the infernal world. End of Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Part 1 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire Volume 4 This is a Librivox recording All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit Librivox.org Chapter 40 Elevation of Justin the Elder Reign of Justinian 1. The Empress Theodora 2. Factions of the Circus and Sedition of Constantinople 3. Trade and Manufacturer of Silk 4. Finances and Taxes 5. Edifices of Justinian Church of Saint Sophia Fortifications and Frontiers of the Eastern Empire Abolition of the Schools of Athens and the Consulship of Rome The Emperor Justinian was born near the ruins of Sardica the modern Sophia of an obscure race of barbarians the inhabitants of a wild and desolate country to which the names of Dardania of Dacia and of Bulgaria have been successively applied His elevation was prepared by the adventurous spirit of his uncle Justin who with two other peasants of the same village deserted for the profession of arms the more useful employment of husbandmen or shepherds On foot with the scanty provision of biscuit in their knapsacks the three youths followed the high road of Constantinople and were soon enrolled for their strengthened stature among the guards of the Emperor Leo Under the two succeeding reigns the fortunate peasant emerged to wealth and honors and his escape from some dangers which threatened his life was afterwards ascribed to the guardian angel who watches over the fate of kings His long and laudable service in the Isaurian and Persian wars would not have preserved from oblivion the name of Justin yet they might warrant the military promotion which in the course of 50 years he gradually obtained the rank of Tribune of Count and of General the dignity of Senator and the command of the guards who obeyed him as their chief at the important crisis when the Emperor Anastasius was removed from the world The powerful kinsmen whom he had raised and enriched were excluded from the throne and the eunuch Amontius who reigned in the palace had secretly resolved to fix the diadem on the head of the most obsequious of his creatures A liberal donative to conciliate the suffrage of the guards was entrusted for that purpose in the hands of their commander but these weighty arguments were treacherously employed by Justinian in his own favor and as no competitor presumed to appear the Dacian peasant was invested with the purple by the unanimous consent of the soldiers who knew him to be brave and gentle of the clergy and people who believed him to be orthodox and of the provincials who yielded a blind and implicit submission to the will of the capital The elder Justin as he is distinguished from another emperor of the same name and family ascended the Byzantine throne at the age of 68 years and had he been left to his own guidance every moment of a nine years reign must have exposed to his subjects the impropriety of their choice His ignorance was similar to that of theodoric and it is remarkable that in an age not destitute of learning two contemporary monarchs had never been instructed in the knowledge of the alphabet but the genius of Justin was far inferior to that of the Gothic king the experience of a soldier had not qualified him for the government of an empire and though personally brave the consciousness of his own weakness was naturally attended with doubt, distrust and political apprehension but the official business of the state was diligently and faithfully transacted by the quaester proclas and the aged emperor adopted the talents and ambition of his nephew Justinian in aspiring youth whom his uncle had drawn from the rustic solitude of Dacia and educated at Constantinople as the heir of his private fortune and at length of the eastern empire since the eunuch Amontius had been defrauded of his money it became necessary to deprive him of his life the task was easily accomplished by the charge of a real or fictitious conspiracy and the judges were informed as an accumulation of guilt that he was secretly addicted to the Manichean heresy Amontius lost his head three of his companions the first domestics of the palace were punished either with death or exile and their unfortunate candidate for the purple was cast into a deep dungeon overwhelmed with stones and ignominiously thrown without burial into the sea the ruin of Vitalian was a work of more difficulty and danger that gothic chief had rendered himself popular by the civil war which he boldly waged against Anastasius for the defense of the Orthodox faith and after the conclusion of an advantageous treaty he still remained in the neighborhood of Constantinople at the head of a formidable and victorious army of barbarians by the frail security of oaths he was tempted to relinquish this advantageous situation and to trust his person within the walls of a city whose inhabitants particularly the blue faction were artfully incensed against him by the remembrance even of his pious hostilities the emperor and his nephew embraced him as the faithful and worthy champion of the church and state and gratefully adoring their favorite with the titles of consul in general but in the seventh month of his consulship Vitalian was stabbed with 17 wounds at the royal banquet and Justinian who inherited the spoil was accused as the assassin of a spiritual brother to whom he had recently pledged his faith in the participation of the Christian mysteries after the fall of his rival he was promoted without any claim of military service to the office of master general of the eastern armies whom it was his duty to lead into the field against the public enemy but in the pursuit of fame Justinian might have lost his present dominion over the age and weakness of his uncle and instead of acquiring by Scythian or Persian trophies the applause of his countrymen the prudent warrior solicited their favor in the churches the circus and the senate of Constance and Opal the Catholics were attached to the nephew of Justin who between the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies trod the narrow path of inflexible and intolerant orthodoxy in the first days of the new reign he prompted and gratified the popular enthusiasm against the memory of the deceased emperor after a schism of 34 years he reconciled the proud and angry spirit of the Roman Pontiff and spread among the latins a favorable report of his pious respect for the apostolic sea the thrones of the east were filled with Catholic bishops devoted to his interest the clergy and the monks were gained by his liberality and the people were taught to pray for their future sovereign the hope and pillar of the true religion the magnificence of Justinian was displayed in the superior pomp of his public spectacles an object not less sacred and important in the eyes of the multitude than the creed of Nicaea or Calcedon the expense of his consulship was esteemed at 288,000 pieces of gold 20 lions and 30 leopards were produced at the same time in the amphitheater and a numerous train of horses with their rich trappings was bestowed as an extraordinary gift on the victorious charioteers of the circus while he indulged the people of Constantinople and received the addresses of foreign kings the nephew of Justin assiduously cultivated the friendship of the senate that venerable name seemed to qualify its members to declare the sense of the nation and to regulate the secession of the imperial throne the feeble anesthesias had permitted the vigor of government to degenerate into the form or substance of an aristocracy and the military officers who had attained the senatorial rank were followed by the domestic guards a band of veterans whose arms or acclamations might fixed in a tumultuous moment the diadem of the east the treasures of the state were lavished to procure the voices of the senators and their unanimous wish that he would be pleased to adopt Justinian for his colleague was communicated to the emperor but this request which too clearly admonished him of his approaching end was unwelcome to the jealous temper of an aged monarch desirous to retain the power which he was incapable of exercising and Justin holding his purple with both his hands advised them to prefer since an election was so profitable some older candidate notwithstanding this reproach the senate proceeded to decorate Justinian with the royal epithet of nobillissimus and the decree was ratified by the affection or the fears of his uncle after some time the languor of mind and body to which he was reduced by an incurable wound in his thigh indispensably required the aid of a guardian he summoned the patriarch and senators and in their presence solemnly placed the diadem on the head of his nephew who was conducted from the palace to the circus and saluted by the loud and joyful applause of the people the life of Justin was prolonged about four months but from the instant of this ceremony he was considered as dead to the empire which acknowledged Justinian in the 45th year of his age for the lawful sovereign of the east from his elevation to his death Justinian governed the roman empire 38 years seven months and 13 days the events of his reign which excite our curious attention by their number variety and importance are diligently related by the secretary of bellissarius a rhetoricitian whom eloquence had promoted to the rank of senator and prefect of Constantinople according to the vicissitudes of courage or servitude a favor or disgrace Procopius successfully composed the history the panegyric and the satire of his own times the eight books of the persian bandelic and gothic wars which are continued in the five books of agathias deserve our esteem as a laborious and successful imitation of the attic or at least of the asiatic writers of ancient Greece his facts are collected from the personal experience and free conversation of a soldier a statesman and a traveler his style continually aspires and often attains to the merit of strength and elegance his reflections more especially in the speeches which he too frequently inserts contain a rich fund of political knowledge and the historian excited by the generous ambition of pleasing and instructing posterity appears to disdain the prejudices of the people and the flattery of courts the writings of Procopius were read and applauded by his contemporaries but although he respectfully laid them at the foot of the throne the pride of Justinian must have been wounded by the praise of a hero who perpetually eclipses the glory of his inactive sovereign the conscious dignity of independence was subdued by the hopes and fears of a slave and the secretary of Bellisarius labored for pardon and reward in the six books of the imperial edifices he had dexterously chosen a subject of a parent's blunder in which he could loudly celebrate the genius the magnificence and the piety of a prince who both as a conqueror and legislator had surpassed the purile virtues of the mysticlies and Cyrus disappointment might urge the flatterer to secret revenge and the first glance of favor might again tempt him to suspend or suppress a libel in which the Roman Cyrus is degraded into an odious and contemptible tyrant in which both the emperor and his consort Theodora are seriously represented as two demons who had assumed a human form for the destruction of mankind such base inconsistency must doubtless sully the reputation and detract from the credit of Procopius yet after the venom of his malignity has been suffered to exhale the residue of the anecdotes even the most disgraceful facts some of which have been tenderly hinted in his public history are established by their internal evidence or the authentic monuments of the times from these various materials I shall now proceed to describe the reign of Justinian which will deserve and occupy an ample space the present chapter will explain the elevation and character of Theodora the factions of the circus and the peaceful administration of the sovereign of the east in the three succeeding chapters I shall relate the wars of Justinian which achieved the conquest of Africa and Italy and I shall follow the victories of Belisarius and Narces without disguising the vanity of their triumphs or the hostile virtue of the Persian and Gothic heroes the series of this volume will embrace the jurisprudence and theology of the emperor the controversies and sects which still divide the oriental church and the reformation of the Roman law which is obeyed or respected by the nations of modern Europe one in the exercise of supreme power the first act of Justinian was to divide it with the woman whom he loved the famous Theodora whose strange elevation cannot be applauded as the triumph of female virtue under the reign of Anastasius the care of the wild beasts maintained by the green faction at Constantinople was entrusted to Acacius a native of the Isle of Cyprus who from his employment was surnamed the master of the bears this honorable office was given after his death to another candidate notwithstanding the diligence of his widow who had already provided a husband and a successor Acacius had left three daughters Cometto Theodora and Anastasia the eldest of whom did not then exceed the age of seven years on a solemn festival these helpless orphans were sent by their distressed and indignant mother in the garb of suppliance into the mist of the theater the green faction received them with contempt the blues with compassion and this difference which sunk deep into the mind of Theodora was felt long afterwards in the administration of the empire as they improved in age and beauty the three sisters were successfully devoted to the public and private pleasures of the Byzantine people and Theodora after following Cometto on the stage in the dress of a slave with the stool on her head was at length permitted to exercise her independent talents she neither danced nor sung nor played on the flute her skill was confined to the pantomime arts she excelled in buffoon characters and as often as the comedian swelled her cheeks and complained with the ridiculous tone and gesture of the blows which were inflicted the whole theater of Constantinople resounded with laughter and applause the beauty of Theodora was the subject of more flattering praise and the source of more exquisite delight her features were delicate and regular her complexion though somewhat pale was tinged with a natural color every sensation was instantly expressed by the vivacity of her eyes her easy motions displayed the graces of a small but elegant figure and either love or adulation might proclaim that painting and poetry were incapable of delineating the matchless excellence of her form but this form was degraded by the facility with which it was exposed to the public eye and prostituted to licentious desire her venal charms were abandoned to a promiscuous crowd of citizens and strangers of every rank and of every profession the fortunate lover who had been promised the night of enjoyment was often driven from her bed by a stronger or more wealthy favorite and when she passed through the streets her presence was avoided by all who wished to escape either the scandal or the temptation the satirical historian has not blushed to describe the naked scenes which Theodora was not ashamed to exhibit in the theater after exhausting the arts of sensual pleasure she most gratefully murmured against the parsimony of nature but her murmurs her pleasures and her arts must be veiled in the obscurity of the learned language after raining for some time the delight and contempt of the capital she condescended to a company a kebalus a native of tire who had obtained the government of the african pentapolis but this union was frail and transient a kebalus soon rejected an expensive or faithless concubine she was reduced in alexandria to extreme distress and in her laborious return to Constantinople every city of the east admired and enjoyed the fair Cyprian whose merit appeared to justify her descent from the peculiar island of venus the vague commerce of Theodora and the most detestable precautions preserved her from the danger which she feared yet once and once only she became a mother the infant was saved and educated in Arabia by his father who imparted to him on his deathbed that he was the son of an empress filled with ambitious hopes the unsuspecting youth immediately hastened to the palace of Constantinople and was admitted to the presence of his mother as he was never more seen even after the decease of Theodora she deserves the foul imputation of extinguishing with his life a secret so offensive to her imperial virtue in the most abject state of her fortune and reputation some vision either of sleep or a fancy had whispered to Theodora the pleasing assurance that she was destined to become the spouse of a potent monarch conscious of her approaching greatness she returned from pathologonia to Constantinople assumed like a skillful actress a more decent character relieved her poverty by the laudable industry of spinning wool and affected of life of chastity and solitude in a small house which she afterwards changed into a magnificent temple her beauty assisted by art or accident soon attracted captivated and fixed the patrician Justinian who already reigned with absolute sway under the name of his uncle perhaps she contrived to enhance the value of a gift which she had so often lavished on the meanest of mankind perhaps she inflamed first by modest delays and alas by sensual allurements the desires of a lover who from nature or devotion was addicted to long vigils and epestimious diet when his first transports had subsided she still maintained the same ascendant over his mind by the more solid merit of temper and understanding Justinian delighted to a noble and enriched the object of his affection the treasures of the east were poured at her feet and the nephew of Justin was determined perhaps by religious scruples to bestow on his concubine the sacred and legal character of a wife but the laws of Rome expressly prohibited the marriage of a senator with any female who had been dishonored by a servile origin or theatrical profession the Empress Lupicina or euphemia a barbarian of rustic manners but of irreproachable virtue refused to accept a prostitute for her niece and even vigilantea the superstitious mother of Justinian although she acknowledged the wit and beauty of Theodora was seriously apprehensive thus the levity and arrogance of that artful paramour might corrupt the piety and happiness of her son these obstacles were removed by the inflexible constancy of Justinian he patiently expected the death of the Empress he despised the tears of his mother who soon sunk under the weight of her reflection and a law was promulgated in the name of the Emperor Justin which abolished the rigid jurisprudence of antiquity a glorious repentance the words of the edict was left open for the unhappy females who had prostituted their persons on the theatre and they were permitted to contract a legal union with the most illustrious of the Romans this indulgence was speedily followed by the solemn nuptials of Justinian and Theodora her dignity was gradually exalted with that of her lover and as soon as Justin had invested his nephew with the purple the patriarch of Constantinople placed the diadem on the heads of the Emperor and Empress of the East but the usual honors which the severity of Roman manners had allowed to the wives of princes cannot satisfy either the ambition of Theodora or the fondness of Justinian he seated her on the throne as an equal and independent colleague in the soventry of the empire and an oath of allegiance was imposed on the governors of the provinces and the joint names of Justinian and Theodora the eastern world fell prostrate before the genius and fortune of the daughter of Acacius the prostitute who in the presence of innumerable spectators had polluted the theatre of Constantinople was adored as a queen in the same city by grave magistrates orthodox bishops victorious generals and captive monarchs end of chapter 40 part one chapter 40 part two of the decline and fall of the Roman empire volume four this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org those who believe that the female mind is totally depraved by the loss of chastity will eagerly listen to all the invectives of private envy or popular resentment which have dissembled the virtues of Theodora exaggerated her vices and condemned with rigor the venal or voluntary sins of the youthful harlot from a motive of shame or contempt she often declined the servile homage of the multitude escaped from the odious light of the capital and passed the greatest part of the year in the palaces and gardens which were pleasantly seated on the secos of the propontus and the bosphorus her private hours were devoted to the prudent as well as grateful care of her beauty the luxury of the bath and table and the long slumber of the evening and the morning her secret apartments were occupied by the favorite women in eunuchs whose interests and passions she indulged at the expense of justice the most illustrious personages of the state were crowded into a dark and sultry entertainment chamber and when at last after tedious attendance they were admitted to kiss the feet of Theodora they experienced as her humor might suggest the silent arrogance of an empress or the capricious levity of a comedian her rapacious avarice to accumulate an immense treasure may be excused by the apprehension of her husband's death which could leave no alternative between ruin and the throne and fear as well as ambition might exasperate Theodora against two generals who during a malady of the emperor had rashly declared that they were not disposed to acquiesce in the choice of the capital but the approach of cruelty so repugnant even to her soft devices has left an indelible stain on the memory of Theodora her numerous spies observed and zealously reported every action or word or look injurious to their royal mistress Whom soever they accused were cast into her peculiar prisons inaccessible to the inquiries of justice and it was rumored that the torture of the rack or scourge had been inflicted in the presence of a female tyrant insensible to the voice of prayer or of pity some of these unhappy victims perished in deep on wholesome dungeons while others were permitted after the loss of their limbs their reason or their fortune to appear in the world the living monuments of her vengeance which were commonly extended to the children of those whom she had suspected or injured the senator or bishop whose death or exile Theodora had pronounced was delivered to a trusty messenger and his diligence was quickened by a menace from her own mouth if you fail in the execution of my commands I swear by him who liveth forever that your skin shall be flayed from your body if the creed of Theodora had not been tainted with heresy her exemplary devotion might have atoned in the opinion of her contemporaries for pride avarice and cruelty but if she employed her influence to assuage the intolerant fury of the emperor the present age will allow some merit to her religion and much indulgence to her speculative errors the name of Theodora was introduced with equal honor in all the pious and charitable foundations of Justinian and the most benevolent institution of his reign may be ascribed to the sympathy of the Empress for her less fortunate sisters who had been seduced or compelled to embrace the trade of prostitution a palace on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus was converted into a stately and spacious monastery and a liberal maintenance was assigned to 500 women who had been collected from the streets and brothels of Constance and Opal in this safe and holy retreat they were devoted to perpetual confinement and the despair of some who threw themselves headlong into the sea was lost in the gratitude of the penitents who had been delivered from sin and misery by the generous benefactress the prudence of Theodora is celebrated by Justinian himself and his laws are attributed to the sage councils of his most reverent wife whom he had received as a gift of the deity her courage was displayed amidst the tumult of the people and the terrors of the court her chastity from the moment of her union with Justinian is founded on the silence of her implacable enemies and although the daughter of Acacius might be satiated with love yet some applause is due to the firmness of a mind who could sacrifice pleasure and habit to the stronger sense either of duty or interest the wishes and prayers of Theodora can never obtain the blessing of a lawful son and she buried an infinite daughter the soul offspring of her marriage notwithstanding this disappointment her dominion was permanent and absolute she preserved by art or merit the affections of Justinian and their seeming dissensions were always fatal to the courtiers who believed them to be sincere perhaps her health had been impaired by the licentiousness for youth but it was always delicate and she was directed by her physicians to use the Pythian warm baths in this journey the empress was followed by the Praetorian prefect the great treasurer several counts and patricians and a splendid train of 4000 attendants the highways were repaired at her approach a palace was erected for her reception and as she passed through Bethenia she distributed liberal alms to the churches the monasteries and the hospitals that they might implore heaven for the restoration of her health at length in the 24th year of her marriage and the 22nd of her reign she was consumed by a cancer and the irreparable loss was deployed by her husband who in the room of a theatrical prostitute might have selected the purest and most noble virgin of the east too a material difference may be observed in the games of antiquity the most eminent of the greeks were actors the romans were merely spectators the olympic stadium was open to wealth merit and ambition and then if the candidates could depend on their personal skill and activity they might pursue the footsteps of diamini and menelaus and conduct their own horses in the rapid career 10 20 40 chariots were allowed to start at the same instant a crowd of leaves was the reward of the victor and his fame with that of his family and country was chanted in lyric strains more durable the monuments of brass and marble but a senator or even a citizen conscious of his dignity would have blushed to expose his person or his horses in the circus of Rome the games were exhibited at the expense of the republic the magistrates or the emperors but the reins were abandoned to servile hands and if the profits of a favorite charioteer sometimes exceeded those of an advocate they must be considered as the effects of popular extravagance and the high wages of a disgraceful profession the race and its first institution was a simple contest of two chariots whose drivers were distinguished by white and red liveries two additional colors a light green and a cerulean blue were afterwards introduced and as the races were repeated 25 times 100 chariots contributed in the same day to the pomp of the circus the four factions soon acquired a legal establishment and a mysterious origin and their fanciful colors were derived from the various appearances of nature in the four seasons of the year the red dog star of summer the snows of winter the deep shades of autumn and the cheerful verger of the spring another interpretation preferred the elements to the seasons and the struggle of the green and blue was supposed to represent the conflict of the earth and sea their respective victories announced either a plentiful harvest or a prosperous navigation and the hostility of the husbandmen and mariners was somewhat less absurd than the blind ardor of the roman people who devoted their lives and fortunes to the color which they had espoused such folly was disdained and indulged by the wisest princes but the names of Caligula Nero Vitelius Verus Commodus Caracola and Alegalibus were enrolled in the blue or green factions of the circus they frequented their staples applauded their favorites chastised their antagonists and deserved the esteem of the populace by the natural or affected imitation of their manners the bloody and tumultuous contest continued to disturb the public festivity to the last age of the spectacles of Rome and Theodoric from a motive of justice or affection interposed his authority to protect the grains against the violence of a consul and a patrician who were passionately addicted to the blue faction of the circus Constance and Opel adopted the follies though not the virtues of ancient Rome and the same factions which had agitated the circus raged with redoubled fury in the hippodrome Under the reign of Anastasias this popular frenzy was inflamed by religious zeal and the greens who had treacherously concealed stones and daggers under baskets of fruit massacred at a solemn festival three thousand of their blue adversaries from the capital this pestilence was diffused into the provinces and cities of the east and the sportive distinction of two colors produced too strong in irreconcilable factions which shook the foundations of a feeble government The popular dissensions founded on the most serious interest or holy pretense have scarcely equalled the obscenity of this wanton discord which invaded the peace of families divided friends and brothers and tempted the female sex though seldom seen in the circus to espouse the inclinations of their lovers or to contradict the wishes of their husbands Every law either human or divine was trampled underfoot and as long as the party was successful its diluted followers appeared careless of private distress or public calamity The license without the freedom of democracy was revived at Antioch and Constantinople and the support of affection became necessary to every candidate for civil or ecclesiastical honors A secret attachment to the family or sect of Anastasias was imputed to the greens The blues were zealously devoted to the cause of orthodoxy and Justinian and their grateful patron protected above five years the disorders of affection whose seasonable tumults overall the palace the senate and the capitals of the east Insolent with royal favor the blues affected to strike terror by a peculiar and barbaric dress the long hair of the huns their close sleeves and ample garments a lofty step and a sonorous voice In the day they concealed their two-edged ponyards but in the night they boldly assembled in arms and in numerous bands prepared for every act of violence and rapime Their adversaries of the green faction or even inoffensive citizens were stripped and often murdered by these nocturnal robbers and it became dangerous to wear any gold buttons or girdles or to appear at a late hour in the streets of a peaceful capital A daring spirit rising with impunity proceeded to violate the safeguard of private houses and fire was employed to facilitate the attack or to conceal the crimes of these factious rioters No place was safe or sacred from their depredations To gratify either avarice or revenge they profusely spilt the blood of the innocent Churches and altars were polluted by atrocious murders and it was the boast of the assassins that their dexterity could always inflict a mortal wound with the single stroke of their dagger The dissolute youth of Constance and Opel adopted the blue livery of disorder The laws were silent and the bonds of society were relaxed Creditors were compelled to resign their obligations Judges to reverse their sentence Masters to enfranchise their slaves Fathers to supply the extravagance of their children Noble matrons were prostituted to the lust of their servants Beautiful boys were torn from their arms of their parents and wives unless they preferred a voluntary death were ravished in the presence of their husbands The despair of the greens who were persecuted by their enemies and deserted by the magistrate assumed the privilege of defense perhaps of retaliation But those who survived the combat were dragged to execution and the unhappy fugitives escaping to woods and caverns prayed without mercy on the society from whence they were expelled Those ministers of justice who had the courage to punish the crimes and to brave the resentment of the blues became the victims of their indiscreet zeal The prefect of Constance and Opel fled for refuge to the holy supplicor A count of the east was ignominiously whipped and a governor of Cilicia was hanged by the order of Theodora on the tomb of two assassins whom he had condemned for the murder of his groom and a daring attack upon his own life An aspiring candidate may be tempted to build his greatness on the public confusion but it is the interest as well as the duty of a sovereign to maintain the authority of the laws The first edict of Justinian which was often repeated and sometimes executed announced his firm resolution to support the innocent and to chastise the guilty of every denomination and color Yet the balance of justice was still inclined in favor of the blue faction by the secret affection the habits and the fears of the emperor His equity after an apparent struggle submitted without reluctance to the implacable passion of Theodora and the empress never forgot or forgave the injuries of the comedian At the accession of the younger Justin the proclamation of equal and rigorous justice indirectly condemned the partiality of the former reign Ye blues Justinian is no more Ye greens he is still alive A sedition which almost laid Constantinople on ashes was excited by the mutual hatred and momentary reconciliation of the two factions In the fifth year of his reign Justinian celebrated the festival of the Ides of January The games were incessantly disturbed by the climorous discontent of the greens till the 22nd race the emperor maintained to silent gravity at length yielding to his impatience he condescended to hold and abrupt sentences and by the voice of a crier the most singular dialogue that has ever passed between a prince and his subjects Their first complaints were respectful and modest They accused the subordinate ministers of oppression and proclaimed their wishes for the long life and victory of the emperor Be patient and attentive insolent railers exclaimed Justinian Be mute ye Jews Samaritans and Manicheans The greens still attempted to awaken his compassion We are poor We are innocent We are injured We dare not pass through the streets A general persecution is exercised against our name and color Let us die O emperor but let us die by your command and for your service But the repetition of partial and passionate invectives degraded in their eyes the majesty of the purple They renounced allegiance to the prince who refused justice to his people lamented that the father of Justinian had been born and branded his son with the appropriate names of a homicide an ass and a perjured tyrant Do you despise your lives? cried the indignant monarch The blues rose with fury from their seats Their hostile clamors thundered in the hippodrome and their adversaries deserting the unequal contest spread terror and despair through the streets of Constantinople At this dangerous moment seven notorious assassins of both factions who had been condemned by the prefect were carried around the city and afterwards transported to the place of execution in the suburb of Para Four were immediately beheaded A fifth was hanged But when the same punishment was inflicted on the remaining two the rope broke They fell alive to the ground The populace applauded their escape and the monks of St. Conan issuing from the neighboring convent conveyed them in a boat to the sanctuary of the church As one of the criminals was of the blue and the other of the green livery the two factions were equally provoked by the cruelty of their oppressor or the ingratitude of their patron And a short truce was concluded till they had delivered their prisoners and satisfied their revenge The palace of the prefect who withstood the seditious torrent was instantly burnt His officers and guards were massacred The prisons were forced open and freedom was restored to those who could only use it for the public destruction A military force which had been dispatched to the aid of the civil magistrate was fiercely encountered by an armed multitude whose numbers and boldness continually increased And the Heruli the wildest barbarians in the service of the empire overturned the priests and the relics which from a pious motive had been rashly interposed to separate the bloody conflict The tumult was exasperated by this sacrilege The people fought with enthusiasm in the cause of God The women from the roofs and windows showered stones on the heads of the soldiers who darted firebrands against the houses and the various flames which had been kindled by the hands of citizens and strangers spread without control over the face of the city The conflagration involved the cathedral of Saint Sophia the bands of Zusipis a part of the palace from the first entrance to the altar of Mars and the long portico from the palace to the Forum of Constantine A large hospital with the sick patients was consumed Many churches and stately edifices were destroyed and the immense treasure of gold and silver was melted or lost From such scenes of horror and distress the wise and wealthy citizens escaped over the Bosphorus to the Asiatic side And during five days Constantinople was abandoned to the factions whose watchword Nika Vanquish has given a name to this memorable sedition As long as the factions were divided the triumphant blues and the desponding greens appeared to behold with the same indifference the disorders of the state They agreed to censure the corrupt management of justice and the finance and the two responsible ministers the Artful Trebonian and the rapacious John of Cappadocia were loudly arraigned as the authors of the public misery The peaceful murmurs of the people would have been disregarded They were heard with respect when the city was in flames The quister and the prefect were instantly removed and their offices