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THE STORY OF THE NATIONS

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Frontispiece THE TOMB OF THEODERIC, REVENNA.

flhe liorg of the fljaiions

THE
Story of the Goths

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE END OF THE
GOTHIC DOMINION IN SPAIN

HENRY BRADLEY

NEW YORK
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN
1891

Copyright
By G. P. Putnam's Sons
1888
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London
By T. Fisher Unwin

Press of
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York

PREFACE.

THIS little volume is, so far as I have been able to
discover, the first English book expressly treating of
the history of the Goths. Adequately to supply the
strange deficiency in our literature indicated by this
fact is a task that will require powers far greater than
mine. Some day, perhaps, the story of the Goths
will be told in English by a writer possessing the rare
combination of literary skill and profound scholarship
that will be needed to do it justice. But in the mean
time I would fain hope that this brief sketch may be
found to have a sufficient reason for its existence. I
have made no attempt to write a brilliant narrative,
well knowing that success in such an attempt is
beyond my reach. My aim has been to relate the
facts of the history as correctly as I could, and with
the simplicity of language required by the plan of the
series in which the work appears — a series intended
not for scholars, but for readers in whom little
knowledge of general history is to be pre-supposed.
If this volume should fall into the hand of scholars,

Vlll PREFACE.
it will perhaps be obvious that I have not neglected
to read most of the original sources of the history ;
but it may be still more obvious that I have not the
thorough familiarity with them that might justly be
demanded if I claimed for my work any independent
historical value. Remembering the dangers of " a
little learning," I have endeavoured to escape them
by refraining from expressing any views which have
not the sanction of at least one modern scholar of
repute. The prescribed plan of the work has, of
course, not permitted me either to adduce arguments
or to cite authorities in justification of the particular
conclusions adopted.
Among the English writers to whom I am indebted,
the first place belongs to Gibbon, whose greatness
appears to me in a new light since I have tried to
compare a small portion of his wonderful work with
the materials out of which it was constructed. I also
owe much to Mr. Hodgkin's " Italy and her Invaders,"
and to various articles by Mr. E. A. Freeman. Among
foreign writers my principal guide has been Dahn ;
I have also made extensive use of the works of
Bessell, Waitz, Aschbach, Manso, and Lembke. To
mention the titles of books that have been merely
consulted on special points seems to me to be un
necessary, and, unless elaborate explanations could be
added, likely to be also misleading.
Some surprise may perhaps be occasioned by the
date chosen for the accompanying map. My reason
for selecting the year 485 rather than 526 is that, if
only one map is to be given, the map representing
the state of Europe at the culminating period of the

PREFACE.

IX

Visigoth dominion, is more useful for the illustration
of Gothic history as a whole, than one relating to the
later and intrinsically more interesting epoch.

HENRY BRADLEY.

London, November, 1887.

CONTENTS.

Who were the Goths

PAGE
1-20

Earliest notices of the Goths : Pytheas, Pliny, Tacitus, I —
Why the story is worth telling, 3 — The people and its names,
5 — Goths and Gepids, 7 — Other kindred peoples, 8 — What
the Goths looked like, 9 —Their national characteristics, 1 1 —
Their manners and polity, 12 — Gothic heathenism, 13 — The
runes, 15 — Goths and Getes, 19 — Emigration from the Baltic
shores, 20.

II.
From the Baltic to the Danube

21-29

Why the Goths came southward, 21 — Traditions of the wan
dering, 23 — Ostrogotha the Patient, 24 — First conflict with the
Romans, 26 — King Cniva's victory, 27 — Ruin of a Roman
army, 28 — The emperor purchases peace, 29.

III.
Fire and Sword in Asia and Greece

3°-37

Miseries of the empire, 30 — Fifteen grievous years, 31 — Plun
der of Ephesus and Athens, 32 — " Let the Greeks have their
books," 33— Claudius Gothicus, 34— Fifty years of peace, 37.

xii CONTENTS. PAGE
IV.
How the Goths Fought with Constantine . 38~42
The Goths in Dacia, 38— The long peace broken, 39— Con
stantine victorious, 41 — Geberic and the Vandals, 42.

The Gothic Alexander  43~49
The empire of Ermanaric, 43— The Huns are coming, 45— The
tyrant's end, 46— The Ostrogoths enslaved, 47— The three
royal brothers, 48 — Birth of Theoderic, 49.

VI.
The Judges of the Visigoths . . . 50-55
The three kingdoms of the Visigoths, 50— Events at Con
stantinople, 51 — Weakness of Valens, 52 — Athanaric quarrels
with the Romans, 53— A peace concluded, 54 — The Visigoths
pressed by the Huns, 55. VII.
The Apostle of the Goths .... 56-64
Wulfila the bishop, 56 — His birth and education, 57 — "A
second Moses," 58 — Arians and Catholics, 59 — Wulfila's Gothic
Bible, 61 — His death, 64.

VIII.
Frithigern and Valens — The Battle or
Hadrianople . . . 65-75
The Visigoths cross the Danube, 65 — They are oppressed by
the Romans, 67 — Patience of Frithigern, 68 — A rebellion at
last, 69 — Indignation against Valens, 70 — The battle of Had
rianople, 72 — A sad day for Rome, 75.

CONTENTS. XlllPAGE
IX.
The Goths and Theodosius .... 76-83
Constantinople in danger, 76 — Massacre of Gothic hostages,
78 — Wise policy of Theodosius, 79 — Athanaric at Constanti
nople, 80 — The Goths under Roman rule, 81 — The Roman
army filled with Goths — Danger to the empire, 83.

X.
Alaric the Balthing  84-98
Death of Theodosius ; his unworthy successors, 84 — Alaric
chosen king, 85 — His campaigns in Greece, 86 — The Visigoths
invade Italy, 87 — They are defeated and retire, 88 — Radagais
and his invasion, 89 — Stilicho's bargain with Alaric, 91 —
Roman treachery, 92 — Alaric returns ; Rome surrounded by
the Goths, 92 — Alaric master of Italy, 95 — Rome taken by
storm, 96 — Alaric's death, 97 — His funeral, 98.

XI.
King Atawulf and his Roman Queen . . 99-105
What had happened in the East, 99 — Atawulf s plans of do
minion, 100 — The wedding at Narbonne, lol — Murder of
Atawulf, 103 — What became of Placidia, 105.

XII.
The Kingdom of Toulouse . . . 106-125
The gift of Aqtiitaine, 106— Theoderic the Visigoth, 107— The
Huns invade Gaul, ill— The battle of Moirey, 113— The
second Theoderic, 114— The Vandals at Rome, 115— Rikimer
the emperor-maker, 116— Culmination of the Visigoth do
minions, 117— Beginnings of decline, 119— Aggression of the
Franks, 121— The Hart's Ford, 123— The field of Voclad, 124
—The Visigoths driven from Gaul, 125.

xiv CONTENTS. PAGE
XIII.
How the Western Empire came to an End. 126-132
Orestes the Illyrian, 126—" Romulus Augustulus," 127— The
mixed multitude and their king, 128— End of the Western
Empire, 130 — Odovacar, king of Italy, 131.
XIV.
The Boyhood of Theoderic .... 133-137
Grievances of the Ostrogoths, 133 — The boy Theoderic at Con
stantinople, 134 — His education and early distinction in war,
135 — He succeeds to the kingdom, 137.

XV.
The Rival Namesakes  138-144
The Emperor Zeno, 138 — The two Theoderics, 139; — The em
peror's duplicity, 142 — Death of Theoderic Strabo, 143 — The
Amaling bidden to conquer Italy, 144.
XVI.
How the Ostrogoths won Italy . . . 1 45-1 51
A march in winter, 145 — The battle of Verona, 147 — Ravenna
surrenders, 149 — Murder of Odovacar, 150.
XVII.
The Wisdom of Theoderic .... 152-173
Theoderic, king of Italy, 153 — A bishop pleading for his
flock, 153 — The king's beneficence, 154 — Gothic colonists in
Italy, 155 — Theoderic virtually a Western Caesar, 156 — Re
form of taxation, 157 — Religious toleration, 158 — "Bread
and Circus games," 160— Patronage of the arts, 161 — Letters

CONTENTS. XV
r-AGE
and science ; Cassiodorus, Symmachus, Boethius, 165 — En
couragement of trade, 166 — The Ostrogothic polity, 169—
Administration of justice, 170 — Theoderic's ideal of govern
ment, 171— His legendary fame, 172— A "beneficent des
potism ; " its merits and its weakness, 173.

XVIII.
Theoderic and His Foreign Neighbours . 174-181
Theoderic's desire for peace, 174— Royal marriages, 175 — A
magnificent scheme, 176 — Two foreign wars, 177 — Theoderic
regent of the Visigoth kingdom, 180 — A bloodless conquest,
181. XIX.
Theoderic's Evil Days  182-190
The beginning of trouble, 182 — Boethius condemned, 183 —
His famous book, 184 — Symmachus put to death, 184 — Panic
legislation, 185 — The pope thrown into prison, 186 — Death of
Theoderic, 187 — Violation of his tomb, 189 — His noble cha
racter, 190.
XX.
A Queen's Troubles  191-207
An infant sovereign, 191— Amalaswintha the queen regent,
192 — Her education of her son ; discontent of the Goths, 195
— Justinian's schemes of conquest, iq8 — Death of Athalaric,20l
— Amalaswintha and Theodahad, 203 — Murder of the Queen,
204 — Justinian declares war, 207.
XXI.
An Unkingly King . 208-220
Justinian's precautions, 208— Belisarius captures Sicily, 209—
Theodahad's terrors, 210— The sibyl's prophecy, 212— Theo
dahad recovers confidence, 213 — The Goths lose Naples, 214
 Indignation of the Goths, 218 — Theodahad deposed and
killed, 219.

Xvi CONTENTS. PAGS
XXII.
Witigis the Unready ..... 221-233
The new king, 222 — His mistaken policy, 222 — Queen Mata-
swintha, 223 — Belisariu senters Rome, 224 — Witigis moves at
last, 226 — The first skirmish, 228 — Wandilhari the Bison, 230
— The siege of Rome begins, 232.
XXIII.
The Year-long Siege  234-257
Elaborate preparations of the Goths, 234' — Belisarius not to be
frightened, 237 — Blundering Gothic strategy, 239 — Failure of
the assault, 242 — The garrison reinforced, 243 — Sorties of the
Romans, 245 — A rigorous blockade, 249 — A three months'
truce, 253 — Treachery of Witigis, 254 — The siege raised,
257- XXIV.
WiTiGrs in Hiding  258-267
March of the Goths to Ravenna, 258 — They besiege Rimini,
260 — The arrival of Narses, 261 — The Goths put to flight, 263
— Quarrels of the Roman generals, 263 — The Goths capture
Milan, 265 — Horrors of famine, 266.
XXV.
The Goths lose Ravenna .... 268-275
Blockade of Ravenna, 268— Justinian offers terms, 269 — A
strange proposal, 270— Belisarius enters Ravenna, 271— He is
recalled to Constantinople, 272— Refuses the Gothic crown,
275— His character, 274— Justinian's blunder, 275.
XXVI.
New Gothic Victories  276-285
Justinian's rapacity, 276— Reviving fortunes of the Goths, 277
— Totila elected king, 279— His first victories, 280— His hu
manity to the conquered, 282 — Discontent in Rome, 284— The
Roman cause despaired of, 285.

CONTENTS. xvii
PAGE
XXVII.
The Failure of Belisarius .... 286-297
Belisarius returns to Italy, 287— Why was he not successful ?
287— Continued blockade of Rome, 288— The mission of Pela-
gius, 289— Famine in the city, 290— The citizens allowed to
depart, 291 — Rome taken by Totila, 293 — The great city de
serted, 295 — Belisarius re-enters Rome, 296— A valueless
exploit, 297 — Belisarius abandons the struggle ; his return to
Constantinople, 297.

XXVIII.
The Ruin of the Ostrogoths 298-314
Rome once more in Gothic hands, 298 — Rebuilding of the ruins,
300— The expedition of Germanus, 301 — His death, 302 —
Narses sent to conquer Italy, 303 — How he marched into Italy,
304 — He encamps near Tadino, 305 — The great battle, 306 —
Totila's death, 307 — His character, 308 — Teia chosen king,
308 — Battle of Mons Lactarius ; death of Teia, 310 — Invasion
of the Franks and Alamans. 31 1 — End of this Ostrogoth king
dom, 313 — The exarchate of Ravenna, 314.

XXIX.
The Visigoths again ... . 315-320
Obscurity of the history, 315 — Amalaric's marriage, 316 —
Usurpation of Theudis, 317 — Theudis murdered; reigns of
Theudigisel and Agila, 318— Reign of Athanagild ; his
daughters Brunihild and Geleswintha, 319.

XXX.
Leovigild and His Sons  321-326
Leovigild's able rule, 321 — His magnificence, 322 — Rebellion
of Ermenegild, 322 — His " martyrdom," 325 — Leovigild and
the Church, 326.

XV111 CONTENTS.
PAGE
XXXI.
The Goths become Catholic .... 327-332
King Reccared's policy, 327 — The conversion of the Goths,
328 — The words Visigoth and bigot, 329 — Reccared not a per
secutor, 331 — His death, 332. XXXII.
A Priest-ridden Kingdom .... 333-341
Growing power of the Church, 333 — Reign of Sisebut, 334 —
Swinthila, the " Father of the Poor," 335 — Usurpation of Sise-
nanth, 337 — Reigns of Kindila and Tulga, 338 — Reign of
Kindaswinth ; the clergy find a master, 339 — Reign of Rec-
ceswinth ; twenty-three years of peace, 340.
XXXIII.
The Story of Wamba ..... 342-349
Election of Wamba, 342— Revolt of Gothic Gaul, 343—
Treachery of Paul, 344— Wamba subdues the rebels, 348— A
strange ending, 349. XXXIV.
Thirty Years of Decay  350-357
The origin of King Erwig, 350— Archbishop Julian, 351 —
Persecution of the Jews, 352— Accession of Egica, 353— Jewish
conspiracies, 355— Reign of Witica, 356.
XXXV.
The Fall of the Visigoths .... 358-361
King Roderic's story a romance, 358— The story as told by
late chroniclers, 359— Battle of the Guadalete, 360— The
Moors overrun Spain, 361.

CONTENTS. XIX
PAGE
XXXVI.
Conclusion ....... 362-365
The Gothic element in the Spanish nation, 362 — Goths in the
Crimea, 363 — Last traces of the Gothic language, 364 — A
vanished nation, 365. APPENDIX.
Gothic Personal Names. .... 367-370
INDEX  371

r-;

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE
Frontispiece

THE TOMB OF THEODERIC, RAVENNA .
IN THE FOREST  6
GOTHIC CAPTIVES . .  IO
GOTHIC IDOLS  14
NECKLET WITH GOTHIC RUNES . . . . . 17
ON THE MARCH  22
GOTHIC KING IN HIS CAR  25
A PAGE OF THE GOTHIC GOSPELS 60
COLUMN ERECTED AT CONSTANTINOPLE IN HONOUR
OF THE GOTHIC CONQUESTS OF THEODOSIUS T]
THE EMPRESS PLACIDIA AND HER SON . . 104
AETIUS  109
CHURCH OF SAN VIBALE, RAVENNA . . . .162
THEODERIC'S PALACE, RAVENNA ..... 167
COINS OF THEODERIC  173
PORTION OF A GOTHIC DEED  188
COINS OF THEODERIC  190
CHURCH OF SAN APOLLINARE IN CLASSE, NEAR
RAVENNA  193

xxu LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE
COINS OF ATHALARIC . . .... 2O0
JUSTINIAN AND HIS NOBLES . . . 202
THEODORA AND HER LADIES  206
COINS OF THEODAHAD .... . . 219
A CAVALRY SKIRMISH  229
COIN WITH MONOGRAM OF MATASWINTHA . . . 233
THE MAUSOLEUM OF HADRIAN  238
COINS OF WITIGIS  257
COINS STRUCK AT RAVENNA ...... 275
COPPER COINS STRUCK AT ROME DURING THE GOTHIC
DOMINION  285
COINS OF TOTILA .  296
COINS OF TEIA  311
COIN OF ERMENEGILD  323
COIN OF LEOVIGILD  326
COIN OF SISEBUT  , 334
GOTHIC CROWNS  336
COIN OF RECCESWINTH  341
THE AMPHITHEATRE AT NlMES ... . 346

THE STORY OF THE GOTHS.

WHO WERE THE GOTHS?
MORE than three hundred years before the birth of
Christ, a traveller from the Greek colony of Marseilles,
named Pytheas, made known to the civilized world
the existence of a people called Guttones, who lived
near the Frische Haff, in the country since known as
East Prussia, and traded in the amber that was
gathered on the Baltic shores.1 For four whole
centuries these amber merchants of the Baltic are
heard of no more. The elder Pliny, a Roman writer
who died in the year 79 after Christ, tells us that in
his time they were still dwelling in the same neigh
bourhood ; and a generation later, Tacitus, the greatest
of Roman historians, twice mentions their name, though
1 This first sentence of our story contains a statement that has been
questioned. A great German scholar, Karl Miillenhoff, maintains that
the word Guttones, in Pliny's quotations from Pytheas, is a misreading,
and that the people whom the ancient traveller spoke of were the
Tiutones dwelling nea the mouth of the Elbe. But we do not think
the conjecture is well-founded.

2 WHO WERE THE GOTHS ?
he spells it rather differently as Gotones. In his
little book on Germany, he says — in that brief pointed
style of his which it is so difficult to translate into
English — " Beyond the Lygians live the Gotones
among whom the power of the kings has already
become greater than among the other Germans,
though it is not yet too great for them to be a free
people." And in his Annals he mentions that they
gave shelter to a prince belonging to another German
nation, who had been driven from his own country by
the oppression of a foreign conqueror. These two
brief notices are all that Tacitus, who has told us so
much that is interesting about the peoples of ancient
Germany, has to say of the Gotones. But if he
could only have guessed what was the destiny in
store for this obscure and distant tribe, we may be
sure that they would have received a far larger share
of his attention. For these Gotones were the same
people who afterwards became so famous under the
name of Goths, who, a few centuries later, crowned
their kings in Rome itself, and imposed their laws
on the whole of Southern Europe from the Adriatic
to the Western sea.
It is the story of these Goths that in the present
volume we are going to relate, from the time when
they were still living almost unnoticed in their
northern home near the Baltic and the Vistula, down
to the time when their separate history becomes
blended in the history of the southern nations whom
they conquered, and by whom they were at last
absorbed. In many respects the career of this people
is strikingly different from that of any other nation

THEIR SPEEDY RISE AND FALL. 3
of equal historic renown. For three hundred years
— beginning with the days of Tacitus — their history
consists of little else than a dreary record of barbarian
slaughter and pillage. A century later, the Goths
have become the mightiest nation in Europe. One
of their two kings sits on the throne of the Caesars,
the wisest and most beneficent ruler that Italy has
know n for ages ; the other reigns over Spain and
the richest part of Gaul. We look forward two
hundred and fifty years, and the Gothic kingdoms
are no more ; the nation itself has vanished from the
stage of history, leaving scarcely a trace behind.
The story we have to tell lacks many of the elements
to which the history of most nations owes a large
part of its interest. Except a part of a translation
of the Bible, the Goths have left us no literature ; the
legends which they told about the deeds of gods and
heroes have nearly all perished ; and even the history
of their short period of greatness has to be learned
from ignorant and careless writers, who have left un
told a great deal that we would gladly know. And
yet the story of the Goths is not without powerful
attractions of its own. In all history there is nothing
more romantically marvellous than the swift rise of
this people to the height of greatness, or than the
suddenness and the tragic completeness of their ruin.
Amongst the actors in this story are some whose
noble characters and deeds are worthy of eternal
remembrance ; and the events which it records have
influenced the destinies of the whole civilized world.
And while for an Italian, a Frenchman, or a Spaniard,
Gothic history is important as a part of the history

4 WHO WERE THE GOTHS ?
of his own country, for us who speak the English
tongue it has a special interest of another kind, be
cause the Goths were in a certain sense our own near
kindred. It is true that we are a people of mingled
origin ; but we are to no small extent descendants
of the Teutonic race, from which we have inherited our
language, and to this race the Goths also belonged.
The Gothic language, as it is known to us from Bishop
Wulfila's translation of the Bible, is very much like
the oldest English, though it is still more like the
language that was spoken by the ancestors of the
Swedes and Norwegians. There is little doubt that
in the first century all the Teutonic peoples could un
derstand one another's speech, though even then there
must have been among them some differences of
dialect, which grew wider as time went on. Now
since the Gothic Bible is some hundreds of years
older than any book in any of the sister dialects, it is
the most important help we possess towards finding
out what the old Teutonic speech was like before it
was developed into the different languages which we
call English, German, Dutch, Swedish, and Danish.
And so it comes about that scholars, who inquire
into the origin of English words and the reasons for
the rules of English grammar, find that they can obtain
a great deal of light from the study of the long-dead
Gothic tongue.
Besides the Gothic Bible there have been preserved
two or three other short pieces of writing in the
Gothic language. One of these— a fragment of a
calendar — contains the word Gut-thiuda, " people of
the Goths." The word thiuda is the same as the Old-

THE PEOPLE AND ITS NAMES. 5
English thfod, meaning people ; and from the com
pound Gut-thiuda, and from other evidence, it may
be inferred that the name which, following the
Romans, we spell as " Goths '' was properly Gutans—
in the singular Guta.1 Like all other names of nations,
this word must originally have had a meaning, but it
is very difficult to discover what that meaning was.
It has often been asserted that the name of the
Goths has something to do with the word God (in
Gothic guth). We might easily believe that an
ancient people might have chosen to call themselves
" the worshippers of the Gods ; " but although this in
teresting suggestion was proposed by Jacob Grimm,
one of the greatest scholars who ever lived, it is now
quite certain that it was a mistake. It seems now to
be generally thought that the meaning of Gutans is
" the (nobly) born."
About the year 200, when they were living on the
north shore of the Black Sea, the Gutans or Goths
divided themselves into two great branches, the
Thervings and the Greutungs. These two peoples
had also other names, which are much better known
in history. The Thervings were called Visigoths {i.e.,
West Goths), and the Greutungs Ostrogoths (East
Goths). These latter names referred at first to the
situation which the two divisions then occupied, one
east, the other west of the river Dniester ; but by a
curious coincidence they continued to be appropriate
down to the latest days of Gothic history, for when
* In strictness, Gut-thiuda is derived from an earlier form, Gutos
(singular Guts), but in historic times this form was probably used only
in compounds.

IN THE FOREST.

THE GEPIDS. 7
the Goths conquered the South of Europe, the Visi
goths went westwards to Gaul and Spain, while the
Ostrogoths settled in Italy. Probably the Thervings
and Greutungs were the only people to whom the
name of Goths in strictness belonged. There was,
however, a third tribe, the Gepids, whom the other
two recognized as being, if not exactly Goths, at any
rate, their nearest kinsfolk, and as having originally
formed one nation with them. About the origin of
these Gepids, the Gothic historian, Jordanes (who
lived in the sixth century, and was, perhaps, bishop
of Crotona in Italy) tells a curious story, founded, it
seems, on ancient popular songs. He relates that the
original home of the Goths was in " the island of
Scanzia " — that is to say, in the Scandinavian penin
sula ; and that they came to the mainland of Europe
in three ships, under the command of a king named
Berig. One of the ships was a heavy sailer, and
arrived long after the others ; and for this reason the
people who came over in her were called Gepids, from
a Gothic word gepanta, meaning slow. Of course
this is not the real explanation of the name of the
Gepids, but the story must be regarded as an ancient
Gothic joke at their expense. Jordanes says that the
Gepids were a dull-witted and heavy-bodied nation ;
and as a matter of fact we generally find them lagging
a little behind the Goths in their southward march.
Whether the Goths did originally come from Scan
dinavia is a question that has been much disputed.
The traditions of a people contained in its songs are
not to be lightly put aside, and there is no reason to
doubt that the Goths once inhabited the northern as

8 WHO WERE THE GOTHS ?
well as the southern shores of the Baltic. But it can
not be said that apart from tradition there is any real
evidence of the fact. It is true that the southern pro
vince of Sweden is still called Gothland ; but the
Gautar (called Geatas by the Anglo-Saxons), from
whom this province took its name, were not identical
with the Goths, though doubtless nearly related to
them. On the other hand, the island called Gothland,
in the Baltic, was anciently called Gutaland, which
seems to show that its early inhabitants were really in
the strict sense Goths. And according to the Norse
sagas and the Anglo-Saxon poets, the peninsula of
Jutland was anciently occupied by a branch of the
Gothic people, who were known as Hreth-gotan, or
Reidhgotar. There were also a number of smaller tribes, such as
the Herules, Scirians, Rugians, and Turcilings, who
accompanied the Goths as subjects or as allies in
their southward march, and who seem to have been
more closely akin to them than any other of the great
divisions of the Teutonic race. The great nation of
the Vandals, moreover, originally the neighbours of
the Goths on the west, who about the same time as
they did, though by a different path, wandered from
the Baltic to the Danube, and afterwards played an im
portant part in history, are said by Roman writers to
have been identical with the Goths in language, laws,
and manners. The Romans naturally often confounded
the two peoples together, and not unfrequently they
applied the name of Goths in a loose sense to all
those Teutonic nations who invaded the southern
lands. In this volume, however, we are concerned

WHAT THE GOTHS LOOKED LIKE. g
only with the fortunes of the Visigoths and Ostro
goths, and shall only mention these other peoples
when they come in our way.
The Goths are always described as tall and athletic
men, with fair complexions, blue eyes, and yellow
hair — such people, in fact, as may be seen more fre
quently in Sweden than in any other modern land.
A very good idea of their national costume and their
general appearance may be gained from the sculptures
on " The Storied Column," as it is called, erected at
Constantinople by the Emperor Arcadius in honour
of his father Theodosius, which represent a triumphal
procession, including many Gothic captives.1 The
dress of the men consists usually of a short tunic with
girdle, wide turned-down collars, and short sleeves ;
an inner garment coming down to the knees ; and
trousers, sometimes reaching to the ankle, and some
times ending just below the knees. The last men
tioned article of dress is often referred to as distin
guishing the Goths from the bare-legged Romans.
A king or chief, who sits with two attendants on a
car drawn by oxen, is similar in his attire to the rest
of the captives, but his superior rank is denoted by
the collar and skirt of his tunic being cut into an
ornamental pattern. All the men wear long curly
hair and long beards. Some of them are bareheaded,
while others wear caps of somewhat fantastic shapes.
Some of the Gothic figures in the procession seem not
to be prisoners of war, but auxiliaries in the Roman
1 This column was destroyed two hundred years ago, but careful
drawings of the f Tilptures are contained in Banduri's " Imperium
Orientale."

GOTHIC CAPTIVES.
{From the Constantinople Column.)

THEIR NATIONAL CHARACTER. II
service, as they appear without any marks of humilia
tion, and several of them carry Roman armour. Their
leaders are on horseback, and are dressed in a style
similar to that of their captive countrymen, with the
addition of long fur cloaks — a garment which was
proverbially characteristic of their people. The female
captives appear clad in long robes down to the feet ;
some have their heads covered with kerchiefs, while
others are bareheaded, with long streaming hair. We
may safely rely on the general accuracy of this in
teresting portraiture, for at the end of the fourth cen
tury the appearance of the Goths had become familiar
to all the inhabitants of Constantinople.
That the Gothic people had many noble qualities
was frequently acknowledged even by their enemies,
and is abundantly proved by many incidents in their
history. They were brave, generous, patient under
hardship and privation, and chaste and affectionate in
their family relations. The one great reproach which
the Roman writers bring against them is that of faith
lessness to their treaties, a charge frequently made by
civilized peoples against barbarians, and one which
the barbarians have too often had good reason to
retort. In the first flush of victory they were some
times terribly cruel ; but on the whole there is nothing
in their history more remarkable than the humanity
and justice which they exercised towards the nations
whom they had conquered ; and there are many
instances on record in which Romans were glad to
seek under the milder sway of the Goths a refuge from
the oppressions of their own rulers. It is true, how
ever, that their history gives but little evidence of

12 WHO WERE THE GOTHS ?
their possession of the gentler virtues until after their
conversion to Christianity — an event which had un
questionably a very profound effect on their national
character. The Roman clergy, by whom the Goths
were disliked both as alien conquerors and as heretics,
were often constrained to own that these barbarians
obeyed the precepts of the gospel far better than did
their own countrymen.
We have no contemporary description of the state
of society which existed amongst the Goths when
they were living in their ancient abodes near the
Baltic ; but it was probably in its main features
similar to that of the other Teutonic peoples as
described by Tacitus. By combining the information
supplied by Tacitus with what we know of the manners
and institutions of the Goths in later days, it is
possible to arrive at some general conclusions respect
ing their mode of life before their southward wander
ings began. We must imagine them as dwelling, not
in cities or compact villages, but in habitations scat
tered over the woods and plains, each with its own
enclosure of farm land, which they cultivated with
the help of slaves, the descendants of captives taken
in war. Their chief subsistence, however, was not
derived from their crops, but from their vast herds of
cattle, which they pastured on their wide common
lands." Their drink was mead and beer, in which, no
doubt, like the other Teutonic peoples, they often
indulged to excess. At their feasts they entertained
themselves with songs relating the deeds of famous
heroes of the past. At the season of new moon the
men of each district assembled in the open air to

GOTHIC HEATHENDOM. 13
administer justice and to make laws for themselves ;
and from time to time the whole nation was gathered
together to discuss great questions such as those of
war or peace. The kings were chosen by the voice of
the assembled people from certain great families, two
of which, the Amalings and the Balthings, are known
to us by name. The Amalings were said to be
descended from a hero whose deeds had earned for
him the title of Amala, " the mighty " ; the name of
the Balthings is derived from the same root as our
English word " bold." Of these two noble houses we
shall hereafter have much to say, for the Amalings
became the royal line of the Ostrogoths, while the
Visigoths chose their kings from the Balthings.
Of the religion of the Goths in their heathen days
we know but little. Their native historian tells
us that they worshipped certain beings called Anses,
and this word is plainly the same as ^Esir (plural of
Ass or Ans), the name which the Scandinavians
applied to the greater gods of their mythology. No
ancient writer has mentioned the name of a single
Gothic deity, but there is reason to believe that
amongst their chief gods were " the Great Twin
Brethren," corresponding to Castor and Pollux, and
we may feel sure that, like all their Teutonic kindred,
they worshipped Wodan, the spirit of wind and storm,
the inspirer of poetry and wisdom. Another of their
gods, no doubt, was Tiw, whose name shows that he
was once the same with Dyaus, Zeus, Jupiter, the
ancient sky-god of the Indians, Greeks, and Romans,
and whom the Teutonic warriors invoked as their god
of battles. Probably, also, they worshipped — under

GOTHIC IDOLS.
(From the Constantinople Column.)

RUNIC WRITING. 15
what names we know not — the Sun-god and the
Thunder-god, whom the Scandinavians called Baldr
and Thorr. And there is proof that Halya, which in
the Gothic Bible is the word for "hell," must originally
have been the name of the goddess of the lower world.
But which of these divinities were regarded as higher
than the rest, and what other gods and goddesses
were reverenced besides them, are questions that
cannot be answered. Images of the gods (not com
plete statues, but pillars surmounted with the likeness
of a human head), raised aloft on chariots, were carried
from place to place to receive the adoration of the
people. The sodden flesh of animals was offered in
sacrifice, and sometimes we read that human victims
were laid upon the altars, but whether this is fact or
fable we cannot tell. The Gothic temples were served
both by male and female priests, and during the war
like journeyings of the nation the place of a temple
was supplied by a sacred tent. These few particulars
are all that we really know about Gothic heathendom,
for when the people became Christians their clergy
strove to blot out the recollections of their old beliefs,
and in this endeavour they succeeded only too well.
One more fact, and that a very interesting one, is
known respecting the early condition of the Goths.
They possessed an alphabet of their own, the letters
of which were called " runes." We cannot suppose,
however, that they had any extensive written litera
ture, for they seem in their heathen days to have used
no more convenient writing material than boards and
wooden staves, on which their inscriptions were carved.
It is not likely that the great bulk of the people knew

l6 WHO WERE THE GOTHS ?
how to read and write. The word " rune " literally
means a secret or mystery, and that shows that the
art of writing was looked upon with superstitious
awe as a sort of half-miraculous endowment. Very
likely the knowledge of it was kept carefully in the
hands of the priesthood, or some learned caste. The
Goths used their runes for inscribing the names of
their dead heroes on their tombstones, and for mark
ing their swords and jewels with the owner's name.
Their wise men wrote witchcraft spells to hang up in
the people's houses to drive away bad spirits or to
bring good luck. Sometimes, perhaps, a new law
might be carved in wood or stone to be handed down
to later ages ; letters (very short and pithy we may
be sure they would be) might be sent from one chief
to another about matters too weighty to be trusted to
word of mouth ; or a poet might now and then call
in the aid of the rune-man to preserve the memory of
one of his songs. Perhaps too there were some rude
attempts at history writing, such as we have in the early
part of the Saxon Chronicle — just brief memoranda of
events put down at the time, saying that " such a
king died ; So-and-so was made king ; Goths fought
with Gepids ; Gepids were beaten, with great slaugh
ter : this or that chief was killed." But all this is
only guessing, for only one or two Gothic inscriptions,
and those very short ones, have been preserved.
From the Goths, however, the Runic alphabet passed
to the kindred nations dwelling near the Baltic, and
it is found on hundreds of tombstones and memorial
pillars in Scandinavia, Iceland, and the British Isles.
Two of the characters, p and p, were adopted in Old

NECKLET WITH GOTHIC RDNES.
(Found near Bucharest.)

l8 WHO WERE THE GOTHS ?
English to express the sounds of th and w, for which
the Roman alphabet supplied no proper sign. When
people write / instead of the, or y' instead of that
(as is still sometimes done in England), they are really
using one of the " runes " inherited from the heathen
Goths who lived two thousand years ago. A speci
men of the Gothic runes may be seen in the
accompanying engraving of a gold necklet found in
1838 amid the ruins of a heathen temple near Bucha
rest, in the country where the Goths were dwelling
early in the fourth century. The inscription has been
read by some scholars as Gut-annom hailag, " sacred to
the treasure of the Goths." T
The Goths certainly did not invent these letters
for themselves, and there has been a great deal of
discussion on the question how they got them. If
we compare the oldest runes with the Latin letters,
or, what is very much the same thing, with an early
form of the Greek letters, we see at once that several
of them are just the Latin or old Greek characters,
altered so as to render them more convenient for
cutting on wood. It is usually believed amongst
scholars that the runes are of Latin origin ; but as
the evidence seems to show that they were first used
in the far north-east, where Roman influences could
hardly have reached, we prefer to accept the view of
Dr. Isaac Taylor, that they are a corruption of an
old Greek alphabet used in certain colonies on the
north-west coast of the Black Sea. But how the
knowledge of this alphabet was carried to the Goths
1 In recent drawings the first word looks like guTaniowi, which has
no known sense. One would expect to find the name of a god.

GOTHS AND GETES. 19
dwelling six hundred miles away, and what caused
the changes in the sounds expressed by some of the
letters, are questions we have no means of answering.
Before we leave the subject of this chapter, there is
one more point that must be touched on, because it
affects our understanding of some parts of the suc
ceeding history. In ancient times the countries north
of the Danube mouths were inhabited by a people
called Getes (in Latin Getae). You may remember
that the poet Ovid was sent to live among this people
when Augustus banished him from Rome. Now in
the third century after Christ the Goths came and
dwelt in the land of the Getes, and to some extent
mingled with the native inhabitants ; and so the
Romans came to think that Goths and Getes were
only two names for the same people, or rather two
different ways of pronouncing the same word. Even
the historian Jordanes, himself a Goth, actually calls
his book a Getic history, and mixes up the traditions
of his own people with the tales which he had read
in books about the Getes. In modern times some
great scholars have tried to prove that the Getes
really were Goths, and that the early territory of the
Gothic nation reached all the way from the Baltic to
the Black Sea. But the ablest authorities are now
mostly agreed that this is a mistake, and that when
the Goths migrated to the region of the Danube it
was to settle amongst a people of a different race,
speaking a foreign tongue.
As late as the middle of the second century
(unless, as is not unlikely, the geographer Ptolemy
copied his information from much earlier writers) the

20

WHO WERE THE GOTHS ?

" Gythones '' or Goths were still dwelling along the
eastern bank of the Vistula. A few years later they
began their great southward journey, and left their
ancient homes to be occupied by new possessors, the
kinsmen of the Slavonians and Lithuanians.

II.
FROM THE BALTIC TO THE DANUBE.
THE emigration of a settled people from the
country which it has occupied for hundreds of years,
is a very different sort of thing from the movements
of mere wandering hordes like the Huns or the Tar
tars. It is true the Goths were only barbarians, and
the ties which bound them to their native soil were
far less complex and powerful than those which affect
a civilized community ; and no doubt they had often
made long expeditions for plunder or conquest into
the adjoining lands. But still we may be sure that
the resolution to forsake their ancient homes, and to
seek a settlement in unknown and distant regions,
must have cost them a great deal of anxious delibe
ration, and that they must have been impelled to it
by very powerful motives. What these motives were
we can only faintly guess. It can scarcely be supposed
that the Goths were driven southward by the invasion
of stronger neighbours, for the peoples who afterwards
occupied the Baltic shores seem to have been cer
tainly their inferiors in warlike prowess. Most likely
it was simply the natural increase of their population,

TRADITIONS OF THE WANDERING. 23
aided perhaps by the failure of their harvests or the
outbreak of a pestilence, that made them sensible
of the poverty of their country, and led them to cast
longing eyes towards the richer and more genial lands
further to the south, of which they had heard, and
which some of them may have visited.
Our only information about the path along which
they travelled is derived from their own traditions, as
recorded by Jordanes in the sixth century. A great
deal of the story told by that historian, however,
seems to be either his own guesswork, or to be taken
from the history of the Getes and Scythians. Putting
all this aside, we find that the Goths, Gepids, Herules,
and some other kindred peoples, united into one great
body, first wandered southward through what is now
Western Russia, till they came to the shores of the
Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and then spread
themselves westward to the north bank of the
Danube. As they went their numbers were in
creased by the accession of people of Slavonic race,
whom they conquered, or who joined them of their
own accord. One of the nations whom they over
came, the Spali, is mentioned by name. About these
early wanderings Jordanes tells two legendary stories,
evidently derived from Gothic popular ballads. One
of these relates that the Goths, led by their king,
Filimer, the son of Guntharic, had to cross a great
river into a beautiful and fertile country, called Ovim
or Ocum. When the king and most of the people
had passed over in safety, the bridge broke down and
part of the host was left behind in a sort of enchanted
land, surrounded by a belt of marshes through which

24 FROM THE BALTIC TO THE DANUBE.
no traveller had since been able to find his way ; but
those who passed near its borders ages afterward could
often hear the lowing of cattle and the distant sound
of Gothic speech. The other story embodies the
hatred felt by the Goths for their enemies the Huns.
King Filimer, it was said, expelled from the camp the
women who practised magic arts — the Halirunds, as
they were called, that is to say, the possessors of the
"rune" or secret of Halya, the goddess of the lower
world. Banished into the deserts, these women met
with the evil spirits of the waste, and from the unholy
marriage of witches and demons sprang the loath
some savages whom the Goths had afterwards so
much reason to dread.
The real history of the Goths begins about the
year 245, when they were living near the mouths of the
Danube under the rule of Ostrogotha [Austraguta],
the first king of the Amaling stock. Ostrogotha was
celebrated in tradition for his " patience " ; but in what
way he displayed that virtue we are not informed, for
history tells only of his victories. Whether on ac
count of his patience or his deeds in war, his fame
was widely spread, for one of the oldest of Ango-
Saxon poems mentions him as " Eastgota, the father
of Unwen." The name of this son is given by Jordanes
as Hunuil, but probably the Anglo-Saxon form is
the right one.
There is evidence that about twenty years before
this time the Goths had become allies of the Romans,
who paid them a yearly sum of money to defend the
border of the empire against the Sarmatian barbarians
who lay behind them. But in the reign of the Roman

26 FROM THE BALTIC TO THE DANUBE.
emperor Philip the Arab, this payment was stopped,
and King Ostrogotha crossed the Danube and plun
dered the Roman provinces of Mcesia and Thrace.
The Roman general Decius, who afterwards became
emperor brought an army against them ; but the
Goths retreated safely across the Danube, and it is
said that large numbers of the Roman soldiers de
serted to the barbarians, and offered to help them to
make another attack. The Gothic king collected an
army of thirty thousand men, partly belonging to his
own people and partly to other barbarian nations, and
sent them over the river under the command of two
generals, named Argait and Guntharic, who ravaged
the province called Lower Mcesia, and laid siege to
its capital, a city which the great emperor Trajan had
built, and named Marcianopolis in honour of his
sister Marcia. The inhabitants were glad to bargain
with the Goths to raise the siege on receiving a heavy
payment in money, and then the barbarians went
back into their own land.
After this the kingdom of Ostrogotha was attacked
by the Gepids, who had separated themselves from the
Goths, and under their king, Fastida, had conquered
the Burgunds, another Teutonic people. They now
demanded that Ostrogotha should give them a por
tion of his territory. The " patient " king tried hard
to persuade them not to make war on their own
brethren ; but he was not patient enough to grant
what they required, and the two nations met in con
flict near a town called Galtis. The fight was long
and terrible ; " but at last," says Jordanes, sneering
at the " sluggish " Gepids, " the more vigorous nature

KING CNIVA. 27
of the Goths prevailed," and Fastida had to retire
within his own dominions.
Ostrogotha died about the year 250, and was suc
ceeded, not by his son Unvven or Hunuil (who, how
ever, became the ancestor of later Gothic kings), but
by a King Cniva, who was not an Amaling at all.
The new chief at once engaged in an expedition
across the Danube into Mcesia and Thrace. He sent
out several bodies of his army to plunder different
parts of the country, while he himself besieged the
town of Nicopolis (now Nikopi on the Yantra),
whose name, "City of Victory," preserved the memory
of a battle in which Trajan had been successful
against the barbarians. The emperor Decius, who
had been elected by the army a year before, was a
man of great energy and of noble character, and he
at once hurried off to relieve the town. When the
Goths heard that the Roman army was approaching,
they abandoned the siege, and made their way
through the passes of the Balkan mountains to attack
the great city of Philippopolis. Decius followed them
in haste, but the Goths unexpectedly turned on their
pursuers, put them to flight, and plundered their
camp. The barbarians were now able, to carry on
the siege of Philippopolis undisturbed. The inhabi
tants made a brave defence, and slew many thousands
of their assailants. But at last they were obliged
to yield ; the town was taken, and it is said that a
hundred thousand persons were massacred. A vast
quantity of plunder fell into the hands of the Goths,
besides many prisoners of noble rank. Amongst
these was Priscus, a brother of the late emperor

28 FROM THE BALTIC TO THE DANUBE.
Philip, whom the Goths persuaded to assume the title
of emperor, and to conclude a treaty of peace with
them. Meanwhile the emperor had not been idle. He
rallied his scattered forces, and placed garrisons along
the Danube and at the passes of the Balkans. The
Goths felt how much they had been weakened by
their losses in the long siege, and sent messages to
the Romans, entreating that they might be allowed
to return home in safety on giving up their plunder
and their prisoners. But Decius thought he had the
victory in his own hands, and demanded that they
should submit without conditions. The Goths deter
mined to fight for their freedom. The two armies
encountered each other near a little town of Mcesia,
which the barbarians called Abritta, and the Romans,
Forum Trebonii. Scarcely had the battle begun
when Decius's eldest son, Herennius, whom he had
made joint emperor, fell wounded by an arrow. A
crowd of barbarians rushed upon him, and plunged
their spears into his body. When the soldiers saw
their young commander slain, their courage at first
gave way. The bereaved father urged them on with
the words : " The loss of one soldier makes little dif
ference to the commonwealth." Then, overwhelmed
with grief, he rushed into the thick of the conflict, re
solved either to avenge his son or to share his fate.
The fight was fierce and bloody. Two divisions of
the Goths were routed ; the third line, protected by a
morass, awaited the attack of the Romans, who, un
acquainted with the ground and burdened with their
heavy armour, were utterly defeated. The emperor

THE FIGHT AT ABRITTA. 29
was killed, and his body was never found. Never before
had the Roman Empire known so sad a day as this,
which saw the ruin of a great army, and the death by
barbarian hands of one of the worthiest emperors who
ever ruled.
Broken and disorganized, the Roman army offered
no further resistance to the Goths, who carried devas
tation over the provinces of Mcesia, Thrace, and
Illyria. The new emperor, Trebonianus Gallus,
found that it was hopeless to try to drive them out
by force of arms, and he agreed to leave them in
possession of their prisoners and their booty, and to
pay them a large sum of money yearly on condition
that they should leave the Roman territories un
molested.

III.
FIRE AND SWORD IN ASIA AND GREECE.
There was a terrible outcry amongst the Romans
when it became known that the emperor Gallus had
agreed to bribe the Goths to keep the peace. Every
body said that Gallus was a traitor, and some people
even accused him of having intentionally caused the
ruin of Decius by his bad advice. To make matters
worse, a great plague broke out all over the empire,
caused, the Romans fancied, by the anger of the gods
at the treachery of their emperor. And before long
it turned out that the disgraceful bargain that Gallus
had made had not even answered its purpose, for a
portion of the Goths, faithless to their engagements,
continued to ravage the provinces of Illyria. They
were defeated by a general named ^Emilianus, who
assumed the title of emperor. Gallus was murdered
by his own soldiers, who joined the army of the
usurper ; but soon afterwards he, too, was assassi
nated, and the empire came into the hands of Valerian
and his son Gallienus.
The reigns of these two emperors, which ex
tended from the year 253 to the year 268, were
full of misfortunes for the empire. The Germans

THE GOTHS OVERRUN THE EMPIRE. 3 1
threatened it on the west ; on the east there
were troubles with Persia ; and all the while news
kept coming from the provinces that one portion
or another of the army had rebelled, and set up
an emperor of their own. To grapple with these
difficulties needed a great ruler at the head of affairs.
Valerian was a brave and good man, but he foolishly
went on an expedition against Persia, and in the year
260 was taken prisoner, and never came back. When
Gallienus heard that his father was a captive, he took
the matter very coolly, and his courtiers, instead of
being disgusted with his heartlessness, only compli
mented him on his " resignation." He was not a
coward, nor was he either cruel or vicious ; but he
cared for nothing but amusing himself. When he
heard of any great misfortune that had happened in
some distant province, he used to make some foolish
joke about it, and then went on writing pretty verses,
or completing his collections of pictures and statues.
Such was the sovereign who ruled the Roman world
at a time when, more than ever in its past history,
the manifold perils that threatened it demanded the
energies of a hero and a statesman.
During these dreary fifteen years the history of the
Goths is a frightful story of cruel massacres, and of
the destruction and plunder of wealthy and beautiful
cities. One branch of the people obtained possession
of the Crimea, sailed across the Black Sea, and took
the great city of Trebizond, from which they carried
away an abundance of spoil and a vast multitude of
captives. A second expedition resulted in the capture
of the splendid cities of Chalcedon and Nicomedia,

32 FIRE AND SWORD IN ASIA AND GREECE.
and many other rich towns of Bithynia. The cities
were strongly fortified, and possessed ample garrisons,
but such was the wild terror inspired by the Goths
that resistance was hardly ever attempted. It is,
however, the third of these plundering raids that is
most worthy of attention, not only because it was
conducted on a larger scale than the two previous ones,
but because of the interest which we feel in the classic
lands over which it extended. A fleet of five hundred
vessels, conveying a great army of Goths and Herules,
sailed through the Bosphorus and the Hellespont. On
their way they destroyed the island city of Cyzicus,
and made landings at many points on the west coast
of Asia Minor. Amongst other deeds of wanton
devastation, they burnt the magnificent temple of
" Diana of the Ephesians," one of the seven wonders
of the ancient world, with its hundred lofty marble
columns and its many beautiful statues, the work of
the greatest sculptors of Greece. Then, crossing the
^Egean Sea, they anchored in the port of Athens ;
and now that city, which had given birth to the finest
poetry, philosophy, and art that the world had ever
¦ known, became the plunder of barbarian pirates.
Whatever havoc the Goths may have made at
Athens, at least they did not burn the city, and we
know that they left many noble buildings and works
of art to be destroyed long after by the Turks.
About their doings here we have only one anecdote.
The Goths, it is said, had collected into a great heap
all the Athenian libraries, and were going to set fire
to the pile, dreading, perhaps, lest the magical powers
dwelling in the foreign " runes '' should work some

"LET THE GREEKS HAVE THEIR BOOKS." 33
mischief on the invading host. But there was among
them one aged chief, famed for his wisdom, who
persuaded them to change their purpose. " Let the
Greeks have their books," he said, "for so long as
they spend their days with these idle toys we need
never fear that they will give us trouble in war."
Although this story rests on no very good authority,
there is no reason why it may not have been true.
Perhaps the Goth was not altogether wrong. A
people that has a vigorous national life gains fresh
strength from the labours of its scholars and thinkers;
but when a nation cares for nothing but books, its
absorption in literature only hastens its decay, and
the literature itself becomes pedantic and trifling,
and gives birth to little "that the world would not
willingly let die." So it was amongst the Greeks
of the third century. But even while they were
in Athens the Goths were taught that learning did
not always make men cowards. For an Athenian
named Dexippus, a man of letters whose studies
had made him mindful of the ancient greatness of
his country, collected a band of brave men and
burned many of the Gothic ships in the harbour of
Piraeus. But there were not many Greeks like Dexippus,
and the Goths and Herules met with little resistance
as they ranged over the land, enriching themselves
with the spoils of many a wealthy city, once great in
arts and in war. When they had exhausted the
plunder of Greece they marched to the Adriatic, and
it seems they were thinking of invading Italy. But
the emperor Gallienus, at last roused from his in-

34 F1RE AND SWORD IN ASIA AND GREECE.
action, came to meet them at the head of his army.
The barbarian chiefs began to quarrel amongst them
selves, and one of them, Naulobatus, with a large
body of Herules, deserted his countrymen, and
entered the Roman service. Naulobatus was gladly
received by the emperor, who bestowed on him the
rank of consul, the highest honour that could be
gained by a Roman subject. The main body of the
Goths separated into two bands. One of them went
back to the east coast of Greece, and there took
shipping, and after landing at Anchialus in Thrace,
got back in safety to the settlements of their people
at the north of the Black Sea. The other band made
their way into Mcesia, and continued to ravage that
country for a year with impunity, because the quarrels
between the Roman generals rendered any effectual
resistance impossible.
One of these generals, however, was a brave and
able man named Claudius, and when, in March, 268,
Gallienus died by an assassin's hand, Claudius was
declared emperor in his stead. He at once set to
work to reorganize the Roman armies, and to clear
the empire of the northern barbarians. His task
seemed, indeed, a desperate one, for he had to
grapple with a new invasion, more terrible than
any that the empire had hitherto suffered. The
Goths dwelling near the mouths of the Dniester,
excited by the tales which their countrymen had
brought them about the wealth and fruitfulness of
the southern lands, had resolved to conquer the
Roman Empire, and make it their settled home.
They were joined by a multitude of Slavonic tribes,-

CLAUDIUS GOTHICUS. 35
whom they had either subdued or had persuaded to
enter into alliance with them. Through the Black
Sea and the Hellespont sailed a vast fleet, conveying
an army numbering three hundred thousand warriors,
accompanied by their wives and children. The in
vaders landed at Thessalonica, and hearing of the
approach of Claudius, hastened to meet him, glorying
in the hope of an easy victory. The battle that took
place at Naissus (now Nissa, in the middle of Turkey)
was, perhaps, not a victory for Claudius ; some writers
say he was beaten. But the Goths lost fifty thousand
men ; and what was more, they lost their confidence
in their own strength. Battle after battle succeeded,
and soon the mighty host of the invaders was utterly
broken. Thousands of Gothic prisoners were sold
into slavery ; many of the young men were taken to
serve in the imperial armies ; and the shattered
remnant of the people fled into the recesses of the
Balkan mountains, where their numbers were lessened
by the cold of winter and the outbreak of a dreadful
plague. In this plague, however, Claudius himself
died, in the spring of the year 270. In memory of
his victories the Roman people gave him the surname
of Gothicus ; and his name ought ever to be held in
honour as that of one of the few great conquerors
whose exploits have been of lasting benefit to the
human race. It is terrible to think what would have
been the consequences to the world if the Gothic
enterprise had then been successful. The South of
Europe would have been depopulated by fierce and
lawless massacre ; the masterpieces of ancient art and
literature would have perished, and the traditions of

36 FIRE AND SWORD IN ASIA AND GREECE.
many ages of civilization would in a great measure
have been blotted out. It is true that by the victories
of Claudius the triumph of the Goths was only de
ferred. But it was deferred until a time when they
had become Christian, and in some degree civilized,
and when they had learned to use their victories with
gentleness and wisdom. When they came to subdue
the empire, it was no longer as savage devastators,
but as the saviours of the Roman world from the
degradation into which it had sunk through the vices
of a corrupt civilization, and through the misgovern-
ment of its feeble and depraved rulers. Although a
foreign conquest always must be productive of some
evil, yet, on the whole, the Gothic rule in Italy, while
it lasted, was such a blessing to the subject people
that we may well feel sorry that it came to an un
timely end.
The dying emperor recommended as his successor
Aurelian, one of his generals, whom the soldiers who
served under him knew by the nickname of " Your
hands to your swords ! " The army accepted the
choice, and Aurelian ruled the empire well and wisely
for five years. As soon as the new emperor had been
proclaimed the Goths again tried their fortune in war,
under a chief named Cannabaudes. The battle was
indecisive, and the Roman losses were heavy, but the
Goths had suffered so much that they were glad to
accept an offer of peace. Aurelian, hearing that he
was wanted to repel a German invasion of Italy,
thought it wise to allow them favourable terms.
It was agreed that they were to be granted a
free retreat into Dacia, and that province, including

THE SETTLEMENT IN DACIA. 37
what is now the kingdom of Roumania and the
eastern part of Hungary, was abandoned to their
sovereignty, the native inhabitants being invited to
cross the Danube into Mcesia. In return for these
concessions the Goths were to furnish a body of two
thousand horsemen to the Roman armies, and as
security for their faithfulness a number of the sons
and daughters of Gothic nobles were entrusted to the
care of the emperor, who caused them to receive the
education of persons of rank, and afterwards employed
the youths in honourable offices in his own service, and
gave the maidens in marriage to some of his principal
officers. The result of these measures was that the
Goths lived in unbroken alliance with the Roman
Empire for fifty years, learning the arts of peace from
the natives of Dacia, and gaining new strength for the
time when they were again to distinguish themselves
by deeds of arms.

IV.
HOW THE GOTHS FOUGHT WITH CONSTANTINE.
DURING the fifty years' peace the history of the
Goths is a blank. No chronicler has preserved even
the name of any of their kings, or a single anecdote,
true or fabulous, about their doings in that tranquil
time. Probably we have lost little by this silence of
the historians ; for the story of an uncivilized people
does not contain much that is worth telling, when
there are no battles or migrations to record. We
should like to know, however, on what sort of terms
the Goths lived with the native Dacians, for there is
good evidence that the whole of that people did not
avail themselves of Aurelian's invitation to emigrate
into Mcesia, but continued in their ancient homes
under Gothic rule. There is some reason for thinking
that they were not reduced to s-Iavery, but that the
Goths learned to respect the superior civilization of
their neighbours, and that the native inhabitants and
the new settlers gradually became united into one
people. If this were so, we can understand how i.t
came to pass that, as we have already seen, the
Gothic historian of the sixth century could reckon
the heroes and sages of ancient Dacia among the
ancestral glories of his own nation.

THE LONG PEACE BROKEN. 39
But we must not suppose that Dacia was the only
country occupied at this time by the Goths. Vast as
were the numbers of the host that sailed from the
northern shores of the Black Sea in the year 269,
a large Gothic population still remained behind.
Whether or not the Goths of Southern Russia were
included in the treaty which Aurelian made, they
seem at any rate to have abstained from any invasion
of the Roman Empire throughout the fifty years of
which we are speaking. The Goths of Dacia and
their eastern kinsmen were distinguished by the old
names of Visigoths and Ostrogoths. How far they
were respectively the descendants of those who had
borne these names in earlier times we cannot tell.
The Ostrogoths seem to have formed a united nation,
while the Visigoths were independent of them, and
were divided into separate tribes under different
chieftains, without any common head.
Quiet and uneventful as were these fifty years in
the history of the Gothic people, they were full of
stirring incidents in the history of the Roman Empire.
In the course of this period the Roman world was
ruled by several emperors of uncommon ability,
amongst whom was one man of surpassing genius,
named Diocletian, who introduced important changes
into the government. But of these it is not necessary
here to speak, nor of the civil wars and the struggles
with the Franks and other nations, which the empire
had to sustain.
When the Goths first broke their long peace with
Rome, it was in the reign of the emperor Constantine
the Great. Two of the actions of this emperor had

40 HOW THE GOTHS FOUGHT WITH CONSTANTINE.
a profound effect on all succeeding history. He
established Christianity as the state religion of the
empire ; and he removed the seat of government from
Rome to his new city of Constantinople. Hence
forward we have to remember that although the
empire is still called Roman, the ancient capital of
the world from which that empire took its name is
now only its second city.
The first conflict between the Goths and Constantine
took place in the year 322, one year before the defeat
of his colleague and rival Licinius made him undi
vided sovereign of the empire. The Visigoths and
Ostrogoths, in one united army, joined by Slavonic
tribes from the far east, had made an attack, under
the command of a king named Aliquaca [Alhwakars]
on the Roman provinces south of the Danube. The
emperor defeated them in three successive battles,
and compelled them to submit. But he thought it
well to offer them honourable terms of surrender, and
the result showed that he was wise in so doing ; for
when in the following year he fought his decisive
battle against Licinius at Hadrianople, he was assisted
by the army of Aliquaca, consisting, we are told, of
forty thousand men.
Eight years after this, however, Constantine had
again to meet the Goths as enemies. It seems that
the Vandals, or a part of them, were then living in
what is now Western Hungary, divided from the
Gothic territory by the river Theiss. Quarrels broke
out between the two neighbouring peoples, and the
Goths invaded the Vandal territory in overwhelming
numbers. The Vandals appealed for help to the

THE GOTHS BEG FOR PEACE. 41
emperor, who listened to the prayer, and marched
in person to chastise the aggressors. When the Goths
heard of his approach, they crossed the Danube led
by their two kings Araric and Aoric, and hastened to
meet the Roman army. In the first battle Constan
tine underwent a serious defeat — for the first time in
his life. But in the succeeding battles of the cam
paign the victory was all on the side of the Romans.
The emperor was helped by the descendants of the
Greek colonists in the Crimea, who were no doubt
glad of the opportunity to revenge themselves on their
old oppressors. The Goths were thoroughly humbled,
and were glad to beg for peace. It was always Con-
stantine's policy — in dealing with barbarians at least —
to try by kindness to make friends of his vanquished
enemies ; and the Gothic kings and nobles received
handsome presents and special marks of honour.
Once more a treaty of alliance was made between the
Goths and the Romans, and by way of security for
his faithfulness, King Araric had to leave his eldest
son as a hostage in the emperor's hands.
After this war was ended the Goths seem not to
have troubled the Roman Empire for more than thirty
years ; but in other directions they made important
conquests. When Araric died, the people chose a
new king, who was of another family. His name was
Geberic, and he was descended from a line of famous
heroes. We know nothing about his father Hilderic
or about Ovida and Nidada, his grandfather and
great-grandfather, but from the way in which Jor
danes mentions them it is plain that their names and
deeds must in his time have been very familiarly

42 HOW THE GOTHS FOUGHT WITH CONSTANTINE.
known from the old Gothic ballads. King Geberic
determined to accomplish the task, in which his
predecessor had failed, of dislodging the Vandals.
Constantine did not say him nay, for the Vandals,
ungrateful for the help which the Romans had given
them, had themselves been making plundering raids
into the Roman provinces. On the banks of the
river Marosh a battle was fought, in which Wisumar,
the Vandal king, was killed, and his army was routed
with great slaughter. The conquered Vandals once
more appealed to Constantine, and he gave them
permission to settle in Pannonia and other parts of
the empire. The Goths took possession of the de
serted territory ; and being thus freed from enemies
on the west, they soon began to engage in schemes
of aggression against their eastern neighbours. But
of these we shall have to speak in the next chapter.

V.
THE GOTHIC ALEXANDER.
We come now to a reign which marks a great
epoch in the history of the Gothic people. Erman
aric, who seems to have been chosen king about the
year 350, was a great warrior, like many of his pre
decessors ; but his policy, and the objects for which
he fought, were markedly different from theirs. The
former kings of the Goths had been content to con
duct expeditions for the sake of plunder into the
territories of neighbouring nations, or to lead their
subjects in search of new homes in other lands. But
the Gothic people had now once more acquired a
settled territory ; and bitter experience had compelled
them to renounce the hope of conquests in the more
genial and wealthy countries of the south. These
new conditions gave a new direction to their warlike
ambition. Ermanaric made no attempt to invade
the provinces of the Roman Empire ; but he resolved
to make his Ostrogothic kingdom the centre of a
great empire of his own. The seat of his kingdom
was, as tradition tells us, on the banks of the Dnieper.
We have a long list of the peoples whom he subjected
to his sway ; but the names have been so blundered
by the copyists that it is useless to repeat them here.

44 THE GOTHIC ALEXANDER.
We can however form some notion of the vast extent
of his empire from the fact that amongst the nations
he subdued were the Esthonians, living far away on
the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. Another of the
peoples whom he conquered was the Herules, who, as
we have already seen, had once formed one nation
with the Goths, but had before this time made them
selves independent, and were living under the rule of
a king called Alaric — :a name which a generation
later became famous as that of the great hero of the
Visigoths. A Roman historian compares Ermanaric
to Alexander the Great ; and many ages afterwards
his fame survived in the poetic traditions of Germans,
Norsemen, and Anglo-Saxons. These traditions are
more fabulous than historical ; they bring together
as contemporaries persons whom we know to have
lived at periods a hundred years apart ; but we can
gather from them that while Ermanaric was feared
and admired as a great conqueror and an able ruler,
he was bitterly hated as a cruel and selfish tyrant.
Ermanaric was the first king since Ostrogotha who
belonged to the Amaling family. Down to this time,
the Gothic kings seem to have been chosen by free elec
tion from any of the noble families, and we have no
proof that a son ever succeeded his father. But
henceforward the kingship of the Ostrogoths became
hereditary among the descendants of Ermanaric.
During this time the Visigoths appear to have been
practically independent, divided into separate tribes
ruled by their own "judges " or chieftains ; but, while
these chieftains seem to have been free to make war
and peace on their own account, it is probable that in

THE HUNNISH HORDE. 45
theory they acknowledged the supremacy of the
Ostrogothic king.
But the great empire of Ermanaric, which, like that
of Napoleon, had been created by conquest in one
lifetime, was doomed, like Napoleon's, to an inglorious
end. For in the king's old age there appeared upon
the scene a new enemy, with whom he was unable to
contend. The Tartar people of the Huns had for
saken their ancient camping grounds in Asia, and in
overwhelming numbers poured westward over the
plains of Russia. Nation after nation was subdued as
they advanced, and compelled to join the devastating
horde. Their approach inspired amongst the subjects
of Ermanaric a wild panic, which was caused, not
merely by their vast multitude, and by the fame of
their unresisted career of conquest, but by the super
stitious horror which their strange and terrible appear
ance excited. Dwarfish, and, as it seemed, deformed
in figure, but of enormous strength, their swarthy and
beardless faces of frightful ugliness (" with dots instead
of eyes," says Jordanes), and rendered still more hideous
by tattooing, it is no wonder that they were regarded
by the Goths rather as demons than as men. A
Roman writer compares their aspect to that of the
roughly hewn caricatures of human faces which were
carved on the parapets of bridges. The aged king of
the Goths tried to urge his people to resistance, but
they were paralysed by terror, and the subject tribes
gladly hailed the invasion as an opportunity to throw
off the yoke of the detested tyrant. When Ermanaric
saw that his empire was falling to pieces, he is said to
have taken his own life in his despair. This seems to

46 THE GOTHIC ALEXANDER.
be the true story of his end ; but the account given
by Jordanes does not mention the suicide, and mixes
up the history with a romantic legend, which appears
in many differing forms in German and Scandinavian
traditions. According to one of the later versions of
this legend, the tyrant had sent his son to woo for
him the beautiful Swanhilda, the daughter of a queen
named Gudrun. But the son, prompted by an evil
counsellor, won the maiden for his own bride. Erma
naric, " the furious traitor," as an Anglo-Saxon poet
calls him, cunningly disguising his anger, enticed
Swanhilda by fair words into his own power, and then
in his fierce revenge ordered her to be torn in pieces by
wild horses. Her brothers (named Sorli and Hamdhir
in Norse story, Sarus and Ammius according to
Jordanes) attacked Ermanaric, and cut off his hands
and feet, leaving him to linger in misery and help
lessness until his hundred and tenth year.
Ermanaric died in the year 375, and the Ostrogoths
were subdued by the Hunnish king Balamber. For
a whole century they remained subject to the Huns,
even fighting on the side of their masters against
their own kinsmen the Visigoths. Of the history
of the Ostrogoths during this time of humiliation
there is not much to tell. They did not submit to the
savage invaders quite without a struggle. One large
body of them, led by two generals, Alatheus [Alhthius]
and Safrax, taking with them a boy of Amaling
descent named Wideric, whom they chose as their
king, emigrated westward soon after Ermanaric's
death, and joined the army of the Visigoths, where
we shall hear of them again. A few years later, one

THE OSTROGOTHS ENSLAVED. 47
portion of the Ostrogoths who were left behind, chose a
king named Winithari [Winithaharyis], a grandson of
Ermanaric's brother, and tried to throw off the Hunnish
yoke. While the Huns were busy with new conquests,
Winithari overran the country of the Antae, a
Slavonic people whom the Huns had made tributary ;
and the Gothic historian confesses without shame that
his countrymen crucified the king of the Antae and
seventy of his nobles. But the rest of the Ostrogoths,
under Hunimund, the son of Ermanaric, continued to
be subject to the Huns, and joined the army of
Balamber to crush the revolt of their countrymen.
In two battles Winithari was victorious, but in the
third he was defeated and killed. Balamber married
an Amaling princess named Waladamarca, and the
Ostrogoths submitted quietly to his sway. They were
allowed, however, to choose their own kings, who
assisted the Huns in their conquests. Hunimundj
famed for his beauty, won victories over the German
nation of the Sueves. His son Thorismund conquered
the Gepids, and was killed " in the flower of his
youth," by a fall from his horse.
We are told that the Ostrogoths were so stricken
with grief for the death of their young hero that they
chose no other king for forty years. Of course we can
not believe this ridiculous tale, which seems to have
been taken from the Gothic ballads. The plain prose
account of the matter would probably be, that the
Ostrogoths were unable to choose a king who was
approved of by their Hunnish masters, so that the
latter kept the government in their own hands. The
young prince Berismund, whose right it was to sue-

48 THE GOTHIC ALEXANDER.
ceed his father Thorismund, was naturally discontented
at being excluded from the throne, and went away to
join the Visigoths, who were then settled in Gaul.
It seems he thought that the Visigoths would
make him their king ; but he found that the throne
was already occupied, and he kept his Amaling descent
a secret. The king of the Visigoths received him
kindly, and promoted him to high rank on account
of his bravery ; but during his lifetime it was never
known who he was.
When the forty years were ended — about the year
440 — the Huns once more allowed the Ostrogoths to
have a king of their own. His name was Walamer,
and he was the son of Wandalhari, and the grandson
of King Winithari. He had two brothers, Theudemer
and Widumer, to whom he entrusted the care of por
tions of his kingdom, and who succeeded him when he
died. The unity and the mutual affection of these three
brothers are described by Jordanes, in almost poetical
words, as having been something singularly beautiful.
During the greater part of Walamer's life, the three
brothers were faithful servants of the Huns, and their
subjects fought, against their own kin, in the armies
of Attila. But, when Attila died in 453, his sons
quarrelled for supremacy, and the Ostrogoths regained
their freedom. The Huns made an effort to re
conquer them, but were defeated by Walamer in a
decisive battle. On the day when the news was
brought to Theudemer of his brother's triumph, a
son was born to him This " child of victory " was
the great Theoderic [Thiudareiks], who was destined
to fulfil the omen of his birth, and to raise the Ostro-

THE BIRTH OF THEODERIC.

49

gothic nation to the highest position among the people
of the Teutonic stock. The name of Theoderic is the
most glorious in Gothic history ; but before we begin
his story we must turn back a hundred years, and
inquire what the Visigoths had been doing while
their eastern brethren were the humble vassals of a
horde of Asiatic savages.

VI.
THE JUDGES OF THE VISIGOTHS.
We told you in the last chapter that during the
third quarter of the fourth century the Visigoths
formed part of the great empire of the Ostrogoth
Ermanaric. In the earlier part of the famous con
queror's reign, while his power was still at its height,
it is very probable that they were his subjects in
reality as well as in name. But when the Ostrogothic
kingdom began to be invaded by the Huns, and the
conquered nations were claiming their freedom, the
Visigoths seem to have been allowed to manage their
own affairs as they liked, and to wage war or make
treaties on their own account, without waiting for the
approval of the Amaling king.
The Visigoths were divided into three tribes or
petty kingdoms, which were ruled by " judges '' named
Athanaric, Frithigern, and Alawiw. Of these three
chieftains Athanaric was the most powerful, and the
other two seem to have recognized his claim to leader
ship. He had inherited his power from his father
Rothestes, who had been a faithful ally of the
Romans, and had received the honour of a statue or
a memorial column at Constantinople. Athanaric is
said to have been a brave warrior, but his history

EVENTS AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 51
perhaps gives more evidence of his cunning than it
does of his bravery.
In order to understand the story of the Visigoths
under their "judges," we must take a glance at the
events that had been happening at Constantinople.
When Constantine the Great died in 337, he was
succeeded first by his three sons, and afterwards by
his nephew Julian, who is called the Apostate, because
he forsook Christianity, and during his two years'
reign set up heathenism as the religion of the
empire. After Julian's death, the Romans thought
they had had enough of the house of Constantine,
and chose as their emperor Jovian, an officer of the
imperial household. But he only lived a year after
he was raised to the throne, and then the diadem was
bestowed on Valentinian, the most successful general
of his time.
Valentinian, though uneducated, was a man of
strong mind and resolute will ; but he perceived that
the government of the Roman world was a task too
heavy for one man to manage. He therefore deter
mined to share the supreme power with his brother
Valens, whom he sent to Constantinople as emperor
of the East, while he kept for himself the rule over
the western provinces. Unfortunately Valens, though
a brave soldier and a well-meaning man, had little
decision of character or knowledge of men ; and just
at this time the Eastern empire needed a strong and
skilful ruler even more than did the empire of the
West. To make the matter worse, Valens did not
even know Greek, which was the language spoken by
the greater part of his subjects. It was not long

52 THE fUDGES OF THE VISIGOTHS.
before the emperor found himself entangled in fearful
difficulties ; and his weak and vacillating policy-
doing a thing one day and undoing it the next, losing
precious time in long deliberation, and then acting
rashly after all — brought on a succession of calamities
that came very near destroying the Eastern empire
altogether. Since the time of Constantine, the Visigoths had
faithfully observed the treaty which they had made
with that emperor, and had continued to supply their
promised number of men to the Roman armies.
Athanaric, so far as we can discover, honestly in
tended to continue the policy of friendship with Con
stantinople, but he made a great mistake which cost
him and his people dearly. A cousin of the emperor
Julian, named Procopius, rebelled against Valens,
expelled him from Constantinople, and got himself
proclaimed emperor. He called on the Visigoths to
fulfil their treaty engagements ; and Athanaric, re
garding Procopius as the real emperor, at once sent
over thirty thousand men into Thrace. Apparently
Athanaric did not go himself, for his father (so at
least he said afterwards) had made him swear never
to set foot on Roman soil. We can imagine how the
thirty thousand would enjoy the opportunity of return
ing, actually under imperial sanction, to their old
sport of plundering the Thracian provincials. But
while they were ravaging the country, never dreaming
of resistance, they suddenly learned that Procopius
was dead, and that Valens was again master at Con
stantinople. Instead of having earned the gratitude
of the Roman Empire, they had made it their enemy.

ATHANARIC'S MISTAKE. 53
By cutting off their supplies and provisions, and pre
venting them from retreating across the Danube, the
generals of Valens managed, without very much
fighting, to compel the Goths to surrender at dis
cretion. The Romans spared their lives, but sold the
common soldiers into slavery, and sent the chiefs to
live as prisoners of war in distant parts of the empire.
When Athanaric heard of this disaster, he sent
ambassadors to Constantinople ; but it was not by
any means to beg humbly for mercy from the con
queror. Instead of that he assumed an air of injured
innocence. His envoys bitterly reproached the as
tonished Romans with an unprovoked breach of the
treaty between the two nations. All that the Visi
goths had done, they said, was to render their
promised assistance to the Roman Empire. To be
sure they had in their simplicity supported the wrong
emperor ; but instead of being angry with them for
their mistake Valens ought to have been thankful to
them for their good intentions ! They therefore de
manded that their prisoners of war should at once be
set at liberty.
One would suppose that this audacious demand
would have been at once rejected with laughter ; but
Valens seems at first to have been half inclined to
agree to it. However, he wrote for advice to his
brother Valentinian, who, as might have been ex
pected, told him to go and attack Athanaric in his
own country. Valens did so, and the war lasted
three years. The Romans won most of the battles,
but they did not make much progress towards sub
duing the country, and they were glad at last to agree

54 THE JUDGES OF THE VISIGOTHS.
to a peace. The cunning Athanaric consented that
the Gothic chieftains should be deprived of the
pensions they had been accustomed to receive from
the Romans ; but he managed to procure an ex
ception in his own favour, and to get himself recog
nized by the Romans as king of all the Visigoths.
When the conditions of peace were agreed upon,
Valens wished that the treaty should be ratified at a
personal interview between himself and Athanaric,
for whom he seems to have conceived a good deal of
respect. Athanaric, however, pleaded that the oath
he had taken to his father prevented him from cross
ing the Danube into Roman territory, and he
threatened that he should consider the peace broken
if the emperor set foot in Dacia. He proposed that
the meeting between Valens and himself should take
place in boats in the middle of the Danube. There
is something amusing in the clever way in which
Athanaric continued to avoid everything that looked
like a confession of defeat. Valens must have felt
that the barbarian was laughing at him, but he did
not venture to refuse the offered arrangement. The
treaty was confirmed, and the emperor, as well as
Athanaric, had to give host 'ges as security for its
faithful observance. The result of these negotiations
was anything but a brilliant success for the ruler of
Constantinople, but of course he celebrated a triumph
when he got home, and the Court scribes and orator:;
talked as if Valens had been another Claudius
Gothicus. For the next two or three years (the peace was
concluded in the year 369), Athanaric was busy per-

THE HUNS AND THE VISIGOTHS. 55
secuting the Christians (who, as we shall find in the
next chapter, were becoming numerous among the
Visigoths), and in a petty war with Frithigern, who
was defeated and driven out of the country, though
he was soon reinstated by the Romans. However, in
the year 376 the judges of the Visigoths had made
up their quarrels, and Athanaric was acting as com
mander-in-chief of the armies of the whole nation,
which were massed on the west bank of the Dniester,
with the Huns facing them on the other side. As
the enemy had no boats, Athanaric thought himself
safe from immediate attack. But one moonlight
night a body of the Huns made their horses swim
over the river, and surprised the Gothic camp. Ath
anaric had to retreat hastily to the west of the river
Pruth, where there were some deserted Roman earth
works which he meant to repair, and by means of
them to offer defiance to the foe. But the Visigoths
were stricken with panic, and would think of nothing
but flight. Frithigern and Alawiw sent ambassadors
to the emperor, begging him to let them cross the
Danube. When Athanaric saw that he could not
persuade the people to offer any resistance, he went
away with a few hundred men towards the north
west, into a country which the Roman writers call
Caucalanda, a name which is evidently meant for
hauhaland, the Gothic form of our English word
Highland, and probably denotes the mountain region
of Transylvania.
And so Athanaric disappears from our story for
four or five years, during which time his rival Frithi
gern was practically king of all the Visigoths.

VII.
THE APOSTLE OF THE GOTHS.
We must now turn aside for a little while from the
direct course of our history to tell the story of a Goth
who, in the midst of all the confusion of this age of
turbulence and bloodshed, spent his life in quietly
doing good, and whose influence on the future history
of his nation was quite as powerful as that of any of
the soldiers and statesmen of his time. Milton ex
pressed a sad truth when he said that the victories
of peace are " less renowned " than those of war ; but
although the name of Wulfila1 the Bishop is not so
famous as those of many men far less worthy to be
remembered, it will no doubt be familiar to many
readers to whom the names mentioned in the pre
ceding chapters were altogether unknown.
It seems that Wulfila was born about the year 310
or 311, but where his birthplace was in the wide tract
of country then inhabited by the Goths, we do not
know. It is said that he was not of pure Gothic
descent, for his grandfather was a native of Cappa-
docia — one of those unfortunate prisoners whom the
Goths carried away from their homes when they
ravaged Asia Minor about the year 267. However
1 Often written Ulphilas.

WULFILA'S EDUCATION. 57
this may be, his parents gave him a Gothic name,
and his whole life proves that he was a thorough
Gothic patriot at heart.
You may remember that after their king Araric
had been defeated in battle, the Goths made a treaty
of alliance with the emperor Constantine ; and in the
year 332 they sent ambassadors to the imperial city
to settle the conditions of peace. How it came to
pass that the young Wulfila accompanied this em
bassy we can only guess. Perhaps the grandson of
the Cappadocian captive had learned to speak Greek
as well as Gothic in his own home, and so was useful
as an interpreter ; or perhaps he may have been one
of those young Goths who, along with King Araric's
son, were to be left in the emperor's hands as security
for the treaty being faithfully kept. Whether by his
own choice or not, we know that he remained at
Constantinople, and received a good education, learn
ing to speak and write Latin as well as Greek.
But Wulfila was like Moses, who, though " learned
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," and living in
comfort and honour in Pharaoh's court, could not be
content while his own people were in misery. Whether
Wulfila was a Christian before he went to Constanti
nople we do not know ; certainly there had been
some few Christian Goths before his time. But if
he was not already a Christian, he very soon became
one, and his mind was filled with a burning desire to
go as a missionary to convert his countrymen from
their cruel heathen ways. With this end in view he
became a priest, and when he was thirty years old
the bishops assembled at the Council of Antioch

58' THE APOSTLE OF THE GOTHS.
ordained him bishop of the Goths dwelling north of
the Danube.
For seven years after this Wulfila was preaching
the gospel to his countrymen in Dacia, and gained
vast numbers of followers in spite of bitter opposition
from Athanaric. The persecution at last became so
fierce that Wulfila wrote to the emperor Constantius
asking him to let the Christian Goths have a home in
the Roman lands, where they could be safe from the
fury of their oppressors. The permission was granted,
and Wulfila, with many thousands of his converts,
crossed the Danube, and settled near Nicopolis
in Mcesia, at the foot of the Balkan mountains.
Constantius had a great admiration for Wulfila, and
often used to speak of him as " our second Moses."
The people whom Wulfila led into Mcesia (the Lesser
Goths, as they were called), continued to dwell there
for some centuries, peacefully cultivating their lands,
and taking no part in the fierce wars that raged all
around them.
But all the Christian Goths did not leave Dacia
along with Wulfila, and their numbers grew so fast
that about the year 369 Athanaric thought it neces
sary to resort to cruel measures in order to suppress
them. His rival, Frithigern, however, was either a
Christian himself, or at any rate favourable to the
Christians, and when Athanaric, as we described in
our last chapter, went away into the Transylvanian
" highlands " there was no longer any resistance to
the spread of the gospel. In a very few years nearly
the whole people, Visigoths and Ostrogoths alike,
learned to call themselves Christians.

CATHOLICS AND ARIANS. 59
It may be well to explain here that those Christians
from whom Wulfila had received his religious teach
ing at Constantinople belonged to what was called
the Arian sect: that is, they differed from the general
body of the Church in believing that the Son of God
was a created being. The Goths, who were converted
to Christianity through the preaching of Wulfila and
his disciples, naturally became Arians too. It is
important to remember this, because many of the
troubles of the Goths in later years arose from the
fierce mutual hatred that existed between Arians and
Catholics. The two parties often thought each other
worse than heathens, and persecuted each other
cruelly. As for Wulfila himself, however, he cared
a great deal less about the harder questions of
theology than he did about the plain and simple
truths which help men to act kindly and justly
towards one another, and to look up with love and
reverence to the Giver of all good.
For three and thirty years Wulfila lived among
his people in Mcesia, teaching the newly converted
heathens the lessons of Christian faith and life, and
training clergymen to carry on his work after his
death. But in addition to these labours he had
imposed on himself an important and difficult task,
which must have occupied a large portion of his life.
He perceived clearly that if Christianity was to take
deep root amongst the Goths, and to continue to
be held by them in its purity, it was necessary that
they should be able to read the Scriptures in their
own tongue. And therefore he set himself to work
to produce a translation of the Bible into Gothic.

TCB D hM S» M dl M ITQIMOT fo^lSftNI&ftirDQlKSO
Iktnj^ihD^lM^OSSDMIIST^NSSo^lrCOTlMI
^ y$>u~u jjmni ^o m h $m &n nn jswjw &
S>ull E LH1° ^^TSOY^HA^B^tni^dTQ^
TX0S(S^DJjlWlh^lS^0<ljll'SDIKIK10S.ll'V'

A PAGE OF THE GOTHIC GOSPELS.
(Codex Argenteus.)
Mark vii. 3-7.

WULFILA'S NEW ALPHABET. 6l
Before, however, Wulfila could give his countrymen
the Bible, he had to teach them to read, and, in fact,
to reduce their language to a written form. It is true
that, as we have already said, the Goths had already
an alphabet of their own. But Wulfila probably
thought that the Runic alphabet was better forgotten,
because of the heathenish things that were written in
it ; at all events he chose to write his Gothic Bible
in Greek letters — large capitals, such as were com
monly used in books at that time. There were,
however, some Gothic sounds which could not be
correctly expressed by means of the Greek alphabet,
and for these Wulfila adopted the Runic characters,
altering their shapes, however, so as to give them as
far as possible the general appearance of Greek letters.
Our earliest manuscripts of the Gothic Bible were
written about 150 years after Wulfila's time, and
probably the forms of the letters had before then
undergone a little change, but it is still quite easy to
see that the Gothic alphabet -is merely the Greek
alphabet with half a dozen new signs.
Wulfila's translation was a wonderful piece of work
for the age in which it was written. It cannot have
been very easy, in the fourth century, for a Goth to
acquire such a thorough knowledge of Greek as to
enable him accurately to understand the text of the
Scriptures ; and to make a faithful translation out of
one language into another requires a mind trained in
habits of exact thinking. But there are very few
passages in which Wulfila appears to have misrepre
sented the sense of his original. Many of the words
which occur in the Bible had nothing properly corres-

62 THE APOSTLE OF THE GOTHS.
ponding to them in Gothic, because they denoted
objects or actions peculiar to civilized life, or ideas
belonging to Christian ways of thinking, which were
quite strange to the minds of people who had been
brought up in heathenism. The way in which Wulfila
got over these difficulties is often very curious. The
word he uses for " writing," for instance, meant pro
perly " painting " or " marking," and to express the
meaning of " reading " he used the word " singing " —
no doubt because in reading the Bible it was cus
tomary to adopt a chanting tone. Our Anglo-Saxon
ancestors expressed these ideas in a different way :
they retained the old words that had been used in the
days when people carved the runes on pieces of wood.
Our word " write " properly means to scratch or
engrave, and our word " read " meant originally to
guess or give the answer to a riddle, just as " rune "
itself meant a secret or mystery which it required a
clever man to unravel. Wulfila seems to have avoided
these expressions on purpose, because he regarded
Christian writing as altogether a different kind of
thing from heathenish rune-carving.
Here is the Gothic Lord's Prayer as it is in Wulfila's
Bible, with a word-for-word translation, which will
show how much, even yet, our language resembles
that of the Goths. The English words that are in
italics are of the same origin as the Gothic words
which they translate.

Atta unsar thu in himinam, weihnai namo thein. Qimai
Father our thou in heaven, be hallowed name thine. Come
thiudinassus theins. Wairthai wilya theins, swe in himina yah in
kingdom thine. Be done will thine, as [so] in heaven also in

THE GOTHIC BIBLE. 63
airthai. Hlaif unsarana thana sinteinan gif uns himma daga.
earth. Bread [loaf] our the continual give us this day. '
Yah aflet uns thatei skulans siyaima, swa swe yah weis
And forgive [off-let] us that which debtors we are, so as also we
afletam thaim skulam unsaraim. Yah ni bringais uns in
forgive [off-let] the debtors our. And «-ot bring us in
fraistubnyai, ak lausei uns af thamma ubilin. Unte theina ist
temptation, but loose us from [of] the evil. For thine is
thiudangardi, yah mahts, yah wulthus in aiwins.
kingdom, and might, and glory in ages.
We do not know how much of the Bible Wulfila
translated into Gothic. One ancient writer says that
he translated all but the books of Kings, which he left
out because he thought that the stories of Israel's
wars would be dangerous reading for a people that
was too fond of fighting already. It is quite in accor
dance with what we know of Wulfila's character that
he should have felt some uneasiness about the effect
that such reading might have on the minds of his
warlike countrymen ; but one would have thought
that the books of Joshua and Judges would have been
even more likely to stimulate the Gothic passion for
fighting than the books of Kings. Probably the truth
is that Wulfila did not live to finish his translation,
and no doubt he would leave to the last the books
which he thought least important for his great purpose
of making good Christians.
The part of Wulfila's Bible that has come down to us
consists of a considerable portion of each of the Gos
pels, and of each of St. Paul's Epistles, together with
small fragments of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Six different manuscripts have been found. The most
important of these was discovered in the sixteenth
century in a monastery at Werden in Germany. After

64 THE APOSTLE OF THE GOTHS.
having been in the possession of many different owners,
it was bought in 1662 by the Swedish Count de la
Gardie, who gave it the binding of solid silver from
which it is commonly called the Codex Argenteus,
or Silver Book ; it is now in the University of
Upsala, and is regarded as one of the choicest trea
sures possessed by any library in Europe. It is
beautifully written in letters of gold and silver on
purple parchment, and contains the fragments of the
Gospels. Of the other five manuscripts one was dis
covered in the seventeenth century in Germany, and
the rest in Italy about seventy years ago.
Wulfila visited Constantinople in the year 360,
and was present at a church council held there. In
381, when he was seventy years old, he was sent for
by the emperor Theodosius to dispute with the
teachers of a new sect that waS gaining many con
verts among the Goths. But almost as soon as he
had arrived at Constantinople he was seized with
the illness of which he died. His last act was to
write out, as his " testament," a profession of his Chris
tian faith, which his disciple Auxentius has affec
tionately preserved.

VIII.
FRITHIGERN AND VALENS— THE BATTLE OF
HADRIANOPLE.
At the end of our sixth chapter, we left Frithigern
and his Visigoths on the north bank of the Danube,
in continual dread of an attack from the Huns, and
eagerly awaiting the reply of the emperor Valens to
their request for permission to cross the river and be
come subjects of the Roman Empire. Valens was in
Asia (probably at Antioch) where the ambassadors of
Frithigern presented themselves before him. They
told him of the terrible danger to which their country
men were exposed, and promised that if they were
granted a home in Thrace the Visigoths would become
his faithful and obedient subjects. The answer, yes
or no, had to be given at once : there was no time
for hesitation. To do the advisers of Valens justice,
it was not altogether " with a light heart " that they
came to the decision which well-nigh involved the em
pire in irretrievable ruin. Some of them, at any rate,
clearly perceived the danger that there was in admitting
such a vast and unruly multitude into the Roman terri
tories. Others, however, urged that the empire was in
need of men ; its population had for a long time past
been growing smaller ; and here was a golden oppor-

66 FRITHIGERN AND VALENS.
tunity of adding at one stroke a million of subjects to
the dominions of their sovereign. After much anxious
discussion, the prayer of the Visigoths was granted.
Possibly the experiment might not have turned out so
badly if the Goths, when they had been admitted into
the empire, had been treated with generosity and con
fidence. But first to accept them as subjects, and
then to let them be goaded into rebellion by every
sort of oppression and insult, was a course that could
only end in the most frightful calamity.
Orders were sent to the Roman governors on the
banks of the Danube to make preparations for
bringing the Visigoths across the river, and when
a sufficient number of boats had been collected,
the great immigration began. Day after day, from
early morning till far into the night, the broad
river was covered with passing vessels, into which
the Goths had crowded so eagerly that many of
them sank on the passage, and all on board were
lost. At first the Romans tried to count the people
as they landed, but the numbers were so vast that
the attempt had to be given up in despair.
If the Goths at first felt any thankfulness to the
Romans for giving them a safe refuge from their
savage enemies, their gratitude was soon turned into
fierce anger when they got to know that their children
were to be taken from them, and sent away into
distant parts of the empire. The reason for this cruel
action was that the Romans thought the Goths would
keep quiet when they knew that their children might
be killed if a rebellion took place ; but it only filled
the minds of the barbarians with a wild longing for

THE GOTHS CROSS THE DANUBE. 67
revenge. Valens thought he could make himself safe
against his new subjects by ordering the fighting men
to be deprived of their weapons ; but the Goths, who
were rich with the plunder they had taken in many
wars, found that it was easy to bribe the Roman
officers to let them keep their arms.
When Valens heard that the Visigoths, instead of
being a defenceless multitude, were a powerful army,
and that they showed signs of fierce discontent, he
felt that he had made a great mistake. He tried to
remedy the mischief by ordering that the Goths
should be divided into several bodies, and removed to
different parts of the empire. Just at this time those
Ostrogoths who had not submitted to the Huns asked
the emperor that they too might be allowed to cross
the Danube and become Roman subjects. Of course
the request was refused ; but the Ostrogoths took no
notice of the refusal, and finding an unguarded place,
they passed the river, and joined themselves to the sub
jects of Frithigern.
When this vast multitude of strangers had been
brought into the Roman provinces, it was needful to con
sider how they should be supplied with the necessaries
of life. Valens had given orders that arrangements
should be made to furnish the Goths, at reasonable
prices, with the provisions they required, until they
should be able to maintain themselves by agriculture
and the rearing of cattle. But unfortunately the
Roman governors of Thrace, Lupicinus and Maximus,
were avaricious men, who saw in the distresses of the
Goths a chance of making themselves rich by ill-
gotten gains. These men kept the food supply in

68 FRITHIGERN AND VALENS.
their own hands, and doled it out to the Goths at
famine prices, forbidding every one else to sell to
them more cheaply. Pressed by hunger, the miser
able people had to give a slave as the price of one
loaf, or ten pounds of silver for an animal, and they
were often compelled to feed on the flesh of dogs or
of animals that had died of disease. Some of them
even sold their own children, saying it was better to
let them go into slavery to save their lives than to keep
them where they would die of hunger.
During all these terrible hardships, Frithigern suc
ceeded in keeping his followers from breaking out
into revolt, and even from relieving their wants by
plunder of their neighbours. He seems to have been
really anxious to maintain friendship with the Romans
if he could ; and no doubt, also, he thought of the
Gothic boys and girls who were kept as hostages in
distant lands. But all the time he took care that the
Goths should be ready to rise as one man, if the
burden of oppression should become too heavy to be
borne. The occasion was not long in presenting itself.
Lupicinus had invited Frithigern and the other chiefs
to a banquet at Marcianopolis, and they were accom
panied by a few attendants into the palace, the Gothic
people being encamped outside the walls of the city.
While the feast was going on, an uproar arose at the
city gates between the Roman soldiers and the hungry
Goths, who saw before them a market well supplied
with food, which they were prevented from buying.
Some of the soldiers were killed, and news of what
had happened was brought secretly to Lupicinus, who,

THE VISIGOTHS REVOLT. 69
awakened out of a drunken sleep, gave orders for the
slaughter of Frithigern's followers. Frithigern heard
the outcry, and soon guessed what had happened.
With rare presence of mind, he quietly said that it
was needful for him to show himself to his countrymen
in order to put a stop to the tumult ; and beckoning to
his companions, he boldly led the way through the
streets and out at the city gates, while the Romans
looked on, too much astonished to offer any opposition.
When the chiefs reached the camp, they told their
story to their countrymen, and announced that the
peace with the Romans was at an end. The Goths
broke into wild shouts of applause as they heard this
longed-for declaration. " Better," they said, " to perish
in battle than to suffer a lingering death by famine."
Very soon the sound of the Gothic trumpets warned
the garrison of Marcianopolis that they must prepare
for war.
Lupicinus hastily collected such an army as he
could, and went out to meet the foe ; but the Romans
were beaten, and their cowardly general fled for his
life before the battle was decided, and took refuge
in the city. And now the Goths made amends
for their past privations by plundering the innocent
country people of the Thracian provinces. They
were joined by some Gothic regiments in the im
perial service, who had been driven into rebellion
by the foolish insolence of the Romans ; and the
slaves who worked in the Thracian gold-mines, set
free by the flight of their cruel masters, were glad to
serve the Goths as guides, and to show them where
the stores of food and of treasure had been hidden.

70 FRITHIGERN AND VALENS.
We need not say very much about the events
which immediately followed. There was one great
battle at a place called " The Willows/' which was
a victory for neither side, but resulting in terrible
slaughter to both, so that long afterwards the field
was white with the bones of the unburied dead ;
another great battle on the Hebrus, won by the
Roman General Sebastian, who carried off a vast
quantity of spoil, greater than could be stored in
the city of Hadrianople or in the surrounding plains ;
and several less important conflicts, in which some
times one side was victorious and sometimes the other.
But in spite of all this fighting the Gothic army
kept growing stronger and stronger, being joined
continually by new bands — Taifals, Scythians, Ostro
goth deserters from the Huns, and even by some
of the Hunnish hordes themselves.
In the summer of 378 Valens came back to Con
stantinople, and found himself the object of universal
indignation. Whenever he appeared in public he was
assailed by shouts of abuse for his folly in letting
the Goths into the empire, and for his cowardice
in not having marched in person to subdue them.
Valens felt keenly that there was some truth in
these reproaches. He knew that he had made a
terrible mistake ; and though he also knew that he
had meant well, and that he was no coward, he had
not the strength of mind to be indifferent to popular
clamour. What added to the bitterness of his feeling
was the knowledge that the people were making
comparisons between himself and his nephew Gratian,
the brave and accomplished young emperor of the

THE EMPEROR'S RASHNESS. 71
West, who had been winning brilliant victories over
the Germans on the Rhine and the Upper Danube.
Valens resolved to risk everything in a desperate
attempt to repair the consequences of his own error.
He remained only a few days in the capital, and
set out to take the command of the army, which was
encamped under the walls of Hadrianople.
While the emperor and his generals were discussing
their plans for the management of the war, there
arrived at the camp one of Gratian's generals, named
Richomer, who brought a letter saying that his
master would soon be on the spot at the head of
his army, and begging Valens on no account to risk
a battle until Gratian had joined him. Well would it
have been for Valens if he had listened to this advice ;
but his flatterers urged him not to let his nephew
share in the glory of a victory which, they repre
sented, he was sure to win ; and he decided to hurry
on his preparations so that the battle might be over
before Gratian arrived.
The Romans had everything in readiness for the
attack, when a Gothic Christian priest (some think
it must have been the bishop Wulfila, but this is not
very likely) accompanied by some other Goths of
humble rank, presented themselves before Valens,
bearing a letter from Frithigern, in which he offered
to enter into a treaty of peace, on condition that the
Goths should be recognized as masters of Thrace.
In addition to this official despatch, which had no
doubt been sent with the consent of the Gothic
assembly, the priest had brought a private note from
Frithigern, in which he informed Valens that he

72 FRITHIGERN AND VALENS.
feared the Goths would not remain faithful to such
a treaty if they got what they wanted too easily, and
advised the emperor to make a display of force so
that it might not appear that his concessions were the
result of weakness. What the Gothic chief meant
by these tactics it is not easy to see : the historian
who tells this curious story intimates that the
Romans could make nothing of these contradictory
messages, and sent the ambassadors home without
any reply.
It was on the morning of the 9th of August, 378,
that Valens, leaving his treasure within the walls of
the city, marched from Hadrianople to attack the
enemy. After the army had proceeded for eight
miles, under a blazing sun, they came unexpectedly
in sight of the waggons of the Goths. The
troops were hastily drawn up in battle array, while
the barbarians broke out into the fierce chant with
which they were accustomed to animate their courage
before an engagement. The sudden advance of the
Romans took Frithigern by surprise. The Ostro
goths under Alatheus and Safrax were many miles
away in search of plunder, and had to be hurriedly
sent for. In order to delay the fighting until his
allies arrived, Frithigern sent to the Romans what
we should call a flag of truce, pretending that he
wished to make terms for surrender. The Romans
fell into the trap, and answered that they were willing
to agree to a parley if the Gothic chief would send
some of his highest nobles as the bearers of his
proposals. The messenger returned saying that
Frithigern was willing to come and negotiate in

THE BATTLE OF HADRIANOPLE. 73
person, provided that some officer of distinguished
rank was previously sent to the Gothic camp as a
hostage. This unexpected offer was hailed by the
Romans with delight, and they at once began to
discuss whom they should send. The unanimous
choice fell on the tribune Equitius, commandant of
the palace, and a relative of Valens ; but he stoutly
refused the dangerous office, saying that he had
escaped from barbarian captivity once in his life, and
there was no knowing what desperate thing the Goths
might do if they got him in their power. The dis
pute was settled by Richomer, who nobly volunteered
to accept the unwelcome task himself. During all
these long discussions, the Roman soldiers were kept
under the burning sun, tormented by thirst and
hunger, while the Goths remained comfortably in
their encampment.
Richomer had already started on his way to the
Gothic camp, when he was called back by the news
that the battle had already begun. Some Iberian
troops in the Roman service, tired of the delay, had
made an attack on the enemy without waiting for
orders. They were immediately routed ; and just
at that moment the long-waited for Ostrogoth cavalry
burst (" like a thunderbolt," says a contemporary
writer) upon the Roman army. Frithigern caused
the trumpets to be sounded for the attack ; the
Roman cavalry. was soon dispersed, and the infantry,
surrounded and forced into a dense mass so that they
could not use their weapons, and worn out by
hunger and fatigue, were slaughtered by thousands.
The Roman general Victor, perceiving that the

74 FRITHIGERN AND VALENS.
emperor was in a position of danger, and forsaken
by his guards, went to his relief; but when he
reached the place Valens was not to be found.
Victor and the other generals then left the field ; but
the massacre of the Romans went on until it was
interrupted by the darkness of night.
For many days after the battle parties of the
Goths were constantly on the field, plundering the
dead, so that none of the Romans ventured to make
a search for the body of the emperor. What his
fate had been was not known until many years after.
wards, when a young Roman, who had escaped from
captivity among the Goths, related how he had been
one of a party of youths who had conveyed Valens,
wounded by an arrow, to a cottage on the battle
field, where they tried to attend to his wound. The
enemy attempted to burst open the door, but failed,
and, not knowing who was inside, set fire to the
cottage. All the occupants perished except the
narrator of the story, who jumped out of the window.
The Goths were bitterly disappointed when they
heard from the survivor that they had thrown away
the chances of capturing a Roman emperor alive, and
securing for themselves his ransom. Whether this
tale was true or not, it was at any rate very generally
believed. Several Catholic writers of the fifth and
sixth centuries, who imagined that Valens had been
the cause of the Goths becoming Arians, have shown
the ferocity of their religious hatred by the remark
that it was a just doom that he who had caused the
souls of so many Goths to suffer eternal fire should
be burned alive by Gothic hands.

THREATENED RUIN OF THE EMPIRE. 75
For the second time in history a Roman emperor
had perished amid the total ruin of his army, in
conflict with the Goths. But even the day of Abritta
had been less terrible than was the day of Hadria-
no'ple. Two-thirds of the Roman army lay dead on
the field, and amongst the slain were two generals
of great renown, Sebastian and Trajanus, two high
officers of the palace, Equitius and Valerian, and
thirty-five tribunes. A contemporary historian says
that no such disaster had befallen the Roman arms
since that of Cannse. We can hardly doubt that
if the Goths had been united and disciplined, and
had known how to use their victory, the Eastern
empire would have come to a speedy end. But this
was not to be ; the Goths could win battles, but the
art of conquest they had yet to learn.

IX.
THE GOTHS AND THEODOSIUS.
ON the morning after the battle, the victorious
Goths at once began to lay siege to the city of
Hadrianople, where they had got to know that the
imperial treasure had been deposited. But " fighting
with stone walls" requires more patience than the
barbarians had yet learned to exercise. When their
first assaults on the place were repulsed with heavy
loss, they gave up the attempt in disgust, and after
two days marched away to besiege Constantinople.
Their first attack was so violent that they had nearly
succeeded in forcing the gates, and perhaps if their
fury had continued unabated the imperial city would
have soon become their prey. But a band of Arab
horsemen in the Roman service issued from the city,
and a sharp conflict took place. The skirmish was
indecisive, but a panic was created among the Goths
by the sight of an act of cannibalism on the part of
one of the Arabs, who sucked the blood of his slain
adversary. The thought of having to fight with
enemies of such inhuman ferocity chilled their courage,
and after continuing the siege half-heartedly for a
short time, they abandoned it as hopeless. Carrying
away a large quantity of plunder from the suburbs

.--¦mmimmHPrEiiMHflii
l:il:i'illi''l!ii|.;i,l:.iiiiiinli.  'M:A V^kWU

COLUMN ERECTED AT CONSTANTINOPLE IN HONOUR OF THE
GOTHIC CONQUESTS OF THEODOSIUS.

78 THE GOTHS AND THEODOSIUS.
outside the city walls, they wandered away to the
north, and spread themselves once more over the
provinces from the Black Sea to the Adriatic, which
had so often before been the scene of their ravages.
We do not know much about what the Goths may
have done in Thrace and Illyria during the two years
following their great victory. The Roman writers
complain bitterly of the havoc and devastation which
they wrought, but they tell us no details. But surely
the worst deeds of the barbarians can scarcely have
equalled in cruelty and treachery the infamous act
by which the civilized and Christian Romans revenged
themselves on innocent persons for the defeat at
Hadrianople. It will be remembered that on several
occasions when treaties were made between the Goths
and the Romans, a number of the children of Gothic
nobles were given up to the Romans, as security for the
faithful observance by the Goths of their engagements.
As these young "hostages" had usually been sent away
to the East, it happened that at the time we now
speak of most of the cities of Asia Minor contained
a considerable population of Gothic youths. The
war minister of the Eastern empire, Julius, had heard
rumours that great excitement prevailed amongst
these young Goths at the result of the battle of Had
rianople, and that many of them had openly expressed
disloyal sentiments. No successor had yet been ap
pointed in the room of Valens, and Julius obtained
from the Senate of Constantinople a vote authorizing
him to do whatever he thought necessary for the good
of the State. He then sent to the governors of the
Asiatic provinces secret instructions that the Gothic

ROMAN TREACHERY. jg
youths should be induced, by promises of gifts and
honours, to assemble on a certain day in the market
places of their respective cities. When they were
collected together, the place of meeting was to be
surrounded by troops, and the defenceless Goths were
to be unsparingly massacred. This dreadful plan was
successfully carried out, and its author was praised to
the skies for having delivered the Eastern provinces
from a terrible danger. It is true that these young
Goths had been given up by their people as hostages,
and the forfeiture of their lives, when the treaty had
been broken, was " in the bond ; " but such an excuse
does little to lessen the guilt of Julius, or of the
Roman public which applauded his treacherous deed.
Happily the ruler who was chosen to succeed Valens
was a man of a spirit very different from that of
Julius. It was in January, 379, that the great Theo
dosius was appointed by Gratian emperor of the
East. In his reign of sixteen years he proved once
more, what every really great emperor since Aurelian
had proved before him, that a policy of justice and
kindness could convert even the turbulent Goths into
faithful allies and subjects of the empire.
But before Theodosius could venture to do anything
to conciliate the Goths, it was necessary that he should
make them feel that he was to be feared. He had
to reorganize his shattered army, and to teach his
soldiers to overcome the terror which had been in
spired by the crushing defeat of Hadrianople. His
policy was not to risk any great battle, but to fight
only when he had such advantages of position and
numbers as made victory certain, so that his own

So THE GOTHS AND THEODOSIUS.
troops grew gradually bolder, and the Goths became
disheartened, as they saw that the gains of the con
test, if not singly very important, always fell to the
Roman side. The quarrels among the barbarians
did much to help the Roman cause, and from time
to time Gothic chiefs who thought themselves slighted
by Frithigern deserted to the emperor, who gave
them abundance of honours and rewards. One of
these deserters, named Modahari, was entrusted with
a high command in the imperial army, and gained
for the Romans the greatest victory they obtained in
the war.
Frithigern seems to have died sometime in 379 or
380, and in the latter year Athanaric crossed the
Danube. On what ground he considered himself
released from the oath by which he had professed to
be prevented from treading Roman soil, we do not
know, but very likely this had only been an excuse.
He was soon acknowledged by the greater portion of
the Visigoths as their king, and his first act was to
make a treaty of peace with the emperor. Theo
dosius invited him to Constantinople, and entertained
him splendidly. The sights which he beheld there
impressed him with profound astonishment. " Often,"
he said, " have I been told of the grandeur of this
city, but I never believed that the stories were true.
The emperor is a god on earth, and whoever resists
him is guilty of his own blood." Athanaric did not
long survive his arrival at Constantinople. He died
in January, 381, and was honoured with a royal
funeral and a costly monument.
During the next two years those Visigothic tribes

THE PRUDENCE OF THEODOSIUS. 8l
which had not joined in the treaty made by Athanaric
were induced one after the other to make their sub
mission to the emperor. In the year 386, the band
of Ostrogoths who had formerly followed Alatheus
and Safrax, and were now led by a chief named
Audathaeus, had returned to Dacia after having made
a raid into the north and west of Germany, and had
attempted to cross the Danube into Thrace. Their
fleet of boats, however, was unexpectedly attacked by
the Roman soldiers ; great numbers of the invaders
perished by the sword or by drowning, and those
who succeeded in reaching the southern bank at once
surrendered to the Romans.
The sovereignty of Theodosius was now acknow
ledged by the whole Gothic nation, excepting only
the Ostrogoths north of the Danube mouths and the
Black Sea, who still continued under the Hunnish
yoke. The emperor understood the character of his
new subjects well enough to perceive that gratitude
and honour were the ties which could best secure
their faithfulness, and his conduct towards them was
marked by kindness and confidence. The Visigoths
were provided with lands in Thrace, and the Ostro
goths in Asia Minor ; and large gifts of corn and
cattle were made to them. They were allowed to
govern themselves by their ancient laws. Their
warriors were embodied into a separate army, under
the name of allies, receiving handsome pay and
honoured with many special privileges, and many of
the Gothic nobles were promoted to high office in
the state and in the imperial household. These
measures had their intended effect. Although, no

82 THE GOTHS AND THEODOSIUS.
doubt, there were movements of discontent here and
there, yet as long as Theodosius lived the great body
of the Goths seem to have regarded their benefactor
with feelings of passionate loyalty. In his wars
against the Western usurpers, Maximus and Eugenius,
the Gothic warriors rendered invaluable service.
It is plain that Theodosius took the best course
that was open to him under the circumstances. The
Goths could neither be expelled nor subdued by
force. The only chance of rendering them harmless
lay in winning their attachment, in making them feel
that their rulers were their friends. For this purpose
no cautious half-measures would have been of any
use. The emperor's policy of unreserved confidence
might appear too bold, but its seeming rashness was
the truest prudence.
But indeed the state of things was such that every
policy which could be adopted was full of terrible
danger. Just imagine what the situation was. A
vast people of foreigners, divided from their fellow-
subjects in language, national feeling, and religion,
and remembering that they had lately been the con
querors of the Romans, were settled in the heart of the
empire ; and forty thousand of their warriors were in
corporated into a separate army, supplied with Roman
weapons, and to be trained in the art of war under
skilled Roman generals. And it was soon easy to
see that the indulgence bestowed on the Goths had
developed in them a pride which would not tolerate
the smallest slight, and might easily prompt them to
wish to be masters instead of subjects. It is said
that Theodosius himself, though he was always re-

THE PERILS OF THE EMPIRE. 83
garded by the Goths as their friend, was not ill-pleased
when he heard that they had suffered heavy losses in
battle ; and we can scarcely wonder if it was so.
Even had Theodosius been succeeded by a long line
of emperors as wise as himself, it is unlikely that the
loyalty of the Goths to the empire could have been
maintained for many years. But what might in that
case have happened we do not know ; whether the
outbreak of the Gothic revolt might have been pre
vented or not, at any rate it was hurried on through
the folly of the successors of the great emperor,
and the recklessness of their selfish and ambitious
ministers.

X.
ALARIC THE BALTHING.
In January, 395, the great Theodosius died. Owing
to the line of the Western emperors having previously
come to an end, he was at his death the sovereign of
the whole Roman world. His dominions were divided
between his two sons ; the eldest, Arcadius, becoming
emperor of the East, and the younger, Honorius, em
peror of the West. They were both mere puppets in
the hands of their ministers and favourites, and though
Arcadius lived till 408, and Honorius till 423, our story
would not lose much if we were never to mention their
names again.
The favour shown by Theodosius to the Goths had
excited a great deal of jealousy and discontent, which
began to be very loudly expressed as soon as he was
dead. Some people were foolish enough to demand
that the new emperor should dismiss all his Gothic
soldiers, and drive the whole nation back again over
the Danube. Of course the Government could not
attempt to carry out such extravagant proposals as
these, but the popular clamour had its effect, and one
of the first things that was done in the name of
Arcadius was to lower the pay of the Gothic " allies."
This was enough. The Romans had broken *heir

THE VISIGOTHS RAVAGE GREECE. 85
treaty, and in a few weeks nearly all the Visigoths
rose in rebellion.
Amongst the many Gothic chiefs employed in the
Roman service was a young man not much over twenty
years of age, named Alaric rAlh-reiks], a member of
the princely family of the Balthings. Young as he
was, he had rendered good service as a military com
mander ; but when he asked for the promotion to
which his deeds entitled him, he was refused. He
joined the rebels, who at once chose him as their king ;
and this was the beginning of the renowned Balthing
dynasty of the Visigoths.
Led by their brave young king, the Visigoths
marched through Macedonia and Thessaly, and en
tered Greece through the famous pass of Thermopylae.
There were no successors of Leonidas and his three
hundred Spartans to oppose their progress ; the
guards who were stationed at the entrance of the pass
fled without striking a blow, and Alaric and his host
hastened through Phocis and Bceotia, burning villages
and carrying away the population as slaves, and were
soon encamped before the walls of Athens. The
Athenians paid a heavy ransom in money, and invited
Alaric to a splendid banquet ; and so the Goths de
parted, leaving the city unhurt. But the other famous
cities of Greece, Megara, Argos, Corinth, and Sparta,
fell into the hands of the barbarians ; the inhabitants
were killed or taken captive, and their treasures
divided amongst the conquerors.
The great general of Honorius, Stilicho the Vandal,
had already set out to meet Alaric with an army ;
but the government of Constantinople foolishly re-

86 ALARIC THE BALTHING.
fused his help. But in the following year (396) they
were glad to beg for it of their own accord. Landing
at Corinth, Stilicho encountered Alaric in Arcadia,
and succeeded in driving him into the mountain region
of Pholoe, near the frontiers of Elis. It now seemed
as if Alaric's escape was impossible ; Stilicho had
hemmed him in with a strong line of earthworks, and
by turning aside the course of a river had, deprived
the Gothic camp of its supply of water. The Romans
abstained from making any attack, thinking that
hunger and thirst would soon compel the Goths either
to surrender or to risk a battle in which they were sure
to be beaten.
Stilicho felt so sure that he had got Alaric in a
trap that he allowed his own soldiers to roam about
the country in search of plunder as they liked. But
he did not know what a clever adversary he had to
deal with. To the amazement of the Romans, Alaric
broke through their lines, marched thirty miles away
to the north through a difficult country, and had
crossed the gulf that divides the Peloponnesus from
the mainland before Stilicho could put his forces in
marching order. Travellers who are acquainted with
the ground say that this march of Alaric's was one of
the most wonderful feats of the kind on record. The
Roman general was making preparations for pursuit
when he received information that the ministers of
Arcadius had made a treaty with Alaric, who was then
in possession of the province of Epirus. Stilicho
therefore returned to Italy without having effected
anything by his expedition.
Alaric had driven a hard bargain with the court of

THE BATTLE OF POLLENTIA. 87
Constantinople. He was made military governor of
Eastern Illyricum— that is to say, of nearly all the
European portion of the eastern empire. The chief
use that he made of this command was to set the
Government factories to work at making weapons and
armour for his own soldiers ; and the ministers of
Arcadius could, of course, do nothing to prevent him.
He remained quiet for three years, arming and drilling
his followers, and waiting for the opportunity to make
a bold stroke for a wider and more secure dominion.
In the autumn of the year 400, knowing that
Stilicho was absent on a campaign in Gaul, Alaric
entered Italy. For about a year and a half the Goths
ranged almost unresisted over the northern part of the
peninsula. The emperor, whose court was then at
Milan, made preparations for taking refuge in Gaul ;
and the walls of Rome were hurriedly repaired in
expectation of an attack. On the Easter Sunday of
the year 402 (March 19th), the camp of Alaric, near
Pollentia, was surprised by Stilicho, who rightly
guessed that the Goths would be engaged in worship,
and would not imagine their Roman fellow-Christians
less observant of the sacred day than themselves.
Though unprepared for battle, the barbarians made a
desperate stand, but at last they were beaten. The
poet Claudian — the only true poet who lived in that
dark age — in the poem which he wrote on the deeds
of his patron Stilicho, tells us that the wife of
Alaric was one of the captives taken, and in words
which remind us of a fine passage in the Song of
Deborah, describes how, before the battle, she had
exulted in the prospect of adorning herself with the

88 ALARIC THE B ALTHING.
jewels of Roman matrons and being served by Roman
captive maidens.
But although Stilicho was victorious at Pollentia,
and obtained a large quantity of plunder and recovered
many thousands of Roman prisoners, the Gothic loss
of men does not seem to have been very great. Alaric
was able to retreat in good order, and he soon after
crossed the Po with the intention of marching against
Rome. However, his troops began to desert in large
numbers, and he had to change his purpose. In the
first place he thought of invading Gaul, but Stilicho
overtook him and defeated him heavily at Verona.
Alaric himself narrowly escaped capture by the swift
ness of his horse. Stilicho, however, was not very
anxious for the destruction of Alaric, as he thought
he might some day find him a convenient tool in his
quarrels with the ministers of Arcadius. So he offered
Alaric a handsome bribe to go away from Italy.
The king was unwilling to agree, but the chiefs who
commanded under him would not allow him to refuse.
Finally Alaric accepted the money, and withdrew to
jEmona in Illyria.
The departure of the Visigoths was hailed with
great joy thrcfughout Italy, and Honorius and Stilicho
celebrated (in the year 404) a triumph in honour of
their " victory." An arch which was erected for the
occasion bore an inscription proclaiming that " the
Gothic nation had been subdued, never to rise again."
Six years later Alaric and his Goths had an oppor
tunity of reading these boastful words as they rode
through the streets of the conquered capital. After a
stay of a few months in Rome, Honorius took up his

THE INVASION BY RADAGAIS. 89
residence in Ravenna, a city which for centuries after
wards continued to be the favourite abode of the
sovereigns of Italy.
Of Alaric we hear little more for four years, but
during this interval an important event occurred
which belongs to the story of the Goths, though it is
not easy to understand the circumstances which gave
rise to it. In the year 406, Italy was suddenly over
run by a vast multitude composed of Vandals, Sueves,
Burgunds, Alans, and Goths, under the command of
a king named Radagais. To what nation this king
belonged is not certain, but it seems likely that he was
an Ostrogoth from the region of the Black Sea, who
had headed a tribe of his countrymen in a revolt
against the Huns. The invading host is said to have
consisted of two hundred thousand warriors, who
were accompanied by their wives and families. These
barbarians were heathens, and their manners were so
fierce and cruel that the invasion excited far more
terror than did that of Alaric. It was commonly
affirmed that Radagais had made a vow to burn the
imperial city, and to sacrifice the Roman senators to
his gods.
Stilicho found it hard work to collect an army
capable of opposing this savage horde, and Radagais
had got as far as Florence before any resistance was
offered to him. But while he was besieging that city,
the Roman general came upon him, and by surround
ing his army with earthworks, compelled him to
surrender. The barbarian king was beheaded, and
those of the captives whose lives were spared were
sold into slavery.

go ALARIC THE B ALTHING.
After this interlude, the second act of the drama of
Alaric's life begins in the year 408. Stilicho, who
had always had an idea that the Visigoths might
some time be useful for his cherished purpose of
humbling the eastern empire, had succeeded in per
suading Alaric to enter the service of Honorius, and
to undertake a plan for uniting all the Illyrian
provinces under the dominion of the emperor of
the West. Before the scheme had been completely
executed, Stilicho changed his mind, and thought
that it had better be put off till a more convenient
time. Alaric now made his claim for the promised
reward of his services, and Stilicho presented his
demands before the Roman senate in a long speech,
in which he praised Alaric as a faithful and valuable
ally, and showed how dangerous it would be to refuse
what he asked for. He also told the senate that the
Gothic king had offered his services against the
usurper Constantine, a private soldier whom the
army had made emperor in Gaul, and whom the
forces at the command of Honorius were quite un
able to subdue.
The senators were very angry when they were
asked to agree to the payment of " tribute," as they
called it, to a barbarian king. Some of them talked
very grandly about letting their houses be burned over
their heads rather than consent to such a disgraceful
' surrender. But Stilicho was still powerful, and after
a long and fierce discussion the opposition cooled
down. The grant — four thousand pounds' weight of
silver— was voted with only one dissentient, Lam-
padius, who walked out of the senate house, telling

STILICHO MURDERED. 91
his colleagues that what they had made was not a
treaty of peace, but a contract of slavery.
The contract, however, was never fulfilled. Stilicho's
rivals and enemies managed to get the emperor on
their side, and in August, 408, the great general, the
only able servant Honorius ever had, was murdered
by the order of his ungrateful master. After Stilicho
was dead, the Romans did not trouble themselves any
more about the treaty. Alaric's repeated demands for
its fulfilment received no answer, and at last he led
his armies into the north of Italy.
The ministers of Honorius now did the most unwise
thing j:hat they possibly could have done. They dis
missed the Gothic and other barbarian officers from
their commands, and passed a law that no Arians or
heathens were in future to be allowed to enter the
imperial service. The barbarian troops, who were
most of them Arians, and had been devoted to
Stilicho, were of course thrown into great excite
ment by the proofs of the ill-will of the government,
but did not at first venture to rebel, fearing that the
Romans might revenge themselves upon their families.
However, the mob of the Italian cities, having got to
know that heretics and foreigners were now out of
favour, rose and murdered the innocent wives and
children of the barbarian soldiers, and looted their
property. The result was that thirty thousand men,
inflamed with the bitterest hatred, at once deserted
from the Roman army and joined that of Alaric.
The march of Alaric over the north of Italy was
like a triumphal procession. Without meeting any
opposition, he plundered city after city till he came

92 ALARIC THE BALTHING.
to the neighbourhood of Ravenna. Perhaps his first
intention was to besiege the emperor in his own city ;
but Ravenna was protected by marshes, and Alaric
did not think it worth while to attempt to capture it.
He had a greater prize in view. He marched across
the peninsula, and in the beginning of the year 409
his army encamped round the walls of Rome. Alaric
was far too sagacious to sacrifice the lives of his
soldiers by trying to carry the city by assault. He
knew that a population of a million people would
soon be starved into surrender, and so he contented
himself with intercepting all the supplies of provi
sions, and waited quietly for the result. As soon as
the Romans began to feel the distress caused by the
siege, they threw the blame of their misfortunes on
Stilicho's widow, who, they said, had sent for Alaric
to revenge her husband's death ; and without any
pretence of a trial the senate ordered her to be
strangled. The scarcity of food grew greater from
day to day. But though many thousands of the
people died of hunger, so that at last there was no
room within the walls to bury them, the senate long
refused to think of submission. Their hopes were
kept up by messengers from Ravenna, who succeeded
in entering the city in spite of the Goths, and brought
them word that the emperor would soon send an
army to raise the siege.
At last it was felt that the famine could be borne
no longer, and two envoys of noble rank were sent to
Alaric's camp to offer conditions of surrender. They
began by trying to show Alaric that it would be
prudent in him to grant the Romans honourable

ROME PUT TO RANSOM. 93
terms, for if he refused them the whole population
would rise as one man, prepared to die rather than
yield. When they were boasting of the enormous
numbers of their people, Alaric said, " The thicker
the grass, the easier it is to mow ! " and burst into a
loud laugh at the idea of the townspeople of Rome
attempting to fight. The ambassadors were a good
deal abashed by this reception of their arguments,
and asked what were the terms which he would offer.
He replied that he would spare the city on condition
of receiving all the gold and silver within the walls,
and all the foreign slaves. " What should we have
left, then ? " said one of the envoys in amazement.
" Your lives ! " replied the conqueror. The ambas
sadors had not a word more to say, and returned to
tell their fellow citizens that there was no hope of
mercy from the cruel Visigoth.
But Alaric only wished to give the Romans a
fright : he did not really mean to insist on stripping
them of everything they possessed. He succeeded,
however, in making them believe he was thoroughly
in earnest, and they were very glad when, after some
further negotiation, he consented to fix a definite
price for their ransom. The contract was a very
curious one. Alaric was to receive five thousand
pounds weight of gold, thirty thousand pounds of
silver, four thousand silken robes, four thousand
robes dyed with the costly Tyrian purple, and four
thousand pounds of pepper. It seems odd to read of
pepper being mentioned as an article of costly luxury,
but it had then to be brought from India at great ex
pense, and was used very freely in Roman cookery,

94 ALARIC THE BALTHING.
the delights of which the Goths had learned to ap
preciate. The price was paid, and Alaric moved his vast
army away into Tuscany. He was careful to restrain
his followers from committing any acts of rapine, and
those Goths who were guilty of insulting Roman
citizens were severely punished. The Gothic host
was increased in numbers by forty thousand slaves,
who had run away from their Roman masters, and
by a large body of Goths whom Atawulf, the brother-
in-law of Alaric, brought from the banks of the
Danube. Alaric had still no thought of upsetting the western
empire. What he and his Visigoths wanted was to
found a kingdom of their own under Roman protec
tion. So from his camp in Tuscany he opened
negotiations with the court at Ravenna, asking that
he should be appointed chief of the Roman armies
and should be allowed to settle with his followers in
what are now the dominions of Austria. One of the
ministers of Honorius, named Jovius, had actually
agreed to grant him his demands ; but the emperor
and his courtiers, who were themselves out of danger
at Ravenna, refused to confirm the treaty. Alaric
was terribly enraged, and he proceeded to capture
the harbour city at the mouth of the Tiber, where the
Roman stores of corn were kept, and by the threat
of a second famine forced the people of Rome to
surrender. Obeying the orders of their conqueror, the Roman
senate declared that Honorius was deposed, and
appointed Attalus, the prefect of the city, emperor

A PUPPET EMPEROR. 95
in his stead. Attalus of course agreed to give Alaric
the military rank and the dominions that he asked for.
Most of the Italian cities, tired of Honorius, gladly
acknowledged the rival emperor, and when, accom
panied by the army of Alaric, Attalus approached
the gates of Ravenna, the ministers of Honorius
offered, in his name, to agree to a division of the
empire. Attalus refused this proposal, and demanded
that Honorius should at once abdicate and retire into
exile. Honorius was already making preparations for a
secret escape to Constantinople, when a quarrel
broke out between Alaric and Attalus, who was
scheming to make himself independent of the
Gothic king. Alaric very quickly put an end to
the plans of his puppet emperor. A great assembly
of Goths and Romans was called together in a plain
near Rimini, at which Attalus was made to appear
dressed in the purple robe, and wearing the diadem ;
these signs of sovereignty were then solemnly taken
away from him, and it was prclaimed that he was hence
forth reduced to the rank of a private citizen. He
seems to have taken his degradation very contentedly,
and remained attached to the household of Alaric and
his successor, who valued him as a pleasant companion
and a skilful musician. How he afterwards again
meddled in State affairs, unfortunately for himself, we
shall have to mention in a succeeding chapter.
Alaric now sent the diadem and the purple robe of
the deposed emperor to Honorius, as a token of his
wish for peace and friendship. He renewed his pro
posals for a treaty, on the same terms as he had

96 ALARIC THE BALTHING.
previously offered, and marching to within three
miles of the gates of Ravenna, encamped there to
await an answer. But a body of four thousand
veteran soldiers, sent from Constantinople, having
entered the city, the ministers of Honorius had re
covered from their panic. The Gothic camp was
attacked unexpectedly by a small company of men
under Sarus, the commander of the Gothic troops
in the Roman service ; and a herald was sent to
proclaim to the Goths that Alaric was the perpetual
enemy of the empire.
Instead of making an attack on the strongly for
tified Ravenna, Alaric crossed the peninsula and
laid siege, for the third time, to Rome. By a mid
night attack — on the 24th of August, 410 ¦ — the
Salarian gate was forced (or opened by treachery
it is not certain which) ; and the great city, for the
first time since its capture by the Gauls, eight hun
dred years before, was given up to the plunder of a
foreign foe.
We may be sure that many dreadful things were
done during the six days that the Gothic army re
mained in Rome. And yet, terrible as the fate of
the city undoubtedly was, it was far less terrible than
the Romans had feared — far less terrible than the fate
which Rome underwent more than once afterwards at
the hands of conquerors who called themselves civilized.
Alaric remembered that he was a Christian, and he
tried to use his victory mercifully. He told his
soldiers that the plunder of the city was theirs, but
that no man was to be killed who was not in arms ;
even of the soldiers, all were to be spared who took

alaric's death. 97
refuge in the churches of the two great apostles, St.
Peter and St. Paul ; and all the churches and their
property were to be held sacred. But, though Alaric's
commands were to some extent obeyed, so that some
of the Roman writers speak with wonder of the modera
tion of the Goths, it was impossible to restrain the
furious passions of such a vast multitude of conquerors.
The streets, we read, were heaped with dead ; men,
and women too, were cruelly tortured to make them
disclose the places where their wealth was hidden ;
and many thousands of people were sold into slavery.
We cannot wonder at the thrill of horror which this
event caused throughout Europe, nor that the Chris
tians everywhere, when they heard the tale, thought
that the end of the world was at hand.
Alaric now felt that it was useless any more to think
of peace with the empire. Nothing remained but to
establish himself as absolute master of Italy. But to
do this, it was necessary that he should secure com
mand of the corn supplies which came from the
African ports ; and when he marched from Rome, it
was with the design of conquering the African
provinces. The Goths had reached the southern extremity of
Italy, and had made one attempt to cross over into
Sicily, which was defeated by the destruction of their
fleet in a storm, when their king was taken sick, and
died, at the age of only thirty-five years.
With bitter lamentation the Goths bewailed the
death of their young hero. They knew that he had
left behind him no successor who could carry out his
mighty plans, and that the dominion of Italy could

98 ALARIC THE BALTHING.
never be theirs. But, while they looked forward to
forsaking the country, they resolved to make sure
that the sepulchre of their beloved king should not
be violated by the hands- of their enemies. They
carried his dead body to the banks of the little river
Busento, which flows by the town of Cosenza. They
compelled their multitude of prisoners to dig out a
new channel for the river, and in its deserted bed
they made a grave for their king, burying with him
a vast treasure of gold and silver, costly garments,
and weapons of war. Then the river was turned
back into its former channel, and the captives who
had done the work were put to death, so that no
Roman should ever know the spot where rested the
remains of Alaric, king of the Visigoths.

XL
KING ATAWULF AND HIS ROMAN QUEEN.
We must here for a moment interrupt our narrative
to glance at certain events that had been taking place
in the eastern empire while Alaric was fighting
in Greece and Italy. The colony of Ostrogoths,
whom Theodosius had planted in Asia Minor had,
in the year 399, rebelled under a leader named Tri-
bigild ; the imperial general Gaina, himself a Goth,
who was sent to subdue the rebels, ended by joining
them, and becoming their chief. He crossed with his
followers into Thrace, and excited great alarm at
Constantinople, but was finally defeated, in the
beginning of 401, by the king of the Huns, who
sent the head of Gaina to the emperor as a sign of
his friendly intentions. But all this has little bearing
on the general history of the Goths, and after this
brief digression we may continue the story of Alaric's
followers, whom we left lamenting the loss of their
beloved king, beside the river which flowed over his
grave. The new king whom the people chose in Alaric's
place was Atawulf, Alaric's wife's brother, who has
been mentioned in a preceding chapter. He made
no attempt to carry out Alaric's purpose of invading

100 KING ATAWULF AND HIS ROMAN QUEEN.
Africa, and he does not seem to have had any clearly
defined .plans of his own, for he spent two years in
moving his army from the south of Italy to the north
west. It is said that a few years later he confessed
that he had once had the intention to overthrow the
Roman Empire and establish a Gothic Empire in its
place, but that he had become convinced that the
Goths were too rude and lawless to be capable of ruling
the world, and so since then it had been his aim to do
all he could to strengthen the Roman power. But
this change in his views must have taken place
before Alaric's death, for it is quite plain that he
did not try to conquer Italy. Instead of that, he
endeavoured to persuade the emperor to receive him
as an ally. He had in his hands one argument which
he thought would be powerful in inducing Honorius
to consent to his demands. The emperor's favourite
sister, Galla Placidia, was a prisoner in his camp,
having been captured when the Goths had possession
of Rome ; and Atawulf offered to send her home if
Honorius would make such a treaty as he wanted.
But probably the terms he asked were too hard, and
the great general Constantius, who now ruled over
the weak emperor, refused to consent to them. It is
thought, however, that when Atawulf, in the beginning
of the year 412, left Italy, he had got a commission
from Honorius to go and fight with Jovinus, who had
made himself emperor in Gaul.
But when the Visigoths had entered Gaul Atawulf
allowed Attalus to persuade him that he had better
try to make a friendly arrangement with Jovinus to
divide the country with him. But Jovinus would not

THE WEDDING AT NARB\N%e'? •. 101
listen to the proposal, and so Atawulf\6£urned £%-his
original plan. The Goth Sarus, who ^s^Atawulfls
bitter enemy, had rebelled against HonoriW^arjd was"-
on his way to Gaul to support the usurper. j^aWlf- •<
attacked him, and gained a complete victory,
which Sarus was killed.
Honorius now agreed to a treaty, which provided
that Atawulf should receive a supply of corn for his
army, and in return should set Placidia free, and send
the heads of Jovinus and his brother Sebastian to the
emperor at Ravenna. The latter part of the bargain
was fulfilled by Atawulf, but the corn did not come,
and he said he would keep Placidia until it was re
ceived. He went on fighting for his own hand
against both the imperial forces and the remnants of
the rebel army, and before the end of 413 was master
of most of Southern Gaul, including the cities of
Valence, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Narbonne.
In Narbonne it was that he took up his abode, and
there, in January, 414, the princess Placidia became
his wife. The wedding was celebrated in the house
of one of the wealthiest citizens of Narbonne, and
Atawulf took care that it should be conducted in
every respect according to Roman customs. The
bridegroom was attired in Roman dress, and at the
banquet he took the second seat, giving the place of
honour to the princess. The presents to the bride
included a hundred bowls filled with precious stones
and gold pieces, which were laid before her by fifty
noble youths dressed in splendid silken robes. The
wedding chorus — an essential part of the Roman
marriage ceremony among people of rank — was led

102 KING ATAWULF AND HIS ROMAN QUEEN.
by Attalus, who was famous for his skill in
music. Some of the Romans who heard of this marriage
thought it was the event that was referred to in the
words of the prophet Daniel : " The king's daughter
of the south shall come to the king of the north to
make an agreement ; but she shall not retain the
power of her arm, neither shall he stand, nor his arm,
but she shall be given up." The rest of the verse
could not well have been made to suit the occasion,
but the prophecy, as far as this quotation goes, was
admirably fulfilled in the events which followed.
No doubt Atawulf thought that the Romans of Gaul,
who he knew would never own a Gothic king as their
emperor, might be persuaded to submit to the rule of
a daughter of Theodosius ; and perhaps he thought
also that Honorius would now himself be willing to
acknowledge him, if not as sovereign of Gaul, at any
rate as his own substitute and commander-in-chief
there. But he found himself mistaken. The Romans only
thought that Placidia had disgraced herself by marry
ing a barbarian ; and as for Honorius, he was still
ruled by Constantius, whom this marriage made all
the more bitter against Atawulf, for he had wanted
Placidia to become his own wife.
As a last resort Atawulf caused poor Attalus to be
proclaimed emperor once more. But Constantius came
with a powerful army, and as the Roman fleets had
cut off the supply of corn from the Gaulish ports, the
Goths were in danger of being starved out. When
Constantius advanced they fled from Narbonne, and

atawulf's dying message. 103
after plundering the cities and country of the south
of Gaul, crossed the Pyrenees into Spain. The unfor
tunate Attalus was left to shift for himself. He tried
to escape by sea, but was captured by the Roman
fleet, and was sent to Ravenna. His life was spared,
but two of his fingers were cut off, and he was
banished to one of the Lipari islands, where he ended
his days.
Soon after arriving in Spain Atawulf captured
Barcelona from the Vandals, and made that city his
royal residence. Here a son was born to him, who
received the name of Theodosius, and who, his parents
hoped, would some day wear the diadem of his illus
trious grandfather. But the child soon died, and was
buried with great pomp in a coffin of solid silver.
In August, 415, Atawulf was murdered in his
palace by Eberwulf, a former follower of Sarus, whom
he had taken into his own service. Eberwulf, perhaps,
meant treachery from the beginning, but Atawulf had
irritated him by ridiculing his small stature. With
his last breath the king charged his brother to
make peace with the empire, and to send Placidia
home to Ravenna.
But the brother who received this counsel was not
allowed to succeed to the throne. The people blamed
Atawulf for favouring the Romans too much, and
they chose as their king a brother of Sarus, named
Sigeric. His first act was to murder the six children
of Atawulf s former wife, and he treated Placidia with
the most shameful cruelty, making her walk twelve
miles by the side of his horse. But in seven days he
too was assassinated, and Wallia [Walya], a Balthing,

mm

THE EMPRESS PLACIDIA AND HER SON.
(From an ivory diptych, at Monza!)

WHAT BECAME OF PLACIDIA. 105
though not related to Atawulf, was chosen in his
stead. Wallia treated Placidia kindly, but began by acting
as the enemy of the Romans. Fighting both against
the imperial forces and the Vandals and Sueves, he
soon conquered the whole of Spain. But he was
reduced to straits by a great famine, and like Alaric
in a similar position, he made an attempt to cross
over into Africa, to make the corn supplies of that
province his own. Just as in Alaric's case, the at
tempt failed through storms, and Wallia had no other
resource than to make his peace with the Romans.
Honorius, or rather Constantius, was glad to accept
his offer to send Placidia home, on condition of re
ceiving 600,000 bushels of wheat, and being allowed
to conquer Spain under the authority of the empire.
What became of Atawulf's widowed queen is not
exactly part of the story of the Goths, but you may
like to know how her strange history ended. When
she got back to Ravenna she was compelled to marry
Constantius, whom she disliked. Her husband was
afterwards made joint emperor with Honorius, but
only lived to possess the throne for seven months.
As Honorius died childless in 423, he was succeeded
by the infant son of Constantius and Placidia, Valen
tinian III., in whose name the empire was governed
by the empress-mother until her death in 450. Among
the famous monuments of Ravenna is the mausoleum
which covers the remains of Placidia, together with
those of Honorius, Constantius, and Valentinian.

XII.
THE KINGDOM OF TOULOUSE.
King Wallia was now no longer a rebel, but the
recognized champion of the Roman emperor in Spain.
With a well-provisioned army, and the support,
instead of the opposition, of all the barbarians who
wished to be loyal subjects of the empire, he soon
succeeded in conquering the whole of the peninsula
except the mountain region of the north-west, and in
the year 417 he sent to Honorius two captive Vandal
kings who formed part of the procession in the
triumph which the emperor celebrated at Rome.
For some reason or other it did not suit Constantius's
purpose to allow the Visigoths to settle down in Spain,
and he proposed that instead of that country they
should have the province known as the second Aqui-
tania. Wallia must surely have been overjoyed when
he received this splendid offer. The province, which
included Bordeaux, Agen, Angouleme, Poitiers, and
many other cities, was one of the most beautiful and
fertile in all the empire. " The Pearl of Gaul," " the
Earthly Paradise," " the Queen of Provinces," are
amongst the titles which it received from poets and
orators of that time. To receive the undisputed
possession of such a " land of corn and wine and oil,"

THE VISIGOTHS ENTER GAUL. I07
in exchange for a country exhausted as Spain was by
many years of barbarian ravage, where he would have
had to maintain his dominion by continual conflict
with powerful enemies, was a piece of good fortune
which Wallia could scarcely have dreamed of. And
the concession included also some important cities
beyond the Aquitanian frontier, chief amongst them
being Toulouse, which became the residence of the
kings of the Visigoths, and the capital of their
dominions. It was at the end of the year 418 that the Goths
marched out of Spain to occupy their new kingdom ;
and in the following year Wallia died. He left no
son to succeed him, though he had a daughter who
became the mother of Rikimer, a man famous in the
history of the Roman Empire.
The Visigoths chose as his successor, Theoderic,
who seems to have been a Balthing, though not re
lated either to Wallia or to Atawulf. You must be
careful not to confound this Visigoth Theoderic, or
his son of the same name, with the great Theoderic
the Amaling, who began to reign over the Ostrogoths
about the year 475. Theoderic the Visigoth was not
such a great man as his namesake, but he must have
been both a brave soldier and an able ruler, or he
could not have kept the affection and obedience of
his people for thirty-two years. His great object was
to extend his kingdom, which was hemmed in on the
north by the Franks (a German people who had just
been allowed to settle in the country now called
France, after their name) ; and on the west by another
people of German invaders, the Burgunds ; while the

108 THE KINGDOM OF TOULOUSE.
Roman Empire still kept possession of some rich
cities, such as Aries and Narbonne, which were
temptingly close to the Gothic boundary on the
south. When the emperor Honorius died, in 423, Theo
deric led out his armies, professedly to fight for
Placidia and her infant son (Valentinian III.) against
a usurper named John ; but his real object was to
add some of the rich Roman cities to his own do
minions ; as very soon appeared, for when John died
and the rebel army had submitted, he did not lay
down his arms, but captured several towns, and
began to besiege the great city of Aries. The
famous Roman general Aetius, who had at first sup
ported the usurper, but had made his peace with
Placidia, attacked the besieging party, and defeated
them, taking their commander Aunwulf prisoner.
For many years the relations between the Goths
and the Romans were very unsettled, treaties being
made and quickly broken whenever it suited the
convenience of either side. In 437 the Goths had
been trying to take Narbonne, and the Roman
generals, Aetius and Litorius, resolved to put them
down thoroughly. Aetius did gain a great victory,
but he was called away to Italy, and Litorius had
not the skill to finish the work. He besieged Theo
deric in his capital city, Toulouse, with such an over
whelming force that the Goths thought their case was
hopeless, and sent Orientius the bishop of Auch, with
many other bishops and clergy, to try to persuade
the Roman general to grant honourable terms of
peace. Litorius, who was more than half a heathen,

AETIUS.
{From an ivory diptych at Monsa.)

HO THE KINGDOM OF TOULOUSE.
treated the messengers with contempt ; and so Theo
deric gave the order to prepare for battle. Until the
conflict began, the king was clothed in the dress of a
penitent, and spent many hours in prayer. His
soldiers, inspired by their king's piety, and by the
thought that they were fighting for Christianity
against heathenism (for Litorius's army was mostly
composed of Huns), made a furious attack upon the
camp of the besiegers, who were totally defeated.
Litorius was taken prisoner, and had to walk through
the streets of Toulouse in the triumph which Theo
deric celebrated after the Roman fashion. The
Christian writers tell how Litorius's soothsayers had
promised him that he should go in triumph through
the city — a promise which, like many of those given
by heathen oracles in older days, was fulfilled in
another sense than that in which it was understood.
After this sudden change in the position of affairs,
the Romans themselves were fain to sue for peace.
Theoderic, puffed up by his success, at first refused to
come to any terms unless the Romans would leave
him in undisturbed possession of the whole of
Southern Gaul, west of the Rhone. But his friend
Avitus, a distinguished Roman senator, of whom we
shall hear again, persuaded him to renew the alliance,
though what the conditions were we do not know.
Theoderic, however, did not think the Roman
treaty was likely to last, and determined to have a
second string to his bow. In order to secure the
friendship of the Vandals, he gave his daughter in
marriage to the son of their king, the fierce and cruel
Gaiseric, who had lately conquered the Roman prq^

ATTILA IN GAUL. Ill
vinces of Africa, and had made Carthage the capital
of his kingdom. The marriage had a frightful sequel.
Gaiseric suspected that his daughter-in-law was
plotting to poison her husband, and he cut off her
nose and ears, and sent her back to her father.
Of course it was now impossible to think any more
of alliance with the Vandals ; and in the year 450 the
Visigoths and the Romans were drawn more closely
together by the approach of a great common danger.
The Huns, who for three-quarters of a century had
been occupying the old seats of the Goths north of
the Lower Danube and the Euxine, had under their
famous king, Attila, moved westward, and were
threatening to over-run both Gaul and Italy. The
Hunnish army consisted, it is said, of half a million
men, belonging to all the nations whom the Huns
had subdued on their march. The Ostrogoths and
Gepids, and many other Teutonic tribes, formed part
of this immense host, and were marching to fight
against their brethren in language and race, under the
command of an Asiatic savage. In the face of such
an enemy, Roman and Frank and Visigoth felt that
they must forget their differences, and unite for
mutual defence. Attila cunningly tried to persuade
first one and then another of these three nations to
take his part against the rest. But they saw very
well that unless they joined to oppose his progress,
Attila would conquer them one by one. Theoderic
was, indeed, at first disposed to adopt a policy that
was both selfish and foolish, namely, that of remain
ing quietly in his own kingdom, and only defending
himself when he was attacked. Aetius had arrived at

112 THE KINGDOM OF TOULOUSE.
Aries from Italy, at the head of a small army, but he
had no force sufficient to meet Attila without the aid
of the Visigoths. After long persuasion from Aetius
and Avitus, Theoderic was made to see the necessity
of joining in the defence of Christendom against the
heathen horde. But precious time had been wasted
in these discussions, and before any resistance could
be offered, Attila had marched, plundering and burn
ing towns and desolating the country, through the
regions since known by the famous names of Lorraine
and Champagne, and had begun to besiege the
important city of Orleans.
The city was strongly fortified and bravely de
fended ; but after a struggle of some days the gates
were forced, and the vanguard of the Huns had
passed through, when (as the church legend tells us
in language borrowed from the story of Elijah), the
messenger whom the holy bishop Anianius had sent
to the walls to search the horizon beheld at last " a
little cloud like a man's hand," which told that the
saint's prayers were answered, and that the army of
deliverance was approaching.
As soon as the coming of Aetius and Theoderic
was known to Attila, he abandoned the neighbour
hood of Orleans, and hastened across the Seine, to
await the enemy in the plains of Champagne. The
great battle — one of those which have decided the
fate of Europe — was fought near the village of
Moirey, a few miles from Troyes.1 It began with an
1 It has usually been called the battle of Chalons, because the great
plain of Champagne received its ancient name from the nation of the
Catalauni, after whom Chalons was called.

THE BATTLE OF MOIREY.

"3

attack by the Franks upon the Gepids, who were de
feated with great slaughter. The Alans, who occu
pied the centre of the allied army, were routed by
the Huns, and the Roman troops of Aetius were
thrown into confusion ; Theoderic was killed by a
dart from the hand of an Ostrogoth named Andagis ;
but the bravery of the Visigoths carried the day,
and Attila was compelled to retire to his camp, having
lost a hundred and sixty thousand men.
Theoderic was buried on the spot where he fell, in
sight of the vanquished enemy, with all the marks of
honour which the Goths bestowed on their royal dead.
His son Thorismund, to whose valour and skill the
victory was chiefly due, was chosen by the army to
be king in his father's stead.
In grim despair (" like a wounded lion," says Jor
danes) Attila waited for the attack which he ex
pected would result in the total ruin of his army.
He ordered a funeral pile to be constructed, on
which, in the event of defeat, he resolved to perish
by fire, so that he might not fall, either alive or dead,
into the power of his enemies.
The anticipated assault, however, was not made.
Although the young king of the Visigoths was eager
to complete his triumph and to revenge his father's
death, he listened to the advice of Aetius, who —
fearing, it is said, lest the Gothic power should be
come dangerously great — recommended him to re
turn to Toulouse in order to prevent his brothers
from seizing on the kingdom in his absence. And so
Attila was allowed to retire from Gaul undisturbed.
His army was still strong enough to enable him to

114 THE KINGDOM OF TOULOUSE.
ravage the north of Italy for two years, and to compel
the Romans to make a humiliating treaty of peace.
But the battle of Moirey had not been fought in vain.
The question whether barbarism or civilization should
prevail in Western Europe was decided ; and when
Attila died in 45 3, the vast confederation of nations
over whom he ruled had fell to pieces. The Ostrogoths
established a kingdom in Pannonia, which included
nearly all the present Austrian dominions south and
west of the Danube ; the Gepids settled east of them
in Dacia ; and the broken remnant of the Huns, after
a fruitless invasion of the eastern empire, wandered
away into Southern Russia, where they were over
whelmed by the successive swarms of kindred savages
who continued to stream westward from Asia.
Thorismund did not long enjoy his kingdom. He
quarrelled with Aetius about the division of the
Hunnish spoils, and began to levy war upon the
Romans ; against the wish of the more powerful party
among his subjects, who desired to remain in friend
ship with the empire. A rebellion broke out, and in
the year 453 Thorismund was murdered by two of his
brothers, one of whom, Theoderic II., succeeded him
in his kingdom, and reigned thirteen years.
The second Theoderic was no mere barbarian, but
a man of cultivated mind, refined taste, and pleasing
and graceful manners, though, like many other men
of whom all this can be said, he was capable of the
basest treachery and cruelty.
During Theoderic's lifetime events succeeded each
other very fast at Rome. Valentinian III., Placidia's
worthless son, was murdered by a senator, Petronius

THE VANDALS PLUNDER ROME. 115
Maximus, who assumed the imperial diadem. He
had reigned only four months when the Vandals
under Gaiseric landed at the port of Rome. MaxU
mus was about to take flight, but the people, disgusted
with his cowardice, attacked him in the street, stoned
him to death, and threw his body into the Tiber.
Gaiseric entered Rome unresisted, and the work of
destruction and plunder went on for fourteen days.
The city suffered far more terribly than it had suffered
at the hands of Alaric. All the gold and silver, and
valuable possessions of every kind, whether public or
private property, which could be removed, were
carried away to the ships of Gaiseric. Amongst
the spoil taken by the Vandals was the seven-branched
candlestick, and the sacred vessels of the temple of
Jerusalem, which had fallen into the hands of Titus
when he captured the city. Many thousands of
prisoners were taken to be sold into slavery at
Carthage, and the empress Eudoxia, the widow of
Valentinian, who had been compelled to marry her
husband's murderer, was now obliged to follow in the
train of the barbarian conqueror.
When the news of Maximus's death was received
in Gaul, the Roman subjects in that province elected
the prefect Avitus (whom we have already mentioned
as the friend of the first Theoderic) to be emperor in
his stead. The Visigoth king strongly supported his
claim, and the senate at Rome did not dare to reject
a candidate who was put forward by the most powerful
king in Western Europe. The eastern emperor,
Marcian, gave his consent, and Avitus took up his
residence in the palace of the Caesars.

Il6 THE KINGDOM OF TOULOUSE.
As the vassal of Avitus, Theoderic made an expe
dition against the Sueves, who had been attacking the
little that remained of Roman territory in Spain.
The Sueves were beaten, and their king, Rekihari,
was captured and cruelly put to death. Theoderic
would soon have conquered the whole peninsula, but
in October, 456, his career was stepped by the news
that the emperor had been deposed and killed. Avitus
had incurred the displeasure of the " Warwick the
king-maker " of those days — Rikimer, the general of
the barbarian troops in the Roman service. This
remarkable man was the son of a Suevic father, and
of the daughter of Wallia, king of the Visigoths.
At this time he was practically sovereign of the
western empire ; and although he never took the
imperial title himself, he continued, until his death in
472, to appoint and depose emperors just as he
pleased. The history of Rome under the nominal
rule of Majorian, Severus, Anthemius, and Olybrius,
does not belong to our story ; but the growing weak
ness of the empire, caused by the political confusion,
and the occasional struggles between these emperors
and their master, allowed the Visigoth kings to pursue
their schemes of conquest without any serious check.
L In 466, Theoderic, who had gained his throne by
; the murder of his brother, was himself murdered by
his younger brother Euric. A skilful general and a
cunning statesman, utterly destitute of conscience,
shrinking from no act of cruelty or treachery necessary
for the accomplishment of his plans, Euric raised the
Visigoth kingdom to its highest point of power. He
conquered the whole of the Spanish peninsula, with

RELIGIOUS DISSENSIONS. 117
the exception of the north-western corner, which he
allowed the Suevic kings to hold as his vassals, and he
destroyed the small remnant of Roman dominion in
Gaul. If you glance at the map accompanying this volume,
you will see how Gaul was divided at the time of
Euric's death in 485. The Visigoths held nearly all
the country south of the Loire and west of the
Rhone, besides the region since known as Provence,
which includes the great cities of Aries and Marseilles.
Their eastern neighbour was the kingdom of the
Burgunds, ruled over by Gundobad, the nephew of
Rikimer. North of the Loire was the so-called
" Roman Kingdom," which had been founded by
Syagrius, the son of the Roman general ^Egidius,
and which had its capital at Paris. And behind the
kingdom of Syagrius, in the tract including North
eastern France, Belgium, and Holland, dwelt the
nation of the Franks, who were destined in a few
years to conquer the whole of Gaul, and eventually to
bestow upon it the new name which it bears to this
day. If the successors of Euric had been endowed with
genius and energy equal to his, it is possible that the
Visigoths might have made themselves masters of the
whole Western world. But there was in the kingdom
one fatal element of weakness, which perhaps not
even a succession of rulers like Euric could have long
prevented from working the destruction of the State.
The Visigoth kings were Arians ; the great mass of
their subjects in Gaul were Catholics, and the hatred
between religious parties was so great that it was

Il8 THE KINGDOM OF TOULOUSE.
almost impossible for a sovereign to win the attach
ment of subjects who regarded him as a heretic. The
Arian Goths, to do them justice, scarcely ever were
guilty of religious persecution. But when the
Catholic bishops were found preaching rebellion,
and conspiring against the throne, Euric put some
of them to death, banished others, and refused to
allow successors to be consecrated in their dioceses.
Where there were no bishops, of course priests could
not be ordained ; the parishes were left without clergy,
and the whole church organization fell into a state of
ruin which excited the bitterest indignation both in
the kingdom itself and among Catholic Christians in
all the neighbouring lands.
Euric's son and successor, Alaric II., inherited
neither his father's ability nor his strength of will.
Before he had been two years on the throne, he had
shown his own weakness by an act which disgusted
many of his faithful subjects, and only earned for
him the contempt of those whom it was intended to
please. The king of the Franks, Clovis,1 who, though only
a boy, had already shown the talents of a great
general, had conquered the kingdom of Paris. King
Syagrius fled to Toulouse, and was at first received
with welcome. But when Clovis demanded that he
should be given up, Alaric did not dare to refuse, and
Syagrius, loaded with chains, was delivered into the
hands of the Frankish ambassadors. " Faithless " as
* We give him the name by which he is usually known ; the more
correct, though less pronounceable form is Hlodowig or Chlodovech,
the same name as (he German Ludwig and the French Louis.

DISCONTENT OF THE CATHOLICS. 119
the Goths were often called by their enemies, they
were always proud of their observance of the duties
of hospitality, and they were bitterly ashamed of this
cowardly and treacherous deed of their king. And
Alaric's Gaulish subjects, who looked eagerly forward
to an opportunity of rebellion, were greatly en
couraged by this proof of the feebleness of the hands
into which the sceptre of the terrible Euric had
fallen. The only hope of deliverance from the Visigoth
yoke, however, lay in a conquest of the kingdom by
the Franks ; and as Clovis was a heathen, there was
reason to fear that the Catholics might find themselves
worse off" under his rule than even under that of
Alaric. Some of the bishops, indeed, went so far as
to say that it was better to serve a heathen than a
heretic, and sent messages to Clovis assuring him of
their sympathy in case of an invasion. But they did
not succeed in pursuading their people to join them :
however discontented they might be under Alaric, the
Southern Gauls felt that to place themselves in the
hands of Clovis, might be a remedy worse than the
disease. This state of things continued until the year 496,
when the news came that Clovis had professed himself
a Christian, and had been baptized by a Catholic
bishop. The thought of inviting a Frankish invasion
now rapidly gained ground among the southern
Catholics, whose discontent with their own condition
v/as increased by the reports which they received of
the growing wealth and prosperity of the Church in
Clovis's dominions. Many of the clergy began openly

120 THE KINGDOM OF TOULOUSE.
to preach rebellion, and to offer public prayers for the
coming of the deliverer from the north.
Alaric felt his danger. At first he tried his father's
plan of banishing the rebellious bishops, and when
that did not seem to answer, he tried to win over
the Catholics by kindness, granting them increased
privileges, and authorizing them to hold a council and
to fill up the vacant bishoprics. But it was all to no
purpose. The Catholics did not want to be tolerated
or patronized, they wanted to rule. Alaric's conces
sions therefore satisfied nobody, while they were
looked upon as a proof of weakness, which encouraged
the hope that the Visigoth rule might be brought to
an end without much difficulty.
Meanwhile the Frankish clergy were pressing on
their king the duty of declaring a holy war against
the heretic oppressor of their brethren. Clovis, we
may be sure, was not unwilling, but first of all he had
a quarrel to settle with his brother-in-law Gundobad,
king of the Burgunds, who like Alaric was an Arian,
though, unlike him, he had been able to gain the
affection of his Catholic subjects. Gundobad was
defeated, and the Burgunds entered into a treaty of
alliance with the Franks. Although Alaric saw the
danger to his own kingdom from the growth of the
Frankish power, he did not dare to offer Gundobad
any armed support, but he was imprudent enough to
express his sympathy with the Burgunds. His utter
ances were reported to Clovis, who was very angry.
Alaric was in a great fright, and wished to explain
away what he had said. He wrote a letter to " his
brother" Clovis, begging him to grant him an interview.

" THE WOLF AND THE LAMB. 121
The two kings met on an island in the Loire, near
Amboise, where they feasted together, and conversed
with every appearance of friendliness. But every one
knew that the peace would not last long. The
situation was like that in the fable of " The Wolf and
the Lamb." However much Alaric might cringe and
flatter, Clovis would devour him all the same, as soon
as he found it convenient to do so.
It was ip the year 507 that Clovis declared war
against the Visigoths. The real motive was the
king's ambition and desire of conquest. Of course
he tried to find an excuse for his aggression ; but he
did not consider it worth while even to pretend that
Alaric had injured him. All he had to say was " that
it was a shame that the Arians should possess the
finest country in Gaul, and that it was his duty as a
Catholic king to drive them out, and to add their
lands to his own dominions." Neither Clovis, nor his
clergy, or people, thought that any other justification
was needed ; and the Franks went to war against the
Visigoths, like the Hebrews against the people of
Canaan, convinced that they were doing God service,
and that He was on their side.
Perhaps this was the first time that a Christian
nation ever made war with no other professed reasons
than those of religious differences ; unhappily it was
very far from being the last.
Alaric was in despair. He had to meet not only
the Franks, but the Burgunds as well ; his army had
been for many years neglected, and his treasury had
become empty. He compelled, or tried to compel,
all the able-bodied men in his kingdom to become

122 THE KINGDOM OF TOULOUSE.
soldiers, and tried all sorts of means to get money to
pay them. First he had recourse, like James II. of
England and many other kings in their time of need,
to the plan of debasing the coinage, and then he
compelled the rich people to lend him money, which
there was little hope of their ever getting back. But
with all his efforts Alaric could neither raise the men
nor the money that he needed. His only hope lay in
foreign help. His father-in-law, the great Theoderic
the Amaling, who, as you will learn in another
chapter, was at this time King of Italy, had promised
to send him a body of troops. Alaric was therefore
anxious to put off" fighting until these Ostrogoth allies
had arrived, and so he abandoned the defence of the
northern and eastern parts of his kingdom, and took
up his position in the south-west, near Poitiers. Just
at this time one of the Catholic bishops in Alaric's
dominions — Galactorius of Beam — raised an army in
his own diocese, and marched at its head intending to
join the Franks. Before he had got very far, however,
this warlike prelate was attacked by the Goths, and
fell, as his fellow religionists thought, " gloriously
fighting." As the ancient heathen had their " oracles," so the
Christians of the sixth century had theirs. It was to
the tombs of famous saints that people used to resort
when they wished to know whether any undertaking
which they had engaged in would be successful or not.
The priest in charge of the tomb would receive their
questions, and on the following morning communicate
the answers which he professed the saint had revealed
to him in a dream. When Clovis with his army had

FRANKISH MIRACLES. 1 23
entered Tours, he sent messengers to inquire at the
sepulchre of St. Martin what would be the result of
his war against the Visigoths. The messengers were
told that the answer would be contained in the words
of the psalm which they should hear as soon as they
entered the church. The verses proved to be the
following : "Thou hast girded me with strength unto
the battle : Thou hast subdued under me those that
rose up against me. Thou hast also given me the
necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them
that hate me."
Encouraged by this response, the Franks marched
through the territories of Alaric, eager for the conflict
with the enemy whom God had given into their
hands. The church historians tell of the " signs and
wonders " which were granted them on their way to
assure them of the continuance of the Divine favour.
It is said that when they had come to the banks of
the river Vienne, their progress was stopped by finding
the stream swollen by the heavy rains, so that it
seemed impossible for them to cross. But while they
were considering what to do, a beautiful white hart
was seen to wade across the river, thus showing them
the place of a ford, over which the army was able to
pass. The place was long afterwards called " the
hart's ford." Very likely this story was suggested by
the name itself, which may be compared with those
of Hertford and Hartford in England. As the
Franks approached the city of Poitiers, they saw in
the sky above the cathedral a blaze of light which
reminded them of the "pillar of fire" that went before
the chosen people in the desert.

I24 THE KINGDOM OF TOULOUSE.
The rapidity of Clovis's advance was something
quite unexpected by the Visigoths. Alaric still clung
to the hope of being able .to avoid a battle until the
arrival of Theoderic's Ostrogoths, and wished to
retreat. But the Franks were of course anxious to
fight as soon as possible, and they were so close
behind, and their movements were so rapid, that a
retreat on the part of the Goths would have been
nothing but a flight. Alaric's officers were of opinion
that it was better to offer a bold front to the enemy
where they were than to be pursued and overtaken,
and the king, sorely against his will, was obliged to
yield to their advice. He drew up his army on " the
field of Voclad " (the name still survives as Vouille or
Vougle) on the banks of the Clain, a few miles south
of Poitiers, and prepared to receive the attack of the
Franks. The battle which followed decided the fate of Gaul.
The Visigoths were totally defeated, and their king
was killed. Alaric's son, Amalaric, a child five years
of age, was carried across the Pyrenees into Spain.
During the next two years Clovis conquered, with
very little resistance, almost all the Gaulish dominions
of the Visigoths, and added them to his own. The
" Kingdom of Toulouse " was no more.
So, as Jordanes says, the greatness of the Visigoths,
which had been built up by the first Alaric, fell to
ruin under the second. But Clovis was not allowed
to fulfil his intention of thoroughly destroying their
power, for the great Theoderic of Italy took up the
cause of his grandson Amalaric. The final result of
many struggles between Theoderic and the Franks

THE VISIGOTHS CRUSHED. 125
was that the Visigoths were allowed to remain masters
of Spain, and of a strip of sea-coast bordering on the
Gulf of Lyons.
Of the fortunes of this diminished kingdom, which
lasted just 200 years, we shall afterwards have to tell.
But for the present we must leave the Visigoths,
whose history is no longer the main thread of the
story of the Goths. We have to relate how the
Ostrogoths won the kingdom of Italy, how they ruled
there, and how at length they fell.

XIII.
HOW THE WESTERN EMPIRE CAME TO AN END.
We must now go back to the year 472, when
Rikimer the emperor-maker died. The last emperor
whom he had made, Olybrius, survived him only two
months ; and, after some time, Gundobad, Rikimer's
nephew — the same whom we have before spoken of
as King of the Burgunds — appointed a certain
Glycerius to the vacant throne. The choice did not
please the eastern emperor, Leo, and Julius Nepos,
Prince of Dalmatia, and a nephew (by marriage) of
Leo's wife, was proclaimed at Constantinople, Emperor
of the West. Nepos sailed to Italy to take possession
of his empire in the spring of 474. There was not
much trouble with Glycerius, who was soon persuaded
to resign his diadem, and accept consecration as
Bishop of Salona in Dalmatia. But in the August of
the following year, Nepos himself had to take refuge
in his inherited dominions. The army had revolted,
and the commander-in-chief, an Illyrian named Orestes,
had seized the reins of government.
This Orestes had had a strange history. About
thirty years before the date of the events just
mentioned, his native country — the northern part of
of what is now called Croatia — had been given up by

ROMULUS AUGUSTULUS. 127
the Romans to the Huns. Orestes, who was then
quite a young man, finding himself one of Attila's
subjects, offered his services to the Hunnish king,
and seems to have acted as his secretary. In this
capacity he was in the year 448 sent on a mission
from Attila to the eastern emperor, Theodosius II.,
and we read of his being terribly indignant because
he was not regarded as a person of eq lal consequence
with his fellow-envoy, Edica the Scirian. By what
curious chances it came about that the former
secretary of Attila now found himself at the head of
the Roman army, and master of the Roman state,
history does not tell.
Orestes did not choose to call himself emperor,
thinking, perhaps, that it was safer for the wearer of
the diadem and the real holder of power to be different
persons. He contented himself with the title of
Patrician, the same which had been borne by Rikimer
and by Aetius ; and bestowed the imperial crown on
his son, a boy of fourteen, who was named Romulus
after his maternal grandfather. Very likely Orestes
may have thought what a lucky omen it was that the
new emperor should bear the name of Rome's first
sovereign, and may have flattered himself that his
son's reign would be the beginning of a new age
of glory and prosperity for the empire that had fallen
so low. But the people looked on the election of the
boy-emperor as a good joke, and turned his grand
title of Augustus into the playful diminutive Augus-
tulus. And so " Romulus Augustulus " is the name
by which the son of Orestes is always known in
history.

128 HOW THE WESTERN EMPIRE CAME TO AN END.
It was not long before signs of serious trouble
showed themselves. The barbarian troops in the
Roman service demanded of the Patrician that
he should make them a gift of one-third of every
landed estate in Italy. Orestes refused, and the whole
mixed multitude of Goths, Scirians, Rugians, Tur-
cilings, Herules, and Alans, which now formed the
great bulk of the military force of the western empire,
rose at once in rebellion. They chose as their king
Odovacar or Odoacer [Audawakrs], the son of that
Edica the Scirian, whom we have mentioned as
having been associated with Orestes in Attila's em
bassy to Constantinople. The Scirians were one of
those smaller peoples who spoke the same language
of the Goths, and hence Odovacar is often spoken of
as " King of the Goths." But he was really not the
king of any nation, but only of the mingled host,
belonging to many barbarian races, who served under
the Roman standards.
There is a story which tells how, when Odovacar
was a young man, poor and unknown, he was wander
ing in Southern Germany, and paid a visit with some
of his companions to a saintly hermit named Severinus
to ask for his blessing. His coarse dress showed his
poverty, but the attention of the saint was at once
attracted by his stature, which was so tall that he had
to stoop in order to come under the lowly roof of the
cell. Severinus soon saw that the young Scirian
was as remarkable for his powers of mind as for
his noble form and bearing, and prophesied that
there was a glorious career before him. Odovacar
informed him that he was intending to go to Italy

THE BOY EMPEROR ABDICATES. 129
to seek employment in the Roman army. " By all
means go," said Severinus, " although you are now
poorly clad in skins, I foresee that it will not be
long before you make many men rich with your
princely gifts."
Orestes was killed in the tumult ; some say that
Odovacar slew him with his own hand. But the king
of the barbarians took pity on " Romulus Augustu-
lus," and gave him a pension of six thousand gold
pieces yearly, and a splendid palace at Misenum, on
the bay of Naples, which had belonged to the great
Roman general, Lucullus.
It was in the year 476 that Orestes was put to death.
For four years longer Odovacar seems to have kept
up the pretence of being the servant and protector of
the boy-emperor. But in the year 480 Augustulus
was made formally to resign his throne, and to add his
signature to a memorial which the senate addressed to
the eastern emperor Zeno, saying that they had deter
mined to abolish the useless dignity of emperor of the
west, and asking him to proclaim himself the sovereign
of the whole Roman world. Of course they added
the request that Zeno would entrust the government
of the western provinces to that excellent statesman
and soldier Odovacar, and confer on him the rank of
Patrician. The memorial was carried to Constantinople by
delegates from the senate, who were accompanied by
ambassadors sent by Odovacar himself. No doubt
Odovacar thought that Zeno, who had just been re
stored to the throne from which he had been driven
by rebellion, would be highly flattered by the prospect

130 HOW THE WESTERN EMPIRE CAME TO AN END.
of becoming, if only in name, the emperor both of
east and west.
But on the same day on which the envoys pre
sented themselves at the palace, there arrived ambas
sadors from Nepos to congratulate Zeno on his
restoration, and to. beg for his assistance in regaining
his lost empire. Nepos was related by marriage to
the empress, and had too many friends at the court
at ConstantinopHe for Zeno to venture to betray his
cause. He angrily upbraided the senate for their
treason against their rightful sovereign. To Odovacar
himself he sent a polite letter, recommending him to
acknowledge his allegiance to Nepos, and to seek to
obtain from him the office which he desired. In the
letter, however, he addressed Odovacar by the title of
" Patrician," which, he said, he felt sure Nepos would
willingly grant when he was asked.
But although Zeno might refuse to acknowledge the
action of the senate, it was none the less the fact that
the abdication of Romulus was . the end of the
western empire. The year 480 is a memorable date
in history, and the name of " Romulus Augustulus " a
memorable name, though the poor boy-emperor him
self never did anything to make it so. From this
time forward the proud title of Augustus remained
the exclusive possession of the rulers of Constanti
nople, until three centuries later it was assumed by
the Frankish king who was crowned at Rome as the
successor of the emperors of the West.
Before this fateful year had closed, Nepos was
assassinated by a certain Count Ovida. Zeno made
no attempt to appoint a successor, and no longer

THE REIGN OF ODOVACAR. 131
refused to be regarded as sovereign over the western
provinces. Of course this sovereignty was only an empty name,
for Odovacar was practically king of Italy, and all the
rest of what had been the western empire was in the
hands of other barbarian kings. The rule of Odovacar,
so far as it depended on himself, was wise and merciful.
Although an Arian, he gave the Catholics full liberty
of worship ; the Roman state officials were allowed to
keep their places, and the system of government was
little changed. But the barbarian soldiers received
their promised third part of the Italian lands, and
they subjected the Roman country people to a great
deal of insult and oppression, which the king was
unable to prevent. Property and life became insecure ;
agriculture and trade fell into neglect, and altogether
the state of Italy under Odovacar was one of great
wretchedness. Although Odovacar would tolerate no interference
with his government, he tried to gain Zeno's goodwill
in various ways. He sent over to Constantinople the
insignia of the imperial palace, and caused statues of
the emperor to be erected in Rome and elsewhere.
He also undertook an expedition to Dalmatia against
the murderer of Nepos, who was taken prisoner and
put to death.
But Zeno was anxious to be master of Italy in reality
as well as in name, and if he had had a powerful army
at his command he would very promptly have made an
attempt to drive out the usurper by force of arms.
For several years his weakness compelled him to put
off his design, but about the year 489 he granted per-

132 HOW THE WESTERN EMPIRE CAME TO AN END.
mission to the king of the Ostrogoths, the famous
Theoderic the Amaling, to invade the country, and to
take possession of it in the name of the empire.
Before we tell of the struggle that took place be
tween Odovacar and the Amaling, we must relate the
story of Theoderic's early life.

XIV.
THE BOYHOOD OF THEODERIC.
Theoderic, the son of Theudemer, as we have
already mentioned at the end of our fifth chapter,
was born on the day when his uncle Walamer, king
of the Ostrogoths, won the great victory that set his
nation free from the dominions of the Huns. The
home of the Ostrogothic nation was then (about A.D.
454) in the region which we call South-western
Austria, and Theoderic's birthplace was somewhere
not very far from Vienna. After the Ostrogoths had
established their independence, they entered into an
alliance with the eastern emperor Marcian, who
agreed to pay them a large sum of money every
year, to enable them to defend their kingdom and
furnish men when required for the service of the
empire. While Marcian lived the treaty seems to have been
observed on both sides. The next emperor, Leo of
Thrace, owed his position to the favour of the "Patri
cian" Aspar, a barbarian who had at Constantinople
the same rank and the same influence that Rikimer
had at Rome ; and Aspar caused the yearly subsidy
to be taken away from Walamer and given to an
other Gothic chieftain, a relative of his own, Theoderic

134 THE BOYHOOD OF THEODERIC.
Strabo,1 the son of Triarius. Who this man was
we do not certainly know, but possibly the body
of Goths whom he commanded may have been
descendants of those who sixty years before had
been defeated with Gaina in Thrace. We shall have
frequently to speak of him in the following chapters,
and in order to distinguish him from the other
Theoderic, we shall always give him his Latin name.
King Walamer tried all peaceable means to induce
the emperor Leo to restore him his yearly pay, but
when he found that his representations were of no
avail he led his army into Illyria, and soon made
the Romans feel that it was much better to have him
for a friend than for an enemy. In the year 462 the
treaty was renewed. The emperor agreed to make
Walamer a regular payment of three hundred pounds
weight of gold every year, besides paying the arrears
that had already been incurred. In return the
Ostrogoths undertook to guard the borders of the
empire, and the little Theoderic, then eight years
old, was sent to Constantinople as a hostage to ensure
fulfilment of their part of the bargain. His father
was not very willing to let him go, but king Walamer
persuaded him to consent— urging the great ad
vantage which it would be for the boy, who would
one day be king of the Ostrogoths, to have received
an education in the imperial palace.
The young Gothic prince soon became a great
1 As the Latin word Strabo means a person who squints, it has often
been thought that Theoderic must have been so nicknamed on account
of a personal defect. But it is quite as likely that Strabo was the
name of some Roman patron, by whom Theoderic had been adopted
as a son.

A ROYAL HOSTAGE. 135
favourite with the emperor. He remained ten years
at Constantinople, and seems to have been brought
up just like the son of a Roman of high rank. The
most celebrated teachers in the capital were secured
for his education, and although no doubt he was
more distinguished for success in athletic exercises
than in book-learning, we need not believe the com
mon story that when he became king of Italy he
was unable to write, and had to make his official
signature with the help of a gold stencil-plate. His
residence in Constantinople certainly taught him to
appreciate the advantages of civilized ways of life,
and inspired him with a desire to impart those ad
vantages to his own people.
When Theoderic was eighteen years old, he was
allowed to return home, receiving on his departure
many splendid presents from the emperor and his
court. During his period of exile, king Walamer
had been killed in a battle against the Scirians, and
Theudemer had become king in his stead. It was
hard work for the Ostrogoth kingdom to maintain
itself against the attacks of the surrounding peoples.
On one side it was assailed by the Gepids and
Sarmatians, on another side by the Alamans, Sueves,
and Rugians ; and the remnant of the Huns had
not given up trying to recover their lost dominion.
When Theoderic returned home, he found that his
father was away fighting the Alamans in the north
west, while the opposite extremity of the kingdom
was threatened by a Sarmatian king named Babai,
who had captured the Roman fortress of Singidunum
(now Belgrade).

136 THE BOYHOOD OF THEODERIC.
The young prince soon showed that his education
at Constantinople had included some lessons in the
art of war. Without waiting for his father's permis
sion, he collected a band of six thousand men, and
attacked Babai on his own ground. Singidunum
was taken ; the Sarmatian king was killed, and his
family and his treasure carried off in triumph to the
Ostrogoth capital. In spite of his friendly relations
with the emperor Leo, Theoderic did not give back
Singidunum to the Romans. Perhaps indeed they
never asked for it, for the rulers at Constantinople
were kept too busy with their home troubles to think
much about the outlying parts of the empire, and
Theoderic had at any rate relieved them of one
dangerous enemy.
But the limits of Theudemer's kingdom were too
narrow for the numbers of the people, and the con
tinual conflicts with the border tribes left them little
opportunity for tilling their fields ; besides, after
nearly a century of wandering about under the
dominion of the Huns, they could not be very well
fitted to settle down peacefully as farmers. When
the Ostrogoths found themselves in danger of famine,
they begged their king to lead them forth to war —
no matter against what enemy, if only they might
have the chance of supporting themselves by
plunder. The king could not refuse his people's demand.
The army was divided into two bodies, one led by
Theudemer himself, the other by his brother
Widumer, and it was decided that they should
attack severally, the eastern and the western Roman

THE DEATH OF THEUDEMER. 137
Empire. In the presence of the assembled people
the two chiefs solemnly cast lots to determine the
direction in which each of them should march.
The lot so fell out that Widumer led his division
of the people to Italy. It was in the short reign
of Glycerius, and that emperor — it was almost the
only official act of his that we know of, except his
abdication — induced the invaders, by the gift of a
large sum of money, to go away into Gaul, where
they united themselves with the Visigoth subjects
of Euric.
The great mass of the Ostrogoth nation, however,
followed their king into the region between the
Danube and the Balkan mountains, which had so
often, in years gone by, had the misfortune to be
ravaged by Gothic invaders. The city of Naissus
and several others fell into their hands, and the
Romans of Constantinople were so alarmed by their
successes that they were glad to purchase peace.
The Ostrogoths were invited to settle in Macedonia,
and received large gifts of land and money. Amongst
the cities which were abandoned to them was Pella,
famous as the birthplace of Alexander the Great.
Just after the conclusion of this treaty (in the year
474) Theudemer died, and his son Theoderic, at the
age of twenty years, began his long and glorious
reign as king of the Ostrogoths. 1

XV.
THE RIVAL NAMESAKES.
The emperor Leo died in the same year as
Theudemer, and was succeeded by his son-in-law,
" Trasacodissa the son of Rusumbladeotus," a native
of Isauria in Asia Minor, who had exchanged his
barbarous-sounding native name for the more pro
nounceable Greek name of Zeno. You will remember
that it was to this emperor that the senate of Rome,
under the dictation of Odovacar, offered in 480 the
sovereignty of Italy and the West.
Zeno was, as the historians of that time tell us,
" a coward who trembled even at the picture of a
battle." There was no act of meanness and no
humiliation from which he would have shrunk if it
were necessary in order to avoid war. But the two
principal " foreign powers," if we may call them so,
with whom he had to do, Theoderic, king of the
Ostrogoths, and Theoderic Strabo, were bitter enemies
to each other, and if Zeno tried to please one of
them he was sure to bring down on himself the wrath
of the other. So he was constantly seeking by
flattery and rich presents, to attach to his own side
whichever of the two Gothic chiefs happened to
be strongest, and at the same time so to arrange

ZENO'S PRETENDED GRATITUDE. I39
matters that both of them should suffer as much
damage as possible from their mutual conflicts.
Before Zeno had been a year on the throne, he
was driven out of Constantinople by a rebellion in
which Basiliscus, the brother of Leo's widow, was
made emperor. Strabo supported the usurper, and
while he reigned held the rank of Patrician and com
mander-in-chief. But the Ostrogoths were on Zeno's
side, and after two years Basiliscus was dethroned,
and Zeno came back to Constantinople. The
emperor made a great display of his gratitude to
Theoderic the Amaling for his share in defeating
the rebels ; he gave him the title of Patrician,
adopted him as his son, conferred on him a high
command of the imperial armies, and made him a
a grant of large sums of money. Theoderic, how
ever, knew very well that " his father " Zeno would
not at all scruple to betray him whenever it suited
his convenience, and so, to make his own position
more secure, he removed his people from their Mace
donian abodes, and settled them along the southern
bank of the Danube, from Singidunum down to the
river mouth.
Meanwhile Theoderic Strabo and his Goths ranged
undisturbed over Thrace, and maintained themselves
by the plunder of the country people of that province.
He is said to have been guilty of many acts of cruelty,
such as cutting off the right hands of the prisoners
whom he took, so that they might never be able to
fight against him. But the plunder of Thrace was
soon exhausted, and when Strabo found it difficult to
obtain food for his army he sent ambassadors to Zeno

140 THE RIVAL NAMESAKES.
to say that he was willing to make peace — on condi
tion of being put into the position then occupied by
his rival. He argued that Theoderic the Amaling
had acted like a rebel, in occupying the Danube
region without permission, and that it would be to
the emperor's interest to break with the Ostrogoths,
and entrust Strabo himself with the duty of punishing
their breach of faith.
Zeno thought that Strabo's wish for peace was a
sign of weakness, and therefore rejected the proposals
with the utmost scorn, and gave orders to his generals
to prosecute the war with all possible vigour. But
Strabo's Goths showed unexpected powers of resist
ance ; the Roman troops were beaten, and there
actually seemed reason to fear that the enemy might
soon threaten Constantinople itself. It was now the
emperor's turn to try to make peace, and he sent to
offer Strabo the undisturbed possession of the territory
he had conquered, on condition that he should abstain
from further hostilities against the empire, and should
send his son as a hostage to Constantinople.
But Strabo by this time had got to know his own
strength. He had learned, too, that he had many
friends in the capital itself, and believed that it might
not be difficult for him to obtain an entrance into the
city and to make himself master of the empire. He
accordingly rejected the proposed conditions, and
Zeno in his despair was reduced to implore the help
of the Ostrogoths.
Theoderic the Amaling, however, shrewdly sus
pected that Zeno meant to lead him into a trap, and
it was a long time before he could be persuaded to

A DESPERATE SITUATION. 141
move. He made the emperor swear a solemn oath
never to make peace with Strabo, and promise that
before he arrived in presence of the enemy he should
be joined by a Roman army of eight thousand horse
and thirty thousand foot. Having received these
assurances, Theoderic led his soldiers into Thrace.
After a long and toilsome march through a desolate
country, he suddenly came in sight of Strabo's army,
posted in a strong position on a mountain called
Sondis. There was no sign of the coming of the
promised Roman troops, and it soon became clear
that Zeno had never meant to send them.
Theoderic's situation was a desperate one. It was
impossible to attack Strabo in his encampment on the
mountain, and just as impossible to retreat to a safer
position. He remained for several days undecided,
perhaps hoping against hope that his Roman allies
might after all arrive. Strabo made no attempt to
assume the offensive, but rode every day to a place
which was out of the reach of bowshot, and where his
powerful voice could be heard in the Ostrogoth camp.
" Goths ! " he said, " will you let yourselves be led by
that foolish boy to fight against your own brothers ?
Will you be made to play the game of the Romans,
who desire nothing better than to see us cut each
other's throats ? What has Theoderic ever done for
you ? Some of you were rich once : he has made
you poor. Nobles and freemen as you call yourselves,
he has led you out like slaves to perish in this desert
that he may earn honours and wealth from the enemies
of our people." Such words as these excited fierce
discontent amongst the Ostrogoths, and their king

142 THE RIVAL NAMESAKES.
was compelled to enter into an alliance with his rival.
And so, while Zeno was expecting the welcome news
of a bloody battle between his enemy and his too
dangerous ally, he learned instead that the two chiefs
had united against him, and were prepared to march
together upon Constantinople unless the demands of
both were fully satisfied.
The treacherous emperor could think of no other
plan than that of bribing one of the new allies to
betray the other. First he tried what he could do
with the Amaling. He offered him immense sums
of money paid down, and a larger yearly income
than he had before received from the empire. He
also promised him the hand of the daughter of
Olybrius, the late emperor of the West. But Theo
deric was not to be induced to become a traitor, and
Zeno then endeavoured to buy over the other of the
confederates. In this attempt he was successful.
Whatever Strabo might have said about the wicked
ness and folly of a war between " brethren," he had
no objection to fight against the Ostrogoths if the
price offered was high enough, and he accepted the
emperor's proposal to invest him with the honours
and commands which had been held by the Amaling,
and to allow him to maintain thirteen thousand Gothic
soldiers at the emperor's cost.
It is no wonder that Theoderic was very angry at
this shameful breach of faith. The first thing he did
was to invade Macedonia, where it is said that he
put the garrisons of several cities to the sword with
out quarter ; then, crossing over the mountains into
Epirus, he came to the Adriatic coast, and took pos-

DEATH OF STRABO. 143
session of Dyrrhachium (Durazzo), the great seaport
from which ships used to sail for the south of Italy.
But Zeno soon became dissatisfied with the conduct
of Strabo, and so he sent ambassadors after the
Amaling to try to make peace with him. He offered
to grant the Ostrogoths a tract of country in Epirus,
and to provide them with money to buy corn until
they could raise their first harvest. Theoderic in
sisted on better terms ; but while the negotiations
were going on, his brother Theudamund was treacher
ously attacked by a Roman general, who took five
thousand prisoners. After this the parley was broken
off, and the war began afresh.
In the year 481 a rebellion broke out in the neigh
bourhood of Constantinople, led by two generals
named Illus and Romulus. Strabo undertook, in
consideration of a heavy increase of pay, to put
down the rising ; but he played the traitor after
all, and joined the rebels in an unsuccessful at
tempt to take Constantinople. Soon afterwards he
was accidentally killed, his horse having run away
with him and thrown him against the point of a spear,
which had been fixed before a tent.
So now Theoderic the Amaling was freed from the
rivalry of his troublesome namesake. His army was
soon joined by the greater part of Strabo's followers,
and he became so formidable and did so much
damage to the empire that Zeno was glad to pur
chase his friendship at any price. In 483 the Ostro
goths received an ample grant of land near the
Danube. Two years later, Theoderic marched against
the rebel forces under Illus, and gained a complete

144 THE RIVAL NAMESAKES.
victory, for which he was rewarded with a triumph and
an equestrian statue at Constantinople. But very
soon the emperor and the king were quarrelling
again, and the Ostrogoths took up arms and began
to ravage the neighbourhood of Constantinople.
At last, however, a settlement was arrived at which
satisfied both parties. Zeno gave permission to
Theoderic to go and wrest Italy from the hands of
Odovacar, to establish his own people there, and to
rule the country as the emperor's representative.
This plan enabled Zeno to get rid of the Ostro
goths, whose expensive help was no longer necessary
to him. At the same time, it was just what Theo
deric himself desired. Although circumstances had
compelled him to become something like a bandit
chief, it had always been his great ambition to be the
king of a settled and civilized people. And now, with
the express sanction of the sovereignwhom he regarded
as the rightful lord of the world, he was to place his
subjects in that very land in which, more than in any
other he might reasonably hope to mould them into
a great nation, which should be as glorious in the
arts and the virtues of peace as in those of war.

XVI.
HOW THE OSTROGOTHS WON ITALY.
It was in the year 488 that Theoderic received the
emperor's permission to go to Italy and fight against
Odovacar. He betook himself at once to his head
quarters at Novae, on the south bank of the Danube
(near Sistova), and called on his people to make
ready for emigrating into their "promised land."
The preparations were quickly made, for the Ostro
goths had only been in Mcesia five years, and it was
easy for them to resume the wandering life to which
they had so long been accustomed. Theoderic was
so eager to get to Italy that he began his march at
the end of the autumn, thus exposing his people to
suffer the hardships of winter in addition to those of
a long journey over rugged mountains and through
the territories of unfriendly tribes.
It is thought that the people whom Theoderic led
out of Mcesia numbered not less than a quarter of a
million. For about three hundred miles this vast
multitude, with all their cattle and their baggage,
proceeded along the bank of the Danube without
meeting opposition. But when they came to Singi
dunum, the place where Theoderic, when a boy, had

146 HOW THE OSTROGOTHS WON ITALY.
gained his famous victory, their progress was stopped
by the Gepids, who had now taken possession of the
country which the Ostrogoths had occupied in King
Walamer's and King Theudemer's days.
Theoderic sent messengers to Thrafstila, king of the
Gepids, asking permission for the Ostrogoths to pass
through his country. Thrafstila refused, and there
was a great battle near a river called Ulca. The
ground was marshy, and at first the Gepids were
beginning to win, because they knew the place better
than the new-comers ; but Theoderic's own bravery
inspired his soldiers with such enthusiasm that the
defeat was changed into a complete victory. The
Gepids had to forsake the field in confusion, and left
behind them many waggons full of provisions, which
the Ostrogoths were very glad to get hold of.
After the victory by the Ulca, Theoderic led his
people along the river Save, and then over the steep
passes of the Julian Alps. But however impatient
the king might be to enter on his future kingdom, it
was only possible to move very slowly forward, for
amongst the throng were many thousands of women
and young children, and more than once sickness broke
out amongst them, and compelled them to interrupt
their march. And so it was not until nearly a year
after the beginning of their journey that the Ostro
gothic host stood ready to cross the Isonzo, the
boundary-river of Italy. On the opposite bank of
the stream they saw the powerful army of Odovacar
encamped to prevent their passage.
Theoderic's soldiers were weakened by their long
journey and the hardships they had gone through on

THE VICTORY OF VERONA. 147
their way, but they still proved more than a match to
Odovacar's followers — a disorderly crowd made up of
a number of petty tribes, whose chiefs scorned to obey
the orders of a commander whom they accounted no
nobler than themselves. On August 28, 489, the
Goths forced the passage of the river, and Odovacar
retreated to Verona.
After giving his army a little breathing-time,
Theoderic broke up his camp near the ruins of Aqui-
leia, and set out to make a second attack upon the
enemy. It was on the 30th of September that the
great battle of Verona was fought, which decided the
fate of Odovacar's kingdom. On the morning of the
battle TheOderic carefully dressed himself in his most
splendid clothing, ornamented by the hands of his
mother and his sister, saying with a smile that he
hoped his bravery in the fight would show who he
was, but at any rate his apparel should show it.
Odovacar's men fought desperately, and the losses of
the Ostrogoths were enormous. But once more the
king's skilful leadership, and the animating example
of his own dauntless courage, carried the day, and
Odovacar fled in confusion. With the remnant of his
army he endeavoured to find shelter within the walls
of Rome ; but the senate had no mind to side with a
beaten rebel against the victorious representative of
the emperor, and ordered the gates to be closed.
Odovacar then marched across the country, burning
villages and destroying the crops, and took refuge
in the impregnable fortress of Ravenna. Meanwhile
Theoderic's victory had placed him in possession of
the strong cities of Verona and Milan, and he soon

148 HOW THE OSTROGOTHS WON ITALY.
received the submission of a large portion of Odova
car's army.
Amongst the chiefs who deserted to Theoderic was
a certain Tufa, who had held a high command in
Odovacar's army. This man succeeded in thoroughly
gaining Theoderic's confidence, and undertook, if he
were entrusted with a large body of men, to besiege
Odovacar in Ravenna. The king agreed to his
proposal, and at Tufa's own request a number of
Theoderic's principal officers were attached to the
expedition. But before he reached the neighbour
hood of Ravenna Tufa deserted back again to his
former sovereign, and Theoderic's officers were loaded
with chains and sent to Odovacar, by whom they
were kept for some time in prison, and then shame
fully murdered. The soldiers who had submitted to
Theoderic when Odovacar's cause seemed hopeless
now forsook him by thousands, and joined the army
of Tufa. For a time it seemed as if the tide of for
tune had turned, and Odovacar was, after all, going
to recover his lost dominions. The Ostrogoths were
compelled to abandon Milan and Verona, and to
retire to the neighbourhood of Pavia.
But Odovacar was unable to follow up his advan
tage. His followers, unlike those of his adversary,
were a mere band of mercenaries, held together by
no tie of national sentiment, and feeling little attach
ment to the person of their leader. They soon began
to desert in large numbers ; and the quarrels between
the generals rendered it impossible to take any
effectual action. In August, 490, the arrival of a
body of Visigoths sent by Alaric of Toulouse enabled

RAVENNA SURRENDERS. 149
Theoderic to inflict a crushing defeat upon his enemy,
and before very long Odovacar was closely besieged
in Ravenna. Just about this time it is said that an
event took place which resembles that which is so
gloomily celebrated in English history under the
name of " St. Brice's day." The partisans of the
emperor, according to a concerted plan, massacred
the supporters of Odovacar all over Italy. Before
the year 490 had closed, the only important place in
Italy, except Ravenna itself, which had not submitted
to Theoderic was the seaport of Rimini (Ariminum)
on the Adriatic. The senate at Rome despatched its
most distinguished member, the consul Faustus, to
Constantinople, to ask that Theoderic might be in
vested with the royal robes, and be authorized to
bear the title of king of Italy. But when the envoy
arrived at Constantinople the emperor Zeno was
breathing his last, and the petition seems to have
remained unanswered.
It was not till the blockade of Ravenna had lasted
for two years and a half that the pressure of famine
compelled Odovacar to offer terms of surrender. The
bishop of Ravenna acted as mediator, and Theoderic
was so tired of the long siege that he was glad to
agree to conditions which were extravagantly favour
able to his rival. It was stipulated that Odovacar
should be allowed to live in Ravenna with the title of
king, and should be treated, so *far as pomp and
ceremony were concerned, as the equal of his con
queror.1 His son Thelane, whom he had shortly
1 It was believed in the following century that Theoderic and Odovacar
agreed to reign over Italy as joint sovereigns, but this seems incredible.

150 HOW THE OSTROGOTHS WON ITALY.
before, in imitation of the example of Orestes, pro
claimed emperor of the West, were delivered up to the
Ostrogoths as a hostage, and on March 5, 493, Theo
deric entered the city, and took possession of the
imperial palace in " the Laurel-grove."
The two kings met one another with a great show
of friendliness, but before many days had passed
Theoderic heard that Odovacar was plotting his
assassination. At any rate that was what he said
afterwards to justify his own cruel and treacherous
action. On the 15th of March he invited his rival
to a banquet at the " Laurel-grove " palace. In two
side chambers to the right and the left of the seat
which the royal guest was to occupy he placed armed
men, who were instructed on hearing a certain signal
to rush out and cut down Odovacar and his followers.
As soon as Odovacar had taken his seat, two soldiers
of Theoderic approached him, pretending that they
wished to ask some favour from him, and seizing his
hands as if in the eagerness of their entreaty. The
signal was given, and the armed men came into the
hall, but when they saw that their business was to be
the murder of a defenceless man, and not, as they had
expected, the frustration of an attack upon their own
king, they stood as if stupefied. Theoderic then drew
his sword, and raised it to strike Odovacar. " Where
is God ? " exclaimed the unhappy victim. " This is
how you treated my friends ! " shouted Theoderic,
and dealt him such a violent blow on the collar-bone
that the body was almost cut in two. Theoderic
looked with astonishment at the effect of his stroke,
and said with an inhuman sneer, " The poor wretch

THE MURDER OF ODOVACAR. 151
must have had no bones." Thus died Odovacar, at
the age of sixty years. He was buried outside the
city, in a piece of ground which was close to the Jews
synagogue, and was deemed to be polluted by the
neighbourhood of infidel worship. His wife, Suni-
gilda, was starved to death in prison, and his son was
sent as a prisoner to King Alaric at Toulouse, but
afterwards escaped to Italy and was there killed.
We have told this sad story of Odovacar's end as it
is related by a historian of the seventh century. It
contains some things that sound rather improbable.
and we would fain hope that some of the circum
stances of treachery and brutality have been exag
gerated. When we think how gloriously Theoderic
reigned over Italy for thirty-three years, how he
laboured to secure the happiness of his subjects, and
how Goths and Romans alike acknowledged the
even-handed justice of his rule, we cannot help
believing that the act by which he gained his king
dom was not altogether the cold-blooded treason
which his account represents it to have been. Noth
ing that we know of Odovacar, on the other hand,
forbids us to think him capable of plotting the murder
of the rival with whom he had sworn peace and
friendship. If Theoderic had indeed discovered evi
dence of such a plot we can scarcely wonder that he
should be moved to take violent means to render its
execution impossible. But whatever may be said in
palliation of the murder of Odovacar, we cannot help
feeling sorry that the reign of the great Theoderic
should have begun with this fierce and lawless deed.

XVII.
THE WISDOM OF THEODERIC.
ONCE more we have to lament the truth of Milton's
saying, that the victories of peace are "less renowned "
than those of war. Far more interesting, if it could
only be told, than the records of all the battles which
Theoderic ever won, would be the story of the peaceful
achievements which followed. By what means the
Gothic usurper succeeded in giving order and pros
perity to the land so long the prey of lawlessness and
oppression, by what arts he so won the hearts of his
subjects, both Romans and Goths, that when he died
he was mourned as no ruler had been for centuries
past, are questions which history gives us very im
perfect answers.
The earliest act of Theoderic's which we read of
after the death of Odovacar did not seem to promise
well for the wisdom and gentleness of his rule. He
published an edict by which all those Romans who
had in any way exhibited any sympathy with
Odovacar against himself should be deprived of their
privileges as citizens, including the right of disposing
of their own property by will. This measure was felt
to be a great injustice, because many of those whom
it affected had supported the cause of Odovacar

A SAINTLY BISHOP. 153
under compulsion, and were quite ready, if treated
with kindness and consideration, to become faithful
subjects of the new king.
Fortunately the sufferers by this edict found a
powerful intercessor. When, during the war with
Odovacar, Theoderic had taken up his quarters in the
city of Pavia, he had had a great deal of intercourse
with the bishop Epiphanius, and, though the bishop
was a Catholic, the holiness of his character had
inspired in the king's mind the profoundest venera
tion. "There is not such a man in all the east,"
Theoderic said ; " it is a privilege even to have seen
him." It was this venerable man whom the Romans
begged to plead their cause. Accompanied by Lau-
rentius, bishop of Milan, he journeyed to Ravenna,
and sought an audience of the king, who received him
with every mark of honour, and listened with great
attention to his speech. Epiphanius reminded Theo
deric (not without some dexterous flattery mingled
with his admonitions) of the many signs of Divine
favour which had attended his career in Italy, and
exhorted him to testify his gratitude by imitating the
Divine example of mercy. He urged that Odovacar
had fallen because of the harshness and injustice of
his rule, and counselled Theoderic to be warned by
the fate of his predecessor, concluding with an appeal
which might almost be translated in the familiar
words : ' ' Consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. "

154 THE WISDOM OF THEODERIC.
There was a pause of some moments after the
bishop had spoken, and every one present awaited
the king's reply with deep anxiety. Theoderic began
by saying that it was not always that the necessities
of government permitted of the exercise of mercy,
and by appealing to the Scriptural example of Saul,
who incurred the Divine wrath by his ill-timed com
passion for a vanquished enemy. But he added that
as heaven itself yielded to the bishop's prayers, no
mere earthly power could resist them : and he ordered
his secretary to prepare a decree of general amnesty.
Theoderic certainly could have taken no better
means of winning the goodwill of his new subjects.
And the fact that this act of mercy had been granted
to the entreaties of a Catholic bishop made a great
impression on the minds of the Catholics, and did
much to soften the prejudice which was naturally
felt against the heretic king.
After this question was decided, Theoderic had a
private conversation with Epiphanius, in which he
spoke of the deep grief he felt on account of the
wretched condition into which Italy had Been brought
by continual war. He referred especially to the mis
fortunes which had befallen the bishop's own northern
diocese through the invasion of the Burgunds, who, in
490, had carried away large numbers of the peasantry
as prisoners into Gaul. " I know," said Theoderic to
the bishop, " that Gundobad, king of the Burgunds.
has a great desire to see you ; if you go to plead the
cause of the Italian captives he will be persuaded to
set them free, and I will supply you with money
sufficient for their ransom."

THE GOTHIC SETTLEMEMT. 155
Epiphanius was moved to tears by this proof of the
king's interest in the people whose welfare lay so near
to his own heart. He eagerly accepted the commis
sion that was offered to him, and at once set out,
braving the bitter cold of March, across the Alps to
visit King Gundobad at Lyons. The king received
him graciously, and granted the free release of all
those captives who were under his own control.
Those who were slaves belonging to private persons
had to be ransomed with Theoderic's gold. From
Lyons the bishop went to Geneva, where he had the
same success with the other Burgund king Godegisel ;
and he was accompanied to Italy by many thousands
of the rescued captives, who returned to bring back to
fertility their long-deserted fields, and, we may be
sure, to invoke blessings on the name of their deliverer
Theoderic. Not to leave his work incomplete, the
king bestowed large gifts of seed-corn and of cattle
upon the returned peasants.
The first great problem that the king had to
encounter was how to satisfy the claims of his
Gothic soldiers for lands in reward of their services,
without exciting rebellion amongst the Roman pro
prietors at whose expense these grants were made.
It was, however, fortunate for Theoderic that his
predecessor had already despoiled the Roman land
owners of a third of their estates, so that for the most
part the Goths had only to step into possession of the
share which Odovacar's men had held, and the Roman
lord was no poorer than he had been for thirteen years
previously. The king, moreover, wisely placed the
carrying out of this measure for the Gothic settlement

156 THE WISDOM OF THEODERIC.
in the hands of a distinguished Roman named Liberius,
who had been one of Odovacar's ministers, and who
knew how to manage the matter so as to spare his
countrymen's feelings as much as possible. Theoderic
had a great respect for Liberius, and, in a letter to the
senate some time after his death, he praises him
especially for his honesty in never concealing his grief
for Odovacar in order to curry favour with Odovacar's
enemy and successor. Only a man of real nobleness
of mind would have singled out such a characteristic
for praise in a public document, and this is one of the
many things which lead us to believe that the deed
by which Theoderic gained the crown was not the
shameful treachery that it is recorded to have been.
Theoderic goes on to say that the goodwill and
harmony which existed between Goths and Romans
was very largely due to the tact and skill with which
Liberius conducted the division of the estates and the
apportionment of the burdens of taxation.
Although Theoderic did not care to run the risk of
offending both his Goths and the Court of Constanti
nople by calling himself Caesar or Emperor, yet those
titles would have exactly expressed the character of
his rule — so far at least as his Roman subjects were
concerned. When the Emperor Anastasius in 497
acknowledged him as ruler of Italy, he sent him the
purple cloak and the diadem of the Western emperors ;
and the act showed that Anastasius quite understood
the difference between Theoderic's government and
that of Odovacar. In fact, though not in name, the
Western empire had been restored with much the
same institutions as it had had under the best of the

REFORM OF TAXATION. 157
Caesars. Although the army was Gothic, the great
offices of state were filled by Romans, and the senate,
if it had less real power than it had sometimes
managed to obtain under weaker sovereigns, was
treated with a show of respect and deference which
was some consolation for its political insignificance.
Its members were appointed to act as judges in the
courts, and in all cases in which Romans were con
cerned the Roman law still retained its authority.
One great evil from which the Roman Empire had
suffered for many reigns past was the illegal exactions
on the part of the officers entrusted with the collec
tion of revenue. So long as the emperors could raise
the money they wanted, they had cared little how
their officials might enrich themselves by extortion.
Theoderic kept a strict watch on the conduct of his
officials. All persons who had grievances against them
were encouraged to bring forward their complaints ;
rigorous inquiries were made, and the accused, if found
guilty, were severely punished. It was the king's
special study so to apportion the taxes that the burden
fell as equally as possible, and — unlike the Eastern
emperors of the same period, who were notorious for
always exacting "the uttermost farthing" — he was
always ready to grant exemptions or reductions of
taxation to districts that were suffering from bad
harvests or similar causes of distress. The official
letters of Theoderic's secretary Cassiodorus make us
acquainted with many of these timely acts of gene
rosity, which contributed more than anything else to
make the Roman subjects submit gladly to the rule of
the barbarian king. One interesting instance of the

158 THE WISDOM OF THEODERIC.
same kind is known to us from another source, the
biography of Epiphanius, the Catholic bishop of Pavia,
whom we have already spoken of as being greatly
respected by Theoderic. In the year 496 the people
of Epiphanius's diocese had had their crops destroyed
by floods, and the good bishop once more journeyed
to Ravenna to plead the cause of his beloved flock.
Theoderic listened with sympathy to the story of the
sufferings of the people, and though he talked a good
deal about the difficulties that lay in the way of
making a sacrifice of revenue, he gladdened the
bishop's heart by consenting to reduce the taxes for
that year to one-third of their amount. Epiphanius
returned to Pavia with the good news, but the re
joicings of his people were soon mixed with sorrow,
for a few days after his arrival he died from the effects
of a cold taken during his journey.
The one great obstacle to Theoderic's popularity
was that he was an Arian, while the great mass of his
Roman subjects were Catholics. But in his govern
ment he never allowed himself to make any difference
between the two parties. One of his most honoured
Gothic generals, Ibba, was a Catholic ; and the Catholic
clergy, if they were by their character worthy of their
office, were regarded by him with as much respect
as those of his own creed. This tolerant conduct was
not merely adopted because Theoderic feared to offend
the Catholics. He had really a profound conviction
of the truth, known to so few in his age, that kings
have no right to meddle with the religious faith of
their subjects, and that persecution, though it may
make men hypocrites, will never make them sincere

RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 159
believers. The best proof that Theoderic's toleration
was a matter of principle is seen in his conduct
towards the Jews. Ever since the Roman Empire
had become Christian, this unhappy people had been
subjected to cruel persecution, and even the Visigoths
in Gaul had shamefully oppressed them. If Theoderic
had followed this bad example he would no doubt
have been applauded both by the Romans and by
many of his own countrymen. But he had courage
and firmness enough not only to announce publicly
that " the benefits of justice are not to be denied even
to those who err from the faith," but to act up to this
maxim in the most uncompromising manner. In one
instance a Jew at Rome had been murdered by his
Christian slaves. The perpetrators of the crime were
condemned to death. The people of the city could
hardly believe that such a monstrous sentence would
be carried out, and, when the execution actually took
place, the mob made a furious attack on the Jews, and
burnt their synagogue. The offenders were brought
before the senate for trial, and pleaded the many acts
of extortion of which they said the Jews had been
guilty. They were told that these complaints were
nothing to the purpose ; if the Jews had acted illegally
the courts were open, but acts of violence would meet
with due punishment, whether committed upon Jew
or Gentile. Another case of synagogue burning
occurred at Ravenna, and in that instance the build
ing had to be restored at the expense of those who
had destroyed it, while those of the offenders who had
not means to pay were whipped through the streets.
In some places the Jews had been robbed of their

160 THE WISDOM OF THEODERIC.
synagogues by Christian priests, who had converted
the buildings into churches, and now argued that
twenty or thirty years' possession gave a title to the
ownership. But Theoderic would listen to no such
reasoning ; the churches had to be restored to their
original use, notwithstanding all the fierce indignation
of the Christians, few of whom had any sympathy
with the spirit of the text, " I hate robbery for burnt-
offering." It is true that Theoderic, or his secretary,
when writing to the Jews to announce some conces
sion or act of justice in their favour, generally takes
the opportunity to lecture them on the sin of unbelief,
and to express compassion for their gloomy prospects
in the next world. But he is always careful to add
that their perversity in this respect is no reason for
treating them with injustice. One of his letters written
on an occasion of this kind ends with the significant
words, " Religion is not a thing which we can com
mand, because no man can be compelled to believe
against his will." It is to Theoderic's eternal honour
that he was willing to brave the fierce indignation of
the vast majority of his subjects for the sake of doing
justice to a weak and oppressed people.
We have already said that Theoderic, though bear
ing the title only of king, aspired to fulfil the perfect
ideal of a Roman Caesar. He did not neglect to
display the bounty and magnificence which were
appropriate to the character. You remember how
" Bread and Circus games " was the demand which the
Roman populace used to make of their rulers in the
palmy days of the empire. It was long since these
demands had been satisfied by imperial generosity,

"BREAD AND CIRCUS-GAMES." l6l
but now once more the poor of Rome and the other
Italian cities received their periodical gifts of food,
and the public spectacles were exhibited with some
thing like their ancient splendour, though happily
without the cruel fights of gladiators, in which the
heathen world delighted. The king himself took great
pleasure in the theatre and in exhibitions of gymnastic
skill. To those who are accustomed to regard " the
Goths" as tasteless destroyers of the vestiges of
ancient civilization, it will seem strange to be told
of the extraordinary zeal which Theoderic displayed
in the preservation of the buildings and statues of
antiquity. But perhaps there had never been a
Roman emperor who was so anxiously concerned
about this matter as' this barbarian king. In the
official letters of his secretary Cassiodorus we find
continual proofs of Theoderic's endeavours to arrest
the destruction of the works of ancient art. Judging
him by his conduct in this respect, we might fairly
say that he was the first civilized ruler that Italy had
had for centuries. The Christian emperors had allowed
their subjects to use the temples and other public
edifices of heathen days as quarries for their own
buildings, and not seldom had they been themselves
guilty of pulling down venerable historical monu
ments to erect new buildings in their place. Theoderic
indignantly forbade this work of waste and ruin. He
was himself a great builder, and bestowed honours
and rewards freely on those who adorned the cities
with splendid works of architecture ; but it was a
saying of his that " reverently to preserve the old was

CHURCH OF SAN VITALE, RAVENNA.
( Commenced by Theoderic in 525 ; completed under Witigis in 539.)

ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE ARTS. 163
even better than to build afresh." Except an act of
extortion or oppression on the part of one of his own
officials, nothing excited his anger so fiercely as any
wanton destruction of works of art. On one occasion
he was informed that a bronze statue had been stolen
from a public place at Como during the night. In hot
haste he writes to Thankila the senator (from his
name evidently a Gothic officer, and apparently
governor of the city), ordering him to offer a reward of
a hundred gold pieces for the discovery of the perpe
trator, and to have a strict inquiry made of all the
metal smiths of the town, as it was probable that such
a theft could not have been carried out without
skilled assistance. This letter was promptly followed
by another, in which a free pardon was offered to the
guilty person if he confessed and made restitution,
otherwise, in the event of a discovery, the penalty
was to be death. In the year 500 Theoderic spent
six months at Rome, and in his letters he often refers
to the profound admiration which had been inspired
in him by the contemplation of the treasures of
ancient art. The grandeur of the forum of Trajan,
especially, is often mentioned by him. While at
Rome, he decreed that a sum of 200 pounds weight
of gold (£8,000 sterling, or 40,000 dollars) should be
set apart every year for the repair of the walls and
the public buildings. It used to be the fashion to .
blame " the Goths " for the destruction of the monu
ments of ancient Rome ; but the truth is that we are
indebted to a Gothic king for the preservation of
many a noble building which, but for his pious care,
would have totally disappeared.

164 THE WISDOM OF THEODERIC.
Theoderic was earnestly desirous that his reign
should be distinguished, not only as a period in which
the ancient masterpieces were protected and valued,
but also as a period of original artistic productiveness.
In this it was impossible for him to succeed, for in the
many years of misery and disorder from which Italy,
and the Roman world generally, had suffered, the
nobler arts had fallen into hopeless decline. But at
any rate he spared no labour or cost in seeking out
and rewarding the best architects, sculptors, and
painters that could be found ; and one branch of art,
namely, mosaic-work, may be said to have attained per
haps its highest level in his reign. When we read of the
enormous number of works which Theoderic carried
out — building of churches, theatres, palaces, public
baths, not only in Rome, Ravenna, and Verona, the
three capitals of his kingdom, but in many of the
smaller cities of Italy — we are at first tempted to
accuse him of recklessly lavish expenditure ; but we
are informed that although he found the treasury
deeply in debt, his wise management not only enabled
him to find money for all these costly undertakings,
but to leave the finances of the kingdom in a
thoroughly prosperous condition.
Although Theoderic was not so ignorant of books
as he is commonly said to have been, it is not likely
that he had any great appreciation of literature. But
to protect and encourage literature was part of the
duty of a pattern Roman emperor, and Theoderic
was not wanting in this respect. The age was one of
miserable degeneracy, in letters even more than in
art ; but the principal writers and scholars of the

MEN OF LETTERS AND SCIENCE. 1 65
time, such as they were, were all rewarded by Theo
deric with honours and official rank. There was
Cassiodorus, whom he made his " quaestor " and sec
retary of state — an orator, historian, theologian, and
grammarian, many of whose writings still exist.
Poor enough in literary merit they certainly are, but
they show a good knowledge of classical literature,
and give us besides a very favourable impression of
the author's upright and kindly character. His
twelve books of official letters, written in the names
of Theoderic and his successors, are of great value to
the historian, though they are perhaps the most
bombastic State papers ever known in Europe, not
excepting the Latin charters of some of the Anglo-
Saxon kings. One work of his which has unfortu
nately perished in his " History of the Goths," of
which the history by Jordanes, so often quoted in
the early part of this book, is a very clumsy abridge
ment. Jordanes says that he had managed to get a
loan of Cassiodorus's history for three days, and that
his own book was written chiefly from the hasty
notes he had been able to make in that time.
There was also Symmachus, famed in his own
day for learning and eloquence, the author of a
Roman history in seven books, which has not been
preserved. Theoderic gave him the office of Prefect
of the city of Rome and of patrican. We shall in a
future chapter have to tell how Symmachus was put
to death on suspicion of treason, sharing the fate
of his more renowned son-in-law, the philosopher
Boethius. Of Boethius himself there is much more to be said,

166 THE WISDOM OF THEODERIC.
for he is by far the greatest literary name of Theo
deric's reign, or indeed of the whole sixth century.
Of noble rank, and born to great wealth, he devoted
his leisure to the study of science, and to the task of
rendering the treasures of Greek learning accessible
to his countrymen. It was from his translations and
commentaries that the Western world became ac
quainted with the writings of Aristotle on logic, which
had so powerful an influence that they set all the
great minds of Europe, for eight or nine centuries,
studying nothing else than the theory of reasoning
and subtle questions of metaphysics, which were
profitless because unanswerable, even if they had any
rational meaning at all. He also translated Greek
treatises on music, astronomy, and mathematics ; he
wrote poetry and books on theological controversy,
and his skill in mechanics was greater than that of
any man of his time. When quite a young man he
was made, by Theoderic, consul and patrician, and
afterwards " Master of the Offices " ; and for many
years there was no man whom the king more deeply
honoured and esteemed. How this career of pros
perity and dignity came to a sudden end — how Boe
thius was accused of treason, judged guilty, and
condemned to death — we shall relate further on.
Theoderic's great anxiety, however, was to restore
to Italy its long-lost material prosperity and plenty.
Of course when the country was firmly and justly
ruled, and the people had protection against violence
and fraud, there was very soon a revival of agricul
ture and trade. Theoderic was eager to help on this
revival by active means. He encouraged the opening

I

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¦IP I

168 THE WISDOM OF THEODERIC.
of iron mines in Dalmatia, and gold mines in the south
of Italy. He assisted the development of the shipbuild
ing and fishing industries. He promoted the draining
of the marshes at Terracina and Spoleto, and granted
the reclaimed land, free from taxes, to those who had
borne the cost of the undertaking. He spent large
sums yearly in the repair of the highways, and in the
restoration of the old aqueducts and the building of
new ones. The extortions of the custom-house
officers, which in the days of the empire (as Cassio
dorus says) " foreign merchants had dreaded more
than shipwreck," were now firmly put down, and the
import duties were assessed by a committee, among
whose members were the bishop and several influen
tial citizens of the seaport town. A uniform standard
of weights and measures was introduced ; the coinage,
which had been debased, was restored to its proper
value, and the uttering of false money was severely
punished. Some other things which Theoderic did with the
same object do not seem to have been equally well
advised. He appointed in every town a committee,
consisting of the bishop and some of the citizens, to
fix the price of articles of food, and inflicted severe
punishment on all tradesmen who ventured to charge
higher rates. The exporting of corn from Italy was
forbidden under heavy penalties ; and if a corn mer
chant was found "speculating for a rise," as it is
called, that is to say, buying up a large quantity of
grain when it was cheap, in order to sell it at a great
profit when it became dearer, the king compelled
him to sell out his stock immediately at cost price.

THE GOTHS AND THEIR SOVEREIGN. 169
No doubt these measures did more harm than good ;
but they were well meant, and show how zealously
Theoderic strove to promote the welfare of his sub
jects, especially of the poorer part of them. And on
the whole his philanthropic policy was wonderfully
successful. In after times people looked back to the
reign of Theoderic as to a period of almost fabulous
plenty and prosperity.
So much for Theoderic's relations with his Roman
subjects. With the Goths his relations were to some
extent different. Though they lived amongst the
Romans, the Goths did not become blended with
them ; they were still a separate nation, with their
separate laws and a separate system of government.
Just as in their earlier days, the army and the nation
were really the same thing ; the officers who led the
people in war judged and ruled them in peace. It
must be remembered that Theoderic had no soldiers
except his Goths ; the native Italians were not
allowed to enter the army. The Goths of each
province were governed by a military chief, called
the " Count of the Goths," who in time of peace was
accountable only to the king himself. When a law
suit arose between Goth and Goth, it was judged by
the count, according to Gothic law ; while cases
between Goth and Roman were tried before the count
and a Roman judge sitting together.
But still the political constitution of the Ostro
gothic kingdom had undergone a great change.
The Gothic warriors had gained a settled home,
lands, and money ; but they had paid for these
advantages by the loss of their ancient freedom.

170 THE WISDOM OF THEODERIC.
Their popular assembly met no more to make laws
or to decide the policy of the State. The king acted
as he chose, without asking their advice or consent.
Over Goths as well as Romans, though under dif
ferent forms, Theoderic reigned as a despot — a just
and merciful despot, indeed, but a despot neverthe
less. Although, as we have said, the two nations
were governed in the main according to their own
laws, Theoderic issued a brief code of his own, which
so far as its provisions extended was binding both on
Romans and Goths. This code was chiefly founded
on the law of the Roman Empire, but many points in
it are plainly of Theoderic's own devising. No offences,
we can well believe, were so hateful to the Gothic
king's justice-loving soul as the taking of bribes by
judges and the bringing of false accusations of crime.
The first of these, under the Roman law, had been
punished by transportation to an island and confis
cation of property. Theoderic (who significantly
makes it the subject of the very first paragraph of
his edict) decreed that the penalty should be death.
The emperors had already punished the false accuser
with death ; in the new law he is ordered to be burnt
alive. On the other hand, some of Theoderic's alte
rations of the Roman code are on the side of mercy.
The later emperors had enacted that when a man
was condemned for any crime, his property should be
forfeited to the State, unless he had parents or
children. Theoderic ordained that if the condemned
man had relatives as far as the third degree their
right to inheritance should be undisturbed.
The Ostrogoths sometimes murmured over the loss

HIS POLITICAL AIMS. 171
of their freedom ; perhaps they may sometimes have
been indignant at the severity with which the king
punished all lawlessness on their part, all insulting or
oppressive conduct towards their Italian fellow-sub
jects. But they never rebelled, though as the only
armed people in the kingdom they had every oppor
tunity of doing so successfully. If they blamed the
king for taking away their liberties, they could not
help seeing that he was no selfish tyrant, but a ruler
who laboured zealously and wisely for the common
good of all. If he was stern to wrong-doers, they
knew that he did not neglect to honour and reward
faithful service ; and they had learned to value the
blessings of ordered and settled life too well to think
of overthrowing the sovereign to whose firmness and
sagacity their enjoyment of these blessings was due.
Theoderic did not, as has sometimes been thought,
endeavour to unite the Goths and the Romans into one
nation. Perhaps he may have hoped that such a union
would at some time be realized under his successors.
But in his own day he was content that the two peo
ples should live together in mutual friendship and
respect, each of them being charged with its own
special function in the commonwealth. The Goths
were to undertake the defence of the country from
attack, the maintenance of order, and the execution
of the law ; the Romans were to labour for the de
velopment of art and science ; while in the cultivation
of the soil both nations were to take their part. So
long as Theoderic lived this ideal seems to have been
in a great degree realized.
It is no wonder that Theoderic became the subject

172 THE WISDOM OF THEODERIC.
of many fabulous stories, and that tradition repre
sented his reign as having been almost a kingdom
of heaven upon earth. Even before the sixth century
closed, men told in Italy nearly the same story that
was told in England respecting the days of Alfred —
how the great king had so made righteousness to pre
vail in his realm that gold pieces could be left exposed
on the highway for a year and a day without being
stolen. Many of his sayings were quoted as proverbs
in the land, and anecdotes were related to show how,
like Solomon in the matter of the two mothers and
their infants, Theoderic had displayed in the judg
ment seat his wonderful insight into human nature.
But it was not in Italy or amongst the Goths that
his legendary fame reached its highest point. The
whole Teutonic race regarded his glory as their own,
and his imagined deeds were the theme of popular
songs in all the German lands. The story of " Diet
rich of Bern " (the High German way of pronouncing
" Theoderic of Verona ") is indeed, as told in the
poems, very different from the history of the real
Theoderic. He is described as the vassal of Attila
and the foe of Ermanaric, who is partly confounded
with Odovacar ; and in some of the songs "Dietrich"
is even represented as vanquished, and as a fugitive or
a captive. But amid all this strange distortion of the
history, the character of the legendary Dietrich is
essentially that of the Gothic king. A lover of peace
and justice, he never takes the sword save unwillingly
and at the call of duty; but when he is once prevailed
upon to fight there is none more fearless and more
terrible than he. The traditions embodied in popular

THE WEAK POINTS OF HIS SYSTEM.

1 73

poetry are generally wildly confused with regard to
the order of events, but the accounts they give of the
characters of famous men are often wonderfully true.
Probably it is not without good reason that the German
songs have confounded Odovacar with the cruel and
treacherous Ermanaric.
The reign of Theoderic is perhaps the finest exam
ple in all history of what is called a " beneficent
despotism." No freer system of government could
under the circumstances have produced such wonderful
results ; perhaps with a freer system Theoderic could
not have established or maintained his kingdom at all.
But the efficiency of the government depended wholly
on the wisdom and energy of one man, and it might
easily have been foreseen that grave troubles would
arise when the sceptre passed into weaker hands. For
this reason a great historian T has described Theoderic's
whole policy as " a blunder of genius " ; and we can
hardly deny that this harsh and exaggerated judg
ment has in it something of truth. Even the great
king himself, in the last three years of his life, when
his marvellous vigour of mind had been impaired by
age, found himself involved in perplexities with which
he was unable to deal. But the sad story of the mis
takes that tarnished the lustre of a glorious reign must
be reserved for a future chapter.
1 F. Dahn.

XVIII.
THEODERIC AND HIS FOREIGN NEIGHBOURS.
THE more Italy prospered under Theoderic's wise
and kindly rule, the more she became a tempting prize
to the ambition of foreign kings. Theoderic knew
this well ; and he knew besides that the military
strength of his kingdom was after all only small. The
Ostrogothic army was far inferior in numbers to that
of the Franks alone ; and if it should happen that
the kings of Europe should discover his weakness, and
should band themselves together for an united attack
upon the kingdom, there was little hope that he would
be able to resist them by force of arms. It would have
been of no avail for him to labour for the well-being
of his subjects, if a foreign conqueror were to overrun
the land, and bring to ruin the fabric of order and
prosperity which he had raised. And if even if he
could have been sure of vanquishing every foe that
came against him in the field, he knew that the suc
cess of his noble plans was only possible so long as he
could ensure the continuance of peace. Famous war
rior though he had been in earlier days, no visions of
military glory blinded his perception of what was his
kingdom's one overwhelming need.
The great aim of Theoderic's foreign policy was

ROYAL MARRIAGES. 175
therefore to attach all the Teutonic kings to himself
by ties of friendship, and to make them look up to
him as a superior, with whom it was unwise to quarrel.
He connected his family by marriage with nearly every
royal house in Europe. His sister was given in marriage
to Thrasamund, king of the Vandals, and his niece to
the Thuringian king, Ermanfrid. One of his daughters
became the wife of Alaric of Toulouse, and another
was married to Sigismund, the heir, and afterwards the
successor of Gundobad, king of the Burgunds. The
mother of these princesses, who does not seem to have
been regarded as Theoderic's lawful wife, was dead,
and he married Audafleda, the sister of Clovis.
It may be mentioned here that Audafleda had only
one child, a daughter named Amalaswintha. The idea
of hereditary succession to the throne was now begin
ning to be much more fully recognized among the
Teutonic peoples than it had been anciently, and
Amalaswintha was therefore regarded as heiress of the
kingdom. When Amalaswintha grew up to woman
hood, the question who should be her husband was a
very important one, for it practically involved the
succession to the kingdom. If her father had bestowed
her on a prince of any other royal house, the Ostro
goths would have felt that they were sold into the
hands of a foreign nation ; and if he had chosen one
of his own generals, or some Roman noble, he would
have excited jealousies that would very likely have
proved dangerous. However, Theoderic found a way
out of the difficulty that seems to have satisfied every
one. At the Court of the Visigoth king there was an
Amaling prince named Eutharic, the great-grandson

176 THEODERIC AND HIS FOREIGN NEIGHBOURS.
of that King Thorismund, after whose death the throne
of the Ostrogoth had remained vacant for forty years,
until their Hunnish masters allowed them to choose a
king once more. Now according to the new-fashioned
principle of inheritance, this Eutharic had a better
right to be king than Theoderic himself, and when the
latter died there would very likely be a party ready to
support his claim. So Theoderic prudently invited
this prince into Italy, and by marrying him to Ama
laswintha united the two branches of the Amaling
stock. Eutharic was entrusted with important offices
in the kingdom, and he seems to have been a man of
some vigour and capacity for government. His
liberality and magnificence won him many friends
among the Romans, though the Catholic writers say
he was a bigoted Arian, and not at all disposed to
follow his father-in-law's policy of toleration. How
ever, Eutharic died a few years before Theoderic,
leaving a son named Athalaric, who while yet an in
fant was proclaimed king of Italy.
It was Theoderic's wish that the Teutonic peoples
of Europe should form a sort of league, bound together
by the brotherhood of race, and by the family con
nections of their kings. The Ostrogoths of course
were to be at the head of the league, and enlightened
by the traditions of Roman statesmanship which they
inherited as possessors of the Western empire, were to
lead the kindred peoples along the path of civilization.
Like all Theoderic's schemes, this magnificent plan
could only be worked by a man of genius. But while
the man of genius lived it was wonderfully successful.
The kings of the other Teutonic peoples — Franks,

A QUARREL WITH THE EMPEROR. iyy
Visigoths, Vandals, and the rest — looked up with re
spect to the sovereign of Rome ; they sought his medi
ation in their quarrels, and allowed him to write to
them in the tone of a superior. If they did not always
follow the counsels which he gave, they at least re
ceived them with abundant professions of deference
and gratitude.
But notwithstanding Theoderic's love of peace, the
annals of his reign include two great foreign wars —
one with Constantinople, the other with the Franks
— which together occupied about five years.
The war with the Eastern empire began in this way.
Theoderic had been endeavouring to secure his north
eastern frontier, which, as he knew from the success
of his own invasion, was the weakest point of his
kingdom. In order to make himself safe against any
possible designs on the part of the emperor, he culti
vated the friendship of the petty chiefs who ruled in
the neighbourhood of the old dividing line between
the two empires. Amongst these was a certain
Mundo the Hun, a descendant, it was said, of Attila.
He was a sort of brigand captain, who had assumed
the title of king somewhere in the district now known
as Servia. The Gepids, who were still inhabiting the
neighbourhood of the river Save, refused Theoderic's
offers of alliance, and made an attack upon his
territories. In the year 504 Theoderic sent an army
against the Gepids, under a commander named Pitzia,
who soon captured their chief fortress of Sirmium,
and compelled their king Thrasaric to acknowledge
himself Theoderic's vassal. Just at the same time,
the emperor Anastasius, having heard that Mundo

178 THEODERIC AND HIS FOREIGN NEIGHBOURS.
had been committing depredations on the neighbour
ing lands of the empire, sent against him his general
Sabinianus. The imperial troops, assisted by the
Bulgars — this famous nation is now for the first time
mentioned in history — had almost succeeded in com
pelling Mundo to surrender, when Pitzia appeared in
defence of his master's ally, and inflicted on the
emperor's general a crushing defeat. Amongst the
Goths who specially distinguished themselves in this
campaign was a young officer named Thulwin, who
afterwards became one of Theoderic's closest friends.
By way of revenge for this discomfiture, Anastasius
caused his fleet to ravage the south of Italy. Theo
deric was at first unprepared to defend himself against
this attack, but he soon succeeded in forming a naval
force which compelled Anastasius to leave him un
molested. After the year 508 the peace between
Anastasius and Theoderic was not again broken, and
under the succeeding emperor, Justin, the relations
between Constantinople and Ravenna were still more
friendly. Before Theoderic had done with this quarrel, he
found himself drawn into another, the consequences
of which were of much greater importance. This
time his adversary was the king of the Franks.
The rapidly growing power of Clovis, and his
evident unscrupulousness and ambition, had long
been regarded by Theoderic with well-founded alarm.
In the year 496 Clovis had gained a decisive victory
over the Alamans, the German nation from whom in
modern French all Germans have received the name
of Allemands. Theoderic sent a letter to the con-

HIS MEDIATION REJECTED BY CLOVIS. 179
queror, offering him his congratulations, but earnestly
entreating him to deal mercifully with the vanquished.
Although Clovis might make a show of receiving
these exhortations respectfully, he paid little attention
to them in practice, and Theoderic granted to the
persecuted Alamans a new home in the northern part
of his own dominions — in Rhaetia, or what is now
known as Southern Bavaria. Clovis pursued his
career of conquest ; in a few years he had subdued
the Burgunds, and was threatening to bring the
combined armies of Franks and Burgunds to the
subjugation of the Visigoths.
Theoderic laboured earnestly to prevent the out
break of war between Clovis and Alaric. To the
former he wrote " as a father and as a friend," ex
horting him not to engage in a fratricidal conflict the
result of which was uncertain, and which could bring
him no true glory ; and he added that if Clovis de
clared war he should consider the act as an insult to
himself. To Alaric, on the other hand, he laid stress
on the danger of rushing unprepared into the struggle,
and urged him to make every honourable concession,
and not to draw the sword until the efforts which he
himself was making to bring Clovis to reason should
have proved unavailing.
But it was all in vain that Theoderic exerted his
powers of persuasion. The Frankish king was bent
on war. Alaric, indeed, was only too willing to yield,
but he soon saw that no concession would save him.
We have already related the sad story of the war of
the year 507 — how the Visigothic king was compelled
by his generals to risk a battle without waiting for

180 THEODERIC AND HIS FOREIGN NEIGHBOURS.
Theoderic's promised aid, and how the result was the
death of Alaric and the conquest of his Gaulish
dominions by the Franks.
It was the war with Anastasius that prevented
Theoderic from intervening in time to save Alaric
from ruin. As soon as peace was concluded with the
emperor, in June, 508, an Ostrogothic army, led by
the Count Ibba, Theoderic's principal general, entered
Southern Gaul. Before very long Ibba had gained
a decisive victory over the Franks and Burgunds, and
in the following year Clovis was glad to make a treaty
of peace, in which he acknowledged the infant Am
alaric (the son of Alaric) as sovereign, not only of
Spain, but of a considerable tract of country in the
south-east of Gaul, including the great cities of Aries
and Narbonne. The greater part of Provence, east
of the Rhone, was added by Theoderic to his own
dominions. Theoderic now assumed the government of the
Visigothic kingdom, as the guardian of his infant
grandson. An illegitimate half-brother of Amalaric
endeavoured to make himself king, but after a struggle
of about a year he was defeated and put to death.
Theoderic committed the management of the Spanish
dominions to one of his generals, named Theudis, who
however collected a native army, and became so power
ful that his master was reluctantly obliged to allow him
practically to assume the position of a tributary king.
Still, this extension of his empire carried with it
an increase of respect amongst foreign sovereigns, and
his nominal lordship over Spain was maintained
without cost.

A BLOODLESS CONQUEST. l8l
In the year 523 Theoderic made another addition
to the territory of his kingdom. It was a military
.conquest, and yet it was won without striking a blow.
This apparently contradictory statement is easily ex
plained. Sigismund, king of the Burgunds, prompted
by the malice of his second wife, had murdered his
own son, the grandson of Theoderic. Thulwin, the
general of Theoderic, marched to Lyons with an
Ostrogothic army, to inflict punishment on the guilty
king. When he arrived, however, Sigismund had
already been captured by the sons of Clovis and put
to death ; and the new king, Godemar, who was carry
ing on the war with the Franks, eagerly offered to
resign to Theoderic the southern half of his kingdom
as the price of peace. Thulwin therefore returned in
triumph, having secured all the substantial fruits of a
victory without the cost of a single life.
The vessel which conveyed Thulwin home was
wrecked by a fearful storm in full view of the port
where Theoderic was waiting to welcome his friend.
Thulwin, taking his only child in his arms, sprang
into a boat, and rowed for the shore. The specta
tors of his struggles thought it almost impossible
that the boat could live, and the old king's anguish
was so great that he could with difficulty be restrained
from plunging into the sea in a hopeless attempt at
rescue. The crew of the ship all perished in their
efforts to reach the land. But Thulwin's strength
and skill enabled him to gain the shore in safety, and
Theoderic ran to embrace him, shedding tears of joy
for his escape. It was perhaps the last happy
moment that the old king enjoyed in his life.

XIX.
THEODERIC'S EVIL DAYS.
Happy would it have been for Theoderic if he had
died in the beginning of the year 523, instead of living
three years longer. Till that time he had succeeded
in all his undertakings ; he possessed the respect and
affection of the great mass of his subjects ; and he
had never committed any great mistake, or shown
himself unfaithful to the noble ideal of justice and
mercy which he had set himself to realize. In the
last three years of his life all this was changed. He
discovered, or was made to believe, that those in whom
he had most implicitly trusted were conspiring for his
ruin. His mind, worn by age and by the cares of his
laborious reign, became a prey to universal suspicion,
which impelled him to rash and violent deeds strangely
at variance with the whole spirit of his reign. The
benefactor of Italy died full of remorse and shame
for the acts of folly and wrong which had gone so
far to undo the work of thirty toilsome years.
The beginning of trouble was early in the year 523,
when Cyprian, one of the king's chief ministers,
informed Theoderic, then at Verona, that Albinus, a
wealthy Roman noble and a senator, was guilty of
entertaining a treasonable correspondence with the

THE CONDEMNATION OF BOETHIUS. 183
emperor at Constantinople. A court, composed of
the ministers and the principal senators was assembled
in the royal palace to hear the case. Albinus was con
fronted with his accuser, and denied the charge.
Amongst those who were present was Boethius, of
whose wealth and influence, as well as his fame as a
philosopher and a man of science, we have already
spoken. On hearing the accusations against Albinus,
Boethius lifted up his voice with the words : " My lord
the king, the charge is false. If Al.binus be guilty,
so am I, and so is every other member of the senate!"
But instead of protecting Albinus, as Boethius
expected it would, this emphatic declaration only drew
down suspicion upon himself. Witness after witness,
all of them members of the senate, came forward, and
brought what seemed to be clear proof that not only
Albinus, but Boethius also, had been plotting against
his sovereign. The accused were captured at Pavia,
and thrown into prison. The written testimony of
the witnesses was sent to Rome, and laid before the
senate, who unanimously condemned Boethius to
death, without allowing him to answer for himself or
to cross-question his accusers. What became of
Albinus history does not say.
Boethius was not put to death at once, but was kept
nearly a year in prison. After his condemnation he
wrote that famous book " The Consolation of Philo
sophy," which is the only one of all his works that still
finds readers. It is not exactly a literary masterpiece,
but as a book written from the heart, as the record of
the meditations by which a brave and high-minded
man consoled himself when, fallen suddenly from the

184 theoderic's evil days.
height of wealth and power to the lowest abyss of
misery, he was looking forward to an ignominious
death, it has a deep interest, and will always be
counted among the world's classics. It has been
translated into every language in Europe ; and
amongst the English translators have been King
Alfred, Chaucer, and, we are told, Queen Elizabeth.
Whether Boethius was really guilty of treason will
never be known for certain. He says himself that the
evidence on which he was condemned consisted partly
of forged letters ; but his words imply that his own
conduct had given some ground for suspicion. It
seems most likely that he had been drawn into some
correspondence with Constantinople inconsistent with
his duty to his king, but that his enemies had resorted
to falsehood and forgery to strengthen their case
against him. One of the charges, it seems, was that
he had tried to compass the king's death by witchcraft ;
in those days a very likely accusation to be brought
against the most learned man of science of the age.
It is worth notice that Boethius himself, though
smarting under the injustice of his sentence, does not
omit to bear testimony to the love of righteousness
shown by the king in earlier days, and to record the
indignation which he always showed at any act of
oppression on the part of his Gothic ministers.
After the death of Boethius, his father-in-law, the
aged Symmachus, was sent for to Ravenna, and
executed, apparently without a trial, and for no other
reason than that it was feared that he would conspire
to avenge his relative. The wild panic which possessed
Theoderic's mind is shown by his issuing an edict

A POPE PLEADING FOR HERETICS. 185
forbidding all Romans, under heavy penalties, to carry
or possess arms.
Even the policy of religious liberty, which Theoderic
had regarded as one of the proudest glories of his
reign, was now to be abandoned. This change' was
provoked by the conduct of the court of Constantinople,
which in the year 5 24 decreed that the Arian churches
throughout the empire should be taken from their
rightful owners and consecrated afresh for Catholic
use. The news filled Theoderic with the fiercest
indignation. He sent for the Pope, John the First,
and compelled him at once to set out for Constanti
nople as his ambassador, to demand from the emperor
the restoration of his Arian subjects to their former
rights. Pope John was received by the emperor with the
profoundest demonstrations of respect. It is even said
that Justin submitted to the ceremony of a second
coronation, by way of testifying his reverence for the
head of the Christian Church. The pope was well
assured that if he returned to Italy without having
accomplished his errand his life would be forfeited ;
and so, against his will, he achieved the distinction of
being the only Roman pontiff who ever pleaded with
a Catholic monarch for the toleration of heretics. He
represented to the emperor the danger which would
be incurred by himself and the church of Italy if the
request were refused. Justin was constrained to yield.
The edict was repealed ; the Arian churches were
given back to their original possessors. Theoderic's
demands were fully complied with, except in one
point ; the Arians whom fear or interest had induced

186 theoderic's evil days.
to join the Catholic Church were not to be allowed to
apostatise back again.
The pope returned to Italy to announce the success
of his embassy. But Theoderic had been informed—
whether truly or falsely we cannot tell — that his
strangely chosen messenger had taken advantage of
his visit to Constantinople to betray to the emperor
the weakness of the kingdom, and to urge him to
attempt an invasion. The pope was thrown into
prison, where he died in May, 526 ; and the king,
feeling now that the whole Catholic Church had
become his enemy, promulgated a decree that the
orthodox worship should be suppressed, and that the
churches should on a given day be transferred to
Arian hands. But before the edict could be carried
into effect Theoderic was dead.
It was in August, 526, he was seized with his fatal
illness. A story, which may or may not be true,
ascribes this sickness to the terrors of a guilty
conscience. It is said that when seated at supper
he fancied that he discovered in the head of a large
fish that had been placed on the table a likeness to
Symmachus, and rushed from the room exclaiming
that the face of- the murdered senator was looking at
him with eyes full of hatred and revenge. He then
took to his bed, complaining of deadly cold which
nothing could remove. His frenzied delusion passed
away, but the self-reproach that had caused it con
tinued, and he expressed to his physician, his bitter
repentance for the murders of Symmachus and
Boethius. When Theoderic knew that his end was near, he

HIS DYING COMMANDS. 187
sent for his Gothic generals and the Roman ministers
of state, that they might bid him farewell and receive
his last commands. He appointed his grandson
Athalaric, a boy of ten years old, as the heir of the
kingdom, and the child's mother Amalaswintha, as
regent during his minority. The chiefs of the army
and the state took, in Theoderic's presence, a solemn
oath of fidelity to Amalaswintha and Athalaric ; and
then the dying king talked with them long and
earnestly of the policy that was to be followed in the
government of Italy when he should be no more. He
urged them to endeavour to maintain friendship with
the emperor, to forget their jealousies of race and
creed, and to labour unitedly for the common welfare
of the people. Above all, he charged them to be
faithful to those great principles of equal justice to all,
of strict obedience to law, which at heart he had
always loved, even though, amid the infirmities of age
and blinded by panic terror, he had for a moment let
them slip. He further directed that the government
of the Visigoth kingdom should be placed unreservedly
in the hands of Amalaric, who was now grown up to
manhood, and no longer needed a guardian.
On the thirtieth of August Theoderic died. His
remains, enclosed in a coffin of porphyry, were placed
in a vast circular tomb of white marble at Ravenna,
which afterwards became the church of Santa Maria
della Rotonda, and still remains entire, though no
longer used for worship. A century or two after
Theoderic's death, when the Goths had been driven
out of Italy and the Catholics were once more
supreme, the tomb was robbed of its contents. The

^^UUUUUl.lUUUl-aj 1 I 1*11 fl OJJUUUuUlxlaJLiAjL^^ PORTION OF A GOTHIC DEED.
(Italy, sixth century. )
" I, Wilyarith the notary have signed with my own hand ; and we have received 60 'shillings ' [i.e. solidi ; the solidus was
a gold coin then worth about ro shillings] ; and previously, by way of loan, and jointly with our deacon Alamod and our
colleagues, we received 120 ' shillings,' the price of these water-meadows." [This is one of several subscriptions to a deed
relating to a sale of a piece of land by the clergy of a Gothic church at Ravenna to a certain Peter ; the price of the land
was 180 " shillings, " and the church owed Peter r2o ' ' shillings " for " caution-money. " The document is believed to be of
the year 551, and was found at Naples.]

HIS TOMB VIOLATED. 189
porphyry coffin was found at the door of a neighbour
ing monastery. What became of the body was
unknown, but a discovery made some thirty years
ago may, it has been supposed, possibly throw some
light upon the question. In the year 1854 some
labourers who were excavating a dock, one or two
hundred yards from the tomb of Theoderic, came
upon a skeleton in golden armour, with large jewels
in the helmet and the hilt of the sword. The place
was an ancient cemetery, but the body had evidently
not been regularly buried ; it had just been thrust into
the earth in as hurried a manner as possible. The
workmen had intended to keep their lucky find to
themselves, but the secret leaked out, and came to the
knowledge of the authorities. The men were arrested,
and made a full confession ; but of the golden armour
there was nothing left but a few pieces of the cuirass ;
all the rest had been melted up and sold.
Now, who was the warrior or prince wmose body
had the strange fate of being buried in golden and
jewelled armour, and yet not in a stately sepulchre,
but in a shallow trench dug in a common graveyard ?
Some have thought that it was Odovacar; but it
seems more likely that it was Odovacar's conqueror.
If the skeleton found in 1854 was, indeed, that of
Theoderic, it is plain that those who plundered the
tomb of the Arian king were moved only by religious
hate, and not by selfish greed, or they would have
stolen the gold and jewels instead of burying them
with their owner. How fierce was the hatred felt by
pious churchmen for Theoderic's memory we may
learn from the dialogues of the famous pope, Gregory

190 THEODERIC'S EVIL DAYS.
the Great, who tells how, at the moment of the heretic
monarch's death, a saintly hermit beheld in a vision
his soul dragged by the victims of his persecutions,
and cast into the mouth of the volcano of Lipari.
Here ends the story of Theoderic the Great. To
estimate his character aright we must look not at
those last sad three years, when, with a mind
weakened by age and stung into fury by the
treachery of trusted friends,, he stained by deeds of
cruelty and wrong the glory of a great career, but
at the thirty years which he spent in unselfish labour
for the welfare of his people. If we so judge him,
we shall surely assign to him a place among the
noblest men who ever wore a crown. Perhaps Alfred
of England — different as the two were in many ways
— is of all the kings known to history the one with
whom Theoderic may most fitly be compared ; and
it would be hard to say which was the greater man.

COINS OF THEODERIC.

XX.
A QUEEN'S TROUBLES.
The Ostrogoths must have thought it a strange
thing that the kingdom over which the great
Theoderic had so long reigned should now be
governed by a woman in the name of a child.
Never before had this nation of warriors humbled
itself by submitting to female rule, and scarcely ever
had it acknowledged an infant as its king. In the
old days of freedom the custom had been, whenever
their king died and left no heir old enough to lead
the army to battle or preside in the assembly, for the
people to choose as his successor the ablest man
amongst the kindred of the royal house. Although
there was no man living who could remember those
good old times, the history of the nation was still
familiar through the popular songs ; and there were
those who talked of going back to the ancient rule,
and placing the crown on the head of Thulwin,
Theoderic's most honoured general, and the husband
of an Amaling princess.
But Thulwin was faithful to the memory of his
beloved master, and, instead of falling in with the
schemes suggested to him, used all his influence to
persuade the Goths to submit loyally to Athalaric

192 A QUEEN'S TROUBLES.
and his mother. Cassiodorus wrote him a grateful
letter in the young king's name, conferring on him
the rank of Patrician, and loading him with praises
for his generous conduct. He compared Thulwin to
a famous hero of the past named Gesimund, whom,
being the adopted son of a king, the people wished
to raise to the throne, to the neglect of the infant
heir, but who refused the choice, and served the
Amaling line with a faithfulness that "was the
theme of song throughout the world, and would be
remembered as long as the Gothic name should
last." There was no other man in the kingdom whose
claims were powerful enough to weigh against the
reverence that was felt for Theoderic's memory ; and
although the Goths might privately sneer or lament
over the altered condition of affairs, they joined their
fellow-subjects in taking the oath of allegiance to
Athalaric and his mother. Perhaps some of them
may have been reconciled to the new government by
the thought that under the weak rule of a woman
they would have more opportunity to oppress their
Roman fellow-subjects than had been allowed them
in the past.
If this was their hope, it was doomed to be dis
appointed. Amalaswintha herself was far more a
Roman than a Goth. She had not, indeed, forgotten
her native language ; but she spoke Greek and Latin
equally well, and took delight in literature and
science. Her chosen friends were all Romans. Cas
siodorus, who seems to have retired for a while into
private life while Theoderic was playing the part

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194 ¦"* QUEEN'S TROUBLES.
of an oppressor, again assumed the office of chief
minister of state, and his letters still remain to show
us what sort of policy was followed. All acts of
outrage on the part of Goths were rigorously inquired
into and severely punished ; the laws with regard to
worship were altered in favour of the Catholics ; the
confiscated estates of Boethius and Symmachus were
restored to their children ; Roman officials were pro
moted and rewarded ; and special exemptions from
taxation were freely granted to the provincials. It
is said that during the whole of her reign Amalas
wintha never punished a single Roman either with
death or loss of property.
But if these measures secured for the queen the
goodwill of the Romans, they excited bitter resent
ment in the minds of her own people. The Goths in
Theoderic's reign had sometimes complained that the
Romans got too much favour ; but they knew in
their hearts that their king aimed at nothing but
equal justice. But now they could make the same
complaint with only too good reason.
What they thought worst of all was the way in
which Amalaswintha was bringing up her son.
Instead of having him taught to ride and fence,
and letting him join in the sports of the young
nobles, she kept him closely to his books, and out
of school hours made him spend his time in the
company of three aged Goths, " the most intelligent
and well-mannered" — which means, of course, the
most like Romans — that she was able to find. The
Gothic warriors said that Athalaric was being edu
cated to be a sickly, useless bookworm, unfit to bear

GOTHIC DISCONTENT. 195
the fatigues or face the dangers of war, and despising
his own people as ignorant barbarians.
One day it happened that Athalaric had done
something wrong, and his mother had beaten him.
The boy went crying into the men's room, and the
Goths who were in attendance soon got to know
what was the matter. " What a shame ! " one of
them said, when Athalaric had told his story ; " it is
plain that what she wants is to kill the child as soon
as she can, so that she can marry a second husband,
and share the kingdom with him." Many angry
speeches were made, and it was agreed that a depu
tation should be sent to expostulate with the queen
on her conduct.
Accordingly a number of the chief Gothic nobles
demanded an audience of Amalaswintha. When
they were admitted into her presence their spokes
man said : " We have come, O queen, to tell you
that we consider that the way in which you are
training up our young king is altogether wrong.
A Gothic king does not want book-learning ; he
needs to know how to fight, and, as your father often
used to say, unless the art of war was learned in
youth it never would be learned at all. He never
allowed Gothic boys to be sent to school ; it was his
maxim that a boy who had trembled at the school
master's rod would never face an enemy's sword.
Look at his own example. There never was a wiser
or a more powerful king than Theoderic, and yet he
knew nothing of book-learning, not even by hearsay.
Therefore, O queen, we demand that you send these
schoolmasters about their business, and let your son

ig6 A QUEEN'S TROUBLES.
be brought up as befits a king of the Goths, among
companions of his own age."
No doubt it was true that Amalaswintha's way of
educating her son was not altogether the right one.
If Theoderic had had the training of an heir to his
kingdom he would have taken care that the boy
should be taught to excel in all manly exercises, and
to display the courage and endurance which his
people above all things demanded in their king. But,
at the same time, he knew the worth of Roman
learning, and though he may have thought it best
that the sons of his Gothic warriors should have little
to do with books, he would not have allowed the
future king of Goths and Romans to grow up in
barbarian ignorance.
Amalaswintha was bitterly indignant at the im
perious demands of the Gothic chiefs, but she knew
it was of no use to resist. She sullenly told them
that they should have their own way ; she gave up
the young king to their management, and promised
to interfere no further with his education.
The result was what might have been expected.
The poor boy, suddenly set free from his mother's
strict control, and with no one else to exercise whole
some restraint over him, fell under the influence of
vicious companions, and spent all his time in drunken
ness and dissipation. It was soon evident to every
one that his health was ruined by his excesses, and
that he would not live to the age of manhood.
But Amalaswintha's concessions availed her no
thing. The continued insolence of the Gothic nobles
made her life a burden. Her commands were seldom

AMALASWINTHA MEDITATES FLIGHT. 197
obeyed, and the kingdom soon fell into utter
disorder. At length she determined to abandon Italy, and
wrote to the emperor Justinian, asking if he would
give her a home in Constantinople. The emperor,
who was eagerly looking out for an opportunity to
make Italy his own, readily consented, and had a
palace splendidly furnished for her at Dyrrhachinm
(Durazzo) on the Greek side of the Adriatic, when it
was agreed that she should live until arrangements
could be made for her to take up her abode in Con
stantinople. Amalaswintha sent over to Dyrrhachium a ship
containing 40,000 pounds weight of gold, and made
all preparations for leaving the country. But before
she took this decisive step, she determined to make
one desperate effort to regain her lost power.
The opposition to Amalaswintha's government was
led by three Gothic nobles who were so powerful that
she felt that if they could only be got rid of she
could rule the kingdom as she chose. She managed
to send these three men to different parts of the
country, under the pretence of employing them for
the defence of the frontiers, and took means to have
them assassinated. In case the plot should fail, she
had a ship in readiness to take her over the Adriatic
at a moment's notice.
But the news came that her three dreaded enemies
were dead, and Amalaswintha abandoned her purpose
of flight. It is supposed that one of the victims of
this shameful murder was no other than Thulwin, the
dear friend of Amalaswintha's father, the loyal servant

198 A QUEEN'S TROUBLES.
who had preferred his duty to his master's house to
the temptation of placing the crown on his own head.
For a while it seemed as if Amalaswintha had
gained her object. The opposition party among the
Goths were thoroughly frightened, and she reigned
over Italy as an absolute sovereign. But her triumph
did not last long.
Justinian was resolved by one means or other to
make himself master of Italy. When he learned
that Amalaswintha had abandoned her intention of
going to live at Constantinople, he had to devise another
plan, and found in one of the queen's own relatives
a tool by which he hoped to accomplish his end.
This was Theodahad, the son of Theoderic's sister
Amalafrida by her first husband. He was a man
somewhat advanced in years, greatly celebrated for
his learning, being well acquainted with Latin litera
ture, and as well with the writings of Plato and the
Holy Scriptures. Unfortunately he was still more
celebrated for his cowardice and his avarice. Nearly
all the land in the province of Tuscany belonged to
him, but he was always scheming to lay hold of some
" Naboth's vineyard " that lay near to his own pro
perty. More than once Theoderic had compelled
him to give back his ill-gotten gains, and just at this
very time Amalaswintha's judges were examining into
fresh charges of extortion brought against him by the
people of his province. Theodahad knew very well
that the case would go against him, and he hated the
queen with the bitterest hatred.
With the intention of having his revenge, and
adding to his own wealth at the same time, Theodahad

JUSTINIAN'S DEMANDS. 199
contrived to let Justinian know that he was ready —
for a sufficient bribe — to deliver up Tuscany into the
emperor's hands. Just then Justinian was sending
over an embassy, partly to Amalaswintha and partly
to the pope, and he instructed his ambassadors to see
Theodahad secretly, and try to bargain with him for
the proposed treason. The price which the traitor
asked was the permission to live in Constantinople,
the rank of senator, and — most important of all — a
large sum of money paid down.
Meanwhile, however, the ambassadors had been
negotiating with the queen. They laid before her a
long list of wrongs which the empire had suffered
from the Goths, and claimed that reparation should
be made. One of the principal demands was that the
Goths should surrender to the emperor the town of
Lilybaeum in Sicily. This was a place which King
Theoderic had given as a present to his sister Amala
frida when she married the Vandal king. Now that
Justinian, through his general Belisarius, had subdued
the Vandals (with the very good will of the Ostrogoths,
who had their own wrongs to avenge), he claimed that
Lilybseum belonged to him as the conqueror ; but
the Goths had taken possession of the place and
would not give it up.
Amalaswintha laid these demands before her minis
ters, and by their advice wrote a very dignified letter
to Justinian, respectfully acknowledging that Athalaric
was the emperor's vassal, but refusing to yield to his
unjust claims, and suggesting that it would be more
worthy of a great sovereign to show kindness to " an
orphan boy " than to try to pick a quarrel with him

200

A QUEEN'S TROUBLES.

over trifles. After having publicly returned tu the
ambassador this queenly answer, the crafty woman
sent for him privately, and made a solemn promise,
which was to be kept strictly secret, that she would
hand over the kingdom to Justinian as soon as the
needful arrangements could be made.
The ambassadors returned to Constantinople. Jus
tinian was delighted with their report; he had secured
" two strings to his bow," and felt no doubt that Italy
would soon be his. He determined to lose no time
in following up his advantage and despatched a
certain Peter of Thessalonica, a famous professor of

^l§P^%llw

COINS OF ATHALARIC.

eloquence at Constantinople, to Italy for the purpose
of making both the queen and her cousin bind them
selves by oath to fulfil their respective parts in the
compact. It is said that the Empress Theodora,
whose jealousy had been excited by the accounts of
Amalaswintha's beauty and accomplishments, gave
Peter private instructions of her own to manage
matters so that the Gothic queen should never come
to Constantinople.
Before Peter had arrived at Ravenna, towards the
end of 534, important events had taken place. On

PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS. 201
October 3rd, Athalaric died of consumption. His
mother continued to rule the kingdom in her own
name, but she felt that her position was full of peril.
The Goths had submitted unwillingly enough to a
female regent ; there was little hope that they would
tolerate anything so unheard of as a female sovereign.
Much as the cowardly Theodahad was hated and
despised, he was the next heir to the crown, and with
their new-fashioned ideas about hereditary succession
it was likely that the Goths would choose him as
their king. Amalaswintha was resolved not to be
set aside : if she meant to resign her kingdom in
favour of Justinian it must be " for valuable con
sideration," and to be dethroned by the Goths would
be ruin to all her prospects.
In her desperate extremity she hit upon a strange
plan, which no doubt she thought wonderfully cun
ning, though it turned out to be the height of folly.
She invited Theodahad to Ravenna, and exhausted
all her eloquence in protestations of the utmost friend
ship and respect for the man whom above all others
she detested, and whom she knew to be her bitterest
enemy. She assured her dear cousin that it had caused
her great pain to have to treat him with apparent
unkindness, but it had all been done for his own good.
Knowing that her poor boy had not many years to
live, she had been anxious that Theodahad should be
his successor, but she had seen that his course of con
duct was prejudicing his future subjects against him,
and endangering his prospect of being acknowledged
as king. She had, therefore, felt it her duty to inter
pose, and she congratulated him that by his obedience

JUSTINIAN AND HIS NOBLES. (From the Mosaics at Ravenna.)

PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS. 203
to her commands he had saved his imperilled popu
larity, so that she could now venture to associate him
with herself in the kingdom. Not that she proposed
to make him her equal in power : she would avail
herself of his valuable advice, he should have the title
of king, and share equally in the outward honours
and the revenues of royalty, but he must take an oath
to leave the actual government of the kingdom en
tirely in her hands.
Of course Theodahad could not for a moment be
deceived by Amalaswintha's absurdly transparent
pretences of friendship, but it is hardly necessary to
say that he professed to be deeply touched by the
discovery that his dear sister, whom he had always
profoundly esteemed, even when he imagined her to
be his enemy, had after all only been dissembling
her love, and with the best possible motives. He
gratefully accepted her offer of the kingly title, and
bound himself by the strongest oaths never to attempt
to make himself king otherwise than in name. But
so far from intending to keep his oath, he was all the
while thinking how he could make himself indepen
dent of Amalaswintha, and inwardly vowing that he
would some day be revenged upon her for all the hu
miliations she had made him suffer. In the game of
mutual imposture which these two were playing, the
daughter of Theoderic was no match for her antago
nist. She fully believed that Theodahad had been
deceived by her clever acting, and had been converted
from an enemy into a humble and grateful friend.
So Amalaswintha and Theodahad were solemnly
proclaimed king and queen of Italy, and each of them

204 a queen's trouble*.
sent to Justinian a letter (drawn up by Cassiodorus,
and still preserved in the collection of his despatches)
informing the emperor that Athalaric was dead, that
Amalaswintha had succeeded him in the kingdom, and
had associated " her brother " Theodahad with herself.
The queen was full of praises of her brother's learning
and virtues, and Theodahad for his part was full of
gratitude for the kindness of " his sister and sovereign ";
and both letters abounded in expressions of respect
for the emperor, and asked his continued protection of
the kingdom. To the senate also Amalaswintha and
Theodahad wrote letters in the same strain of mutual
flattery. Only a few weeks later the faithless Theodahad had
openly allied himself with Amalaswintha's enemies,
the relatives and partisans of the three murdered
chiefs. The men who had been employed in the mur
der were put to death, and the queen herself was
imprisoned on an island in the lake of Bolsena, about
sixty miles north-west of Rome.
Through his ambassador Peter, who now arrived in
Italy, the emperor expressed to Theodahad his dis
pleasure at what had happened, and his intention to
act as Amalaswintha's protector. But not long after
the avengers of the blood of Thulwin and his com
panions found admission to the island castle, and the
imprisoned queen was strangled in her bath.
Amalaswintha's cruel fate was after all the fruit of
her own deeds, and we cannot regard her with the
unqualified pity due to an innocent sufferer. But
her temptations were assuredly great. Surrounded
throughout her reign by conspiracy and treason, in-

AMALASWINTHA MURDERED. 205
volved in perplexities from which there seemed no
escape, it was rather from weakness than from wicked
ness that she allowed herself to resort to those acts of
violence and treachery of which she afterwards met
the just reward.
Theodahad zealously protested to the emperor's
ambassador that he had nothing to do with the mur
der ; but the honours which he bestowed on the men
who perpetrated the deed showed plainly that he had at
least connived at it. The real history of the crime will
never be fully known. It is said on good authority
that Peter, who was professedly the agent of the em
peror, but secretly also the agent of the wicked empress
Theodora, managed to persuade his mistress that
Amalaswintha's death had been brought about by his
own contrivance, and was rewarded by her with high
office in consequence. The correspondence between
the empress and Theodahad's wife Gudelina contains
some mysterious allusions, which have been supposed
to show that these two women had conspired together
to have Amalaswintha murdered. It is possible
enough : in that evil time there were few among the
great ones of the earth who were free from hideous
suspicions, which were often certainties, of being con
cerned in plots for the assassination of their enemies.
Although Justinian had himself no hand in procur
ing the queen's death, yet no event could have been
more fortunate for his schemes. It gave him, what he
had long desired, a good excuse for a war of conquest
against the Goths. To profess himself the avenger of
the murdered daughter of Theoderic was to assume a
character which commanded sympathy not only from

HUffHl
mmSmk

JUSTINIAN RESOLVES ON WAR. 207
all the Romans of Italy, but even from many of the
Goths themselves, who were still loyal to the memory
of their great hero, and were filled with loathing for
the treachery and cowardice of Theodahad. The
weakness of Italy, divided into hostile parties, with
its military system fallen into decay through years of
feeble government, invited attack ; and the emperor
was conscious of the strength which he possessed, not
so much in the numbers of his army as in the talents
and energy of his general Belisarius, " in himself a
host." And so in the year 535, Justinian declared a war
which he vowed should continue until the Gothic power
in Italy was annihilated. He kept his promise ; but
the struggle was harder and longer than he dreamed.
It was not until twenty years had passed that the
sword was sheathed, and Italy became a part of the
dominions of the Eastern empire.

XXI.
AN UNKINGLY KING.
Justinian's design of conquering Italy was a bold
one, for the military power of the empire had sunk so
low that the number of men that could be placed in
the field scarcely amounted to more than ten thousand.
It is true that they were commanded by Belisarius,
whose skill had just been shown in the brilliant cam
paign that crushed the Vandals, and who (so many
modern writers have judged) was one of the greatest
generals of all time. But it was only the distracted
state of Italy, and the helpless weakness of the Gothic
king, that gave to the project of conquest any chance
of success. It was necessary to act at once, lest the
opportunity should be lost ; and yet caution was
equally needed, for the consequences of failure were
terrible. The sagacity of Justinian was equal to the emer
gency. First of all, he wrote to the king of the Franks
announcing that having been deeply wronged by the
Goths, he was about to march against them to recon
quer the portion of his dominions which they had
usurped, and calling upon his fellow Catholics to lend
him their support in a religious war for the expulsion
of the Arian heretics. Having obtained a promise of

THE CAPTURE OF PALERMO. 209
aid from the Franks, he proceeded to make his first
attack in a way that involved little risk, and yet would
be likely to terrify Theodahad into surrender.
It was determined that Belisarius, with seven thou
sand five hundred men, should take shipping under
pretence of going to Carthage, and should land, as if
in passing, in Sicily. If he saw reason to believe that
the island could be occupied without trouble he was
to do so ; if not, he was to sail away to Africa without
letting it be known what his designs had been. At the
same time the Gepid Mundus was sent to make an
attack on the undefended possessions of the Goths on
the east side of the Adriatic.
Both parts of the scheme succeeded perfectly.
Mundus entered Dalmatia, and obtained possession
of the chief city, Salona, without resistance. Belisa
rius found that the people of Sicily were eager to be
freed from Gothic rule. He soon captured Catana ;
Syracuse opened its gates to him ; and the only city
that gave him any trouble was Palermo, which was
strongly fortified, and was held by an important
Gothic garrison. Belisarius called on the Goths to
surrender, but, trusting to the strength of their walls,
they paid no attention to his demand. The stratagem
by which he is said to have gained possession of the
city was a strange one. Anchoring his ships in the
harbour, close to the city wall, he had boat-loads of
archers hoisted up to the tops of the masts. When
the besieged found that they were assailed with
volleys of arrows out of the air, they were terribly
frightened, and at once surrendered. Whether this
curious story be true or not, there is no doubt that in

2IO AN UNKINGLY KING.
a few weeks Belisarius received the submission of the
whole island almost without the loss of a man. The
Goths never forgave the Sicilians for their ingratitude
in so joyfully welcoming the change of masters. It
was not long before the visits of the imperial tax-
gatherers made the islanders feel that the position of
subjects of the empire had its palpable disadvantages.
Notwithstanding the outbreak of hostilities, the
ambassador Peter still continued in communication
with Theodahad, and made it his business to stimu
late, by cunningly dropped hints, the anxiety which
the events of Dalmatia and Sicily had excited in the
king's mind. In this endeavour he was perfectly
successful. The poor wretch was soon brought into
such an agony of terror that he could hardly believe
he was not already a prisoner of war, or — what was
still worse — at the head of his army, and forced to
expose himself to mortal danger. Peter had there
fore very little difficulty in inducing Theodahad to
agree to all his demands ; and a secret agreement
was drawn up, which Peter undertook to submit for
the approval of the emperor. The conditions stipu
lated were : " That the emperor should retain posses
sion of Sicily ; that Theodahad should pay a tribute
of 3 cwt. of gold every year, and supply three thou
sand Gothic soldiers whenever required ; that no
senator or Catholic priest should be punished with
death or confiscation without the emperor's leave ;
that the emperor should have the appointment of
patricians and senators ; that no one should be
allowed to shout, ' Long live Theodahad,' but only
' Long live Justinian and Theodahad ; ' and that no

THEODAHAD' S COWARDICE. 211
statue of Theodahad should be erected unless accom
panied by one of Justinian, which was always to
occupy the place of honour at the right hand."
Having obtained Theodahad's consent to this
agreement, Peter set out for Constantinople, no doubt
thinking that he had made an excellent bargain. As
soon as he was out of sight, however, it occurred to
Theodahad that possibly the emperor would not
approve of the conditions, and that in that case the
war would have to go on after all. Tormented by
this terrible thought, he hastily despatched a messen
ger to overtake the ambassador, and entreat him to
come back at once. Peter obeyed the summons with
a good deal of vexation, for his natural conclusion
was that the king, showing for the moment something
more like a manly spirit, had repented of his bargain,
and that the whole process of coaxing and intimida
tion would have to be gone through again.
As soon as Peter appeared in the royal presence,
Theodahad eagerly asked whether it was quite certain
that the emperor would accept the offered terms, and
if not, what would be the result. The answer con
firmed his worst fears. " I cannot fight," he said ; " if
it really came to that, I would rather resign my
crown, provided the emperor would give me an estate
worth twelve hundred pounds weight of gold a year."
Peter then persuaded him to put this proposal into
the form of a letter addressed to Justinian, but it was
agreed that the ambassador should not deliver the
letter, or drop any hint about any further offers, until
he had tried his best to induce Justinian to accept the
treaty as at first drawn up. Himself the most faith-

212 AN UNKINGLY KING.
less of men, Theodahad had yet the folly to think
that the ambassador would keep this absurd promise,
at the sacrifice of his duty to his master, and at the
risk of his own head. Of course when he got to
Constantinople Peter told the whole story. Justinian
accepted Theodahad's surrender of the kingdom, and
wrote him a letter complimenting him on his wise
decision, and promising him not merely the estate he
asked for, but the highest honours which could be
bestowed on a subject of the empire.
The trusty Peter, accompanied by a certain Atha-
nasius, was sent over to Italy to receive Theodahad's
formal abdication, and to assign to him the lands for
which he had bargained ; Belisarius was ordered to
go from Sicily to Rome to take possession of the
Italian kingdom.
But when Peter arrived in Italy he found that
Theodahad's mood of abject humility had given place
to one of insolent defiance. The cause of this change
was some news which had come from Dalmatia. A
strong body of Goths had made an attack on the
imperial general Mundus at Salona ; a battle had
taken place without any decisive result, but Mundus
and his son were killed. This event was to many
superstitious people rather a cause for satisfaction
than for regret. A pretended prophecy of the Sibyl
had been for some time much quoted, which said that
when Africa was subdued the world and its offspring
would perish. After the conquest of the Vandal
kingdom by Belisarius, many persons feared that the
end of the world was at hand. But as mundus is the
Latin for " world," it was generally thought the death

THE AMBASSADORS IMPRISONED. 213
of the Gepid general and his son had fulfilled the
prophecy, and that the threatened calamity was no
longer to be apprehended.
The emperor's armies very soon compelled the
Gothic generals to retire from Dalmatia in confusion.
But in the meantime the news of a Gothic victory had
turned Theodahad's weak head, and Peter and Atha-
nasius were received with mockery and insult, and
were even threatened with death. They tried then to
negotiate with the Gothic nobles, to whom they had
brought separate letters from Justinian ; but the chiefs
refused to listen to any proposals which did not come
through their king. The upshot of the matter was
that the ambassadors were thrown into prison, and
Justinian saw that Italy would have to be conquered
by force of arms.
It was about April, 536, when Belisarius crossed the
Straits of Messina to begin the work of subduing the
Gothic kingdom. As soon as he landed at Reggio he
was met by Ebermund, Theodahad's son-in-law, who
had been entrusted with the defences of the southern
coast, but who at once deserted to the enemy with all
his followers. Belisarius reported the fact to Con
stantinople, and the traitor was rewarded by Justinian
with the title of Patrician and many other marks of
honour. The imperial troops met with no resistance until
they came under the walls of Naples. The Gothic
soldiers occupying the outworks of the city were soon
dislodged, and Belisarius summoned the town itself
to surrender. Although a party among the citizens
desired to shake off the Gothic yoke, the governing

214 AN UNKINGLY KING.
officers and the great mass of the people were
determined to resist. Belisarius offered the most
honourable and easy terms, but after long negotia
tions he was compelled to commence the siege.
The inhabitants succeeded in communicating with
Theodahad, whom they implored to send them an
army of relief without delay. The story goes that
when the king received this message he consulted a
Jewish sorcerer, asking him what the result of the
struggle would be. The Jew directed him to take
thirty hogs, and to place them in three different styes,
ten of them to represent the Romans, ten the Goths,
and ten the imperial troops. He was to keep them
without food for a given time, and then to go and see
what had happened to them. The result was that
the hogs which stood for the emperor's soldiers were
all found alive and little the worse, but half the
"Romans "and nearly all the " Goths" had died, the
few which survived being in a very wretched condi
tion. Theodahad, if we are to believe the tale,
accepted the omen as meaning that the Gothic cause
was fated to defeat, and pleaded that as his excuse for
sending no help to the faithful and unfortunate garri
son of Naples.
The city, however, was strongly fortified and well
provisioned, and, although the besiegers had stopped
up the aqueduct, the inhabitants were able to obtain
a sufficient supply of water from springs within the
walls. After twenty days, Belisarius had made so little
progress that he was on the point of determining to
raise the siege and push forward towards Rome. Just
at that moment, however, a welcome discovery was

BELISARIUS AT NAPLES. 215
made. One of the soldiers, an Asiatic barbarian
named Paucaris, who was prowling idly about, took
a fancy to see how far he could walk along the aque
duct, entering at the point where Belisarius had
broken it open. He managed to go on without
difficulty until he was just under the city wall, but
there he found that the watercourse passed through
a hole in the rock, too narrow for a man to get
through. He thought, however, that the hole could
easily be widened, and that the tunnel would then
afford a means of penetrating into the city.
Paucaris, of course, communicated his discovery to
Belisarius, who received it with great delight, and
promised the man a handsome reward if his clever
plan should result in the capture of the city. A
number of men were sent up the aqueduct, furnished
with tools suited for scraping away the rock without
noise, and before long they had made the opening
large enough for a man to pass through in full
armour. All was now ready for the execution of the scheme,
but Belisarius wished to give the city one more chance
of escaping by a timely surrender or, the miseries of
a capture by force of arms. He sent for one of the
principal inhabitants, named Stephen, who had before
acted as the spokesman of the besieged, and urged
upon him to persuade his townsmen to accept the
favourable conditions offered. " My plans are now
complete," he said, "and in a few days at most
Naples must be mine. But I shudder to think what
will be its fate if it has to be taken by storm. My
soldiers are fierce barbarians : how can I control them

2l6 AN UNKINGLY KING.
when they are inflamed with the pride of victory?
Often have I seen a fair city wrapped in flames, and
exposed to the cruel rage of a conquering army, and
the sight is so horrible that I never wish to behold it
again. Go back to your fellow-citizens, tell them
what I have said to you, and entreat them to be wise
before it is too late."
Stephen saw from his manner that he was uttering
no idle threat, and he tried his best to induce his
fellow-citizens to yield. But they believed that Beli
sarius had only renewed his proposals because he was
hopeless of capturing the fortress, and they refused
to listen. Belisarius had no choice but to carry his
plan into effect.
A body of four hundred men was told off for the
duty of entering the city by the aqueduct. At first,
half of them shrank from the perilous enterprise, but
their places were quickly filled by volunteers, and then
those who had refused, stung with shame from their
cowardice, begged to be allowed to take part in the
expedition. So in the dead of night the whole six
hundred entered the tunnel, and marched as noise
lessly as they could, under the city walls. In order
to prevent their movements from being heard by the
defenders of the city, a Gothic officer named Bessa
was sent by Belisarius to harangue the Goths on the
walls in their own language, inviting them to desert
to the emperor. The stratagem was successful : the
Goths raised such shouts of indignation that no sounds
proceeding from below could possibly be noticed.
The six hundred soldiers proceeded along the dried-
up watercourse until the)' en me to a large under-

NAPLES TAKEN BY STORM. 217
ground chamber, with lofty brick walls and a vaulted
roof. Near one corner a few bricks had fallen, and
there was a glimpse of blue sky ; but there seemed
to be no other means of getting out except this hole
at the top. The soldiers stood some time considering
what was to be done. At length one of them, who
was a good climber, threw off his armour, and tying
a strong rope round his waist scrambled up the brick
wall with his fingers and toes, and succeeded in get
ting out into the open air. He found himself in a
cottage garden in a quiet part of the city. An old
woman, the only occupant of the cottage, came to the
door. The soldier threatened to kill her if she made
a sound. He then tied his rope to an olive tree, and
lowered it into the underground chamber, so that his
companions were able to climb up with their armour.
When they had all emerged, they rushed to the
northern wall, which they soon cleared of its de
fenders, and held until their comrades were able to
scale it with ladders.
The Goths fought desperately, assisted by a large
number of Jews, who had not forgotten the kindness
which their race had received from the great Theo
deric. But their resistance was unavailing. Before
the day was over the city was in the hands of the
imperial forces, and then began those scenes of mas
sacre and destruction which Belisarius had foreseen
and dreaded. The commander himself used all his
efforts to check the rage of his followers : exhorting
them to mercy, he rode through the streets of the
city, threatening and punishing those who were guilty
of outrages. At length his authority prevailed ; the

2l8 AN UNKINGLY KING.
soldiers were compelled to abstain from further insults
to the citizens, and to restore to their families the
women and children whom they had seized as slaves.
The townspeople then broke out into fury against the
two orators by whose advice they had been led to
reject the offered terms of surrender. One of them
fell dead of apoplexy : the other was torn in pieces
by the mob, and his remains hanged on a gibbet.
After this act of vengeance, the streets of Naples
assumed once more their accustomed aspect of order
and tranquillity.
Belisarius treated his Gothic prisoners kindly, and
they enlisted under his standard. Other Gothic forces
in the neighbouring territories deserted to the Romans,
and the commander was soon able to establish the
government of the empire over nearly the whole south
of Italy.
While these events were taking place, the Goths in
the neighbourhood of Rome waited patiently for
Theodahad to take some measures of defence. Their
loyalty to the Amaling race had such strange power
that it was not until Naples had fallen, and the
sovereignty of Justinian had been proclaimed within
fifty miles of Rome, that they could bring themselves
to believe that their king was a traitor. But now,
when all this had happened, and Theodahad still re
mained inactive, they could doubt no longer.
A great council of the nation was called together
at a place called Regeta, some forty miles south of
Rome. The chiefs laid before the people their grounds
for complaint against the king, and asked what was
their will. " Down with Theodahad ! " was the unani-

THE END OF THEODAHAD. 219
mous cry. " Down with the traitor who is buying
pardon for his own crimes by delivering his people to
destruction ! " But who was to succeed him ? The
time called for a warrior king, and notwithstanding
their respect for royal blood, the Goths with one
accord chose Witigis, a man of humble origin, but
the ablest military leader they possessed.
When Theodahad heard that the Goths had elected
a new king, he hastened from Rome intending to take
shelter within the walls of Ravenna. King Witigis
despatched after him a certain Optahari with orders
to bring him back alive or dead. This Optahari had
a quarrel of his own against Theodahad : a wealthy

COINS OF THEODAHAD.

and beautiful young lady had been promised to him
in marriage, and the king, influenced by a bribe, had
compelled her to marry another man. Optahari set
out in pursuit of the fugitive, and by riding night and
day managed to overtake him before he reached
Ravenna. Screaming with fright, the wretched king
was thrown on the ground and killed — " like an
animal offered in sacrifice," says the contemporary
historian. Such was the end of the most despicable wretch
that ever disgraced the Gothic name. It has strangely
happened that while we have no record of the per-

220

AN UNKINGLY KING.

sonal appearance of the great Theoderic, the features
of his worthless nephew have come down to us on
several of his coins. We cannot doubt that the por
trait is a faithful one ; it expresses too well the mix
ture of knavery, folly, and cowardice which composed
Theodahad's character.

XXII.
WITIGIS THE UNREADY.
HONEST and well-meaning the successor of Theo
dahad seems to have been, and his valour as a soldier
had been proved thirty years before in the war against
the Gepids. But he had not the talents which were
needed for the supreme command of an army, espe
cially when the adversary was a man like Belisarius.
The Goths, however, had unbounded faith in the wis
dom as well as in the courage of their new king, and
confidently expected that he would very soon drive
the imperial troops out of Italy.
But although, as events showed, Witigis was not a very
wise or far-seeing man, he had the good sense to per
ceive that to march against Belisarius forthwith would
only be to court destruction. Before he could hope
to grapple successfully with such a foe, it was neces
sary both to restore the discipline of the army, so sadly
neglected during two feeble reigns, and to make peace
with the Franks, so that the Gothic soldiers engaged
in the north might be made available for the struggle
against the forces of the emperor. Witigis called an
assembly of the Goths at Rome, and, addressing them
as " fellow soldiers," he explained to them the reasons
for delay. The people listened to his speech with

222 WITIGIS THE UNREADY.
feelings of disappointment, but they deferred to his
judgment, and made no protest when he proposed to
leave Rome garrisoned with four thousand men, and
to betake himself with the bulk of the army to
Ravenna. This part of the king's plan was a terrible mistake.
If the Goths had occupied Rome in force, Belisarius
would not have dared to attack them with his small
army : he would have had to wait for reinforcements,
and Witigis would have gained the delay which he
required. The foolish flight to Ravenna, instead of
postponing the conflict, only hastened it, and threw
an immense advantage into the enemy's hand. Al
though Witigis knew how little the fidelity of the
Roman people was to be trusted, he could not see
that to leave the city guarded only by four thousand
men, was simply to ensure its fall. Nor did he realize
how terrible a calamity, if it did happen, the loss of
Rome would be ; how it would embolden the whole
Italian people to declare themselves on the emperor's
side, and how it would weigh down the hearts of the
Goths with a sense of the hopelessness of the struggle.
And so the fatal resolution was taken. Before
leaving Rome Witigis compelled the Pope Silverius
and the senators to swear an oath of eternal fidelity
to himself ; and in order to ensure, as he thought, the
observance of the oath he took with him a number of
the senators as hostages. An officer of tried courage
and skill, named Leudahari, was placed in command
of the four thousand ; and then the king and his army
marched away to Ravenna.
Although Witigis had been chosen king by the

QUEEN MATASWINTHA. 223
unanimous voice of the people, he could not help re
membering that he was not of Amaling blood, and he
lived in dread of a conspiracy on behalf of the two
persons of the ancient line who might be regarded as
entitled to the throne. One of these was Theudagisal,
the son of Theodahad. The son of a father so greatly
detested could not perhaps have been a very dangerous
rival, but Witigis, nevertheless, thought it necessary
to throw him into prison. It was more reasonably to
be feared that plots would be formed in favour of
Amalaswintha's young and beautiful daughter, Mat-
aswintha ; and, in order to render his claim to the
throne secure, Witigis, on his arrival at Ravenna,
divorced his own wife and married the princess. He
could now claim to be king by hereditary right ; in
his addresses to the Gothic people he appeals to their
loyalty to the house of Theoderic, and some of his
coins bear the queen's monogram. But every one
knew that Mataswintha had been forced into the
marriage against her will ; she never concealed her
dislike of her husband, and in after years she was
with good reason suspected of being in league with
his enemies.
One of the earliest acts of Witigis at Ravenna was
to call an assembly of the Gothic nobles, for the pur
pose of obtaining their consent to a proposed treaty
of peace with the Franks. The conditions were that
the Ostrogoths should give up all their possessions in
Gaul to the Franks, and pay them two thousand
pounds weight of gold. Witigis himself spoke of this
treaty as " a painful necessity," but he assured the
nobles that no better terms could be obtained, and

224 WITIGIS THE UNREADY.
after some discussion the proposal was approved.
The Franks accepted the bribe, and promised Witigis
their assistance in the war. As they did not wish to
quarrel with Justinian, they could not themselves
appear in the field, but they undertook that their
vassals, the kings of the Alamans and the Burgunds,
should send troops to fight on the Gothic side.
While King Witigis at Ravenna was busy drilling
his soldiers and making his bargain with the Franks,
he received the startling news that Belisarius was in
Rome. Pope Silverius and the senators had heard
of the sad fate that had befallen Naples through its
resistance to the imperial army, and determined to
save Rome from similar calamities by a timely sur
render. Faithless to the oaths which they had sworn
to the Goths, they sent an embassy to Belisarius,
inviting him to come with all speed to Rome, and
promising that the gates should be opened at his
approach. Belisarius lost no time in complying with
the request. Leaving a garrison of three hundred
men at Naples, he set out with his army along " the
Latin Way " to Rome.
When the senators received the tidings that Beli
sarius was coming, they informed the commander of
the Gothic garrison of what they had done. The
brave Leudahari called his soldiers together, and told
them that though thus shamefully betrayed, he was
resolved at all hazards to defend the city. But the
Goths refused to obey their general, and unaminously
declared that they would abandon Rome, and join
the rest of the army at Ravenna.
It was on the 9th of December, 536, that Belisarius

BELISARIUS ENTERS ROME. 22$
entered Rome by the " Asinarian Gate '' on the south ;
and at the same moment the four thousand Goths
marched out of the " Flaminian Gate " which led to
the great northern road. Leudahari, however, obstin
ately refused to abandon his post. He remained to
be taken prisoner, and was sent, together with the
keys of the city, as a token of victory to Justinian.
Belisarius took up his residence in the palace on the
Pincian Hill, and at once began to set about the repair
of the fortifications, and to procure large supplies of
corn from Sicily. The Romans saw these proceedings
with dismay, for they showed that the general was
preparing to be besieged in Rome. The citizens felt
that their treason against Witigis had done them little
good, if after all they were to suffer the hardships of
a siege, and perhaps — who could tell ? — were to fall
at last into the hands of the infuriated Goths. The
joy with which Belisarius had at first been welcomed
now gave place to discontent and gloomy foreboding.
Yet it did not seem as if the danger of a Gothic
siege was very close at hand. Witigis remained at
Ravenna ; and Belisarius ventured to send out detach
ments of his little army to conquer the province of
Tuscany. One of his officers, Bessa the Goth, captured
the rock fortress of Narni. Another, named Con
stantine, marched still further away, and occupied,
without resistance from the inhabitants, the cities of
Spoleto and Perugia. When Witigis learned that the
emperor's troops were in possession of the latter place,
nearly half way to Ravenna from Rome, he sent a
body of soldiers, under two leaders named Hunila
and Pitza, to try to recapture the city. The Goths

226 WITIGIS THE UNREADY.
far outnumbered the soldiers of Constantine, but the
battle was long undecided. But in the end the Goths
fled in confusion, hotly pursued by the Romans, who
left few alive to tell the tale of their defeat. Hunila
and Pitza were taken prisoners, and sent at once to
Belisarius. After this disaster, Witigis saw that he must no
longer remain inactive. His preparations were not
so complete as he had wished, for the soldiers recalled
from Gaul had not yet arrived. But even without
these, the army which he had collected in the camp
at Ravenna numbered 150,000 men, '"nearly every one
of whom wore a breastplate of steel." With this im
mense host King Witigis set out along the Flaminian
Way, to lay siege to the city which was held by the
little garrison of Belisarius.
The king did not stop to attempt the recovery of
the captured towns, but hurried forward without pause,
eager to stand as soon as possible before the walls of
Rome. From time to time the army met with parties
of country people who had been turned out of Rome
as " useless mouths," and were returning to their
northern homes ; and as they told how heavily the
city was burdened by the presence of the imperial
army, Witigis bitterly reproached his own folly in
abandoning his capital. Still, he thought that if he
could only get Belisarius shut up within the walls his
victory was secure. His great anxiety was lest when
he arrived at his journey's end he should find that the
bird had flown. " Is Belisarius still in Rome ? " was
the question he impatiently asked of a priest who had
left the city a day or two before. " Never fear for

WITIGIS STIRRED TO ACTION. 227
that," said the priest with a laugh ; " there is not
much likelihood of his running away." Perhaps the
priest thought that Witigis had more reason to dread
Belisarius's remaining where he was than his escape.
The Goths marched on without opposition until
they came to the Milvian bridge, which crosses the
Tiber about two miles north of Rome ; and here they
met with an unexpected check. Belisarius had built
a gate-tower at the entrance of the bridge, and gar
risoned it with a body of soldiers strong enough to
render its capture a tedious and costly piece of work.
He did not expect to be able to prevent the Goths
from crossing the river at all, but he was anxious to
gain time, as he was expecting some more troops
from Constantinople. Whether the enemy made an
attack on the tower, crossed in boats, or marched
away to find another bridge, he thought he was sure
of several days' delay. In order to make the passage
still more troublesome, he determined to place his
camp close to the river on the side nearest Rome.
When Witigis saw how the bridge was protected,
he was at a loss to know what to do. Most of his
officers thought that the best course would be to
make an assault on the tower. But it was decided
not to attempt any movement until the following
morning. During the night, however, the soldiers in the tower
took fright at the immense multitude of the enemy,
and abandoned their post. They did not, of course,
dare to go in the direction of Rome, but fled into
Campania, all except twenty-two, who, being Goths
themselves, deserted to their countrymen, and told

228 WITIGIS THE UNREADY.
them what had happened. When morning came,
therefore, the Goths had only to batter down the
gates, and went over the bridge without meeting any
opposition. The same morning, Belisarius, thinking that the
enemy was safe on the other side of the river, had
ridden out with a thousand horsemen to choose a
suitable place for his camp. Suddenly a fierce shout
was heard, and the general's guard found themselves
struggling with the van of the Gothic cavalry, who
had just crossed the bridge. Belisarius, brave but
imprudent, forgetting how much depended on his
safety, rushed to the front, and fought like a common
soldier. He was mounted on his favourite charger, a
beautiful dark-brown horse with a white star on its
forehead. The deserters recognized their late general,
and the word was hastily passed through the Gothic
ranks, "Aim at the horse with the white star."
Hardly knowing what was meant, the Goths obeyed
the hint, and charged with lances and swords upon
the imperial commander. His body-guard gathered
round him, and enclosed him within a wall of shields.
After a desperate fight, the Goths retired to their
camp with the loss of a thousand men.
But now fresh bodies of cavalry came up, and the
Romans, who had themselves suffered serious losses,
were compelled to have recourse to flight. At the top
of a hill, where they had halted for a moment's breath
ing space, they were overtaken by their pursuers, and
the fight was renewed. Valentine, the groom of Beli
sarius's step-son, fought like a lion, and by his sole
prowess succeeded in checking for a moment the

'Bin™ ™4 :r'XVR

230 WITIGIS THE UNREADY.
advance of the enemy. But it was in vain to resist
the overwhelming numbers of the Gothic host, and
the Romans were driven close up to the walls of
Rome. A few of the fugitives who had outstripped
the rest found entrance into the city. They reported
that Belisarius was killed, and that the enemy was in
close pursuit. The gate was hastily flung to, and
when Belisarius and his comrades had crossed the
ditch they found themselves shut out. In vain the
general shouted and threatened ; the soldiers on the
top of the tower did not recognize his voice, and in
the gathering twilight his features, covered with blood
and dust as they were, could not be distinguished.
It seemed as if in another moment the Goths would
have scrambled across the moat and massacred the
little band huddled under the walls. A daring strata
gem of Belisarius saved himself and his companions
from destruction. Drawing up his handful of men in
battle array under cover of the darkness, he made a
sudden charge upon the Goths, who, thinking that it
was a sortie of the forces within the city, were seized
with panic, and fled in confusion. The sentinels on
the wall reported the flight of the enemy, and Beli
sarius with his brave little band was now allowed
admission. The gate through which he passed was
long known as " the gate of Belisarius."
The historian who records the prowess of Belisarius
tells also of a hero who on this memorable day dis
tinguished himself no less signally on the other side.
It was a certain Wandilhari, appropriately surnamed
Wisand (i.e., the Bison), who, pierced with thirteen
wounds, was left for dead upon the battle-field. On

WANDILHARI THE BISON. 231
the third day, his comrades, returning to bury the
slain, found Wandilhari still breathing, though unable
to speak. When water was poured into his mouth he
revived a little, and was carried into the camp.
Wandilhari the Bison lived to a great age, and was
naturally held in the highest honour by his country
men for his wonderful display of bravery and en
durance. Weary as Belisarius was with the toils and agitations
of this long day, there remained yet much to be done
before he could allow himself a moment's rest. His
first care was to man the walls, which were thirteen
miles in circuit. His little army could not spare soldiers
enough for this duty, and he instructed his officers to
muster all the able-bodied men in the several quarters
of the city, dividing them into bands, some of them
to occupy their appointed stations at once, and the
others to take their places on the succeeding days and
nights. At regular intervals along the walls large
fires were to be kept burning during the moonless
nights. The Goths remained watching the movements
of those upon the wall, and when they saw by the
light of the fires that men in. civil costume were
mingled with the soldiers, one of their chiefs, named
Wakis, was sent to harangue the citizens on their
treachery. " What madness has seized you, O
Romans ! " he said, " that you should exchange
your valiant protectors for a handful of wretched
Greeks, who will never be able to defend you. What
did Greece ever send to Italy but playactors and
thieves ? " No one answered a word, and Wakis
returned to the camp.

232 WITIGIS THE UNREADY.
Belisarius meanwhile was occupied in apportioning
to his principal officers the charge of the several gates.
Before this task was completed, Bessa the Goth, who
had been posted at the Praenestine gate, sent a
messenger to say that the gate named after St.
Pancrace had been forced, and that the enemy was
in possession of the part of the city west of the
Tiber. The general was earnestly besought by those
about him to make his escape at once by some other
gate. He ridiculed the story as absurd, and sent
horsemen across the river to make inquiry. They
soon returned with the report that all was quiet, and
Belisarius gave strict orders to all the officers in com
mand at the gates that they should remain at their posts
whatever tidings they might hear from other parts
of the city. " Let each man attend to his own duty,"
he said, " and leave all the rest to me."
From early morning Belisarius had been in cease
less activity without once tasting food. The intense
excitement of the day made him insensible to the
calls of hunger and fatigue, and it was not until long
after midnight that his wife and friends could prevail
on him to interrupt his labours to partake of a scanty
meal. The day which followed was the first day of the
longest of all the many sieges which Rome has under
gone. It began early in March, 537, and lasted for one
year and nine days. Belisarius entered on this great
struggle with no fear for- its result. He foresaw that
the vast army of the Goths, badly led and unused to
the conduct of a siege, would dwindle away by famine
and desertion before the walls of Rome, and that

CONFIDENCE OF BELISARIUS. 233
sooner or later the end would be the ruin of the Gothic
kingdom, and the establishment of the imperial rule
in Italy. The citizens could not understand his cheer
ful confidence in the face of such fearful odds, and
sneered at him as a madman or a boastful Greek.
His own soldiers wondered too, but their trust in their
well-tried commander could not be shaken.

COIN WITH MONOGRAM OF MATASWINTHA.

XXIII.
THE YEAR-LONG SIEGE.
THE story of the long siege of Rome is one con
tinuous record of wonderful patience, resolution, and
readiness of resource on the part of Belisarius, and of
miserable incompetence on the part of his antagonist.
The first thing which King Witigis attempted to do
was to enclose Rome with a circle of stockaded
camps. But the scale on which these camps were
constructed was so ample that even the immense
army of the Goths was insufficient to supply men to
occupy more than seven of them, which blockaded
eight out of the fourteen gates, leaving the six gates
on the southern side of the city uninvested. The
seven camps, each containing more than thrice the
number of men who formed the garrison of Rome,
were fortified with as much elaborate care as if they
were intended to withstand an assault from an over
whelming force. King Witigis's principle of action
was that it is never possible to be too secure.
The next thing which the Goths did was, in imita
tion of Belisarius's own proceedings at Naples, to
destroy the aqueducts that supplied Rome with
water. Belisarius did not intend that Rome should
be captured as he had taken Naples, and therefore

GOTHIC STRATAGEMS DEFEATED. 235
he took care that the underground passages should
be solidly walled up. The cutting off of the supply
from the aqueducts put an end to the enjoyment of
the public baths, the great luxury of Roman life, and
the complaints of the citizens were bitter. But with
the river flowing through the city, and the wells
belonging to private houses, there was not much
reason to fear that want of water would compel
Belisarius to surrender.
One of the aqueducts, however, had furnished the
water-power to the corn-mills, and the consequence
of the cutting-off of the stream was that the daily
supply of flour could not be doled out to the soldiers
and the citizens. Belisarius therefore contrived to
have two barges moored just below the ^Elian Bridge,
near the northern wall of the city, with a water-wheel
between them, so that the stream, rushing with force
from under the arch of the bridge, should turn the
wheel, and so drive the mills which were placed on
the barges. The Goths were informed of this device
by deserters, and sent floating down the river a quan
tity of large trunks of trees and bodies of dead
Romans, and by this means managed to upset the
machinery. However, Belisarius's ingenuity was equal
to this occasion also. He caused long iron chains to
be drawn across the opening of the bridge, which
intercepted everything that came down the stream,
and men were employed from time to time to clear
away the obstructions which had accumulated. This
contrivance served a double purpose, for it prevented
the possibility of a night attack being made by boats
sailing under the bridge.

236 THE YEAR-LONG SIEGE.
After a few days had passed Witigis began to think
that the capture of Rome would not prove so easy an
undertaking as he had fancied. He therefore deter
mined to see whether Belisarius could be induced to
surrender by the offer of honourable conditions. A
Gothic chief named Albes, accompanied by several
other nobles, was sent into the city with a communi
cation to Belisarius. He found the general surrounded
by his staff and the principal senators, and addressed
him in a formal speech, bidding him look from the
walls at the vast numbers of the besiegers and con
sider whether it would not be mere foolhardiness to
think of resisting them.
Belisarius grimly replied that the question whether
resistance was " foolhardiness " or not was his con
cern and not theirs, and that he did not intend to be
guided by the advice which they offered him. Resist
he would, and a time would come when the Goths
would be glad to hide themselves if they could even
in the bramble-bushes. Rome belonged to the
emperor ; the Gothic intruders who had stolen it had
been turned out, and so long as Belisarius lived they
should not come back.
After Belisarius had spoken, Albes and his com
panions looked expectantly at the senators. They
had heard from deserters how fiercely some of the
principal Romans had talked (in private) about the
conduct of Belisarius, and they thought that the
appeal made by Albes would call forth such a burst
of indignation as would compel the general to yield.
But the senators sat pale and trembling, and none of
them dared to speak a word except a certain Fidelius,

BELISARIUS NOT TO BE FRIGHTENED. 237
whom Belisarius had made Praetorian Prefect, and
who loaded the Goths with abuse.
The envoys went back to the Gothic camp, and
were received by Witigis with the eager inquiry,
" What sort of a man is Belisarius ? Is he going to
give way?" They replied with emphasis that the
Goths had made a great mistake in thinking they
could frighten that man by anything they could say
or do. On receiving this report the king hurried on
his preparations for taking the city by storm.
The preparations were on a magnificent scale. All
the machines which the military engineers of those
times were able to devise for the assault on a fortress
were constructed in large numbers. There were wooden
towers on wheels equal in height to the walls of the
city. These were intended to be dragged by oxen
close up to the walls, so that the archers on the top
could fight on a level with the defenders of the ram
parts. Then there were the battering-rams, which
consisted of huge beams of wood, each carrying a
block of iron at the end and suspended in chains from
a wooden framework. The machine moved on four
wheels, and was worked from within by fifty men
who dragged back the heavy " ram," and then allowed
it to swing against the wall. The whole structure
was covered with skins to protect the men who were
inside. Scaling-ladders, too, were prepared to be
used when the soldiers on the wooden towers should
have succeeded in clearing a portion of the wall of its
defenders ; and fascines, that is to say, bundles of
reeds and brushwood, were made in order to fill up the
ditch so as to make a road across it for the machines.

238

THE YEAR-LONG SIEGE.

Belisarius for his part was equally busy in or
ganizing the defence. His army had dwindled down
to five thousand men, and it cost him a great deal of
thought to distribute this little force to the best
advantage. The tomb of the great emperor Hadrian,
a vast building faced with marble, which stood in the
line of the city wall at the western end of the .-Elian
Bridge, was converted into a fort,1 and such it has
continued to be till this day, when it is known as the
Castle of St. Angelo. All round the walls of the city

THE MAUSOLEUM OF HADRIAN.
{Castle of St. Angelo.")
Belisarius mounted those destructive engines which
served the Romans as artillery — machines which
hurled immense stones and bolts of iron with tre
mendous velocity and effect.
It was not till the eighteenth day of the siege that
the Goths considered themselves ready to begin the

* It is usually supposed, however, that this had been done at an
earlier date. At any rate, Belisarius repaired and greatly strengthened
the building.

GOTHIC BLUNDERING. 239
attack. As soon as the sun rose the Romans gathered
on the northern wall saw with terror the countless
host of the enemy approaching with their battering-
rams and their siege-towers drawn by oxen. The
citizens gave themselves up for lost, but their fears
became mixed with indignation when Belisarius,
instead of seeming to appreciate the gravity of the
situation, actually burst out laughing, and ordered the
soldiers not to shoot an arrow till he gave the word.
" What might such conduct mean ? Was it madness,
or worse than madness ? " were the questions which
one asked of another among the crowd. At last,
when the enemy had reached the very edge of the
moat, Belisarius took up a bow and aimed at one of
the Gothic leaders. The man was clothed in armour,
but the arrow hit him in the neck, and he fell to the
ground mortally wounded. The Romans, startled
out of their discontent, burst into a great cheer, which
was renewed when the general again drew his bow
with a like result. And then Belisarius gave the
signal to the whole army to discharge their arrows,
ordering those in his own neighbourhood to aim only
at the oxen. In a few moments all the oxen were
killed, and the huge machines which they drew were
rendered useless. It was easy to see now what Belisa
rius had been laughing at, and why he had allowed
the enemy to come so close before allowing his archers
to use their weapons.
When Witigis saw that the attack on the northern
side of the city had failed, he determined to direct
his efforts to the eastern side — to the neighbourhood
of the Praenestine gate, towards which another body

240 THE YEAR-LONG SIEGE.
of Goths was approaching, also with their siege-
towers and battering-rams. But he left a large
detachment of his army on the northern side, leaving
orders that they should not make any attempt to
storm the walls, but should keep up a vigorous dis
charge of arrows, so that Belisarius might not suspect
that the main assault was being attempted elsewhere.
Those who were left behind did their best to carry
out these instructions, but fighting on the level
ground against men posted on the wall they were
not able to produce much effect. There was, how
ever, amongst them one famous warrior of noble
rank, who found a substitute for the siege-tower in
a tall tree, to the top of which he climbed, notwith
standing the weight of his helmet and cuirass, and
from that elevated position was able to do much
execution amongst the defenders of the ramparts.
At last he was hit by a shot from one of the Roman
engines. The iron bolt went right through the man's
steel-clad body, and pinned him to the tree. His
comrades were so much aghast at the sight that they
retired to a safe distance out of the way of those
terrible machines, and the defenders of that portion
of the walls were no more molested.
But now Belisarius received a message to say that
the assault on the eastern fortifications had begun.
He hastened to the spot, and by a few timely words
encouraged his soldiers, who had begun to lose heart
when they saw the numbers and equipment of the
enemy. Near the Praenestine gate was a space en
closed between the city rampart and an outer wall,
. where in heathen days were kept the wild beasts in-

STATUES USED AS MISSILES. t\X
tended for the cruel sports of the amphitheatre. The
Goths broke through the outer wall, and crowded
into the enclosure. The inner wall, they had been
truly informed, was much decayed, and they thought
it would give them little trouble. But Belisarius
directed one of his chief officers to make a sally
upon the throng collected between the walls. The
unexpected attack threw the Goths into confusion,
and they were slaughtered by thousands almost unre
sisting, thinking only of making their escape by the
breach through which they had entered. Then,
opening the gate, Belisarius issued with the main
body of his army to pursue the fugitives, who imparted
their terror to their comrades beyond the outer wall.
Soon the besiegers were all in headlong flight, and
Belisarius ordered a great fire to be made of their
forsaken towers and battering-rams.
What happened else during this eventful day need
not be told in detail. It may be mentioned that in their
attack on the fort that had been Hadrian's tomb the
Goths were nearly winning, until it occurred to the
defenders to pull down the statues, and hurl them,
whole or in fragments, upon the heads of their
assailants. More than one famous work of Greek
sculpture has been found in modern times in the
moat which surrounds the Castle of St. Angelo ;
probably many another lies buried there still. The
sacrifice of the statues saved the fortress : the besiegers
abated the fury of their assault, and then the imperial
soldiers, set free by the termination of the fighting in
other parts of the city, came up and soon put them to
flight.

242 THE YEAR-LONG SIEGE.
On all sides the Gothic attack had ended in disaster.
Thirty thousand Goths had been slain, and many
thousands wounded, and the towers and the battering-
rams were captured and burnt. It was far on in the
evening when the battle ceased. "The Romans spent
the night in singing songs of victory, extolling the
fame of Belisarius, and displaying the spoils taken
from the slain ; the Goths in attending on their
wounded comrades, and in wailing for those that were
no more."
After this crushing failure no further attempt was
made to storm the walls of Rome. Through the
remainder of the long siege the aim of Witigis was
to compel Belisarius to surrender under pressure of
hunger, or to tempt him to squander the lives of his
little garrison in fruitless sorties.
Belisarius guessed at once that the Goths, now that
their assault had decisively failed, would endeavour
to establish an efficient blockade. He, therefore,
promptly took measures for economizing the stock
of provisions in the city. On the very day after the
battle he ordered that the daily rations of food to the
soldiers should be reduced to one- half, the diminution
being compensated by increased pay in money ; and
all the women, children, and slaves in the city were
sent away to Naples, some of them being conveyed
in boats, others travelling on foot along the Appian
Way. It would have been to the interest of the
Goths to prevent this procession of non-combatants
from escaping from Rome ; but they were so dis
couraged by their defeat of yesterday that nothing
was done. And so the fugitives all found their way

SUCCOUR LONG DELAYED. 243
to Naples, whence some of them were removed to the
other south Italian towns, and others took refuge in
Sicily. What made Belisarius anxious was that he received
no tidings of the additional troops that the emperor
had promised to send him. They had sailed from
Constantinople about Christmas, but, meeting with
stormy weather, had sought shelter on the western
coast of Greece, and there they still remained.
Belisarius could not understand this strange delay,
and wrote a letter to Justinian, telling him that unless
aid came speedily Rome must surely fall. The letter
concluded with these words : " I know that it is
my duty to sacrifice even my life in your service,
and therefore no force shall make me abandon this
place while I live. But what sort of fame will be
yours if you allow Belisarius to come to such an
end ? "
Justinian was deeply moved by this appeal, and
sent peremptory orders to the lagging commanders,
Valerian and Martin, that they should push forward
with all speed to Rome. He also made vigorous
efforts to raise a new army to be sent to the aid of his
heroic general. In a few days Belisarius was able to
cheer the hearts of his soldiers by reading to them the
emperor's letter, announcing that the wished-for rein
forcements were on their way.
It was not until twenty-two days after the attempted
storm that Valerian and Martin, with sixteen hundred
men, arrived in Rome. The Goths had made little use
of the delay ; indeed they were so discouraged by the
failure of their assault that they scarcely attempted to

244 THE YEAR-LONG SIEGE.
guard the roads leading to Rome from the south, but
remained idle in their entrenchments.
By way of revenge for the losses he had sustained,
Witigis despatched orders that the senators detained
as hostages at Ravenna should be put to death.
According to the laws of war these men had forfeited
their lives ; but the execution of the penalty was as
foolish as it was cruel, for the only effect it could have
was to embitter the hatred which the Romans felt for
their former barbarian masters, and to inspire them
with the resolve to fight to the bitter end.
When the sixteen hundred new soldiers had entered
Rome, Belisarius ventured to send out skirmishing
parties of mounted archers to make attacks upon the
Goths. Their tactics were to avoid all close fighting,
but simply to discharge their arrows at the enemy,
and when their quivers were empty to gallop back to
the gates. This mode of combat proved perfectly
successful. The little bands did fearful execution
with their bows, and the pursuit of the enemy was
easily stopped by volleys of stones from the engines
on the walls. After this manoeuvre had been repeated
several times, Witigis thought he had discovered a
valuable secret of Roman warfare. It was plain that
small bodies of light horse were more easily managed
than masses of heavy troops, and afforded the most
effective means of inflicting damage upon an enemy.
Accordingly, he sent a troop of five hundred cavalry,
with orders to take up their position near the Roman
fortifications. What happened was that a thousand
picked men issued from one of the gates some distance
away, and, under cover of the inequalities of the

TACTICS OF BELISARIUS. 245
ground, came suddenly on the five hundred Goths,
took them in the rear, and left only a few of them
alive to return to their camp. King Witigis raved
and stormed about their cowardice, and said he would
soon find others who would succeed where they had
failed. Three days afterwards a second five hundred,
chosen for their known bravery out of all the seven
camps, were sent to avenge the defeat of their
comrades, and, before setting out, were harangued
by the king, who bade them act worthily of the fame
they had won in former battles. Bravely they may
have fought, but they were met by a Roman force of
three times their number, and perished almost to a
man. Belisarius wished to continue this method of skir
mishing, by which he was able to do the enemy a
great deal of mischief with very little loss on his own
side. His troops had been thoroughly trained in the
art of using the bow on horseback ; to the Goths that
mode of warfare was quite unfamiliar, so that when
it was employed against them they did not know
how to meet it. But unfortunately for the Romans,
their easily won victories had inspired them with an
unwise contempt for the enemy, and they implored
Belisarius to lead them in one grand assault on the
Gothic camp. He was very unwilling to do this, but
the army showed great discontent at his refusal, and
the feeling was encouraged by the citizens, who
actually assailed the general with reproaches for his
want of courage, because he dared not risk a pitched
battle with an enemy that outnumbered his own
troops more than tenfold.' At last Belisarius thought

246 THE YEAR-LONG SIEGE.
it might be better to yield to the demand than to
provoke a mutiny. Perhaps, after all, he thought,
just at this moment, when the Romans were full of
ardour, and the enemy was disheartened by con
tinued ill-fortune, it might be possible to win a battle
even against such overwhelming odds.
It was with grave anxiety that Belisarius led forth
his little army against the foe. King Witigis had
been informed by deserters of the intended attack,
and he marshalled all his troops in battle array,
leaving none in the camps but the sick and wounded.
His speech to his soldiers, as reported by the Roman
historian, was not without dignity. " You know," he
said, "that I have always treated you more as friends
and fellow-soldiers than as subjects. Some of you
may think that I, in so doing, have merely flattered
you because I feared the loss of my crown ; and you
may think that it is from the same motive that I now
call on you to put forth all your valour. Such sus
picions are natural, and I cannot blame them. But,
in truth, I would thankfully lay aside this purple robe
to-day, if I knew that another Goth would wear it in
my stead. Whatever ill might happen to myself, it
would not be without consolation, if my people did
not share in it. But I remember the fate of the
Vandals. I seem to see the Goths and their children
sold for slaves, their wives abandoned to the insults
of the vilest of men, and their queen, the child of
Theoderic's daughter, led away whithersoever it
might please our enemies. Will you not chose a
glorious death rather than safety on such terms? If
such be your spirit, you will easily vanquish these

A FRUITLESS SORTIE. 247
few wretched Greeks, to whom you are as far supe
rior in valour as in numbers, and will inflict on them
the chastisement they deserve for all the wrongs and
insults they have made you suffer."
The result of the battle justified the misgivings
of Belisarius. After much hard fighting, the Romans
were put to flight, the enemy pursuing them hotly
almost to the walls. A few of them succeeded in
passing through the gates, and hastily closed them,
leaving their comrades gathered in a dense mass be
tween the ditch and the wall. Their spears were
broken, and they were so crowded together that they
could not use their bows. If the Goths had ventured
to cross the ditch they might have massacred their
enemies without difficulty ; but the soldiers and
citizens began to assemble upon the wall, and the
besiegers were afraid to pursue their advantage.
They retired to their encampment with shouts of
exultation over their victory.
The Roman soldiers had received a severe lesson,
and never again ventured to distrust the sagacity of
their general. Belisarius resumed his plan of skir
mishing with mounted archers, and, as before, was
nearly always victorious. So passed away the next
three months of the siege. The historian Procopius,
who was with Belisarius in Rome, has preserved for
us many incidents of the conflicts that took place
during this period. One of these stories is perhaps
worth repeating here. On a certain evening it happened
that the Roman soldiers had been worsted in a skir
mish, and one of them in his flight fell through a hole
into an underground vault, from which he could find

248 THE YEAR-LONG SIEGE.
no means of escape. He did not dare to cry out,
lest he should be heard by the Goths, and so he re
mained there all the night. The next day a Gothic
soldier suffered the same mishap ; and the Goth and
the Roman, finding themselves prisoners together,
became good friends, and agreed that if either of
them succeeded in getting out of the trap he would
help the other to escape also. They both shouted
with all their might, and at last they were heard by
a party of Goths, who stooped down to the hole, and
called out " Who is there ? " "A comrade," the
Gothic soldier replied, in his own language ; " I fell
into this hole this morning, and cannot get out." A
rope was lowered into the vault, and there ascended,
not the Goth, but the Roman ! The Gothic soldiers
were stupefied with amazement. " There were two
of us," the Roman explained ; " your comrade is still
below. We knew very well that if he had come out
first you would not have troubled yourselves about
me." So the rope was let down again, and this time
it brought up the Goth, who said that he had given
his word that his fellow-prisoner should be set at
liberty. The promise was respected, and the Roman
soldier was allowed to return to the city, none the
worse for his adventure.
About midsummer a certain Euthalius landed at
Terracina, sixty-two miles from Rome along the
Appian Way, bringing with him the pay which was
due to the soldiers. The treasure was conveyed safely
into Rome, but at that moment food would have been
more welcome than gold ; for the besieged people
were now beginning to feel the pangs of hunger.

THE SYBIL'S PROPHECY. 249
Probably Witigis got to hear that a large sum of
money had been brought into Rome, and this may
have been what made him think of blockading the
southern approaches to the city. It is strange that
he should not have done this long before, but he
seems to have clung to the hope that the place might
be taken by storm. Now, however, he took posses
sion of a point about four miles from Rome, where
two lines of aqueducts cross one another twice within
a few hundred yards, and he converted the arches of
the aqueducts into a fortress, commanding the Ap
pian and the Latin Ways. Here he placed a guard
of seven thousand men.
There was now no hope that any further supplies
could be imported into the city. The soldiers had still
a stock of corn, but all their other provisions were
exhausted. The citizens were obliged to feed on the
grass and weeds that grew inside the walls. Famine
and fever were every day lessening the numbers of
the besieged.
Until July was ended, the courage of the defenders
was sustained by superstition. For some months
past people had quoted a couplet which professed to
be a prophecy of the ancient Sibyl, and which said
that " when Quintilis (the old name of July) had
come, a new emperor would ascend the throne, and
Rome should never again fear the Gothic sword."
Christians though the Romans were, they still be
lieved in the Sibyl, and eagerly accepted every
foolish verse that was uttered in her name. But
Quintilis came and went, and still Justinian reigned
and still the Goths surrounded Rome.

250 THE YEAR-LONG SIEGE.
The last hope of the citizens was gone, and in
desperation they went to Belisarius, and begged him
to give them arms. " Let us fight for ourselves,"
they said, " and either conquer or end our miseries by
a speedy death." Belisarius ridiculed their demand,
and told them that having never learned to fight they
would be worse than useless in the field. " But," he
added, " I expect in a few days the arrival of the
greatest army that the empire has ever mustered.
These new troops have already landed in the south
of Italy, and will bring with them ample supplies
of provisions. I promise you that they will bury
the enemy's camp with the multitude of their
darts." This was only an empty boast. There was indeed
a rumour that an imperial army was on the way,
but Belisarius knew nothing for certain. However,
he despatched his secretary Procopius to Naples to
see what truth there was in the story, and if it should
not be true, to collect what soldiers he could, and to
send victuals by sea to relieve the needs of the
Romans. Procopius reached Naples in safety ; the expected
troops had not yet been heard of, but he was able to get
together a band of five hundred men, and to fit out a
large number of ships and load them with provisions.
Before his preparations were completed, the promised
army arrived from Constantinople — not the innume
rable host of which Belisarius had boasted, but only
about five thousand men. Late in the autumn this
body of soldiers arrived at Ostia, at the mouth of the
Tiber, half of them having travelled by the Appian

GOTHIC PROPOSALS. 251
Way, and the rest having come by sea in charge of
the victualling fleet collected by Procopius.
Meanwhile King Witigis had managed matters so
badly that his own army was suffering from want of
food. Famine and fever too were rapidly thinning
the ranks of the besiegers, and they grew so spiritless
that the Romans were able to assume the offensive,
and even to intercept the supplies of corn and of cattle
on their way to the Gothic camp.
So when the Goths heard that "an immense army"
— for this was what rumour called it — was coming
to the relief of Rome, they abandoned all hope of
victory, and were anxious to treat for peace. Our
old friend, Cassiodorus, accompanied by two Gothic
chiefs, was sent into the city to try to induce Belisarius
to come to terms.
The envoys were admitted into the general's pre
sence, and Cassiodorus began by saying that as the war
hitherto had been productive of nothing but misery
to either party, it would be to the interest of both if
by mutual concession they could arrive at some under
standing so as to put an end to the struggle. He
proposed that the matter should be discussed, not in
set speeches, but in an informal conversation, so that
each point should be fully dealt with at the time when
it was raised. " Very well," said Belisarius, "there is
no objection to that, if only what you have to say is
to the purpose." But Cassiodorus could not resist
the temptation to make a long speech, in which he
argued that the emperor had no justification for the
attack he had made upon the Goths. Theoderic had
not taken Italy by force from the empire : it had been

252 THE YEAR-LONG SIEGE.
made over to him by Zeno, on condition of his
putting down the tyrant Odovacar. He had ful
filled the condition, and he and his successors had
ruled Italy according to Roman law, and with every
regard to the welfare of the native inhabitants. It
was therefore the duty of the Romans to desist
from their unjust encroachments. Let them retire
from Italy with the booty they had taken, and leave
the Goths to govern their rightful dominions in
peace. All this reasoning was very sound, but it was not
likely to make any impression on Belisarius. He
replied that Theoderic had been sent to conquer Italy
for the empire to which it belonged, and instead of
fulfilling his commission he had usurped the throne
himself. " I do not see," he added, " much difference
between robbery and embezzlement. The country
belongs to the emperor, and it is useless to ask me to
give it to any one else. If you have any other request
to make say on."
" You know very well," answered Cassiodorus, " that
we have spoken nothing but the truth. But as a proof
of our wish to make every honourable concession, we
agree that you shall retain possession of Sicily " — and
then, with his accustomed eloquence, he proceeded to
favour Belisarius with statistics about the size of the
island, and the revenues which it yielded every year,
and to enlarge on its importance from a military point
of view.
"We are greatly obliged to you," said Belisarius.
" In return for so great generosity, we will grant you
the possession of the whole of Britain. That is a

A TRUCE AGREED UPON. 253
larger island than Sicily, and it used to belong to us,
just as Sicily once belonged to you."
The Goths then suggested that they might give up
Naples and the whole south of Italy, and agree to pay
a yearly tribute to the emperor. But Belisarius had
only one reply : that he had no authority to surrender
any of the territories of the empire.
" Well then," said Cassiodorus, " will you agree to
a truce for a fixed time, so that we may send ambas
sadors to Constantinople to negotiate a treaty with
the emperor himself?"
Belisarius accepted this proposal, and the envoys
went back to their camp.
Several days were spent in settling the conditions
of the truce, and in debating what hostages should be
given on each side. In the meantime Belisarius had
brought the new soldiers, and the cargoes of the pro
vision ships, safely up from Ostia into Rome. The
Goths dared not offer any opposition, thinking that if
they did so, Belisarius would break off the negotia
tions. At length, however, about Christmas, the articles
were signed for a truce of three months ; the hostages
were exchanged, and the Gothic ambassadors set out
for Constantinople, accompanied by a Roman escort.
Belisarius then sent two thousand soldiers, under the
command of a certain John, of whom we shall often
hear again, to Alba Fucentia, seventy miles east of
Rome. John was instructed to remain quiet so long
as the truce was unbroken ; but as soon as the Goths
committed any act of hostility, he was to ravage the
Gothic territories, to carry off the women and children

254 THE YEAR-LONG SIEGE.
as slaves, and to bring back all the plunder of every
kind that he could.
The required pretext was not long wanting. It
seems almost incredible that Witigis should have been
foolish enough to violate the truce which he had sought
with so much eagerness, but the historian tells of three
different attempts which he made to surprise the city.
One dark night a sentinel, looking out from the watch-
tower at the Pincian gate, reported that he had seen a
sudden flash of light close to the ground a short dis
tance from the wall. His comrades thought he had
seen the flaming eyes of a wolf. But when, on the
following day, Belisarius heard the story, he guessed
at once that the Goths, imitating his own stratagem
at Naples, were trying to get into the city through an
aqueduct, and that what the man had seen was the
light of their torches streaming for a moment through
a crack in the tunnel. The aqueduct was examined,
and there were found in it the droppings of torches
and some Gothic lamps. The party of explorers had
been stopped by the wall with which Belisarius had
blocked up the passage, and they had carried away
one of the stones to show to Witigis in proof of the
truth of their story. Belisarius placed a guard over
the aqueduct, and the Goths made no attempt to
enter the city by that means.
On another occasion the Goths had prepared
scaling-ladders and torches to make an attack during
the hour of the soldier's midday meal, but the plan
was discovered, and the assaulting party was dispersed
with some loss. The third scheme of Witigis was to
bribe two Romans who lived near the part of the wall

THE TRUCE BROKEN. 255
bordering on the Tiber, to treat the sentinels with
drugged wine. When the sentinels had fallen asleep,
the Goths were to make their entrance by means of
boats and ladders. One of the Romans who had
entered into the plot betrayed it to Belisarius ; and
pointed out his accomplice, who confessed his guilt
and was sent to the Gothic camp tied upon an ass
and with his nose and ears cut off
After these events, Belisarius of course considered
himself to be no longer bound by the truce, and he
sent letters to John ordering him to commence hos
tilities at once. John was nothing loth to obey ; he
was the bravest of the brave, but as cruel as he
was fearless (John the Sanguinary, he was called
in his own day), and the sight of burning farms and
strings of weeping captive women and children only
filled his heart with brutal joy. With his two
thousand horsemen he hurried northward, plunder
ing and destroying all that belonged to Gothic
owners, but respecting scrupulously the possessions
of the native Italians. An army of Goths, under
under Wilitheus, the uncle of King Witigis, came to
meet him, but the battle resulted in the death of
Wilitheus and the slaughter of most of his men. After
this victory, John marched forward unopposed to
Rimini, on the Adriatic, whither he was invited by
the Roman inhabitants. The Gothic garrison, as soon
as they heard of his approach, ran away .to Ravenna,
and John occupied Rimini without a struggle.
While John was at Rimini he received letters from
Queen Mataswintha, offering to betray the Goths into
his hands and to become his wife. No doubt the pro-

256 THE YEAR-LONG SIEGE.
posal included the murder of Witigis, whom she hated
with all her heart for having forced her to marry him.
1 In pressing forward to the Adriatic, John was dis
obeying Belisarius's orders, which were to assault every
fortress that he came to, and if he were unable to
capture it then to proceed no further, lest his retreat
should be cut off. He thought, however, that when
the Goths heard that he had captured Rimini, which
was only a day's march from Ravenna, they would at
once abandon the siege of Rome. He had calculated
rightly. The three months of truce was ended ;
nothing had been heard from Constantinople ; the
camp was destitute of provisions, and the city was in
a better condition of defence than ever. And when
to all these discouraging circumstances there was
added the news that Ravenna was threatened by the
enemy, Witigis delayed no longer. Early one morn
ing (near the end of March, 538), the sentinels on the
walls of Rome reported that the seven Gothic camps
had been set on fire, and that the whole army of the
besiegers was moving northward along the Flaminian
Way. Belisarius was somewhat taken by surprise at this
sudden departure, and felt at first doubtful whether it
would not be best to allow the enemy to retreat un
molested. But the fact that the Gothic army would
have to cross the Milvian Bridge, two miles from Rome,
rendered it possible for an attack on their rear to be
successfully made with a small force. Belisarius
armed all his soldiers, and, waiting till most of the
Goths had crossed the river, he led a furious charge
on those that were still on the nearest bank. After

FAILURE OF THE SIEGE.

257

some hard fighting, and heavy losses on both sides,
the Goths fled in confusion, and many thousands of
them perished, some by the swords of their enemies,
while others, in their frantic haste to escape, were
crushed to death by their comrades, or fell into the
river loaded with their armour and were drowned.
So ended the first siege of Rome by the Ostrogoths.
Perhaps never in the history of warfare were such
splendid advantages of numbers so shamefully thrown
away through the incompetence of a general. But in
spite of all, the nation continued faithful to the king
of its own choice.

COINS OF WITIGIS.

XXIV.
WITIGIS IN HIDING.
Sorely as the Gothic ranks had been thinned by
famine, pestilence, and the sword, it was still an enor
mous army that Witigis led away from the walls of
Rome. The joy that Belisarius felt at the raising of
the siege was mixed with some anxiety, for the way
to Ravenna was through Rimini, where John still
remained with his two thousand horsemen. The
general knew the headstrong character of his sub
ordinate, and he feared that John might allow himself
to be besieged by the Goths, and that the consequence
would be the total destruction of his little force.
To prevent such a calamity Belisarius put one thou
sand horsemen under two trusty officers, Hildiger and
Martin, and commanded them to convey to John his
orders to withdraw with his cavalry from Rimini, and to
leave the place in charge of a small garrison of foot-
soldiers, summoned from the lately taken fortress of
Ancona. Belisarius thought that if Witigis found
that Rimini contained neither cavalry nor any officers
important enough to be valuable prisoners, he would
not think it worth while to besiege the place ; and
even if he did so, John and his horsemen would be
able to cause the Goths a great deal of annoyance,

THE TUNNELLED ROCK. 259
and probably to compel them to abandon the
siege. Hildiger and Martin found no difficulty in out
stripping the slow march of the Goths. On their
way they captured a Gothic post at a place called the
Tunnelled Rock (Petra Pertusa), where the road run
ning along a ledge in the side of a precipitous cliff
overhanging a deep river-gorge, passes through a
tunnel forty feet long, cut through the solid rock in
the time of the emperor Vespasian. By way of
securing this passage, the two openings had been
walled up and provided with gates. The Goths
made no attempt at fighting, but took shelter inside
their huts at the farther end of the tunnel. So the
Romans climbed up to the top of the cliffs, and dis
lodging huge masses of rock sent them rolling down
upon the roofs of the huts. The Gothic soldiers then
not only opened the gate, but offered to enter the
emperor's service, and the greater part of them ac
companied the Roman horsemen on their forward
march, while the rest, together with a few Romans,
were left behind to guard the tunnel. After this,
Hildiger and Martin met with no resistance, and
going round by way of Ancona, where they selected
from the garrison the required number of infantry,
they proceeded to Rimini, and delivered their orders
to John. He flatly refused to obey, and the two
officers went back to Rome. They left the foot
soldiers behind, but taking back with them a few of
the garrison of Rimini, who being part of Belisarius's
own guard were not subject to John's commands.
Soon afterwards the vast army of the Goths arrived

260 WITIGIS IN HIDING.
before Rimini, and attempted to storm the walls with
the help of a wooden tower on wheels, like those which
they had tried to employ in the siege of Rome ; but,
mindful of their former failure, they contrived that
the machine should be propelled by men inside in
stead of being drawn by oxen. Most of the Romans,
when they saw these preparations, gave themselves up
for lost ; but the energy of John was equal to the need.
In the dead of night he issued from the walls with a
band of men armed with spades, and dug a deep
trench between the siege tower and the walls. So the
attack, like every other undertaking managed by
King Witigis, resulted in failure and the loss of
hundreds of Gothic lives. The Goths therefore
determined not to try any more to carry the city by
storm, but to starve out the little garrison by a strict
blockade — no difficult task, unless, as did not seem
likely, Belisarius should be able to send a powerful
army to the rescue.
While the Goths were encamped before Rimini, a
body of a thousand Romans, at the invitation of the
citizens, had entered the great city of Milan. Witigis
was greatly enraged to hear of the faithlessness of
the Milanese, and sent his nephew Uraias [Wraihya]
with a large detachment of his army, to besiege the
city, ordering him, when it should be taken, to show
no mercy to the traitors. Uraias was joined by
ten thousand Burgunds, whom the Frankish king
Theudebert had sent in aid of the Goths, and Milan
was so closely blockaded that no food could be brought
into the city.
Just at this time (about midsummer 538) a new

ARRIVAL OF NARSES. 261
imperial army landed at Ancona, commanded by
Narses, the emperor's chamberlain.
This Narses, though he had not had a soldier's
education, possessed a great deal of native military
genius, and we shall hear how, fourteen years later,
his bold and skilful generalship effected the ruin of
the Gothic kingdom, and made his master Justinian
undisputed sovereign of Italy. But on the present
occasion his coming wrought little but mischief to the
Roman cause. The truth seems to be that Justinian
was beginning to fear least Belisarius's victorious
career might end in his aspiring to the diadem of the
Western Empire, and that Narses was sent as a sort
of spy. Although the emperor's letter to the officers
of the army said expressly that Narses was not sent
to take the command, but that Belisarius was to be
obeyed " in all that tended to the good of the state,"
there were many who thought this assurance was
merely an empty form, and looked to the chamberlain
for their orders. Narses for his part continually dis
approved of the general's plans, and refused to carry
them out. When Belisarius claimed obedience, the
chamberlain coolly answered that he considered that
the proposed course was not " for the good of the
state," and therefore neither he nor the officers were
bound to agree to it. It is easy to see how dangerous
such a state of things would be, in the presence of an
enemy immensely superior in numbers.
Belisarius, however, did not know the temper in
which Narses had come, and he advanced with all his
army to meet him, congratulating himself on so large
an addition to his forces. The two leaders met at

262 WITIGIS IN HIDING.
Firmium, a town near the Adriatic shore, a day's
march south of Ancona, and a great council of war was
held to decide on the plan of operations to be adopted.
The question debated was whether the first step
should be to relieve the garrison of Rimini, or to
make an attack on the fortress of Auximum, which
was held by four thousand Goths commanded by
Wisand. The general feeling was that it would be highly
dangerous to leave Auximum in Gothic hands. It
seemed likely that if they did so, the Romans would
be taken in the rear by Wisand while they were
engaged with the great army of Witigis. " Let us
first reduce Auximum," urged several speakers, "and
then proceed to the relief of Rimini. If in the
meantime Rimini is taken, the fault will not be ours,
but John's, because if he had obeyed orders he would
not be there at all." Now Narses was a great friend
of John, and he pleaded his cause so eloquently,
showing how the capture of the two thousand and
their commander would raise the courage of the Goths,
that Belisarius decided to run the risk of an immediate
march against the besiegers. He divided his army into
three parts, sending the largest division, under Hildiger,
by sea, with orders to anchor in front of Rimini at
the same time that the second division, under Martin,
arrived by the road along the coast. Belisarius him
self, accompanied by Narses, marched through the
mountains, passing Riminiat the distance of a two days'
journey, so that he could bear down upon the besiegers
from the north. His object was to frighten the Goths
by the sight of an enemy approaching them from

BELISARIUS THWARTED. 263
three sides at once. In this he was successful. A
Gothic foraging party, surprised by the troops of
Belisarius, fled to the camp with the news that an
enormous army was advancing from the north ; the
same night the camp-fires of Martin's division were
descried eight miles away to the south ; and the
rising sun shone on the sails of a Roman fleet in the
offing. In a few hours the whole army of the Goths was
in headlong flight towards Ravenna, leaving in the
camp the sick and wounded, and not a little of their
property, to become the plunder of the soldiers of
Hildiger. About noon Belisarius arrived, and when
he saw the pale and wasted forms of John and his
companions, he told John that he ought to be very
thankful to Hildiger. "Not to Hildiger," John
replied gloomily, " but to Narses." Belisarius under
stood what his answer meant, and he knew that he
had made a life-long enemy.
Thwarted as he continually was by Narses and
John, Belisarius succeeding in capturing the strong
fortresses of Urbinum and Urbs Vetus (Orvieto).
But the dissensions between the generals caused the
loss of Milan. Belisarius had sent a large body of
troops, under Martin and an officer of Gothic birth
named Wilihari, to the rescue of the beleaguered city,
but the officers remained idle for months encamped
on the south bank of the Po, and at length wrote
to Belisarius asking for aid, as they dared not cross
the river, being so enormously outnumbered by the
Goths and Burgunds, and Belisarius wrote ordering
John and Justin to march for the deliverance of

264 WITIGIS IN HIDING.
Milan, but they refused to obey any orders but those
of Narses. At last — early in the year 539 — he was
constrained to humble himself to entreat Narses to
give the necessary commands. The chamberlain con
sented ; but it was too late. Before the order could
be executed Milan had fallen.
When the city was suffering the direst extremity
of famine, the Gothic chief called upon the garrison
to surrender, promising that if they did so their lives
should be spared. The Roman commander, Mun-
dila (himself, like so many other " Roman " officers
of the time, a Goth by birth) insisted that the be
siegers should pledge themselves to spare the lives of
the citizens as well. But the Goths, according to the
orders given to them by their king, were bent on hav
ing a terrible revenge upon the Milanese for their
betrayal, and refused the demand. Then the brave
Mundila, addressing the remnant of his thousand
men, called upon them to prefer a glorious death to a
dishonoured life, and to follow him in a desperate
charge upon the enemy. But the soldiers did not
share his heroic courage. They accepted the offered
terms, and saved their own lives, leaving the hapless
citizens to their fate.
The Goths used their victory like the worst of
savages. All the men in the city were killed (three
hundred thousand, we are told,1 but the number
seems incredible) ; the women were given as slaves
to the Burgunds, and Milan was levelled with the
ground. The surrounding cities, fearing a similar
1 Perhaps we should read forty thousand ; the mistake would be an
easy one in Greek numerals.

RECALL OF NARSES. 265
fate, hastened to offer their submission, and without
any further bloodshed the Goths were once more
masters of the province of Liguria.
The Roman generals, Martin and Wilihari, who
had allowed Milan to perish before their eyes without
striking a blow for its defence, returned to Rome.
Belisarius had set out with all his army towards the
Adriatic coast, intending to lay siege to Auximum,
and on the journey heard the grievous news of Milan.
In bitterness of heart he wrote to Justinian, telling
him the whole story of what had happened, and
doubtless asking for the punishment of those whose
fault had caused the disaster. The emperor, how
ever, contented himself with ordering Narses to
return at once to Constantinople, and formally ap
pointing Belisarius to the supreme command of the
army of Italy. Belisarius seems to have thought
Wilihari more to blame than his colleague, and we
read that he never permitted him to see his face
again. The dreary story of the remainder of the year 539
need not here be told in detail. From May to
December Belisarius was besieging Auximum, near
the Adriatic, and his lieutenants were besieging
Faesulae, close to Florence. The brave garrison of
Auximum suffered cruel hardships, but were en
couraged by continual promises of immediate help
from Ravenna The help never came ; Witigis could
not make up his mind to exchange the safety of his
fortress for the risks of a conflict in the open field.
At last, when Faesulae had fallen, and the army which
had captured it came with their prisoners to the camp

266 WITIGIS IN HIDING.
of Belisarius, the resolution of the famished defenders
of Auximum broke down. They not only surren
dered the city, but they were so hopeless of Gothic
freedom under a king like Witigis that they actually
took service in the Roman ranks. And so four
thousand valiant soldiers passed over from the side
of Witigis to that of the emperor.
While these two sieges were going on, King Theude-
bert of the Franks, with a hundred thousand men,
crossed the Alps into North Italy. The Goths, thinking
he came to help them, made no preparations for de
fence, and fled in great confusion when their supposed
friends suddenly made a fierce attack on their camp.
Upon this the Romans naturally expected that the
Franks would take their side, but they fell into the
same trap as their enemies had done. King Theude-
bert's object was merely to enrich himself by robbery.
After impartially plundering both camps and ravag
ing the country, he went back to his kingdom laden
with booty ; but he had lost so many men by disease
that he had little reason to congratulate himself on
the results of his treacherous conduct.
What miseries the Italian country people suffered
during this terrible year will never be fully known.
Fifty thousand peasants died of famine in the pro
vince of Picenum alone. The historian Procopius
describes in vivid language the ghastly scenes of
which he was an eye-witness. The victims of hunger,
he tells us, first grew deadly pale, then livid, and
finally black, " like the charred remains of torches."
Their eyes had the wild glare of insanity. It was
rumoured that some had yielded to the temptation

THE HORRORS OF FAMINE. 267
to save their own lives by feeding on human flesh.
Thousands were seen lying dead on the ground, their
hands still clutching the grass which they had been
trying to pull up for food. The bodies lay unburied,
but the birds disdained to touch them, for there was
no flesh left upon the bones.
It is a horrible picture ; but it helps us to under
stand in some degree what is really meant by the
" famines " that are so often mentioned in passing as
incidents in the wars of the centuries to which our
story relates.

XXV.
THE GOTHS LOSE RAVENNA
Belisarius was now master of the whole of Italy,
except Ravenna itself and the northern provinces
which form what is now called Lombardy. As soon
as the siege of Auximum -was ended, he marched
with all his army to blockade the fortress capital in
which King Witigis had taken refuge.
That Ravenna would fall sooner or later was
certain. No doubt the great army of Goths who
still remained within the walls might, if they had
had an efficient general, have sallied forth and over
whelmed the besiegers with their superior numbers.
But with Witigis for their commander nothing of the
sort was to be feared ; and Belisarius had captured
the supplies of corn which were being brought to the
city down the Po, while the Roman war-ships in the
Adriatic prevented any provisions from being im
ported by sea. And just at this time the storehouses
of corn in Ravenna were consumed by fire, through
the treachery, it was said, of Queen Mataswintha.
The king's nephew, Uraias, the captor of Milan, had
set out with four thousand men to attack the be
siegers, but nearly all his soldiers deserted to the

JUSTINIAN OFFERS TERMS. 269
enemy, and he was obliged to go back again into
Liguria, and to leave Ravenna to its fate.
It seemed, therefore, that the game was nearly
ended. But the calculations of Belisarius were dis
turbed by the arrival of ambassadors from Justinian,
empowered to offer the Goths liberal terms of peace.
Witigis was to remain king of the country north of
the Po, and to retain half the royal treasure. The
Goths, as well they might be, were delighted with
the proposal, but they suspected that it might be
only a trap, and, therefore, they refused to agree to
it unless Belisarius would assure them in writing that
he considered himself bound by the treaty. Beli
sarius, however, had set his heart on leading Witigis,
as he had before led the Vandal king, a prisoner to
Constantinople, and he was greatly mortified that he
was to be robbed of his prize at the very moment
when it was ready to fall into his hands. If the
emperor chose to make peace on the proposed con
ditions, he could not prevent him from doing so, but
at least he would be no party to the transaction.
However, as an obstinate resistance on his part might
seem disloyal to his master, he called a council of his
officers, and asked their opinion. They unanimously
declared their conviction that there was no use in
carrying on the war further, and that it was best to
make peace on the emperor's terms. Belisarius made
them all sign a document expressing this conclusion,
so that it might afterwards be seen that the responsi
bility for what he considered a foolish act did not
rest with himself.
But in the meantime the Goths had been holding

270 THE GOTHS LOSE RAVENNA.
a council, and had come to a very strange decision.
If Belisarius would have signed the treaty they could
have trusted him, but in the honesty of Justinian
they had no faith ; and they feared that if Ravenna
were surrendered the emperor would order them to
be carried away to Constantinople or to Asia Minor.
They therefore determined to offer the kingdom of
Italy to Belisarius himself. The messengers who
conveyed this proposal to the imperial general took
with them a letter from Witigis, who was now tired
of a kingship which he was unable to make a reality,
and who entreated his conqueror to yield to the
desire of the Goths.
Perhaps Belisarius may have entertained some
thoughts of availing himself of the opportunity of
making himself sovereign of the West. But his oath
of allegiance to Justinian stood in the way, and the
enterprise would besides have been full of perils.
However, he saw that to pretend to agree to the
Gothic proposal would be a means of obtaining the
surrender of Ravenna. He therefore called a council
of his officers, together with the emperor's ambassa
dors, and informed them that he had a plan by which
he was confident of being able to save the whole of
Italy for the empire, and to carry off Witigis and
the Gothic nobles, with all their treasure, to Con
stantinople. " Supposing," he said, " that this plan
should be successful, will you consider me justified in
setting aside the emperor's instructions ? " They all
thought that such an achievement would be worthy
of the highest praise. Belisarius then sent word to
the Goths that he accepted their offer ; and ambas-

SURRENDER OF WITIGIS. 271
sadors were sent from Ravenna to the Roman camp
with the request that he would swear that the garrison
and citizens should suffer no injury, and that he
would reign impartially over the Goths and the
Italians. Belisarius readily took the required oath, so far as
it related to Ravenna, but as to his assumption of the
kingship he said that he must first confer personally
with Witigis and the nobles. The ambassadors made
no difficulty in that point, for they thought it impos
sible that he could mean to draw back from an
undertaking so gratifying to his own ambition.
So Belisarius, accompanied by the Gothic envoys,
entered Ravenna with his army ; and at the same
time the Roman fleet, laden with provisions, landed
at the port of'Classis, and food was distributed to the
hungry people. The Romans were heartily welcomed
by the inhabitants of the city ; but when the Gothic
women saw the small-statured, mean-looking men
(Huns, perhaps, for the most part) who followed
Belisarius, they assailed their countrymen with shouts
of derision, and even spat in their faces, for allowing
themselves to be beaten by such foes. Belisarius
faithfully kept his promise to allow no plundering of
private property, but he took possession of the trea
sure stored up in the palace, and Witigis and some of
his chief nobles were kept in honourable captivity until
they could be conveyed to Constantinople. The
Goths whose homes were south of the Po were per
mitted to return to their farms.
For some time Belisarius allowed it to be believed
that he was going to accept the purple. By and by,

272 THE GOTHS LOSE RAVENNA.
however, he received from the emperor the command
to return at once to Constantinople. The motive for
this order was partly that Justinian had heard that
the conduct of his general looked as if he were dally
ing with the thought of usurping the crown of Italy,
and partly that the king of Persia had declared his
intention of invading the empire. The Goths heard
that Belisarius had been recalled, but took it for
granted that he would disregard the summons.
When, however, they found that he was actually
making preparations for departure, they perceived
that they had been imposed upon. Their attention
then turned to the two Gothic generals who still held
out in the north — Uraias the nephew of Witigis, and
Hildibad. First, a deputation of Gothic nobles waited
on Uraias at Pavia urging him to accept the crown.
He refused the offer, saying that his regard for his
uncle forbad him to occupy the throne during his
uncle's lifetime, and, besides, that he thought that his
relationship to one who had been so unfortunate
a commander would prevent him from winning the
confidence of the army. He recommended them,
however, to choose Hildibad, who was then in com
mand at Verona, and who was a nephew of Theudis,
king of the Visigoths.
Hildibad accordingly was sent for to Pavia, and was
there invested with the purple robe and hailed as
king. But before many days had passed away he
began to doubt whether the Goths had done wisely in
choosing him as king, and whether he himself had
been wise in accepting their choice. Calling together
a great assembly of the people, he urged them to

BELISARIUS RECALLED. 273
make one last effort to persuade Belisarius to assume
the diadem.
Accordingly, ambassadors were sent to Ravenna to
try to induce Belisarius to change his mind. They
reproached him in bitter, but not undeserved, terms
with his breach of faith : they taunted him with want
of spirit in "choosing to be a slave when he might
be a king ; " but it was all to no purpose. He replied
that he was resolved never to assume the title of king
or emperor so long as Justinian lived.
So Hildibad was confirmed in his new dignity, and
Belisarius set out to present himself, with his Gothic
prisoners and the spoils of the palace of Ravenna,
before his imperial master. It was in June, 540, that
he arrived at Constantinople — just after the empire
had suffered a humiliating blow in the capture of
Antioch by the Persian king. All the more welcome
to Justinian and his subjects were the evidences of the
Italian victories ; but his jealousy of Belisarius was
not set at rest, and he made no movement to offer the
conqueror the honours of a Roman triumph. The
enthusiasm of the people, however, made amends for
the emperor's neglect. Whenever Belisarius appeared
in public the streets were thronged with citizens eager
to gaze upon their favourite hero, and to testify their
admiration of him by shouts of applause.
Belisarius was now only thirty-five years of age, but
he had reached the highest point of his fame. His
secretary, Procopius, has chosen this moment to intro
duce his description of the great general's person and
character. He tells us that Belisarius was tall and of
well-proportioned frame, and in countenance hand-

274 THE GOTHS LOSE RAVENNA.
some beyond all men. He was " as perfectly acces
sible and as unassuming in manner as if he had been
some very poor and undistinguished man." His
soldiers loved him for his sympathy in all their
troubles, and his unequalled generosity in rewarding
their deeds of bravery. And yet his discipline was
very rigorous ; he never tolerated any outrages upon
the country people, nor any pillage or wanton destruc
tion of crops, and the provisions required by his army
were always paid for at liberal prices. His private
life was stainlessly pure, and no one ever saw him
excited by wine. His presence of mind was wonder
ful ; no emergency ever took him by surprise. In
danger he was cheerful and self-possessed : he was the
bravest of the brave, yet he never neglected any need
ful precaution. As he was never cast down by
adversity, so he was never inflated by success, nor
tempted to relax even for a moment the stern sim
plicity of his manner of life.
Such is the portrait which is drawn of this great man
by one who had lived in close intimacy with him. It
is a picture which leaves out all the shadows, and the
character of Belisarius was not without grave faults.
But in what Procopius says of his excellencies there
seems to be very little exaggeration. Pity that so
noble a man should have laboured for so unworthy an
end as that of crushing a heroic nation out of exis
tence, and subjecting Italy to the rapacious mis-
government of the Eastern Empire.
But though the task was unworthy of Belisarius, the
success which he had thus far attained is a proof of
his wonderful genius. If he had been allowed to re-

JUSTINIAN'S MISTAKE.

275

turn to Italy at once, a few more months would prob
ably have seen the end of the struggle. Justinian,
however, thought that the work which had been
carried so far might safely be left to inferior hands to
finish. It was a great mistake, the result of which,
as we shall see, was that the struggle lasted on for
twelve more years. The Goths were conquered at
last, but at an immense cost of treasure and of human
lives that might all have been spared had Justinian
been wise in time.
Belisarius's two royal prisoners had no reason to
complain of their treatment. King Witigis was made
a " Patrician ; " he lived in inglorious luxury at Con
stantinople for two more years, and then died, un-
lamented by his young widow — still only about
twenty-two — who immediately became the wife of
the emperor's nephew Germanus.

COINS STRUCK AT RAVENNA.

XXVI.
NEW GOTHIC VICTORIES.
The emperor thought that the conquest of Italy was
now as good as complete, and he at once proceeded
to turn his new acquisition to practical account. Jus
tinian's notion of government was the extortion of
money, to be spent in keeping up the splendour of his
court, and in building magnificent churches, palaces,
and fortresses all over the empire. Although he
thought himself a great lover of justice, and took
immense pains in reducing the Roman laws to a
scientific system, he did very little to ensure the laws
being justly administered in his dominions. Whether
his subjects were prosperous or not was a secondary
matter ; the one great thing was that they should
pay their taxes regularly. His revenue officers
were allowed to oppress the people as they liked, and
to enrich themselves with ill-gotten gains, if only they
did not fail to send plenty of money to Constantinople.
His policy was as shortsighted and foolish as it was
wicked ; a policy of " killing the goose that laid
the golden eggs." As Theoderic had so well seen,
the only lasting way to enrich the treasury of the
state is to labour for the prosperity of the subjects.
Justinian can hardly have been wholly blind to this

IMPERIAL OPPRESSION. 2JJ
truth, but his thought seems to have been that ex
pressed in the famous words, " After me the deluge."
While he lived the empire was outwardly brilliant and
glorious : it was his successors that had to suffer the
penalty which his recklessness had deserved.
The first thing that Justinian did after Belisarius's
return was to send to Ravenna the most energetic and
unscrupulous of his revenue officers, a certain Alex
ander, whom the people at Constantinople had spite
fully nicknamed " Scissors," because, they said, he
could clip a gold coin and leave it as round as it was
before. This man seems to have been entrusted with
almost absolute authority over the government of
Italy, and he used his power to oppress all classes
alike — not only the native Italians and the Goths who
had submitted to the empire, but even the soldiers,
whom he cheated out of their pay and punished by
heavy fines for trifling or imaginary offences.
It is easy to guess what happened. The Goths
who had accepted Roman rule were driven to revolt,
and betook themselves to the camp of their native
king. The Roman soldiers were unwilling to fight,
and many of them deserted to the enemy. In a few
months the little band under Hildibad had become a
powerful army.
Justinian had appointed no commander-in-chief in
the place of Belisarius ; the generals in Italy were all
equal in authority. They were too jealous of one
another, and too intent on enriching themselves by
the plunder of the people, to attempt any united
movement against the Goths. One of them, how
ever, who happened to be in Venetia with a large

278 NEW GOTHIC VICTORIES.
portion of the army, ventured to make an attack on
Hildibad near Treviso, but was defeated and lost
nearly all his men.
The Goths were greatly elated by this victory, and
for a time they were full of enthusiastic devotion to
their king. But Hildibad forfeited the affection of
his people by causing the assassination of Uraias, the
very man to whom he owed his kingdom. He did
not deny the deed, but pretended that he had detected
Uraias in a plot to betray the nation to the Romans.
Every one knew, however, that the real motive of the
crime was that Hildibad's queen had been insulted by
the wife of Uraias. The Goths did not attempt to
depose Hildibad, because they felt that his bravery
and ability made him indispensable ; but their loyalty
to him had received a fatal shock, and they no longer
cared to obey him. One day, as the king reclined at
the dinner-table, in the presence of all his great
nobles, a Gepid soldier, who had a private wrong to
avenge, came behind him and smote off his head with
his broadsword. Bitterly as the Goths had con
demned Hildibad's shameful deed, they knew his
value as a leader, and his death caused them for a
while to lose all heart and hope.
During this time of discouragement, the Rugians,
one of the smaller Gothic peoples, who had joined
themselves to the Ostrogoths without mixing with
them, took advantage of the opportunity to set up
one of their own nobles, named Eraric, as" King of
the Goths." The Ostrogoths did not like this, but
they were so much in need of a leader that they
were content to obey even the Rugian, if only he had

TOTILA CHOSEN KING. 279
shown himself a capable man. But Eraric simply
remained inactive ; and it was found out afterwards
that he had been trying to make a bargain with
Justinian for the betrayal of Italy.
The Gothic garrison of Treviso was commanded by
a nephew of Hildibad, a young man of about twenty-
five, whose name was Totila. After Eraric had been
on the throne three or four months, without making
any movement against the Romans, the Goths be
came impatient, and sent a deputation to offer the
crown to Totila. He informed the delegates (so, at
least, we are told) that he had entered into an agree
ment with the imperial general Constantian, to sur
render the city and the army on a certain day. " But,"
he added, " if Eraric is put to death before the date
fixed for the surrender, I am willing to accept the
kingdom." Whether this story be true or not, it is
certain that Eraric was soon afterwards assassinated,
and Totila became king.
If Totila did indeed obtain his throne by breaking
his pledged word and by instigating an assassination,
the beginning of his reign contrasts strangely with
his after history. His character was marked by a
chivalrous sense of honour, and a magnanimity towards
his enemies which, in that age, were rare indeed.
One or two of his recorded actions, indeed, seem un
worthy of the man's noble nature ; but we must
remember that his life has been written by no friend
or countryman, but by a foreigner and an enemy, who
nevertheless could not refrain from expressing with
emphasis the admiration he felt for the uprightness
and the humanity of this " barbarian."

280 NEW GOTHIC VICTORIES.
It should be mentioned here that Totila seems on
becoming king to have changed his name to Baduila.
Or possibly the latter may have been his real name,
and Totila only a nickname. At any rate he was
known to his countryman by both names, though
Baduila is the only one which appears on his coins.
However, in history he is always called Totila ; the
other name would have been unknown to us but for
the coins and a solitary mention in Jordanes.1
When Justinian heard how the imperial cause in
Italy was being ruined through the inaction of the
generals, he wrote to them in such severe terms that
they felt something must be done. So they all
gathered together (eleven there seem to have been)
at Ravenna, and devised plans for making a com
bined movement against the Goths. They deter
mined to begin with an attack on Verona ; but their
cowardice and blundering caused the scheme to fail,
and they marched southwards in all haste as far as
Faventia. Here they were overtaken by Totila, and
a battle took place. Although the Goths had only
five thousand men, while the Romans had twelve
thousand, Totila was victorious ; the imperial army
was completely dispersed, with a great loss both
in slain and in prisoners. Another battle in the
valley of Mucella (Mugello) had a similar end
ing, and Totila led his army into the south,
capturing one city after another, and making the
farmers pay into his treasury both the rents due
to their landlords and the taxes that were due to the
1 Perhaps the truth may be that his original name was Totabadws,
and that Totila and Baduila are diminutives of this (see Appendix) .

THE GOTHS BESIEGE NAPLES. 281
emperor. In other respects, however, he treated the
people with so much kindness that he won a great
deal of goodwill from those who had suffered from
the lawless behaviour of the Roman armies. At last,
in the summer of 542, he encamped before Naples,
which a certain Conon was holding for the emperor,
with a garrison of one thousand men.
The emperor's army in Italy was in a state of
general mutiny on account of pay being in arrear, so
that the generals could hardly have done anything
for the relief of Naples even if they had wished. But
apparently they were only too glad of the excuse for
remaining inactive in the fortified cities. Justinian,
however, sent a considerable land and sea force from
Constantinople, but its commanders were no match
for the genius of Totila. The fleet was defeated, and
the most important of the leaders of the expedition,
Demetrius, was paraded in front of the walls with a
halter round his neck, and made to harangue the
garrison and the citizens, in order to persuade them
to surrender. The Gothic king himself also made a
speech to the besieged, promising that if they would
yield neither soldier nor citizen should be any the
worse for their submission.
The temptation was strong, for the defenders were
hard pressed by famine and disease ; but the garrison
was unwilling to seem false to their sovereign, and
begged that thirty days' truce might be allowed them.
If no help came from the emperor within that time,
they promised to surrender. Totila astonished the
messengers by his reply. " By all means," he said ;
" I grant you three months' delay, if you choose to

282 NEW GOTHIC VICTORIES.
take it." And he undertook to make no attempt to
storm the city during that time. He knew that the
defenders would find it hard to struggle with the
famine for even one month longer. Totila's calm
confidence made them feel that the hope of succour
was vain indeed ; and a few days afterwards the gates
were opened.
As soon as Totila entered the city, he saw from the
appearance of the inhabitants that they had suffered
terribly from famine. He had had, like Procopius,
the opportunity of observing the effects of hunger on
the human frame, and he knew that if those who were
enfeebled by long privation were at once freely sup
plied with food they were likely to be killed by plenty.
With a thoughtful kindness which, as Procopius says,
" could neither have been expected from an enemy
nor from a barbarian," he ordered that every person
in the city should receive a daily ration of food, at
first very small, but gradually increased until the
danger had ceased to exist. Then, and not before,
he allowed the city gates to be thrown open, and
proclaimed that the inhabitants were free to go or
to remain as they chose.
Conon and most of his soldiers were placed on
board ships, and informed that they were at liberty to
sail to any port they preferred. They were ashamed
to go to Constantinople, and tried to make for Rome.
The wind, however, was contrary, and they were
obliged to remain at Naples. Naturally they felt
very uneasy, for they thought that after Totila had
given them one fair chance of escape, he would now
consider himself entitled to treat them as prisoners.

TOTILA'S GENEROSITY. 283
But the "barbarian's" generosity again surpassed
expectation. Sending for Conon, he assured him
that he and his companions might consider them
selves as among friends ; that until it was possible
for them to sail the Gothic markets were open to
them, and that he would do everything he could to
ensure their comfort. As, however, the wind con
tinued unfavourable, Totila at length recommended
them to make the journey by land, and actually pro
vided them with beasts of burden, money for travel
ling expenses, and a Gothic escort. He did all this,
though he knew that Conon and his men were going
to increase the garrison of the city to which it was
his intention shortly to lay siege. Certainly he had
, given his kingly word that the soldiers should be
allowed to march away " whither they pleased ; " but
it is seldom that any conqueror has observed a capitu
lation in this splendid fashion, either before or since
Even more rigorously than Belisarius himself,
Totila repressed all acts of outrage on the part of
his army. No matter who was the offender, the
penalty was death. One officer of high rank, and
very popular among his comrades, had committed a
crime of this kind, and had been placed under arrest.
The chiefs of the army implored Totila to spare the
man's life. The king listened courteously and calmly
to what they had to say, and then, in grave and
earnest tones he expressed his conviction that only so
long as the Goths kept themselves pure from, injustice
could they expect the Divine blessing to rest on their
cause. He reminded them how brilliant had been
the fortunes of the nation under the righteous rule of

284 NEW GOTHIC VICTORIES.
Theoderic ; how, under Theodahad and his succes
sors, the Goths, forsaking the policy of justice and
humanity to which they owed their greatness, had
brought themselves to the lowest point of humilia
tion ; and how since they had again begun to act in
a nobler spirit their prosperity had returned. Would
they, he asked, with this experience before them,
insist on making the nation an accomplice in this
man's guilt? The Gothic chiefs were unable to resist
this reasoning, and the criminal underwent his doom.
" While Totila was behaving in this manner, the
Roman generals and their soldiers were plundering
the property of those who were subject to their sway,
and indulging without restraint in every kind of inso
lence and excess." We are quoting Procopius, who
points out with indignant eloquence the contrast be
tween the " civilized " Romans and their " barbarian "
foe. In Rome itself the citizens were bitterly regret
ting their change of masters. Totila knew of the
existence of this feeling, and resolved to work upon
it. First he sent a letter to the senate, charging them,
if they repented of the crime and folly of their treason
against the Goths, to earn their pardon by a voluntary
surrender of the city. It is strange that the impe
rialist commander should have allowed such a letter
to be delivered at all ; however, he would not permit
the senate to return any answer.
A few days passed, and one morning it was found
that placards, signed with Totila's name, had been
nailed up during the night in all the most frequented
parts of the city. They announced that the Goths
would shortly march to the capture of Rome, and

DESPAIR OF THE ROMANS.

285

contained a solemn declaration that no harm should
be done to the citizens. The officers of the imperial
army tried in vain to find out who had put up these
placards, but it was suspected that it must have been
done by the Arian clergy, who were therefore banished
from the city.
Soon afterwards the emperor Justinian received
a letter, signed by all his generals in Italy, expressing
their opinion that the imperial cause in that country
was hopeless, and that the attempt to oppose the
victorious progress of the Goths had better be aban
doned. Very unwillingly the emperor had to yield
to the conviction that his Italian dominions could be
preserved only by the help of the great general who,
four years before, had all but crushed the Gothic
monarchy, and whose premature recall was now
proved to have been a fatal mistake. And so Beli
sarius received orders to go to Italy to retrieve the
disasters which had befallen the imperial arms.

COPPER COINS STRUCK AT ROME DURING THE GOTHIC DOMINION.

XXVII.
THE FAILURE OF BELISARIUS.
It was not merely the old suspicion which made
Justinian unwilling to send Belisarius to Italy. The
great general had recently fallen into disgrace with
his imperial master. In the year 542, Justinian
had been smitten with plague, and it was said that
while he was on what was supposed to be his death
bed Belisarius had formed a plot for the purpose of
succeeding him on the throne, to the exclusion of the
Empress Theodora. The emperor, however, recov
ered, and as he believed the accusations against
Belisarius, he deprived him of all his honours and of
a large part of his property. He also took away
from him his famous " household " of soldiers, and
sent them away on foreign service. Afterwards
Justinian had professed to forgive Belisarius, and had
conferred on him the office of " Count of the Imperial
Stable." But he still treated him with haughty cold
ness, and even in making him the offer of the Italian
command he seems not to have been able to conceal
the distrust which he felt. Belisarius, however, was
tired .of inaction, and eager to prove his loyalty,
and he accepted the appointment with gladness. He

WHY BELISARIUS FAILED. 287
even promised, it is said, that he would himself
supply all the money which the expedition might
cost. Perhaps it was this promise that overcame the
avaricious emperor's reluctance to avail himself of
the services of the general whom he distrusted.
It was in May, 544, that Belisarius went to take the
command of the Italian armies. He remained five
years in Italy, and when he at length returned it
was with the consciousness of failure : the Gothic
power was still unbroken.
How was it that the great general, who a few years
before had so brilliantly, with a mere handful of men,
wrested Italy from the grasp of the gigantic host of
Witigis, was no longer able to contend against a foe
whose army was inferior in numbers to his own ?
The reasons, no doubt, were many. It is possible
that the troubles through which he had passed had in
some degree broken his spirit and dulled his brain.
Something, too, may be set down to the fact that his
adversary now was a resolute and skilful youth, and
not a feeble and purposeless old man. But there
were other causes which were more important still.
The Roman soldiers in Italy were thoroughly de
moralized by the shameful oppression which they
had undergone at the hands of Justinian's governors,
and by the spectacle of the sloth and rapacity of their
own commanders. Great numbers of them had de
serted to Totila, in whose service they might at least
be sure of their pay. Those who remained were
rather a mob than an army ; they professed to be on
the emperor's side, because of the opportunity that
was allowed them for pillaging and insulting the

288 THE FAILURE OF BELISARIUS.
Italian country people, but in the field they were
worse than useless. Then, too, Belisarius had asso
ciated with him other commanders with authority
nearly equal to his own ; and they were little inclined
to submit to a chief whom they knew to be under
the emperor's frown. His plans were thwarted con
tinually, and he was sometimes obliged to defer to
the opinions of his subordinates against his own wiser
judgment. Even under these miserable circumstances Beli
sarius managed to gain some advantages over the
enemy, and to delay for a long time Totila's march
to Rome. But when a year had passed he felt that
the Goths would never be conquered with such means
as he had. He therefore wrote an urgent letter to
the emperor, begging him to send to Italy an army
worthy of the name, and money for the heavy arrears
of pay that were due to the barbarian troops. To
show to Justinian emphatically how hopeless he con
sidered the struggle to be without further resources,
he left Italy altogether, and waited at Durazzo, on
the other side of the Adriatic, until the soldiers should
arrive from Constantinople.
While Belisarius was waiting, Rome was once more
undergoing the miseries of a close blockade. The
commander of the emperor's garrison was Bessa, the
Thracian Goth, a man who in the past had shown
himself a brave soldier, but whose hard - hearted
avarice now added to the wretchedness of the unfor
tunate Romans. The hardships which the citizens
had to endure were a matter of satisfaction to him,
for they enabled him to enrich himself by selling, at

PELAGIUS INTERCEDES FOR THE ROMANS. 289
outrageous prices, the provisions of which he had
collected an ample store.
When the senators found that there was little
prospect of speedy relief, they determined to try
whether they could induce Totila to agree to favour
able terms of surrender. They chose as their am
bassador a deacon named Pelagius, who had gained
great esteem among the people by the generosity
with which he had supplied the necessities of the
poor during the siege. His instructions were to ask
Totila for a truce of a few days, and to promise, if he
would agree to their conditions, that at the end of
that period the city should be given up, unless an
imperial army arrived in the meantime for its
relief. Totila received Pelagius with a great appearance
of respect and kindness, but said that before they
entered into any discussion it must be understood
that on three points his mind was firmly made up.
" In the first place," said he, " you must not ask me
to let the Sicilians go unpunished for their treachery.
Secondly, I am resolved that the walls of Rome
shall be destroyed. This will be far better for the
citizens themselves, because they will then be in no
danger of having again to suffer the calamity of a
siege. The third point is that I will listen to no pro
posals for restoring to their former masters the slaves
who have taken service in the Gothic army. I have
pledged my word to them that they shall be free ; if
I broke faith towards these unfortunate people, how
could you trust in my observing any treaty I made
with you ? Apart from these three points, however,

290 THE FAILURE OF BELISARIUS.
I am ready to consider favourably any proposition
you have to make."
When he heard these words Pelagius lost his
temper, and said fiercely that to lay down such con
ditions of discussion was a gross insult, and that after
this he could only regard Totila's show of politeness
as a downright mockery. " I came," he said, " as
a suppliant ; but now I disdain to make any request
of you — I will address my prayers to God, whose it is
to humble the arrogance of the mighty." And so
Pelagius went back to the city with his message
undelivered. Days passed away, and still no succour came.
Men were dying of hunger in the city, while the
soldiers were well-fed, and their officers still kept up
their accustomed luxury. Assembling in a body, the
citizens surrounded the house of Bessa, and by their
uproar compelled him to come out and listen to
their complaints. They besought him either to let
them go out of the city, or to supply them with food,
or, if he would do neither, to kill them and end their
miseries. Bessa replied coolly that to find them food
was impossible ; to kill them would be wicked, and
to let them go would be dangerous. But he ended
his speech by saying that he had certain information
that Belisarius was speedily coming with a new army.
His manner convinced them that he was speaking the
truth, and the crowd dispersed without making any
attempt at violence.
The news was indeed true. After every possible
excuse for delay had been exhausted, Justinian had
at last despatched an army to Durazzo. As soon as

FAMINE IN ROME. 291
it arrived, Belisarius embarked with the troops, and
after a sail of five days his ships cast anchor in the
port of Rome.
But the famine continued to do its fearful work,
until at last an incident happened which compelled
Bessa to relax his cruel rule. A certain man in the
city, worn out by the cries of his five children for
bread which he could not give them, at last bade
them follow him, saying that he would find them
food. He led them through the streets till he came
to a bridge over the Tiber, and then, wrapping his
cloak round his head, he plunged into the river and
was drowned before the eyes of his children and of
the crowd. The city rang with cries of indignation
against the Roman officers. Bessa perceived that the
hungry populace was becoming dangerous. He gave
permission that the citizens might go whither they
would, and supplied them with money for their
journey. All but a very few accepted the offer, but
vast numbers of them died of hunger on the way, or
fell into the hands of the enemy and were killed.
The first concern of Belisarius was to try to get
Rome supplied with provisions. But his plan required
the help of Bessa ; and Bessa sullenly refused to obey
his orders, and the well-laid scheme came to nothing.
After this failure Belisarius prepared for an attack on
the Gothic camp ; and here again he would have
succeeded but for the disobedience of his officers.
Ten miles from Rome, and half way between the
city and the port, Totila had built a wooden bridge
across the river, and had erected upon it two towers,
which he manned with four hundred of his bravest

292 THE FAILURE OF BELISARIUS.
soldiers. Belisarius, leaving his wife Antonina and
his treasures at the port, in charge of one of his
officers named Isaac, set out with a fleet of vessels,
headed by two fireships, to destroy the obstacle with
which Totila sought to prevent his approach. He
sent word to Bessa to second his attack by a sally
from the gates of Rome, and he strictly charged
Isaac on no account to leave his post.
The attack on the bridge was successful : one of
the towers took fire, and two hundred Goths perished
in the flames. But Bessa did not make the expected
sortie ; and Isaac, heedless of his orders, foolishly
made an attack on a strong body of the enemy, and
was defeated and captured.
The news that Isaac was a prisoner was brought
to Belisarius in the midst of his victory. He rushed
to the conclusion that the port must have been taken,
and that his dearly-loved wife was in the hands of
the enemy. " For the first time in his life," says
Procopius, " he was struck with panic." Leaving
unfinished the work he had so brilliantly begun, he
hurried back to the port. His wife was safe ; but
the anguish he had undergone, and the mortification
at the failure of his plan, so worked upon him. that he
fell into an illness, and was for a long time helpless
and in danger of his life. And while Belisarius lay
on his bed of sickness, the Asinarian gate was opened
by the treachery of four sentinels, and Rome fell once
more into the hands of the Goths.
It was on the evening of December 17, 546, that
Totila and his army passed through the gate. Totila
did not feel very sure that the four sentinels were not

ROME BETRAYED TO TOTILA. 293
leading him into a trap, and so he caused his men to
remain in a compact body near the gates until day
break. In the night the news was brought to him
that the imperial army and its leaders had fled from
the city, and some of his officers urged him to pursue
them. " Let them go," he said ; " what could we
wish for more than for the enemy to run away ? "
When morning came it was plain that the report
was true. The city was deserted, except for a few
soldiers who had taken refuge in the churches, and
about five hundred of the citizens. Totila's first act
was to repair to the church of St. Peter to give
thanks to God for his victory. While he was thus
engaged, the deacon Pelagius brought him word that
the Goths were slaughtering the unresisting Romans
in the streets, and holding the book of the Gospels in
his hand, he implored him to remember the Christian
law of mercy. " So, after all, Pelagius," said Totila,
with a smile, " you are coming to me as a suppliant."
" Yes," was the deacon's answer, " because God has
made me your slave. I beseech you, O our master,
to spare the lives of your slaves." Totila at once
sent out strict orders that there was to be no more
violence, but he permitted his soldiers to plunder the
city. A great quantity of spoil was taken, especially
in the palace occupied by Bessa, who in his hasty
flight had had to leave behind him all his ill-gotten
gains. Amongst the few once wealthy Romans who re
mained in the city, and who, it is said, were actually
reduced to beg their bread from their conquerors, was
Rusticiana, the widow of Boethius. Some of the

294 THE FAILURE OF BELISARIUS.
Goths demanded that she should be put to death,
because she had given money to the Roman officers
to induce them to destroy the statues of Theoderic.
But Totila insisted that the aged lady should be
treated with all respect.
On the following day Totila harangued his soldiers
on his favourite theme — the importance of justice and
mercy, as their only hope of obtaining the blessing of
God on their cause. Soon afterwards he sent Pela
gius to Constantinople with other envoys to ask
Justinian to agree to terms of peace ; but the only
answer the emperor would give was that Belisarius
had full powers to carry on or to end the war as
seemed to him best, and that the Goths must treat
with him. But we do not find that Totila attempted
to open negotiations with Belisarius ; probably he
knew too well the iron resolution of his great anta
gonist to entertain any hope of success.
The failure of the mission to Justinian was a great
disappointment to Totila ; and just about the same
time he learned that an expedition which he had sent
into the south of Italy had been defeated with great
slaughter. Under the exasperation produced by these
events, he determined to take his revenge on Rome
— to burn down its magnificent buildings, and to
" turn the city into a sheep-pasture." Perhaps he
would really have disgraced his glorious career by
this barbarous deed ; but when Belisarius heard of
his intention, he sent a letter to the Gothic king,
asking him this pointed question : " Do you choose
to appear in history branded as the destroyer of the
noblest city in the world, or honoured as its pre-

THE GREAT CITY DESERTED. 295
server ? " The messengers who bore the letter re
ported that Totila read it over many times, as if he
was learning it by heart. After deep consideration,
he returned to Belisarius the assurance that Rome
should be spared. The incident is honourable alike
to each of the two men.
Now that the long siege was over, Totila was able
to turn his attention to the other parts of his king
dom, which had been suffering the ravages of the
imperial armies. He came to the strange resolve of
abandoning Rome altogether, destroying a large part
of the walls so that it could no longer be available to
the enemy as a fortress; he caused the senators to
accompany him on his march, and sent the scanty
remnants of the citizens, with their wives and chil
dren, away into Campania. Many strange things
have happened in the history of Rome, but surely
one of the strangest of all is that the vast city, with
all its noble buildings still uninjured, should have
remained for many weeks without any inhabitants.
At first Totila left behind him the greater part of
his army to keep a check on the movements of
Belisarius, while he led the remainder into the south
of Italy. But before long, for some reason not quite
clear, he found it necessary to march with all his
available force towards Ravenna, and the neighbour
hood of Rome was left unguarded.
And now a rather amusing incident took place.
Belisarius hurried up from the port, and meeting with
no resistance, took possession of Rome. Of course
there was no time to rebuild the fortification properly,
but by setting men to work day and night, he

296

THE FAILURE OF BELISARIUS.

managed within three weeks to erect a rough wall
in the places where Totila had destroyed the original
defences. The inhabitants flocked back to the city,
which once more regained something like its accus
tomed aspect.
When Totila heard what had happened he marched
hastily with all his army to Rome. When he
arrived Belisarius had not yet been able to put new
gates in the place of those that had been destroyed ;
but the city was defended with so much spirit that
after three furious attempts to take it by storm the

COINS OF TOTILA.

Goths were compelled to abandon the undertaking.
Hitherto, as Procopius says, the Goths had almost
worshipped their young king as a god ; but now they
angrily reproached him for not having either de
stroyed Rome or else occupied it himself. They did
not rise in rebellion against Totila : one of their
national virtues was that of faithfulness to their
chosen leaders, even when unsuccessful. But their
trust in his wisdom and fortune were shaken, and

BELISARIUS ABANDONS THE STRUGGLE. 297
they fought no longer with their old enthusiasm and
hopefulness. Belisarius completed the fortifications of the city,
and sent the keys of the new gates to Justinian as an
evidence of his success. But although the re-occupa
tion of Rome was a clever exploit, it was more showy
than useful, and did not help to bring the end of the
war any nearer. After several months more of un
profitable skirmishing, Belisarius felt that the Goths
were not to be conquered by a general who had no
means of commanding the obedience of his subordi
nates. Weary of the hopeless struggle, he allowed
his wife to go to Constantinople to solicit his recall.
Justinian granted the request, and early in the year
549 Belisarius quitted Italy to return to it no more.
His after history does not concern us here, but we
may briefly say that he lived sixteen years longer,
during which he performed one exploit worthy of his
earlier fame, in saving Constantinople from the Huns.
Near the end of his life he fell into disgrace once
more on account of a suspicion of treason, but he was
again restored to favour, and died in the enjoyment
of all his wealth and honours. It is hardly needful
to mention the idle tale that in old age and blindness
Belisarius had to beg his bread from door to door.

XXVIII.
THE RUIN OF THE OSTROGOTHS.
The departure of Belisarius was soon followed by
the loss of Rome. Again, as on the last occasion, it
was through treason that the city was delivered into
the hands of the Goths. The Isaurian soldiers
amongst the garrison were discontented on account
of their pay being long in arrear. If we may believe
Procopius, they had received nothing from the imperial
treasury for several years ; though doubtless they had
been allowed to make good the deficiency by the
plunder of the Italian peasantry. They heard that
their four countrymen who in the last siege had
opened the Asinarian gate to Totila had received
princely rewards for their betrayal, and they resolved
to follow the example. Totila readily accepted their
proposal, and at the time agreed upon a sudden
sound of trumpets was heard, which caused the
garrison to hasten to the portion of the walls skirting
the river, expecting that a great attack was about to
be made from that side. Meanwhile, the Gate of St.
Paul, on the north-west, was opened by the Isaurian
traitors, and Totila and the vanguard of his army
marched into the city. The imperial soldiers fled in
all directions through the other gates, but Totila had

THE GOTHS RECOVER ROME. ZQQ
posted strong bodies of men to intercept their flight,
and very few of them escaped the sword.
There was, however, one brave officer amongst the
besieged, Paul of Cilicia, who with his four hundred
men took refuge in the fortress-tomb of Hadrian, and
prepared to hold it against all attacks. But the Goths
were wiser than to attempt an assault. They closely
surrounded the fortress, and remained quiet, waiting
for hunger to do its work. At length the brave four
hundred found that they could hold out no longer,
and resolved to sally forth in one desperate charge
against the foe. Feeling that they were about to rush
upon certain destruction, they embraced each other,
and "kissed each other with the kiss of those doomed
to death ; " and then they issued from the gate of the
castle, expecting to perish, but determined to sell
their lives as dearly as they could. Before, however,
they reached the Gothic lines, they were met by a
flag of truce, bringing the unlooked-for offer from the
Gothic king, that he would either send them unhurt
to Constantinople, on condition of laying down their
arms and giving their promise never more to fight
against the Goths, or, if they chose, he would accept
them as soldiers in his own army, on an equal footing
with his own countrymen. Brave men as they were,
life was sweet, and they hailed with joy the sudden
deliverance. At first they asked to be sent to Con
stantinople ; but when they thought of the cold re
ception they would meet with there, and the dangers
of the journey to unarmed men, they came to the
conclusion that Totila was a better master to serve
than Justinian, and so they agreed to be enrolled in

300 THE RUIN OF THE OSTROGOTHS.
the Gothic ranks. There were also four hundred other
soldiers who instead of escaping from the city had
taken refuge in the churches, and these too joined
themselves to Totila's army.
A few months before these events, Totila had sent
an embassy to one of the Frankish kings, asking the
hand of his daughter in marriage. The ambassadors
not only brought back a refusal, but also a very in
sulting message. " Tell your master," said king
Theudebert, " that we cannot recognize as King of
Italy a man who could not keep Rome when he had
it, but allowed it to fall into the hands of his enemies."
Totila was deeply stung by this taunt, and he
resolved to prove to the world that he was not
unworthy to be the master of Rome. He carefully
restored all the buildings and the portions of the
walls that had been destroyed, and sent for the
senators who were imprisoned in Campania. The city
assumed its old aspect, and for the last time the ancient
public games were celebrated in the presence of a sove
reign who sat on the throne of the Western Caesars.
Again the Goths were masters in Italy ; the scattered
remnants of the imperial armies showed little sign of
being able to offer any serious resistance. Totila now
sent an embassy to Justinian, offering to become his
vassal, on condition of being recognized as the ruler
of Italy. If the emperor had consented, perhaps the
Gothic monarchy might even yet have established
itself, and the whole course of the history of Southern
Europe would have been different. But Justinian
refused to admit the ambassadors to his presence, and
they returned without obtaining any answer.

THE EXPEDITION OF GERMANUS. 30I
Totila now set out to fulfil his cherished project of
punishing the Sicilians for their faithlessness. Two
years were spent in the plunder of the wealthy cities
of Sicily, in the conquest of the islands of Sardinia
and Corsica ; and in victorious invasions of the
emperor's domains in Greece.
But amid all these victories, the Goths received
tidings that filled them with dismay. Justinian, stirred
up to action by the entreaties of Pope Vigilius, had
prepared a new expedition which he had placed under
the command of his nephew Germanus. One reason
why the Goths found this news so disquieting was
that the new commander was the husband of their
own princess Mataswintha, who, it was reported, was
to accompanying him to Italy. The thought of
having to fight against a descendant of Theoderic
was not a welcome one, and it was greatly to be
feared that many of Totila's soldiers might be led by
this feeling to desert their standards. Besides this,
Germanus had proved himself a very able general,
and if he had not the genius of Belisarius he was far
better supported than that great commander had
been. Justinian had, to every one's surprise, granted
immense sums of money for the support of the army,
and Germanus himself had contributed largely out of
his private fortune. The high pay that was offered
had tempted great numbers of Gepids, Herules, Lom
bards, and other barbarians, to enlist under Germanus,
so that the expedition which now threatened the
Gothic power was by far the most formidable that
Justinian had ever sent into the field.
But it was not fated that Germanus should be the

302 THE RUIN OF THE OSTROGOTHS.
conqueror of Totila. Before he had crossed the
Adriatic, he fell sick and died, widely regretted
throughout the empire, for he was known as a man
of pure and noble character, and there were many
who hoped that he would succeed Justinian, and that
his accession would be the beginning of happier days
for the heavily burdened people.
Shortly after his death Mataswintha bore a son,
who was named Germanus like his father. It has
been supposed that there was a party among the
Goths who desired that this young Germanus might
some day be installed as Western Caesar, or " King of
Goths and Italians," with the consent and under the
protection of the court of Constantinople. However,
he seems himself to have had no ambition of that
kind. He lived a quiet and honoured life for fifty
years, and then became involved in conspiracies, on
account of which he and his only child (a daughter)
were put to death in the year 604. And so the line
of the great Theoderic came to an end.
The question which Justinian had now to consider
was, who should be appointed commander of the
Italian army in his nephew's place. It was above all
things necessary that the new leader should be one
whose authority all the other officers would obey
without dispute. To raise one of the generals to the
supreme command would have been to provoke again
the jealousies and the disobedience which had been
fatal to the enterprise of Belisarius. Justinian solved
the difficulty by offering the headship of the army to
the highest official of his court, the chamberlain
Narses, the same whose meddling in the Italian war

THE CONQUEROR OF ITALY. 303
twelve years before, and its unfortunate results, we
have already described. He was now seventy-five
years of age, and feeble in body ; but that he was
still vigorous in mind was proved by the event. For
it was he who achieved the task which Belisarius,
in the prime of his manhood, had failed to accomplish
— the ruin of the Gothic nation, and the establish
ment of the empire in Italy.
When Justinian proposed to Narses that he should
assume the command in Italy, he refused to do so
except on one condition. He must have unlimited
supplies of money, so that he might raise an army
absolutely overwhelming in numbers — even the army
collected under Germanus seemed to him insufficient
— and that when he arrived in Italy he might reconcile
the mutinous soldiers and win back the deserters by
giving them their full arrears of pay. The emperor
knew his aged servant's faithfulness and his wisdom,
and he had learned by bitter experience that too
much parsimony was a great mistake. The request
of Narses was granted, and before long he had arrived
at the head of the Adriatic with such an army as had
never before been collected in the name of Justinian.
The soldiers came from every quarter of the eastern
empire, and from many barbarous peoples beyond its
bounds. Even distant Persia was represented by a
large body of deserters, who served under a grandson
of the Persian king.
What Narses at first intended to do was to enter
Italy from the north, and march southward along the
middle of the peninsula. But here he met with un
expected difficulties. Totila had sent the bulk of his

304 THE RUIN OF THE OSTROGOTHS.
army to Verona, commanded by a general named
Teia, who had taken vigorous means to render the
invasion impossible by destroying the roads, and
making ditches and embankments. Besides this, the
Franks were occupying Venetia with a strong force,
and they refused to allow the passage of the emperor's
army, because — that was the reason they gave — their
enemies the Lombards were serving in it. It was
plain that if Narses persisted in his original plan he
would have to fight not only with the Goths, but with
the powerful army of the Franks.
But what else was he to do ? He had not ships
enough to transport his arrny by sea ; and it seemed
impossible to march along the coast, because there
were twelve broad rivers to be crossed. A council oi
war was called, at which one of the generals, John the
grandson of Vitalian, suggested a clever plan that
solved the difficulty. The army was to travel on foot
close to the sea-shore, and the ships and boats were to
sail alongside of it, so that when there was a river to
be crossed a bridge of boats could be made for the
soldiers to pass over.
This ingenious contrivance was adopted, and the
army arrived at Ravenna without meeting with any
resistance. Here they rested for nine days. During
this period of repose, Narses received a letter from the
commander of the Gothic garrison at Ariminum, named
Usdrila [Austrila ?], sneeringly asking whether the
Romans meant to hide themselves behind stone walls,
and challenging them to come out and fight like men-
Narses laughed heartily at this foolish letter, and
when his men were sufficiently rested he set out on

THE BATTLE OF TADINO. 305
his march to Ariminum. At the bridge over the river
Marecchia there was a skirmish, in which the boast
ful Usdrila was killed, and his head carried into the
Roman camp. Narses did not pause to attempt the
capture of Ariminum, but hastened along the Flami-
nian Way, till he came near to the little town ofTaginae
(Tadino). Here Totila, who had been joined by the
army of Teia, had pitched his camp.
Narses now sent some of his officers to the Gothic
king, urging him to surrender, and not to risk a battle
against overwhelming numbers. Totila would not
hear of submission, and the envoys then requested him
to fix a day for the battle. " This day week," he replied.
But Narses was not to be deceived by such a simple
trick as this, and when on the very next day the Goths
came in force to attack the Roman camp they found
the enemy expecting them, and were heavily repulsed.
Both sides now prepared themselves for a great
pitched battle, and the commanders made speeches
to their men to encourage them for the struggle which
they felt would decide the fate of Italy. The Goths
were terribly cast down by the sight of the vast
numbers and the splendid equipment of the Roman
army, and all Totila's eloquence was needed to keep
them from despair.
" Fellow soldiers," he said, " this is our last struggle.
If we win this battle, Justinian's power is crushed, and
our freedom is secure. Show yourselves men this
day, for to-morrow it will be too late ; spare neither
your horses nor your arms, for whether victors or
vanquished you will never need them more. Re
member that there is no safety for you but in victory;

306 THE RUIN OF THE OSTROGOTHS.
to flee is to seek destruction. Let not the multitude
of the enemy dismay you ; we are a nation fighting
for our freedom, for our country, for all that makes
life precious ; they are a hireling band of Huns and
Herules, and people of all races and tongues, divided
by ancient hatreds and bound together by no common
interest but their pay."
The two armies were now drawn up in battle array.
The Romans remained quiet, expecting the Goths to
begin the attack. But Totila found it necessary to
delay, as a body of two thousand men, on whose help
he had counted, had failed to arrive at the appointed
time. In order to gain time, he sent messengers to
Narses pretending that he wished to treat for peace ;
but Narses refused to agree for a conference, knowing
that the request could only be a stratagem. Mean
while, in order to distract the attention of his own
men, Totila rode in front of the Gothic lines, clothed
in golden armour and purple robes, and displayed his
skill in horsemanship, galloping round in circles,
throwing up his spear and catching it as he rode, and
other such feats — "just as if he had been trained for
the circus," says Procopius. But about noon the two
thousand arrived, and then Totila retired to his tent
and changed his dress, while his soldiers took their
midday meal. As soon as this was over, he mar
shalled his men, and made a sudden assault upon the
Roman lines, thinking that after his temporary retire
ment he should take the enemy by surprise. But
Narses guessed his intention, and the Romans re
mained in perfect order, their food being served out
to them as they stood in the ranks.

TOTILA SLAIN. 307
Totila's attack was badly planned : but no skill in
generalship would have been of much avail against an
enemy so far superior in numbers and in arms. Narses
had neglected no means of stimulating the valour of
his troops. Before the battle he had ridden through
the camp, accompanied by men who bore aloft on
their lances collars, bracelets, and horse- trappings of
gold, which were to be the prizes of those who dis
tinguished themselves on that day. His barbarian
soldiers could understand this language, if they could
not understand his spoken words, and barbarians and
Romans vied with each other in their eagerness to
win the promised rewards. The Goths fought with
all the energy of despair, and though the battle went
against them from the first, it was not till far on in
the night that they were driven from the field. Six
thousand of them were killed, in the battle ; many
thousands more were taken prisoners, and afterwards
massacred in cold blood.
After the fight was over, the king of the Goths was
making his escape from the battle-field accompanied
by two or three of his faithful friends, when Asbad,
the chief of the Gepids, rushed at him with his lance,
not knowing, in the darkness, who he was. One of
the Goths indignantly exclaimed, " Dog ! would you
kill your own master ? " Asbad knew then whom he
was attacking, and thrust at Totila with all his
strength, but himself fell wounded immediately after.
The Goths carried their master as far as Caprae, a
village seven miles away, where he shortly afterwards
breathed his last. His companions buried him
secretly near the village where he died, but his grave

308 THE RUIN OF THE OSTROGOTHS.
was not destined to remain unmolested. A few days
after the battle, a Gothic woman betrayed the secret
of the king's resting-place to some of the imperial
officers. Eager to convince themselves that Totila
was really dead, they opened the grave, and found
that the woman's story was true. They then com
mitted the body again to the earth, having first
despoiled it of its clothing and ornaments, which were
afterwards sent to Justinian as evidence that his
enemy was no more.
Such was the sad end of this gallant young king,
after a reign of eleven years. We cannot, as some
have done, call him the greatest of the Goths. He
had neither Theoderic's unfailing sagacity nor his
genius for command. But he had the same passion
for justice, the same lofty ideal of kingship ; and
though the lustre of his career is dimmed by more
than one act of cruel revenge, his character is marked
on the whole by a chivalrous highmindedness to which
it would be hard to find a parallel in his own age.
There are few personages of history whose adverse
fate so irresistibly excites our sympathy as does that
of Totila — the Harold Godwin's son, as Theoderic is
the Alfred, of Gothic history.
After the disaster of Tadino, the remnant of the
Gothic army retired into Northern Italy, and there
Teia was chosen king of the Goths. Narses pressed
forward to Rome, and after a short siege the city was
once more captured — for the fifth time during Justi
nian's reign. Perhaps never before had the Italian
people been so miserable as at this time of so-called
"Roman" victory. The barbarians in the imperial

THE LAST GOTHIC KING OF ITALY. 309
army, we are told " treated as enemies all who came
in their way " ; that is, they murdered and plundered
indiscriminately both friend and foe. And the
Gothic soldiers who garrisoned the yet uncaptured
cities, fired with revengeful passion, and no longer
having Totila to restrain them, committed dreadful
cruelties upon the unoffending Romans. King Teia
himself ordered the murder of three hundred youths
of the noblest Roman families, whom Totila had
detained as hostages.
The Gothic kingdom had received its death-blow
at the battle of Tadino ; but it was not yet dead, and
its last struggles were terrible. Teia saw clearly that
there was little hope of contending unaided with the
mighty army of Narses ; he tried hard to induce King
Theudebald of the Franks to become his ally, and
offered him large sums of money as a bribe. But the
Franks were not to be tempted : their game was to
wait until the Goths were beaten and the imperial
army weakened by the fierce conflict that was coining,
and then to try to conquer Italy for themselves.
When Teia found that no Frankish aid was to be
hoped for, he marched with all his army to the rescue
of Totila's brother Aligern, who was besieged by a
strong body of the enemy in the fortress-town of
Cumae, where a great part of the Gothic treasure was
deposited. Narses with all the imperial army hastened
to meet him. Teia wished to delay the unequal
combat as long as he could : and he pitched his camp
in a strong position near the foot of Vesuvius, pro
tected by a deep and narrow ravine, at the bottom of
which flows the river Sarno. The two armies faced

310 THE RUIN OF THE OSTROGOTHS.
each other on opposite sides of the ravine, and harassed
each other by volleys of missiles ; but Narses could
neither dislodge the Goths from their position by force,
nor induce them to abandon it by stratagem. The
Gothic camp was so placed that it could be kept con
stantly supplied with provisions by sea ; and it was
Teia's intention to hold out until — vain hope ! —
Fortune should in some unknown way declare her
self in his favour.
But after two months the admiral of the Gothic
fleet turned traitor, and delivered into the hands of
the Romans the stores which he was bringing to his
countrymen. The Goths now began to feel the pres
sure of hunger, and were obliged to forsake their
impregnable position. At first they betook themselves
to the heights of the Mons Lactarius, now Monte
Lettere, where they were still secure from attack ; but
their hopes of being able to find food proved delusive.
But still they scorned the thought of surrender to the
Romans, and their only alternative was to risk every
thing in one desperate assault on the enemy. Sending
away their horses, they suddenly rushed on foot upon
the astonished Romans. The battle that ensued was
terrible. " Not one of Homer's heroes," says Proco
pius, " ever performed greater miracles of valour than
did Teia on that day." After fighting for many hours
in the front of his army, he called to his armour-bearer
to change his shield, which was heavy with the weight
of twelve broken spears. Left for a moment unpro
tected, he was pierced in the breast by a dart. So
fell the last Gothic king of Italy. The Romans cut
off his head and displayed it on a pole, to encourage

THE BATTLE OF MONTE LETTERE. 311
their own soldiers and to dismay their enemies. But
even the loss of their king was ineffectual to abate the
desperate fury of the Goths ; they fought on until the
fall of night, and at daybreak they renewed the strug
gle, which continued till darkness again compelled
them to pause.
On the third morning, worn out with fatigue and
hunger, they felt that it was impossible for them to
fight any longer. Their leaders sent ambassadors to
Narses to treat for peace ; but even then they would
not humble themselves to become the subjects of
Justinian. All they would promise was that they
would never again bear arms against the empire, and

COINS OF TE'iA.1
this only on condition of being allowed an unmolested
passage out of Italy, and of receiving money for the
expenses of their journey.
The Roman generals held a council to discuss this
proposal ; they had had such terrible experience of
the desperate valour of the Goths that they decided
to accept the conditions. So, in March, 553, the
remnant of the defeated army set out on their north-
1 All authorities seem to agree that these are coins of Tela ; but I
cannot help suspecting that they may belong to Thela (Thelane), the
son and titular colleague of Odovacar.

312 THE RUIN OF THE OSTROGOTHS.
ward march. What became of them history does not
say. Perhaps they may have found a home among
the Franks or Alamans; perhaps they may have
made their way to the kingdom of the Visigoths in
Spain. But even yet Narses had a hard struggle to undergo
before the conquest of Italy was complete. The
Gothic garrisons in the cities still offered an obstinate
resistance to their besiegers ; and while the emperor's
generals were occupied with their siege operations,
the Franks saw the opportunity for which they had
been waiting. In the autumn, accompanied by their
half-savage allies, the Alamans, they poured into Italy,
to the number of eighty thousand men. The brave
Aligern, who had defended Cumae for a whole year,
surrendered to the Romans, thinking it better to be
come the soldier of the empire than the slave of the
Franks. Soon afterwards Lucca was taken by the
Romans ; but the Goths who held the other cities
opened their gates to the Franks. The invaders
were allowed to march over the whole length of the
peninsula to the Straits of Messina, plundering, burn
ing, and massacring as they went. The army of Narses
had suffered such heavy losses that it was no match
for this mighty horde ; and the commander was
obliged to remain in humiliating inactivity, leaving
the barbarians to roam unchecked over the land.
During the winter, however, the armies of the
Franks and Alamans were terribly wasted by plague,
and by the effects of their own intemperance ; and
one of the Alaman leaders had returned to his home
beyond the Alps. When the spring came, Narses,

LAST STRUGGLES. 313
who in the meantime had been assiduously drilling his
men, prepared himself for a decisive encounter with
the foe.
At Casilinum, on the banks of the Vulturno, the
two armies met. The Romans were still far inferior in
numbers to the enemy ; but the skill of their general
won the day. The defeat of the Franks was so
crushing that they offered no further resistance, and
hastily sought their own land. After the battle Narses
entered Rome, and for the last time in history, the
imperial city beheld the stately ceremonies of a
triumphal procession.
In the next twelve months, the towns which had
still held out fell one by one into the hands of the
Romans. The Goths who had defended them either
went into exile or became blended with the surround
ing population. The nation of the Ostrogoths was no
more. It is strange to think how different were the fates of
the two great Teutonic kingdoms which in the last
quarter of the fifth century were planted on Latin soil.
After fourteen centuries, the fruits of the conquests of
Clovis in Gaul still abide. If we cannot say that the
state which he founded still survives, yet in a real
sense he may be called the creator of the French
nation. The Franks were never driven from Gaul, and
though they lost their native tongue, and were ab
sorbed in the greater mass of the people whom they
had conquered, the country to this day bears their
name. Theoderic was in all ways a greater man than
Clovis ; and yet the results of his conquest of Italy
perished utterly within eighty years. The ruin of the

314 THE RUIN OF THE OSTROGOTHS.
Ostrogoths was the effect of many combined causes.
Their numbers from the first were too few to enable
them to hold Italy by force. Their Arian heresy, in
spite of their noble tolerance in matters of religion,
estranged them from the sympathies of their Catholic
subjects ; and the successors of Theoderic inherited
neither his genius nor his lofty aims. But even so, we
know not what the result might have been if Justinian
had encouraged the Gothic kings to build up in Italy
a powerful dominion, tributary to his own sovereignty.
He would have been wiser had he adopted such a
policy, for the conquest of Italy brought no advantage
to the empire sufficient to repay the terrible sacrifices
of blood and treasure by which it was bought.
The conqueror Narses was appointed the emperor's
" exarch " or governor of Italy. He took up his
residence in Theoderic's city of Ravenna ; and for
just two hundred years he and his successors con
tinued to govern, on behalf of the emperors, as much
of the country as was left them by the successive
conquests of Lombards and Franks. But with the
fortunes and misfortunes of Italy under their rule our
story has nothing to do.

XXIX.
THE VISIGOTHS AGAIN.
We have now to take up again the story of the Visi
goths, of whom we have lost sight while following the
history of their eastern kinsmen to its tragic close.
The Gothic dominion in Spain lasted for a century
and a half after the downfall of the Ostrogoths ; but
only a very meagre outline of its history has come
down to us. Our authorities henceforward are nearly
all churchmen ; and very often they pass over the
things which we should most like to know, in order to
dwell on matters which we regard as trifles, but which
were interesting to themselves because they had some
connection with religion.
It has already been mentioned that after the death
of Alaric II., in 507, the great Theoderic constituted
himself the guardian of Amalaric, the infant king of
the Visigoths, who was his grandson. While Theo
deric lived, Spain and the narrow strip of Southern
Gaul which had been spared by the Frankish con
quests were governed by him in Amalaric's name.
The Ostrogoth general, Theudis, who was appointed
viceroy in Spain, was, however, practically the king of
the country. We are told that he sent his appointed
tribute to Ravenna every year, and professed to render

316 THE VISIGOTHS AGAIN.
obedience to his master's commands. Theoderic was
jealous of his power, but did not dare to dismiss him
from his office, lest he should revolt to the Franks.
He made many attempts to persuade Theudis to visit
Italy, but the viceroy was too cunning to fall into the
snare. When Theoderic died Amalaric, then twenty-four
years of age, was recognized as sovereign of all the
Gothic territories west of the Rhone, and the royal
treasure of the Visigoths was sent from Ravenna to
Narbonne, where the young king held his court.
Amalaric endeavoured to strengthen his kingdom
by marrying into the family of his dangerous neigh
bours, the kings of the Franks. But this marriage
proved to be the cause of his ruin. His queen, Clotilda
(Hlothhild), the daughter of Clovis, was a fervent
Catholic, like her mother, after whom she had been
named. Amalaric had promised to allow her to re
tain her own religion ; but his promise was broken.
We need not believe the Frankish historian when he
tells us that the queen was cruelly tortured to induce
her to change her faith, and that she sent to her
brothers a handkerchief stained with her blood, to
excite them to avenge her wrongs. But no doubt
she did complain that she was not allowed to worship
according to her own conscience. A Frankish king
was always ready to seize upon a pretext for attacking
his weaker neighbours ; and King Hildebert, of Paris,
with a powerful army, marched against Narbonne.
The Goths were defeated, and fled into Spain. The
capital was taken, and Hildebert returned home,
enriched with the royal treasures, and with the plunder

AMALARIC AND THEUDIS. 317
of the Arian churches. Queen Clotilda accompanied
her brother, but died before arriving at Paris. Amalaric
was murdered in a church at Barcelona, by the orders
of Theudis, whom the people elected king in his stead.
About the seventeen years (531-548) during which
Theudis reigned in his own name, we have very little
information. The two kings of the Franks, Hildebert
and Hlothhari (Clotaire), invaded Spain in the year
543, and laid siege to Caesaraugusta, now called
Saragossa. A wild story is told, how the citizens,
hard pressed by famine, and on the point of surrender
ing, invoked (heretics though they were) the prayers
of the Catholic martyr, Vicentius. Clothed in mourning
robes, and carrying the relics of the saint, they marched
solemnly round the walls, singing penitential psalms.
When the Franks knew what was the meaning of this
display, they were seized with superstitious panic, and
fled in wild disorder. The story was probably invented
to excuse the Frankish defeat. The Goths overtook
the flying invaders at the foot of the Pyrenees, and
the Frankish army would have been utterly annihi
lated, if its chiefs had not bribed the Gothic general
with large sums of money to allow them to make their
escape unmolested through the mountain passes.
Even the Catholics admit that Theudis was a wise
and able ruler, and that he followed the great Theo
deric's policy of equal justice to his subjects of every
creed. When the army of Justinian was making war
upon the Vandals, their king Gelimer tried in vain to
persuade Theudis to take his part, on the ground of
their religious sympathies. Afterwards, however, his
own nephew, Hildibad, king of the Ostrogoths, be-

3t8 THE VISIGOTHS AGAIN.
sought his aid in his struggle with the emperor, and
Theudis led an army to attack the cities which
Belisarius had conquered from the Vandals in Africa.
The Goths were beaten with great slaughter, and their
king barely escaped with his life. The story told to
excuse their ill success is that they were surprised
while engaged in worship on the Sunday. They
thought that their enemies, being Christians, would
observe the day as religiously as themselves, and
therefore they were in no fear of attack. This tale
would have been more credible if it had been told of
Wulfila's converts two centuries before.
Shortly after this event Theudis was murdered in,
his palace by one of his own soldiers, who pretended
to be a lunatic. The dying king expressed bitter re
morse for his share in the murder of Amalaric, and
begged that the life of his assassin might be spared.
The usurpation of Theudis had broken off the
hereditary succession, and the kingdom of the Visi
goths became once more an elective one, as it had
been in the most ancient days of their history. An elec
tive monarchy, where representative government is un
known, and where the nation is too large to be brought
together in a body, must inevitably lead to disputes
and civil war. The successor of Theudis was Theu-
digisel, the general who had led the Goths to victory
over the Franks. He proved to be a cruel tyrant, and
the whole nation rejoiced when, after a reign of eigh
teen months, he was murdered by his guests at a
banquet in his own palace. The next election was a
disputed one. Agila, the king who was chosen by the
northern cities, was not acknowledged by the south,

THE DAUGHTERS OF ATHANAGILD. 319
and his arbitrary rule soon disgusted even his own
supporters. The southern rebellion was headed by
Athanagild, who appealed for help to Constantinople.
The emperor sent the Patrician Liberius with a power
ful army to his assistance. The struggle lasted five
years. Agila was defeated, and was put to death by
his own soldiers, and then Athanagild became king.
Athanagild's reign of fourteen years was prosperous
and peaceful, except for his wars with the dangerous
allies whom he invited into the country. The em
peror's soldiers seized many of the cities of Spain,
and it was found impossible to drive them out.
Like so many other Visigoth kings, Athanagild
sought to add security to his kingdom by connecting
his family by marriage with the house of Clovis. The
consequences were unhappy, as usual ; the fate of
Athanagild's two daughters is one of the most tragic
episodes of Frankish history. The younger of them,
Brunihild, was married to King Sigebert of the East
Franks. The wedding was celebrated with great
pomp, and the fashionable poetaster of the time,
Venantius Fortunatus, composed a poem for the oc
casion. It is a very heathenish sort of performance,
though the author was a bishop ; it tells how the God
of Love wounded the heart of Sigebert with an arrow,
and then Venus and her son extol in turn the
manly virtues of the bridegroom and the loveliness of
the bride. The brother of Sigebert, Chilperic, king
of the North-west Franks, sought the hand of Athana
gild's elder daughter, Geleswintha, and in spite of her
tears and entreaties she was compelled by her parents
to accept the unwelcome bridegroom. Both princesses

320 THE VISIGOTHS AGAIN.
adopted the religion of their husbands. It was not
long before Chilperic's affection was estranged from
his queen by the wiles of a woman named Fredegunda,
and Geleswintha was put to death by his orders.
Brunihild stirred up her husband to avenge the murder
of her sister. In the war between the two Frankish
kingdoms Sigebert died, and Brunihild had a long and
stormy reign as queen-mother. She was a woman of
masculine energy and wonderful powers of mind, a
great ruler, but tyrannical and unscrupulous, and it
was said that ten kings and queens lost their lives in
the turmoils which she excited. At last she fell into
the power of her enemy Fredegunda, who caused her
to be tied behind a horse and dragged along the ground
until she died. Then her lacerated body was thrown
into the flames.
Athanagild did not live to hear of his daughter's
miserable end. In the year 567 he died in his palace
at Toledo, beloved by his own subjects, and respected
by foreign nations. He was the first Visigoth king
since Euric who died a natural death ; his five prede
cessors had all come to a violent end — one in battle,
and the rest by the hand of assassins.

XXX.
LEOVIGILD AND HIS SONS.
After Athanagild's death, five months passed
before the Goths could agree on the choice of his
successor. The dispute, however, was settled without
an appeal to the sword. The Gothic parties had
learned to dread the danger of civil war, and the
different Spanish cities, by way of compromise, with
drew their respective candidates, and agreed to choose
a king from Gothic Gaul, now the least influential part
of the kingdom. The new king Leuva (Liuba) was a
quiet, unambitious man, of whom we hear neither good
nor evil, only that he handed over the government of
Spain to his brother Leovigild (Liobagilths), prefer
ring for his own part to remain at Narbonne, which
thus became for a short space once more the Visigoth
capital. In the third year of his reign he died, leaving
the kingdom to his brother.
Leovigild was in many ways one of the greatest
kings of his time. A bold and skilful general, he sub
dued the kingdom of the Sueves in the north-west of
Spain, wrested from the emperor's soldiers several of
the cities which they had occupied, and brought the
native inhabitants of the peninsula into complete

322 LEOVIGILD AND HIS SONS.
subjection. He built fortresses and founded cities,
established a new system of administration of the
kingdom, and made many new laws suited to the
altered needs of his people. It was under his firm
rule that the Goths and the Romanised natives were
taught to feel themselves to be the fellow subjects
of one kingdom, and so the process began which ended
in the complete blending of the two peoples into one.
In the splendour and magnificence of his court,
Leovigild far surpassed all his predecessors. He was
the first Visigoth king who sat on a raised throne in
the assembly of the nobles, and who placed on his
coins his own likeness wearing a crown. It will be
remembered that Southey, in his poem of " Roderick,"
in the complete blending speaks of
" The golden pome, the proud array,
Of ermine, aureate vests, and jewel'ry,
With all which Leovigild for after kings
Left, ostentatious of his power."
The name of Leovigild, however, is best known on
account of the tragic story of the rebellion of his
eldest son Ermenegild, honoured in later ages as a
saint and martyr of the Catholic Church. The cause
of trouble was, in this instance as in so many others
in Visigoth history, a Frankish marriage. The bride
whom Leovigild obtained for his son was Ingunthis,
the young daughter of Sigebert and Brunihild, and
the wedding was celebrated in Toledo with the
splendid ostentation of which the king was so fond.
Ermenegild had already received from his father a
share in the kingly dignity, and Leovigild hoped that

ERMENEGILD' S REVOLT. 323
the marriage with a Frankish princess would help to
ensure his son's succession to the crown.
But the young daughter of Brunihild belonged of
course to the Catholic faith ; and Queen Goiswintha
(the widow of Athanagild, whom Leovigild had mar
ried) was a bigoted Arian. The Frankish historian)
Gregory of Tours, tells the story that Goiswintha
dragged Ingunthis to the ground by her hair, beat
her cruelly, and then forced her to undergo baptism
by an Arian priest. Very likely this is pure fiction,
but it seems to be true that Queen Goiswintha and
her daughter-in-law quarrelled so much that Leovi
gild, for the sake of peace, was glad to send his son
to Seville as ruler of Southern Spain.

COIN OF ERMENEGILD.

Soon afterwards, Ermenegild was persuaded by his
wife and his uncle Leander, the Catholic bishop of Se
ville, to forsake the Church of his fathers. His conver
sion to the Catholic faith bore no good fruits ; he made
common cause with the remnant of the imperial army,
and headed a rebellion for the purpose of wresting
the kingdom out of the hands of his heretic father.
Leovigild tried in vain by entreaties to bring his
favourite son to a sense of filial duty. Ermenegild,
whether it was through fanaticism or ambition, refused
to listen to any of his proposals, and the king was

324 LEOVIGILD AND HIS SONS.
compelled to take up arms for the recovery of his
revolted provinces. Before long Ermenegild was shut
up in Seville. The siege lasted for two years ; at
length the city was taken, after the defenders had suf
fered terribly from famine. The prince escaped to
Cordova, but his faithless friends from Constantinople
betrayed him to his father for a bribe. Taking refuge
in a neighbouring church, he sent to implore Leovi-
gild's mercy. He received a solemn promise that his
life should be spared, and then ventured to leave his
place of refuge, and threw himself at his father's feet.
Leovigild burst into tears, and clasped his son in his
arms. But he felt that Ermenegild could no longer
be trusted with any share in the government, and he
ordered him to lay aside the royal robes, and to take
up his abode in Valencia as a private person.
A year had not passed, however, when Leovigild
heard that his son had broken his promise to remain
at Valencia, and was making his way to Gaul. Before
setting out he had placed his wife under the care of
the enemies of his country, the Greek officers from
Constantinople ; and it seems to have been his purpose
to get the Franks to help him in another effort to de
throne his father. He was captured at Tarragona by
Leovigild'svsoldiers and thrown into prison. It is re
lated that he was visited in his dungeon time after
time by messengers from his father, promising him
freedom and restoration to his royal honours if he
would only consent to abandon his new faith. But
his stedfastness was not to be shaken either by pro
mise or threats. At last, an Arian bishop, who was
sent to administer to him the Eucharist, brought back

A SO-CALLED MARTYR. 325
word that Ermenegild had received him with gross
insults, calling him the servant of the devil. Tran
sported with passion, Leovigild commanded that his
son should be put to death. The sentence was
swiftly carried out : an executioner was sent to the
prison, and the rebellious prince was killed by a blow
with an axe, without any pretence of trial.
It is a repulsive story. On one side, we see a son
making war against his father on the professed ground
of his duty to the Church ; and on the other side, we
see a father commanding the murder of his son. The
Catholics of Ermenegild's own time and country, to
do them justice, seem generally to have regarded
his rebellion as a crime. But in later ages, when the
circumstances were partly forgotten, his wicked con
duct was extolled as an act of the noblest Christian
virtue, and his name was placed in the calendar as that
of a saint and martyr.
The widowed Ingunthis was treated by the em
peror's officers more like a prisoner than a guest, and
she tried to make her escape to her relatives in Gaul.
She was overtaken in her flight, and with her infant
son Athanagild was placed on board a vessel for Con
stantinople. Ingunthis died on the journey, but her
son was delivered into the hands of the emperor, at
whose court he remained while he lived. This is the
last we hear of any interference of the eastern
emperors with the affairs of Gothic Spain.
It is not wonderful that after his son's rebellion
Leovigild regarded the Catholic Church as a danger
to the State, and that he did some things which are
complained of as persecution. But the stories are

326 LEOVIGILD AND HIS SONS.
greatly exaggerated. He did banish several bishops
but it is not true that any Catholic suffered martyrdom,
in his reign. Leovigild was so far from being a bigot
that he was often accused of hypocrisy because he paid
religious honour to the shrines of orthodox as well as
heretic saints. He soon found that harsh treatment
of the heads of their Church was not the way to win
over his Catholic subjects ; and he tried to effect his
object by gentler means. He persuaded the Arian
clergy to consent that converted Catholics should be
received into their Church without being baptized
afresh, and to state the articles of their faith in such a

COIN OF LEOVIGILD.
way as to make the differences between them and the
orthodox appear as small as possible. The result was
that large numbers of Catholics professed to accept
the king's religion. But the Arians were still a small
minority, and their attachment to their creed was-
feeble, while the zeal of the Catholics grew daily more
and more intense. It was plain that it would be hard
for a heretic sovereign to hold the throne of Spain ;
and when the great king died (in 587) men believed
that a great struggle was at hand, which would end
only in the overthrow of the Gothic rule.

XXXI.
THE GOTHS BECOME CATHOLIC.
It had been Leovigild's ambition to found a here
ditary dynasty ; and with this end in view he had
caused his son Reccared to be elected his associate in
the kingdom. So when he died there was still a
crowned and chosen king in possession of the throne,
and it was not necessary even to go through the form
of an election.
If Reccared had not already gained the goodwill
of his people, very likely his father's far-seeing scheme
would have failed. But the young king had distin
guished himself as a general, leading the Goths to
victory over the Franks, and he had shown wisdom
and energy as a ruler. The nation therefore gladly
accepted him as sole sovereign after his father's death.
Reccared saw clearly that he was likely to be over
matched in the struggle with the growing power of
the Catholic Church. He resolved to convert that
power from an enemy into a friend, by himself adop
ting the religion of the majority of his subjects, and
inducing the Goths to follow his example. It is quite
possible that he may have been sincerely convinced
that the Catholic faith was true ; but this change of

328 THE GOTHS BECOME CATHOLIC.
religious profession was certainly the wisest step he
could have taken in the interest of his kingdom.
In order that his conversion might seem to proceed
from deliberate inquiry, he called together the bishops
of both churches, and invited them to hold in his
presence a public discussion of the arguments for their
respective creeds. He was anxious, he said, to know
the truth, and the result of the debate should deter
mine whether he should accept the Catholic faith, or
remain an Arian. The champions on both sides put
forth all their eloquence and learning, and when the
discussion was ended the king proclaimed his convic
tion that the orthodox creed was supported by over
whelming evidence of Scripture and miracles ; and
soon afterwards he was publicly received into the
Catholic Church.
The conversion of the king was soon followed by
that of the whole nation. At first sight this seems
strange ; but the Goths had long been losing interest in
the distinctive articles of their creed. They had lived
surrounded by Catholics, hearing daily of the miracles
wrought at the tombs of Catholic saints. They could
not help seeing that their church was only an insig
nificant sect, a small exception to the unity of the
Christian world. They could not help being impressed
by the fervent faith of their Catholic neighbours.
And to these many influences they were all the more
open because their divines had taught them to be
tolerant in their judgment of those who rejected their
creed. In Leovigild's reign a Spanish Goth had
horrified the Catholic bishop Gregory of Tours by say
ing that it was a Christian's duty to treat with respect

CONVERSION OF RECCARED. 329
whatever was reverenced by others — even by idolaters.
It is by a strange accident indeed, that the name
Visigoth has given rise to our word bigot? for never
was there a nation who so little deserved the reproach
of bigotry as the Visigoths of Spain. If their name
had become a synonym for religious indifference or
lukewarmness, it would have been much more appro
priate. Still, however little the Gothic people knew or cared
about the differences between the two churches,
Arianism had been for three centuries their national
faith, and patriotic pride had kept them faithful to it
so far. It was a bold venture on Reccared's part to
go over to the foreign church ; but he had not mis
calculated the power of his popularity. Not only the
laity, but even the clergy, including many bishops,
speedily followed the king's example.
A great thing had been accomplished. The work
which Leovigild had begun — the creation of the
modern Spanish nation — would have remained un
finished if his son had not succeeded in removing the
barrier of religious differences which hindered the
blending of Goths and Spaniards into one people.
The great change, however, was not made altogether
without resistance. In Southern Gaul, where Reccared
was less known than in Spain, the news of his conver
sion excited a dangerous rebellion. An Arian bishop,
1 The meaning of bigot in the Old French was " detested foreigner,"
"heretic," and it is supposed that the word was a corruption of
Visigoth. To the Catholic Franks, of course, the Visigoths of Southern
Gaul and Spain were the objects of bitter hatred, both on religious and
worldly grounds.

330 THE GOTHS BECOME CATHOLIC.
Athaloc, and two Gothic nobles, put themselves at the
head of the rebels, and called in the help of the
Franks. But Reccared's generals soon restored
order ; and the people of the province before long
professed themselves Catholics. The bishop Athaloc,
it was said, died of vexation at the failure of his
plans. In Spain, also, there were some insignificant
conspiracies prompted by Arian bishops, but they
were speedily crushed, and their leaders punished.
The king's stepmother, Goiswintha (the same who is
said to have treated Ingunthis with such shameful
cruelty) had professed herself a convert to the Catholic
Church. But in her heart she hated the change, and
she was detected in a conspiracy against the king's
life. Reccared inflicted no punishment upon Gois
wintha, though he banished her accomplices from the
kingdom. But soon afterwards she died suddenly,
and her death was of course regarded as a divine
judgment for her treason.
In May, 589, Reccared summoned to Toledo the
bishops of his kingdom, to celebrate the victory of the
orthodox faith, and to devise laws for the government
of the Church. Sixty-seven bishops presented them
selves in obedience to the royal command. The king
addressed them on the importance of the work for
which they were assembled, and exhorted them to
spend three days in prayer and fasting before begin
ning their deliberations. When the three days were
passed, and the bishops again met in council, Reccared
opened the proceedings with a speech, setting forth the
grounds of his conversion. It is worth notice that he
honestly admitted that "earthly motives" had had

NO PERSECUTION — YET. 33I
their share in opening his mind to the arguments
which had led him to the true faith. He ended by
reading a formal statement of the articles of his faith.
This document, after being approved by the assembly,
was signed by the king, by his queen Baddo, and by
all who were present. The bishops then proceeded to
draw up a code of laws settling the constitution of the
•Church of Spain.
The religious change effected by Reccared was a
necessity. But its good results were not unmixed.
With the zeal of a new convert, the king lavished
wealth and honours upon the Catholic Church, and
allowed its clergy to attain a degree of political power
that was full of danger to the State. It was not long
before the Gothic kings learned the bad lesson of
persecuting Jews and heretics.
Reccared himself, however, zealous though he was
for his new faith, was no persecutor. He seems to
have honestly striven in all things for the welfare of
his subjects, and his reign was one of great prosperity.
He is praised by historians as a wise lawgiver, and
from his time onwards all the new laws that were
made were declared binding alike on Goths and
Spaniards. One of the great events of Reccared's reign was
the attempt of the Frankish king Guntram to conquer
the Gothic domains in Gaul. An army of 60,000
men entered the Narbonnese province, and besieged
the city of Carcassonne. Reccared's general Claudius
(a Roman, not a Gothic name, it is worth while to
note) with a very small force, inflicted on the invaders
such a crushing defeat that never again, while the

332 THE GOTHS BECOME CATHOLIC.
Gothic kingdom lasted, did the Franks attempt any
attack upon its Gaulish lands. The Basques, who had
given trouble in the earlier part of the reign, were
subdued ; and the interloping " Greeks," though not
driven out of the country, were compelled to confine
themselves to their fortresses, so that the last years of
Reccared's life were a period of profound peace.
Reccared died in the year 60 1, having in his last
illness given proof of his piety by making public con
fession of his sins. The Goths honoured his memory
by electing to the throne his youthful son Leuva.

XXXII.
A PRIEST-RIDDEN KINGDOM.
ONE short chapter will be sufficient for the story
of the next seventy years. During that time eleven
kings reigned over the Visigoths, but the records of
their reigns are scanty, and contain few events of
any great interest. The main thing that strikes us
in reading the history of this period is the rapid
growth of the Church's influence in the government
of the kingdom.
Reccared's young son reigned only two years.
There was a Gothic noble named Witeric, who had
already in Reccared's lifetime headed an unsuccessful
rebellion, and had obtained the king's generous
pardon. This man, ungrateful for the mercy that
had been shown him, now rebelled against Leuva,
and succeeded in getting himself acknowledged king
in his stead. The dethroned boy-king, his right hand
having been cut off, was thrown into prison, and
afterwards put to death.
The seven years of Witeric's reign were unpros-
perous, and his rule was that of a selfish tyrant. It
is said that he wished to restore the Arian religion ;
however that may be, he seems to have made himself

334 A PRLEST-RIDDEN KINGDOM.
detested by the clergy, as well as by the nobles and
the people. In the year 610 he was murdered at a
banquet, and his body was buried in unhallowed
ground without the rites of the church.
The short reign of his successor, Gundemar, con
tains no events worth relating ; but Sisebut, who was
chosen king in 612, was a man about whom we would
be glad to know more. He was a successful general,
and his victories compelled the Greeks to surrender
nearly all their possessions in Spain. Like the
Gothic heroes of older days, Theoderic and Totila,
he was distinguished for humanity towards the con
quered. Many of the Greek prisoners had been sold
into slavery by their Gothic captors, and the king

COIN OF SISEBUT.

purchased their freedom at his own cost. He was
also a scholar, and a generous patron of such learning
as existed in Spain in his day. Unhappily it has to
be added that he was the first Gothic king who ever
persecuted the Jews. " Baptism within one year, or
scourging, mutilation, banishment, and confiscation of
goods ; " such was the choice which Sisebut offered
to that unhappy people. Thousands of Jews pro
fessed to accept the gospel. But the dread of perse
cution could not make them Christians at heart.
The Jews till now had been attached friends of the

THE FATHER OF THE POOR." 335
Goths, the forced conversions under Sisebert changed
them into bitter enemies. Those of them who re
ceived baptism and attended Christian worship con
tinued in the secrecy of their homes to practise
Jewish ritual, and to teach their children to curse
their oppressors. The best men of the Spanish
Church felt that these persecutions were wrong, and
succeeding kings did something to lighten the bur
dens which Sisebut had imposed. But the mischief
was irreparable. The Jews, whether professedly con
verted or not, had become embittered against the
Goths, and when the kingdom was attacked by the
Moors they joyfully lent their aid to. its assailants.
When Sisebut died in 621, his general, Swinthila,
was elected to the throne. According to some writers
Swinthila was a son of Reccared. He is remarkable
as being the first king who reigned over the whole
Spanish peninsula. The Greeks of the empire, whom
Sisebut had confined to a small strip of Spain,
became in Swinthila's time subjects of the Gothic
kingdom, and their soldiers took service in the Gothic
armies ; and the rebellious Basques were brought to
complete submission. Swinthila won the affection of
the common people among his subjects. The title
given to him was " the Father of the Poor," but he
seems to have aimed at limiting the power of the
Gothic nobles and the bishops. The discontent of
these two classes reached its height when — without
asking their sanction— he appointed his son Reccimer
the partner of his throne. The nobles, led by Sise-
nanth, rose in revolt, and obtained the help of the
Frankish king, Dagobert, by promising to give him

GOTHIC CROWNS.

CHURCH AND KING. 33J
the most valued object among the Gothic royal
treasures. This was a golden dish or table, weighing
five hundred pounds and richly jewelled, which had
been given by Aetius to Thorismund, king of the
Visigoths, as part of his share of Attila's spoils in
453. The Franks marched into Spain, and on their
approach the Goths who had supported Swinthila
abandoned his cause, and Sisenanth was crowned at
Saragossa. The Frankish army then returned home,
and Dagobert sent ambassadors to claim the price of
his assistance. Sisenanth delivered to them the pre
cious object which had been promised, but the Goths
were so indignant at the thought of losing this re
nowned treasure that they took it by force from the
ambassadors, and brought it back in triumph to
Toledo. Sisenanth dared not oppose himself to the
will of his people, and he had to pay Dagobert a
large sum in compensation.
The elevation of Sisenanth was a victory of the
power of the nobles over that of the king and the
commons. But in the end it led to the supremacy of
the Church over all three. In order to secure the
ecclesiastical sanction for his usurpation, the new
king caused a council to be held at Toledo in the
year 633. Sixty-nine bishops were present, either in
person or by their representatives ; and after they
had finished their deliberations on the Church ques
tions submitted to them, they formally confirmed
the right of Sisenanth to the throne, and declared
Swinthila and all his family incapable of holding any
office of dignity in the State. The bishops then
decreed that in future, whenever a king died, his

L.

338 A PRIEST-RIDDEN KINGDOM.
successor should be chosen by the nobles and the
clergy in council ; and every man who attempted to
rebel against the king so chosen was declared liable
to be cut off from the communion of the Church, and
to be in danger of eternal destruction. The same
terrible penalties were threatened against any king
who should endeavour to set aside the new law of
election by raising his son to the royal dignity with
out the sanction of a duly constituted council. It
was further enacted that henceforward the clergy
should be freed from all taxation.
What became of the discrowned Swinthila and his
family is not known. In the fifth year of his reign
Sisenanth died at Toledo, and Kindila was chosen as
his successor. He too was a mere tool in the hands
of the bishops. The only events of his reign worth
recording are the decrees of the Church councils that
no king should in future be chosen who was not of
noble Gothic descent, or who had assumed the dress
of a monk. It was also ordained that every future
king before his coronation should take an oath to
tolerate no heretics or Jews within his realm.
Kindila died in 640, and the assembly of bishops
and nobles chose his son Tulga in his stead.
The young Tulga gave promise of being just such
a king as the clergy loved ; but all the awful threats
of the bishops were unavailing to prevent a rebellion
among the Gothic nobles. The leader of this rising,
Kindaswinth, succeeded in getting Tulga into his
power, and by clothing him in a monk's habit ren
dered him, according to the law passed in the last
reign, incapable of sitting on the throne.

THE BISHOPS FIND A MASTER. 339
The bishops were obliged to submit to Kinda-
swinth's usurpation. He was a man of great energy
and strength of character, and his accession was
followed by a reign of terror that compelled both
clergy and nobles to feel that they had found a
master. Two hundred Goths of the noblest families
and five hundred of lower rank were punished with
death for conspiring against his throne. Many others
were banished, and their goods confiscated, or be
stowed on the king's faithful supporters. The heads
of the Church were wise enough to bow to the storm,
and they sought to win the king's favour by decreeing
the penalty of degradation and ex-communication
against all priests who were guilty of countenancing
any conspiracy against his throne. By these mea
sures all opposition was crushed, and the kingdom
was brought into a state of order and tranquillity such
as had not been known before.
Strange to say, this fierce and energetic sovereign
was already nearly eighty years old when he seized
the throne. After he had reigned seven years the
bishops, doubtless at his own secret suggestion, pre
sented to him a petition that he would abdicate in
favour of his son Recceswinth, in order to prevent the
tumults which might be expected to arise at his
death. Kindaswinth consented joyfully to the re
quest, and his son was crowned in 649, with the
assent of the clergy and of the nobles. The aged
king, it is said, spent the remaining years of his life
in acts of piety and beneficence, and died in 652 at
the age of ninety years.
' Recceswinth seems to have inherited much of his

340 A PRIEST-RIDDEN KINGDOM.
father's energy without any of his harshness. The
oath which he had taken at his coronation contained
a clause binding him never to pardon any man who
conspired against his throne. One of his first acts
after his father's death was to call an assembly of the
nobles and the higher clergy of his kingdom, and to
ask them to release him from this cruel promise.
The council decided that the oath was no longer
binding, and enacted that the right of pardoning
rebels should be restored to the king. Other im
portant laws for the government of the kingdom
were passed by the same assembly ; the most im
portant of them was that the property amassed by
a king during his reign should not descend to his
family, but to the successor who should be chosen
by the council of nobles and prelates.
For twenty-three years Recceswinth governed his
people with such success that the kingdom enjoyed
unbroken peace — except for a brief rebellion of the
Basques, led by a Gothic noble named Froya. The
leader was captured and put to death ; but the
Basques obtained redress of their grievances, and
were thenceforward content to accept the rule of the
Gothic king.
But the great reason for which Recceswinth de
serves to be remembered is that he carried a step
further the work begun by Leovigild and Reccared,
of blending Goths and Spaniards into one nation.
Till his time intermarriage between the two peoples
was forbidden by law. Recceswinth abolished the
prohibition ; and, following in his father's footsteps,
he forbade, under heavy penalties, the use of the

TWENTY-THREE YEARS OF PEACE. 341
Roman law in his dominions. Henceforward Goths
and Romans alike were to be judged according to the
law-book of the Visigoths.
In the year 672 Recceswinth died, deeply lamented
by his people. In the history of the Visigoths a
reign of twenty-three years of peace had never been
before, and it was not destined ever to be again.

COIN OF RECCESWINTH.

XXXIII.
THE STORY OF WAMBA.
The history of King Wamba has often been told
with many fabulous embellishments ; but the simple
facts, as they are admitted by sober historians, and
as we shall here try to set them forth, are themselves
not altogether wanting in the elements of romance.
Round the bed on which the dead Recceswinth lay,
in the castle of Gerticos, the nobles and prelates of
the Gothic state were assembled for the purpose of
choosing his successor. Notwithstanding the long
period of calm which the kingdom had enjoyed, signs
of coming trouble were plainly visible ; and all
present felt that there was only one man qualified
to guide the State through the perilous times that
were at hand. With one voice they declared their
choice of Wamba as king of the Goths.
At first Wamba stoutly refused to accept the crown,
pleading that he was an old man, and that the burden
of the kingly office was more than he could bear,
His fellow nobles and the bishops expostulated with
him long and earnestly, but he continued to urge
them to choose some younger man, who would be
equal to the arduous labours which the nation required

A STRANGE ELECTION. 343
of its king. At length one of the officers of the royal
household exclaimed, brandishing his spear, " Wamba,
thou shalt never leave this chamber save as a dead
man or as a king ! " The Goths echoed the words,
and Wamba consented to accept the greatness thus
strangely thrust upon him.
On the nineteenth day after Recceswinth's death,
Wamba was crowned at Toledo. Throughout the
whole of Spain the event was received with unbounded
rejoicing ; but the old jealousy between the two por
tions of the kingdom showed itself once more, and
before Wamba had been many weeks king he received
the news that the Gothic province of Gaul was in open
revolt. The leader of the rebels was a Gothic noble named
Hilderic, Governor of Nimes, who had himself as
pired to be chosen king of the Goths. He was
supported by Gunhild, Bishop of Maguelonne, and
the army which he collected was strengthened by a
large body of Jews who had fled from persecution in
Spain, and were glad of the opportunity to fight
against their oppressors. The Bishop of Nimes, who
protested against Hilderic's conduct, was loaded with
chains, and his bishopric bestowed on an abbot named
Ranimer, who had supported the party of the rebels.
The general whom Wamba sent against the Gaulish
rebels was a cunning and unprincipled Greek named
Paul. As soon as he arrived at Narbonne, he called
the officers of the army together, and after having
harangued them on the grievances they had to suffer
from the ruling party in Spain, he called upon them
to renounce their allegiance to an imbecile old man,

344 THE STORY OF WAMBA.
who knowing his own weakness had shrunk from
accepting the kingship until he was compelled to do
so by those who aimed to use him as their tool. The
speech produced its desired effect, and when one of
the general's accomplices proposed that the army
should elect Paul king of the Goths, the whole as
sembly answered with applause. The decision of the
officers was approved by the army ; Hilderic and his
followers joined themselves to the usurper's party ;
and after a few weeks Paul was crowned at Narbonne,
with a golden crown that Reccared had presented to
the church of Gerona.
Wamba was at this time in the Western Pyrenees,
fighting with the Basques, whom Paul's emissaries
had incited to rebellion. The news was brought to
him that his treacherous general was accepted as king
by the Gaulish cities and by a large portion of North
eastern Spain. A council of war was called ; some
of the officers recommended a return to Toledo in
order to seek reinforcements ; others wished to hasten
at once to the encounter with Paul. Wamba's de
cision was that the subjugation of the Basques must
first be complete, and that then the march on Nar
bonne should be prosecuted without a moment's
delay. We are told — perhaps this is an exaggeration
— that the Basques were reduced to entire submission
in one week. Then Wamba led his forces into the
revolted province of Spain, and in a few days all the
cities had opened their gates or had been taken by
storm. Two of the rebel leaders fell into Wamba's
hands at Clausurae, and were sent in chains to Toledo;
a third, Wittimer, escaped to Narbonne, to give warn-

CAPTURE OF NIMES.

34i

ing of the approach of the Gothic army. When Paul
heard that Wamba was on the way to Narbonne, he re
tired to Nimes, leaving Narbonne in Wittimer's charge.
Soon afterwards Wamba arrived before the walls of
the city, and invited Wittimer to surrender, promising
that if he and his comrades would surrender they
should suffer no harm. The proposal was scornfully
refused, and after a terrible struggle the city was taken
by assault. Wittimer took refuge behind the altar of
the Virgin, till a soldier threatened to crush him with a
huge stone slab. Then he yielded himself up ; and
he and his companions, loaded with chains, were
flogged through the streets of Narbonne.
Wamba then sent a body of thirty thousand men
to attack Nimes, while he occupied himself with the
capture of the smaller cities. Paul's garrison made
a vigorous defence, and after a whole day's fighting
the Goths were obliged to send to Wamba for more
troops. The next morning ten thousand more men
arrived, and the attack began again. Paul tried to
persuade his men to risk a battle outside the walls,
saying that the Goths had become slothful and
cowardly, having enjoyed so many years of peace,
and that if once they were met boldly they would
soon take to flight. But his eloquence was in vain,
and when the assault began it was soon perceived
that the Goths were anything but cowards. Paul
was assailed with bitter reproaches for his folly in
making light of the enemy's prowess. After five hours'
hard fighting the gates were burst open, and the
troops of Wamba rushed into the city, slaughtering
all that came in their way.

¦Mil

THE AMPHITHEATRE AT NIMES.

THE REBELS BROUGHT FOR TRIAL. 347
Paul and what remained of his army and the
citizens took shelter in the great Roman amphitheatre,
the splendid ruins of which are still the chief sight at
Nimes. They converted the building into a temporary
fortress. It was easily defended, but there had been
no time for provisioning it, and the people, pressed
by hunger, broke out into mutiny. One of Paul's
own relatives was seized by the crowd and murdered
before the commander's own eyes, and in spite of his
commands and entreaties. , When Paul saw that he
was no longer obeyed as a king, he tore off" his royal
robes, and flung them aside in the sight of all the
people. On the third day (September 3, 673) the inhabitants,
feeling that further resistance was hopeless, sent their
bishop Argabad to plead for mercy with Wamba.
The king promised that no blood should be shed, but
he kept himself free to inflict any other punishments
on the rebels. Officers were sent into the city to
restore order, and to arrest the ringleaders of the
rebellion. Paul was dragged by the hair of the head
between two horsemen, and brought into the king's
camp. He threw himself at Wamba's feet, and with
tears and abject professions of repentance entreated
the king to have mercy on him. Wamba scornfully
assured him that his life should be spared.
On the third day after the victory Paul and the
other rebels were brought up for trial before a court
composed of the king and the great officers of the
realm. They confessed their guilt, and the tribunal
sentenced them to death and to forfeiture of their
property. The king, however, refused to break his

348 THE STORY OF WAMBA.
promise, and ordered that their punishment should be
scalping and imprisonment for life.
After restoring peace and settled government in
the Gaulish province, Wamba returned to Toledo,
which he entered in triumph like an ancient Roman
conqueror, followed by a long procession of his
captives with shaven heads and bare feet. Paul was
adorned in mockery with a crown of leather, fastened
on his head with melted pitch.
The next seven years of^Wamba's reign were peace
ful and prosperous. He ruled firmly and wisely, and
though no enemy of the Church, he knew how to keep
the priesthood duly in check. He even made a law
that in time of war the clergy of all ranks should be
bound like other citizens to take up arms for the
defence of the country. Wamba also decreed that
free birth should no longer be a condition of serving
in the army. Gothic warriors of the olden time
would have scorned to fight in the same ranks with
slaves ; but the warlike spirit of the nation was de
caying, and military service was now looked upon as
an evil necessity, to be avoided if possible.
The events which brought Wamba's reign to an
end are strange indeed. On October 14, 680, he fell
into a stupor, and continued insensible for many
hours. The physicians declared that he was dying,
and after the custom of those days he was clothed in
a monk's robe, and his head was shaven ; for it was
believed that those who died in the dress of a religious
order were sure to obtain salvation in the next world.
After twenty-four hours Wamba recovered conscious
ness ; but when he knew what had been done, he

A MYSTERIOUS TRANCE. 349
recognized that according to Gothic law the fact that
he had worn a monk's robe disqualified him from
ruling any longer. So, in the presence of the great
officers of the kingdom, he signed a document de
claring that he abdicated the throne, and appointing
a certain Erwig as his successor. It was afterwards
believed that Wamba's mysterious trance was caused
by a sleeping draught given to him by Erwig. If so,
the nobles of the court must have been sharers in the
conspiracy. Although it was quite contrary to Gothic
law that a king should name his successor, neither
the nobles nor the people offered any protest. Erwig
was anointed and crowned by the Archbishop of
Toledo, and Wamba retired into a monastery, and
there spent the remainder of his life.

XXXIV.
THIRTY YEARS OF DECAY.
Wamba is the last great man, and his victories the
last brilliant exploits, that appear in Gothic history.
His fiery energy had for a moment seemed to inspire
the state with new life ; but the decay of national
spirit had gone too far to be arrested. The Visigoths
had exchanged their old free constitution for a des
potism controlled by bigoted prelates : the poorer
freemen had almost all sunk into slavery, and had
naturally lost their interest in the welfare of the king
dom ; the nobles, corrupted by long peace and fancied
security, were sunk in idleness and vice. Hencefor
ward our story tells only of " ruin and the breaking
up of laws," which went on unchecked till the day
when the kingdom was crushed like a hollow shell in
the hands of the Saracen invader.
The accession of Erwig to the throne was not only
illegal because he had not been regularly chosen ; it
was also a breach of the law which provided that the
king should always be of pure Gothic blood. His
mother, indeed, was a Gothic princess, a cousin of
King Kindaswinth; but his father was a Greek of
Persian origin, named Artabazes, who had been

ARCHBISHOP JULIAN. 351
banished from Constantinople, and had found a home
in Spain. Erwig seems to have had all the cunning
and the love of intrigue with which the Greeks were
so often charged. He had, however, but little courage
or force of character, and throughout his reign was
little more than a puppet in the hands of his chief
counsellor, the fierce and unscrupulous Julian (after
wards called Saint Julian) the Archbishop of Toledo.
This archbishop was one of the most remarkable
figures of his time. It is to him that we owe our
knowledge of the history of Wamba's campaign
against Paul ; and his book on this subject is perhaps
the most brilliant literary work of the seventh cen
tury. Its savage exultation over the fallen foe, more
befitting a warrior than a churchman, is in accord
with all that we know of the writer's character. After
having in this book extolled Wamba to the skies as a
pattern of a hero and a Christian, he quarrelled with
him, and he is supposed to have been the chief inspirer
of the conspiracy against him. Himself of Jewish
Origin, he was the most cruel persecutor of the Jews,
and the tyrant of both Church and people.
To prevent any reaction in favour of Wamba,
Erwig and Julian caused the council of bishops and
nobles to publish again the law which disqualified
from high office in the State all who had ever worn a
monastic dress. The words in which this decree was
expressed are significant indeed. " There are some
persons who, having been clothed in the garments of
penitence when in peril of death, and having after
wards recovered, have the audacity to claim that their
vow is not binding, because it was taken by them in

353 THIRTY YEARS OF DECAY.
a state of unconsciousness. Let all such reflect that
children are baptised without their will or knowledge,
yet no man can renounce his baptism without in
curring eternal damnation. As it is with baptism, so
it is with the monastic vow ; and we declare that all
who violate it are worthy of the severest punishment,
and are incapable of holding any civil dignity." It
would have been more honest if the fathers had simply
declared that Wamba had forfeited the throne.
Erwig's acts as a lawgiver consisted chiefly in un
doing what Wamba had done to strengthen the totter
ing state. The penalties imposed on those who
shirked military service were relaxed ; the clergy
were no longer required to take their part in the de
fence of the kingdom ; those who had been guilty of
rebellion in former reigns were restored to their for
feited dignities and estates ; and all the arrears of
taxes owing at the end of Erwig's first year were
cancelled. The unfortunate Jews, whose misery had
been in some small degree lightened in Wamba's
reign, were now persecuted more fiercely than ever at
the instigation of an archbishop sprung of their own
race. In order to prevent any rebellion on behalf >f
Wamba's family, Erwig appointed as his successor
the late king's nephew, Egica, and gave him his
daughter in marriage, making him take an oath that
when he came to the throne he would protect his
mother-in-law and all the royal family in the pos
session of all their property. In the year 687 the
land was desolated by a great famine, which Erwig's
guilty conscience regarded as God's vengeance for his

A CASE OF CONSCIENCE. 353
crimes. He took to his bed, and soon afterwards re
tired to a monastery, where he died in November of
the same year.
One of the first acts of Egica after he was anointed
king was to call a council of bishops and nobles for
the settlement of questions relating to the govern
ment. When the council was assembled the king
presented himself in the chamber, and kneeling on
the floor, implored the prayers of the bishops on his
behalf. He then retired, after handing to the presi
dent a document in which was stated a question of
conscience which he desired the fathers to resolve.
The question proposed was the following: "When
I married King Erwig's daughter he compelled me
to swear that I would always protect his widow and
children in the enjoyment of their possessions. But
when I was anointed king I took an oath to exercise
equal justice towards all my subjects. It is im
possible for me to keep both these oaths, for much of
the wealth that Erwig left behind him was gained by
extortion. In order to secure his throne Erwig re
duced many nobles to slavery, and seized their pro
perty. They or their heirs now demand restitution.
My coronation oath commands me to grant their just
claims ; the oath I took to Erwig forbids. I pray
you, reverend fathers, to tell me what my duty is to
do." The bishops had not much difficulty in deciding.
The promise made to the nation, they said, out
weighed all merely private engagements. They
added, very ingeniously, that as Erwig by appointing
Egica his successor, had been the cause of his taking

354 THIRTY YEARS OF DECAY.
the second oath, he had thereby released him from his
former obligations inconsistent with it. In this way
Egica succeeded in defeating his predecessor's care
fully devised schemes for the interests of his family.
The same council had another piece of business to
dispose of. One of the theological works of their
president, the Archbishop Julian, had been blamed
by the pope as not quite orthodox. Julian was not
the man to receive correction meekly, and at his
prompting the bishops prepared a reply, defending
Julian's book, and even hinting that the Holy Father
must have read it carelessly. They gained their cause :
the new pope withdrew his predecessor's censure.
Two years after this triumph the haughty tyrant of
the Spanish Church died, and was succeeded, in the
archbishopric by a Goth of noble birth, named Sise-
bert. Before his elevation Sisebert had made a great
display of austere piety, but when the object of his
ambition was attained he threw off the mask, and
lived an openly profane and immoral life. What
seems to have shocked his contemporaries more than
anything else in his conduct was that he ventured to
clothe himself in the " holy robe," which was said to
have been given to Saint Hildifuns by the Virgin
Mary, and also to ascend the pulpit on which the Vir
gin had been seen to stand, and which had never
since been profaned by human foot.
Archbishop Sisebert was desirous of succeeding to
the same power in the state that had been enjoyed by
Julian ; but Egica was a man of stronger mould than
Erwig, and the prelate found himself overmatched.
He then formed a conspiracy, in which several of the,

A JEWISH CONSPIRACY. 355
great nobkes were involved, to murder the king, his
family, and several of his faithful supporters. The
plot was discovered, and Sisebert was condemned — not
to death, for the crimes of the clergy were always
more lightly punished in Spain than those of other
men, but to banishment, excommunication, and the
forfeiture of all his property.
In the year 694 the Government was thrown into
the wildest panic by the discovery of another plot, in
which nearly all the Jews of the kingdom were sup
posed to be concerned. It is no wonder that they
conspired. In the midst of their own miseries —
though Egica had somewhat relaxed the persecuting
laws — they heard from the people of their own race
and faith in Africa that under the Saracen rule the
Jews were protected and honoured. Who can blame
them if they intrigued with their kinsmen in Africa to
bring about a Saracen invasion of Spain ?
The numbers and wealth of the Spanish Jews were
even yet large enough to render them dangerous ene
mies of the kingdom ; and besides those who pro
fessed Judaism there were thousands more whose
families had for generations been accounted Christian,
but who in secret cherished their ancestral religion,
and the bitterest hatred of the Gothic oppressors.
The king and the bishops, when the treason of the
Jews was revealed, resolved upon nothing less than .
the entire uprooting of the Jewish faith. It was
enacted that all the grown-up Jews should be sold as
slaves to Christians, as far off as possible from their
original place of abode ; and the children at six
years of age were to be taken from their parents, to

356 THIRTY YEARS OF DECAY.
be educated in the Christian religion, and to be
married to Christians when they were old enough.
The masters to whom the Jews were given were
strictly forbidden ever to grant them their liberty
unless they underwent baptism.
No one now will doubt the folly any more than the
wickedness of these savage proposals. Of course they
could not be carried out ; but enough was done to
make the most peacably disposed Jew in the kingdom
the deadly foe of the Gothic power. Little as we
know of the history of the conflict of the Goths with
the Saracens, there is proof enough that the help of
the Jews contributed not a little to the victory of the
invaders. Three years after the date of this council Egica
raised his son Witica to be the sharer of his throne ;
and in 701 he died, leaving Witica sole ruler.
Although Witica reigned nine years, we know
strangely little about him. Later writers have de
lighted to represent him as a monster of wickedness ;
but all that is recorded of him on good authority is
greatly to his honour. He pardoned and restored to
their rank and estates those whom his father had
banished or degraded. There were many other
wealthy persons whom Egica had compelled to sign
[documents, acknowledging themselves debtors to the
treasury ; Witica caused these papers to be publicly
burnt. It seems that he tried to reform the corrup
tions of the Church. A writer belonging to the
priestly party complains that Sindered, the Arch
bishop of Toledo, " inspired with a zeal for holiness,
but not according to knowledge," obeyed the king's

DEATH OF WITICA. 357
orders by continually harassing and persecuting men
of high standing amongst the clergy. It is likely
enough (though the statements cannot be traced back
beyond the ninth century) that he encouraged the
clergy to marry, and that he showed some degree of
favour to the Jews — at any rate, that he did not try
to carry into effect the insane persecuting laws passed
in his father's time. Altogether Witica seems to have
made himself beloved by the people, and hated and
feared by the churchmen. It is easy to understand
why in later ages he was accused of all sorts of dreadful
crimes. The sudden ruin of the kingdom in the first
year of his successor could only be accounted for by
ascribing it to divine vengeance ; and Witica was
supposed to have been the great sinner whose
wickedness had drawn down the wrath of Heaven
upon the unhappy nation.
Witica died in February, 710, leaving two sons
not yet come to the age of manhood. It seems that
he had named one of these boys as his successor in
the kingdom, but the council of nobles and prelates
set aside his wishes, and elected to the throne a cer
tain Roderic, a Gothic noble who had held the chief
command of the army.

XXXV.
THE FALL OF THE VISIGOTHS.
EVERY ONE has heard of " Roderic, the last of the
Goths ; " but of the real history of this famous king
we know scarcely anything for certain. The romantic
story of which he is the hero is the invention of
chroniclers who lived many centuries after his death.
But we ought not to pass over in silence a story
which Scott and Southey in England, and many a
poet in other lands, have taken as the theme of their
song. According to this legend, Roderic was the son of
Theudefrid, a grandson of King Kindaswinth, and
one of the many victims of Witica's tyranny. The
cruel king had put out his eyes, and thrown him
into prison, where he died. To revenge his father's
fate, Roderic raised a rebellion, seized the person of
Witica, and having first blinded him, put him to
death. Roderic was then crowned king ; but Witica's
two sons bided their time to avenge their father and
to attempt to regain their inheritance.
Their opportunity might have been long in coming
if Roderic had not made a more powerful enemy in
Count Julian, who in the late king's reign had dis
tinguished himself by a brave defence of Ceuta, the

THE LEGEND OF RODERIC. 359
one Gothic fortress in Africa that had not fallen
into the hands of the Saracens. Julian, although
a kinsman of Witica's, had quietly accepted Roderic's
usurpation, and had continued to fight bravely and
successfully against the Moors. But when he heard
that the new king had dishonoured his daughter,
the beautiful Florinda, he resolved to revenge his
own wrongs by the betrayal of his country. He
sought an interview with the Mohammedan chief,
Musa, and counselled him to undertake the conquest
of Spain. The success of the undertaking, he said,
only too truly, was certain, for the Goths as well as
the Spaniards hated the usurper, and would desert
his standards when the conflict came.
Musa needed little persuasion. A body of twelve
thousand men, led by a Berber chief named Tarik,
and accompanied by Julian and the Goths who
followed him in his treason, set sail from the African
coast, and landed at the place since called" "the
mountain of Tarik " (Jebel Tarik, Gibraltar).
The Gothic governor of the southern province, Theu
demer, was taken by surprise, and wrote to Roderic
for aid. The king, who was then fighting the re
bellious Basques in the Pyrenees, broke up his camp,
and hastened southwards, summoning his army from
all parts of the country to meet him at Cordova.
A hundred thousand men — so runs the story — as
sembled under his banner ; but among this great
host there were few who were loyal to his crown.
The Gothic nobles who had reluctantly submitted
to his rule now said among themselves, "Why
should we risk our lives in the defence of the usurper?

360 THE FALL OF THE VISIGOTHS.
The Moors are only in quest of plunder ; when
Roderic is beaten they will go home with their booty,
and then we can give the throne to whom we will."
But Roderic thought that now the country was
threatened by an infidel foe his rivals would lay
aside their selfish aims, and unite against the com
mon danger. In this confidence he entrusted the
command of the two wings of his army to the sons
of Witica.
The great battle took place near Xeres de la
Frontera, ten miles north of Cadiz, beside the river
Chrysus, now called the Guadalete. Roderic ap
peared on the field clothed in a purple robe and
wearing a jewelled crown. His chariot of ivory was
drawn by eight milk-white steeds. It was not until
after several days' fighting that the sons of Witica
offered their aid to the enemy. Tarik agreed to
their conditions, and the battle ended, on July 26,
711, in the utter rout of Roderic's supporters. As
to the fate of Roderic himself there are three dif
ferent stories. Some say that he was slain by Tarik's
own hand ; others that he was drowned in attempting
to cross the river, and that long afterwards his golden
shoes, and his horse Orelio, were found in the mud
of the stream. The third legend is like that which
was afterwards told of Harold of England — how the
defeated and wounded king escaped from the battle
field, and lived for many years in a hermitage under
a feigned name, devoting himself to prayer and to
self-mortification in atonement for his sins. It is
this last version that Southey has used in his poem of
" Roderick, the Last of the Goths."

END OF THE GOTHIC KINGDOM. 361
Such is the story of Roderic, as it is told by
Spanish and Arabic writers of the thirteenth and
later centuries. Perhaps it may contain fragments
of true history here and there ; but what we really
know of Roderic's reign is little more than this, that
his defeat on the Guadalete was the end of the
Gothic kingdom of Spain. Almost unresisted, the
conquerors spread over the land, taking possession
of city after city, until " the green flag of the Prophet
waved from the towers of the royal palace of
Toledo."

XXXVI.
CONCLUSION.
The Visigoths were never driven out of Spain as
the Ostrogoths were driven out of Italy. They re
mained to become, like the older inhabitants of the
country, subjects of the Moors. Under the Mo
hammedan dominion the two Christian peoples,
drawn together by their common hatred of the infidel,
and by their common aspirations after freedom,
became finally one nation. The story of the Goths
merges now into the story of Spain.
Yet even through the seven centuries of Moorish
dominion the descendants of the native Spaniards
continued to look up to the descendants of the Goths
as to their natural leaders and chiefs. After the
battle on the Guadalete the Goth Theudemer, the
former viceroy of Southern Spain under Roderic,
betook himself with a small band of men to the
eastern coast, and there defended himself so valiantly
that the conquerors allowed him to establish a tribu
tary Christian kingdom in Murcia, where he reigned
until his death. Afterwards the Moors broke the
treaty which they had made with him, and the " land
of Theudemer," as the Arabic writers call it, was
joined to the Mohammedan dominions. In the far

GOTHS IN THE CRIMEA. '363
north-west, the Christians of the Asturias maintained
their independence under a succession of Gothic
chiefs, to whom the later kings of Spain were proud
to trace their ancestry. In all the uprisings of the
Christians against the Moors, and in the last great
struggle which ended in the overthrow of the infidel
rule, men with Gothic names appear as leaders and
champions. But for the Gothic element in the
Spanish people the chivalry of Castile would never
have been, and Spain might even yet have remained
under Mohammedan rule. To this day the noble
families of Spain boast, if not always with reason,
of the purity of their Gothic blood.
For the last traces of the Goths as a separate
people, speaking their own language, we must, how
ever, look not to Spain, but far away to the east of
Europe. At the end of the fourth century, when
the empire of Ermanaric fell under the yoke of the
Huns, a small remnant of the Ostrogoths found
shelter from the savage invaders in the Crimea, and
in this remote corner of Europe they preserved their
existence as a nation for more than a thousand years.
Early in the fifth century they were converted to
Catholic Christianity, and their bishops long con
tinued to take part in general councils of the church.
In the year 1562 a traveller from Belgium, named
Busbek, met with two ambassadors sent by this
little nation to Constantinople, and wrote down a
long list of words belonging to their language. Of
course many of these words were greatly corrupted,
and some of them are not Gothic at all, but borrowed
from the languages of the surrounding nations. But

364 CONCLUSION.
still the list makes it quite clear that the language
spoken by this Crimean people must originally have
been the same with that used by Wulfila in his
translation of the Bible.1 Nearly two hundred years
later — about 1750 — a charitable Jesuit of Vienna,
named Mondorf, ransomed a prisoner from the
Turkish galleys, and learned from him that he came
from the Crimea, and that his native language bore
some resemblance to German. It is possible that
Mondorf was not mistaken, and (strange as it seems
to think of it !) that the language of Wulfila was
actually surviving, in some corrupted shape, only a
century and a half ago. Mondorf s ransomed captive
knew nothing about Christianity, but said that his
countrymen worshipped an ancient tree. Until the
eighteenth century the Crimea was still called
Gothia, at least in the official documents of the
Greek Church ; but the name is now gone out of
1 Busbek was himself uncertain whether these people were Goths
or whether they were Saxons, some of whom, he thought, Charles the
Great might possibly have transported into the Crimea. They were
sufficiently numerous to furnish a body of eight hundred matchlock-men
to the Tatar Khan, and had two towns, called Mancup and Scivarin.
About forty of the words that Busbek gives were recognised by him as
resembling his own Flemish. Some o( these are in form much nearer
to Wulfila's Gothic than to any other Teutonic language : thus gollz
"gold," mine " moon," schlipcn "sleep," are in Wulfila gulth, mcna,
slepan. Of the words which Busbek failed to recognise as Teutonic
several are known to be genuine Gothic, as statz " earth," " ground '>
(for staths "place"), ael "stone" (for hallu-s), baur "boy" (for
barn), ivichtgata "white" (for hweitata), mycha "sword" (for meki),
and the pronouns tzo, ies, " thou," "he" (for thu, is). The numerals
up to ninety can be identified as Gothic, but the words given by Busbek
as standing for a hundred and a thousand are, curiously enough, good
Persian.

A VANISHED NATION. 365
use, and, so far as we know, the Gothic language
is wholly extinct.
So ends the story of the once mighty nation of
the Goths. Many other peoples that have played
as famous a part in history have passed away ; but
they have left behind them abundant monuments
of their ancient greatness. With the Goths it has
been otherwise. They have bequeathed to the
world no treasures of literature, no masterpieces of
art, no splendid buildings.1 They have left no con
spicuous impress on the manners or the institutions
of any modern European people. The other great
Teutonic nations that overran the Roman Empire
have their memorial in the modern names of the
countries which they conquered. The Franks have
given their name to France, the Burgunds to Burgundy,
the Langobards to Lombardy, and the Vandals to An
dalusia. But of the conquests and dominion of the
Goths not even such slight record remains.
Yet though the Goths have passed away, leaving
behind them so little to show what once they were,
their memory can never die. History cannot forget
the people whose valour shook the decaying Roman
Empire to its fall, and prepared the way for the rise
of a worthier civilization on the ruins of the old. In

1 What we miscall "Gothic architecture'' has no historical con
nection with the Goths. The few buildings of theirs which are pre
served are in a wholly different style. When the word " Gothic " was
first applied to the pointed style of architecture, it was meant to denote
the opposite of " Roman." Yet, after all, this use of the name is a sort of
memorial of the former greatness of the Goths, because it is founded
on the correct notion that there was once a time when the Romans and
the Goths were the two chief peoples of the Western world.

366 CONCLUSION.
their work of destruction they succeeded ; whenever
they tried to build up they failed. But it is some
thing to have attempted nobly ; and, for all the
sadness of its ending, the history is not wholly in
glorious that records the saintly heroism of Wulfila,
the chivalrous magnanimity of Totila, and the wise
and beneficent statesmanship of Theoderic.

.«**»

APPENDIX.

GOTHIC PERSONAL NAMES.
Readers of books on Gothic history are often puzzled by
finding that the same name is often spelt quite differently by
different writers. The reason is that the Gothic names have
come down to us in the works of Greek and Latin authors, who
have spelt them in the manner that seemed to themselves best
fitted to express the foreign sounds. If Englishmen had to spell
French or German names by ear, without knowing any system
of orthography but that of their own language, we should find
that the same name would seldom be spelt alike by two different
persons. Just so it often happens that a Gothic name is given
by two ancient writers in forms so widely apart that it is not
easy to see that the same person is referred to. Modern his
torians sometimes choose one or other of the forms given in
their original authorities, and sometimes they prefer to spell the
names in the correct Gothic manner. To adopt this last course
would often be very awkward, for we should have to use such
uncouth and unpronounceable combinations of letters as Thiu
dareiks and Audawakrs, instead of Theoderic and Odovacar.
The plan which has been followed in this book is that of giving
well-known names in their most usual modern spelling, and in
other cases to come as near to the true Gothic form as is
possible without making the names difficult to pronounce ac
cording to ordinary English rules. Where the Gothic form of
a name cannot be ascertained, the Greek or Latin spelling has
mostly been left unaltered.

368 APPENDIX.
The names borne by the Goths were very much of the same
sort as those used among the Anglo-Saxons and the other
ancient Teutonic nations. There are many books which profess
to explain the meanings of Anglo-Saxon or Old German names ;
thus Frederick is often said to mean, " one who rules in peace. :'
This, however, is altogether a mistake. The fact is that old
Teutonic names (at least those of them which are compounded
of two words) were not usually intended — like some of those in
the Bible— to express any particular meaning. Certainly the
name Frederic is formed of a word meaning " peace " and a
word meaning "ruler." But the true explanation is that Fred-
was one of a number of which it was customary to use as begin
nings of names, and -ric was one of the words which it was
customary to use as endings. Any word belonging to the one
list might be joined to any word in the other list, even if the two
were quite contradictory in sense. There are, for instance,
ancient German names, which, if translated literally, would be
"peace-spear," and "peace-war."
A glance at the list of words used by Goths, Anglo-Saxons, or
ancient Germans in forming personal names would be sufficient
to show, if we did not know already, that these peoples delighted
greatly in war. They are, for the most part, words like
" war," " battle," "victory," "spear," "army," " brave," " fortu
nate." Amongst them are also names of savage animals, chiefly
"wolf" and "bear." Names of foreign nations, too, are found
in the list. This looks at first sight curious ; but when an Anglo-
Saxon called his son Peohthere (Pict-army), or when a Goth
called his son Winithaharyis (Wend-army), he probably meant
to express a hope that the boy would grow up to be a great con
queror of Picts or Wends. So at least it must have been when
these names were first coined ; but, in later time, when they
were established in use, parents would give them to their
children with as little thought of the meaning as modern
parents have when they call a daughter Ursula ("little she-
bear"). The following is a list of some of the most frequent words
used in the formation of Gothic names, with their meanings,
and the corresponding forms that were used in Anglo-Saxon
names.

APPENDIX.

36(

I. — Words used for

beginnings of names :

Ahta-
" terrible."
Hildi-
" war," A.S.
Hilde-
Airmana-
"lofty,"(?)A.S.Eormen-
Huna-
"Hun"(?) ,,
Hun-
Alh-
" temple," ,,
Ealh-
Amala-
"effort, toil"
?)
Liuda-
" people," „
Leod-
Anda-
"spirit, courage."
Mahta-
" mighty," ,,
Meaht
Ans-
"god," A.S
Os-
Athala-
"noble,'' ,,
^thel-
Nantha-
"brave," ,,
N6th-
Athana-
"year " (?)
Auda-
"wealth," ,,
Ead-
Ragina-
"counsel."
Reda-
"counsel," ,,
Rsed-
Badwa-
"battle," „
Beado-
Reika-
"ruler," ,,
Ric-
Baltha-
"bold," „
Bald-
Sigisa-
" victory," ,,
Sige-
Daga-
"day," „
Dseg-
Sunya-
"true."
Swintha-
"strong," „
Swfth-
Filu-
" much."
Frithu-
" peace," ,,
Freothu-
Thauris-Thiuda-
"daring."
"people," ,,
Theod
Gaisu-
"spear," ,,
Gar-
Thrasa-
"confidence."
Gawi-
"country."
Goda-
"good," „
G6d-
Waihti-
"fighting," „
Wiht-
Guda-
"God."
Wandila-
" Vandal."
Guntha-
"battle," „
Guth-
Wili-Winitha-
"will,"
" Wend."
Wil-
Harya-
"army," „
Here-
Wulfa-
"wolf," ,,
Wulf-
Hauha-
"high," „
Heah-
2. — Words used as endings. (In the names as they appear
in modern books, the final s, which is the name of the nomina
tive case, is generally omitted.)
¦badws
"war," A.S. -basd (?)
-liufs
"dear," l
LS. -leof
bairhts
"bright," ,, -berht
-mers
"famous,"
, , -masr
¦balths
"bold," ,, -bald
-munths
"protector,'
, , -mund
friths
"peaceful," ,, -frith
-nanths
" daring,"
,, -n6th
•funs '
ready,eager," ,, -fus
-reths
" counsel,"
„ -red
-gairns
"desiring," ,, -georn
-reiks
"ruler,"
„ -ric
-gais
"spear," ,, -gar
-swinths
" strong,"
,, -swith
•gauya
"citizen."
-wakrs
"watchful,"
,, -wacor
•haryis
"army," ,, -here
-wulfs
"wolf,"
„ -wulf
And
in female names :
-gunth[i]s " batt
e," A.S.
-gyth
-hild[i]s "war
»»
-hild
-swintha ' ' stro
ng" ,,
swith
370 APPENDIX.
Amongst the Goths, as among all other peoples, diminutives
or " pet names " were formed from ordinary pet names by
shortening them and adding an affix. This affix was usually
-ila, but sometimes -ika. Thus such a name as Audamer-s
might become Audila or Merila ; Wulfareiks might become
Wulfila or Reikila. But just as in modern times children are
sometimes christened Harry or Lizzie, so these Gothic diminu
tives were often used as regular names, as in the case of Bishop
Wulfila and King Badwila or Totila.
There were other Gothic names, formed from the roots of
verbs, or from other words, by adding the syllable a or ya, as
Liuba (Leuva), from liufs, dear ; Walya, from walyan, to choose ;
Wraihya (Uraias), from wreihan, to protect. In some cases the
names ending in -a seem to be contractions or compressions of
longer names, as Wamba, perhaps for Wandilbairhts ; Gaina,
for Gaisananths. It was not often that the Goths used ordinary
nouns or adjectives as personal names, but a few instances do
occur, such as Wisunths (Wisandus), " Bison," which was
originally a nickname, but is found applied to certain persons
as a regular name.

INDEX.

Abritta, battle of, 28
Aetius, Roman general, 108
Agila, king of the Visigoths, 318
Alamans, the, 178, 312
Alaric I., king of the Visigoths,
85-98
Alaric II. , king of the Visigoths,
118-124, 146, 151, 175, 179
Alatheus, Gothic chief, 46, 72
Alawiw, judge of the Visigoths,
50
Albes, Gothic envoy to Belisarius,
236
Albinus, Roman senator, 182
Alexander, nicknamed " Scis
sors," 277
Aligern, Ostrogothic commander,
309
Aliquaca, Gothic chief, 40
Amala, 13
Amalaric, king of the Visigoths,
124, 180, 315
Amalaswintha, daughter of Theo
deric, 175, 187, 191
Amalings, 13, 24, 46
Anastasius, Emperor of the East,
156, 178, 180
Anchialus, 34
Anses, deities worshipped by the
Goths, 13
Antse, a Slavonic people, 47
Appian Way, 242, 249
Aquitania, 106
Araric, Gothic king, 41
Arcadius, Emperor of the East,
84 ; column erected by, 9

Architecture, 161 ; the so-called
"Gothic," 365
Argait, Gothic commander, 26
Arian Christianity, 59, 117, 185
Aries, 180
Asbad the Gepid, 307
Asia Minor, ravaged by Goths, 32
Asinarian gate (at Rome), 225, 292
Aspar the Patrician, 133
Atawulf, king of the Visigoths,
94-103
Athalaric, king of the Ostrogoths,
176, 187, 192
Athanagild, king of the Visigoths,
319
Athanagild, son of Ermenagild,
325
Athanaric, 50-55, 58 ; visits Con
stantinople, and dies there, 80
Athens, the Goths at, 32, 85
Attalus, made Western emperor
by Alaric, 94 ; deposed, 95 ; his
fate, 103
Attila, king of the Huns, 111-114
Audafleda, wife of Theoderic the
Great, 175
Audathseus, Gothic commander,
81
Aurelian, Roman emperor, 36,
38
Avitus, 1 10 ; made Emperor of the
West, 1 15 B.
Balamber, king of the Huns, 46
Balthings, the, 13, 85, 103
Basques, 332, 341, 344, 359

372

INDEX.

Battle of Galtis, 26 ; of Abritta,
28 ; of Naissus, 35 ; of Hadria
nople, 72; on ihe Marosh, 42;
of Pollentia, 87 ; of Verona,
147 ; ofMoircy, 112 ; of Voclad,
124; of theUlca, 146; ofTadino
(Tagina;), 306 ; of Mons Lacta-
rius, 310; of Casilinum, 313;
of the Guadalete, 360
Belisarius, 199, 207, 275, 285-297
Berismund, Amaling prince, 47
Bessa the Goth, general of Justi
nian, 216, 225, 232, 288, 290,
293
" Bigot," perhaps derived from
" Visigoth," 329
Boethius, 165, 166, 183, 184 ; his
famous book, 183
Bolsena, lake of, 204
Bow, used by Roman horsemen,
245
Brunihild, queen, daughter of
Athanagild, 319
Bucharest king, 18
Bulgars, the, early mention of,
178
Burgunds, the, 26, 107, 121
Busbek, Belgian traveller, 363
C.
Calendar, Gothic, 4
Cassiodorus, 157, 161, 165, 168,
192, 204, 251-253
Chalcedon, 31
Chilperic, Frankish king, 319
Christians, persecuted by Athan
aric, 55, 58
Classis, the port of Ravenna, 271
Claudian, the poet, 87
Claudius, Visigothic general, 331
Claudius Gothicus, Roman em
peror, 34-36
Clotaire see Hlodhari
Clotilda, wife of Amalaric, 316
Clovis (Hlodwig) king of the
Franks, 118, 178
Cniva, Gothic king, 27
Code, Theoderic's, 170
Column of Theodosius, 9
Conon, Roman general, 281-283

Constantine, Roman emperor, 39
Constantinople made the capital
of the Roman Empire, 40
Constantius Roman emperor, 58
Costume of the Goths, 9
" Count of the Goths," the, 169
Crimea, 31, 41, 363
Cumse, 309 D.
Dacia, the Goths in, 37
Dagobert, Frankish king, 337
Dalmatia, 168, 209, 213
Danube, river, 26, 58, 66
Decius, Roman emperor, 26-28
Dexippus, 33
" Diana of the Ephesians," temple
of, burnt, 32
Dietrich of Bern, 172
Diocletian, Roman emperor, 39
Dnieper, river, 45
Dniester, river, 5, 34, 55
Durazzo, 197

Egica, king of the Visigoths,
354-356
Ephesus taken by the Goths, 32
Epiphanius, bishop of Pavia,
153-155. 158
Eraric, king of the Ostrogoths, 279
Ermanaric, Gothic king, 43, 46
Ermanfrid, king of the Thurin-
gians, 175
Ermenegild, son of Leovigild,
322-325
Erwig, king of the Visigoths,
349-354
Euric, king of the Visigoths, 116
Eutharic, 175 F.
Famines, 68, 266, 282, 291
Fastida, king of the Gepids, 26
Filimer, Gothic king, 23
Flaminian Way, 226, 256
Florence besieged by Radagais,
89
Florinda, daughter of Count Julian,
359

INDEX.

373

Forum Trebonu, 28
Franks, 107, 120-123, 223
Frithigern, judge of the Visigoths,
50, 55, 65-80 G.
Gainathi Goth, Roman general,
his rebellion, 99
Gaiseric, king of the Vandals, 115
Galla Placidia, Roman princess,
100 ; marries Atawulf, 101 ;
her subsequent fate, 105
Gallienus, Roman emperor, 30,
33
Gallus, Trebonianus, Roman
emperor, 29, 30
Galtis, battle near, 26
Gaul, first entered by Visigoths,
100 ; foundation of the Visigoth
kingdom in, 103 ; conquered
by Clovis, 125 ; territories of
the later Visigoths in, 321, 343-
345
Geberic, Gothic king, 41
Geleswintha, Visigothic princess,
320
Gepids, 7, 26, 146, 177
Germanus, nephew of Justinian,
275, 301, 302 ; his son Germa
nus, 302
Getes (Getse), 19
Glycerius, Emperor of the West,
126, 137
Godegisel, king of the Burgunds,
155
Goiswintha, Visigothic queen,
323, 330
" Gothic architecture," falsely so
called, 364
Gothic language, 4, 62; last traces
of, 364
Gothland, 8
Goths, appearance and costume
of, 9 ; national character of,
11 ; religion of, 13
Gotones, mentioaed by Tacitus,
2
Gratian, Emperor of the West,
70
Greece ravaged by the Goths, 32;
campaign of Alaric in, 85, 86

Greutungs, 5
Grimm, Jacob, 5
Guadalete, battle of the, 360
Gudelina, wife of Theodahad, 205
Gundemar, Visigothic king, 334
Gundobad, king of the Burgunds,
117, 120, 126, 155
Guntharic, Gothic general, 26
Guntram (Guntchramn), Frankish
king, 331
Gutans, the native name of the
Goths, 5
Guttones, mentioned by Pliny, I
H.
Hadrianople, battles at, 40, 73-
75 ; siege of, 76
Hadrian's tomb, 238, 241, 299
Halya, the goddess, 15, 24
Halyarunos, 24
Hart's Ford, the, 123
Heathenism of the Goths, 13
Herules, 8, 23, 32, 33, 128
Hildebert, Frankish king, 317
Hilderic rebels against Wamha,
343
Hildibad chosen king of the Ostro
goths, 272 ; his death, 278
Hildiger, Roman general, 258,
263
Hlodhari (Clotaire), Frankish king,
317
Hlodowig, see Clovis
Honorius, Emperor of the West,
84-108
Hrethgotan, 8
Hunimund, Gothic king, 47
Huns, 46-49, m-114 I.
Ibba, Ostrogothic general, 158,
180
Ingunthis, wife of Ermenegild,
322, 325
Isonzo, river, 146 J-
Jews, treated kindly by Theoderic,
159 ; their gratitude, 217 ; per
secuted by Sisebut, 334 ; con
spire against the Visigoths, 355

374

INDEX.

John, the grandson of Vitalian,
Roman general, 253, 255,
258-263, 304
John I., pope, 185
jordanes, 7, 19, 23, 24, 26, 41,
46,48, 113, 124, 165
Julian, Count, 359
Julian, St., archbishop of Toledo,
351-354
Julius, minister of the Eastern
Empire, 78, 79
Justinian, Emperor of the East,
!97. 198-314 K.
Kindaswinth, king of the Visi
goths, 339
Kindila, king of the Visigoths,
338 L.
Laurel-grove (Ravenna), palace of
the, 150
Legends relating to Theoderic,
172
Leo, Emperor of the East, 133
Leovigild, king of the Visigoths,
321-326
Leuva I., king of the Visigoths,
321
Leuva II., king of the Visigoths,
332
Liberius, Roman minister of Odo
vacar and Theoderic, 156
Libraries at Athens, spared by the
Goths, 32
Licinius, Constantine's war with,
40
Litorius, Roman general, 108, no
Lupicinus, 67-69 M.
Manners of the Goths, 12
Marcian, Emperor of the East,
133
Marcianopolis, 26, 68
Martin, Roman general, 243, 264
Mataswintha, daughter of Amalas
wintha, 219, 223, 255, 268,
275, 301
Maximus, governor of Thrace, 67

Maximus, Emperor of the West,
»5
Milan, 147, 264
Milvian Bridge, 227, 256
Moesia, 26, 27, 29, 58, 59
Mondorf, his account of a Crimean
Goth, 364
Mons Lactarius, 310
Mullenhoff, Karl, r note
Mundilat he Goth, Roman general,
264
Mundo the Hun, 177
Mundus the Gepid, Roman gene
ral, 209, 212 N.
Naissus, 35
Naples, siege of by Belisarius, 213-
215 ; by Totila, 281
Narbonne, 101, 180,316,343,345
Narses, 261-263, 302-314
Naulobatus, Herule chief, 34
Nepos, Julius, Emperor of the
West, 126, 130
Nicomedia, 31
Nicopolis, 27
Nimes, 345, 347
Novas, 145 O.
Odovacar, 128-151
Orestes, 126-127
Orleans besieged by Attila, 112
Ostrogotha, Gothic king, 24-26
Ostrogoths, 5, 39, 46, 67, 72, 73,
I33-3H P.
Palermo, 209
Paris, 117
Paul of Cilicia, 299
Paul the Greek, his rebellion
against Wamba, 343-348
Pavia (Ticinum), 148, 153
Pelagius, 289, 293, 294
Peter of Thessalonica, ambassa
dor of Justinian, 200, 210
Philip the Arab, Roman emperor,
26
Philippopolis, 27
Pitzia, Gothic general, 177
Placidia see Galla Placidia

INDEX.

375

Pliny the elder, I
Popes, John I., 185 ; Silverius,
223 ; Vigilius, 301
Priesthood, heathen, 15
Procopius, the usurper, 53
Procopius, the historian, 251, 266,
273, 274, 284, 296, 306, 310
Provence, 180
Ptolemy, 19
Pytheas of Marseilles, I
R.
Radagais invades Italy, 89
Ravenna, 89, 92, 96, 149, 187,
223, 268-299, 3°4
Reccared, king of the Visigoths,
327-33z
Recceswinth, king of the Visi
goths, 339-341
Regeta, council held at, 218
Rikimer, the emperor-maker, 116
Rimini (Ariminum), 149, 259, 304,
3°5
Roderic, king of the Visigoths,
357-361
Rome, besieged by Alaric, 92,
94, 96 ; taken by the Vandals,
115; entered by Belisarius, 225;
besieged by Witigis, 233-257 ;
by Totila, 288-292; deserted
by Totila, 295 ; recovered by
Belisarius, 295 ; regained by
Totila, 298
Romulus Augustulus, Emperor of
the West, 127-130
Rugians, 8, 279
Runes, 15
Rusticiana, widow of Boethius,
293 S.
Sacrifices, see Heathenism
Safrax, Gothic leader, 47
'Scandinavia, supposed early home
of the Goths, 7
Scanzia, island of, 7
Scirians, the, 8, 128
Sebastian, Roman general, 70, 75
Severinus, Saint, 128
Seville, 324 .
Sibyl, pretended prophecies of the
212, 249

Sicily submits to Belisarius, 209 ;
harried by Totila, 301
Sigebert, Frankish king, 319
Sigeric, king of the Visigoths, 103
Sigismond, king of the Burgunds,
175, 181, 184
" Silver Book," the, 64
Silverius, Pope, 222
Singidunum, 135, 145
Sisebert, archbishop of Toledo,
354
Sisebut, king of the Visigoths,
334
Sisenanth, king of the Visigoths,
335
Songs, Gothic, historic legends
derived from, 7, 23, 42, 117,
192
Spain, first entered by the Visi
goths, 103 ; conquered by
Wallia, 105 ; governed by
Theoderic, 180 ; history of,
under Visigoth kings, 315-363
Spali, the, 23
" Storied Column," the, 9
Stilicho, Roman general, 85-91
Sueves, the, 47, 1/7, 321
Sunigilda, wife of Odovacar, 151
Swanhilda, legend of, 46
Symmachus, 165
Synagogues, burnt by fanatics,
159 T.
Tacitus mentions the Gotones, 2
Taxation, 157
Taylor, Dr. Isaac, his theory of
the Runes, 18
Teia, 304 ; his reign over the
Ostrogoths, 308-310
Tervings, 5
Teutonic languages, 4
Thelane (Thela?), son of Odova
car, 149-15 1
Theoderic the Great, 48, 122, 133-
187
Theoderic Strabo, 134, 138-143
Theoderic I., king of the Visi
goths, 107-113
Theoderic II., king of the Visi
goths, 114-116
Theodora, empress, 200, 20J

376

INDEX.

Theodosius, Roman emperor, 64,
79-83
Thermopylae, 85
Theudebald, king of the Franks,
3°9
Theudebert, king of the Franks,
266, 300
Theudemer, king of the Ostro
goths, 48, 135-137
Theudemer, governor of Southern
Spain under Roderic, 362
Theudigisel, king of the Visi
goths, 318
Theudis, Ostrogothic viceroy of
Spain, 180 ; king of the Visi
goths, 317, 318
Thrafstila, king of the Gepids, 146
Thorismund, king of the Visigoths,
H3. H4
Thorismund, king of the Ostro
goths, 47
Thrace, 26, 27, 29
Thrasamund, king of the Vandals,
175
Thrasaric, king of the Gepids, 177
Thulwin, Ostrogothic general,
178, 181, 191, 197
Tiw, perhaps worshipped by the
Goths, 13
Toledo, councils at, 330, 337, 353
Toleration, Theoderic's policy of,
'59
Tomb of Theoderic, 187
Totila (Badwila), king of the
Ostrogoths, 278-308
Toulouse, the Visigoth capital,
107 ; captured by Clovis, 124
Tours, 123
Traditions of the Gothic wander
ing, 23
Trebizond, 31
Tufa, 148
Tulga, king of the Visigoths, 318
Turcilings, 8 U.
Ulphilas, see Wulfila
Uraias, Ostrogothic general, 260,
268, 272

Valens, Emperor of the East,
5»-7S.
Valentinian I., Roman emperor,
51 .
Valerian, Roman emperor, 30,
31 .
Valerian, Roman general, 243
Vandals, 8, 40, 42, 103, 115
Venantius, Fortunatus, 319
Verona, battles at, 88, 147
Vigilius, Pope, 301
Visigoths, 5, 39, 48, 50-125, 148,
.315-363
Vistula, river, 20 W.
Waladamarca, Amaling princess,
47
Walamer, king of the Ostrogoths,
48, 134 .
Wallia, king of the Visigoths,
103-107
Wamba, king of the Visigoths,
342-349
Wandilhari " the Bison," 230
Wideric, Gothic king, 46
Widumer, uncle of Theoderic, 136
Wilihari the Goth, general in
Roman service, 263, 264
Winithari, 47
Wisumar, king of the Vandals, 42
Witeric, king of the Visigoths,
333
Witica, king of the Visigoths,
356-357
Witigis, king of the Ostrogoths,
219-275
Wittimer, rebellion of, 345
Wodan, perhaps worshipped by
the Goths, 13
Wulfila, 56-64 ; his translation of
the Bible, 4, 59
Z.
Zeno, Emperor of the East, 129,
138-149

TLhe ©ton? of tbe IRations*

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The following volumes are now ready (January, 1891) :
THE STORY OF GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harrison.
" " " ROME. Arthur Gilman.
" THE JEWS. Prof. James K. Hosmkr.
" CHALDEA. ¦ Z. A. Ragozin.
" GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould.
" NORWAY. Hjalmar H. Boyesen.
" SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan Hale.
" HUNGARY. Prof. A. Vambery.
" CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J. Church.
" THE SARACENS. Arthur Gilman.
" THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley Lane-Poole.
" " THE NORMANS. Sarah Orne Jewett.
 ' PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin.
" ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo. Rawlinson.
" ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. J. P. Mahaffy.
" ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin.
" THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley.
" IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless.
" TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole.
 ' MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. Z. A. Ragozin.
" MEDIEVAL FRANCE. Prof. Gustav Masson.
" HOLLAND. Prof. J. Thorold Rogers.
" MEXICO. Susan Hale.
" PHOENICIA. Prof. Geo. Rawlinson.
" THE HANSA TOWNS. Helen Zimmern.
" EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfred J. Church.
" THE BARBARY CORSAIRS. Stanley Lane-Poole.
" RUSSIA. W. R. Morfill.
" THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W. D. Morrison.
" " " SCOTLAND. John Mackintosh.
" SWITZERLAND. R. Stead and Mrs. Arnold Hug.
Now in Press for immediate issue :
THE STORY OF PORTUGAL. H. Morse Stephens.
" VEDIC INDIA. Z. A. Ragozin.
" THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. Helen A. Smith.
 ' WALES AND CORNWALL. Owen M. Edwards,
" CANADA. A. R. Macfarlane.

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS T. FISHER UNWIN
New York London

Iberoes of the IRations*

EDITED by

EVELYN ABBOTT M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.

A Series of biographical studies of the lives and work
of a number of representative historical characters about
whom have gathered the great traditions of the Nations
to which they belonged, and who have been accepted, in
many instances, as types of the several National ideals.
_With the life of each typical character will be presented
a picture .of the National conditions surrounding him
during his career.
The narratives are the work of writers who are recog
nized authorities on their several subjects, and, while
thoroughly trustworthy as history, will present picturesque
and dramatic " stories" of the Men and of the events con
nected with them.
To the Life of each " Hero " will be given one duo
decimo volume, handsomely printed in large type, pro
vided with maps and adequately illustrated according to
the special requirements of the several subjects. The
volumes will be sold separately as follows :
Cloth extra  $i 5°
Half morocco, uncut edges, gilt top . . z 75
Large paper, limited to 250 numbered copies for
subscribers to the series. These may be ob
tained in sheets folded, or in cloth, uncut
edges . • • • 3 SO

The first group of the Series will comprise twelve
volumes, as follows :
Nelson, and the Naval Supremacy of England. By W. Clark Russell,
author of " The Wreck of the Grosvenor, " etc.
Gustavus Adolphus, and the Struggle of Protestantism for Exist
ence. By C. R. L. Fletcher, M.A., late Fellow of All Souls College,
Oxford.
Pericles, and the Golden Age of Athens. By Evelyn Abbott, M.A..
Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.
Theodoric the Goth, the Barbarian Champion of Civilization. By
Thomas Hodgkin, author of " Italy and Her Invaders," etc.
Sir Philip Sidney, and the Chivalry of England. By H. R. Fox-
Bourne, author of " The Life of John Locke," etc.
Julius Caesar, and the Organization of the Roman Empire. By
W. Warde Fowler, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.
Alexander the Great, and the Extension of Greek Rule and of
Greek Ideas. By Prof. Benjamin I. Wheeler, Cornell University.
Charlemagne, the Reorganizer of Europe. By Prof. George L. Burr,
Cornell University.
Cicero, and the Fall of the Roman Republic. By J. L. Strachan
Davidson, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.
Louis XIV., and the Zenith of the French Monarchy. By Arthur
Hassall, M.A., Senior Student of Christ Church College, Oxford.
Sir Walter Raleigh, and the Adventurers of England. By A. L.
Smith, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.
Bismarck. The New German Empire : How It Arose ; What It
Replaced ; and What It Stands For. By James Sime, author of
"A Life of Lessing," etc.
To be followed by :
Henry of Navarre, and the Huguenots in France. By P. F. Willert,
M.A., Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.
William of Orange, the Founder of the Dutch Republic. By Ruth
Putnam.
Hannibal, and the Struggle between Carthage and Rome. By
E. A. Freeman, D.C.L., LL.D., Regius Prof, of History in the
University of Oxford.
Alfred the Great, and the First Kingdom in England. By F. York
Powell, M.A., Senior Student of Christ Church College, Oxford.
Charles the Bold, and the Attempt to Found a Middle Kingdom,
By R. Lodge, M.A., Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford.
John Calvin, the Hero of the French Protestants. By Owen M.
Edwards, Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.
Oliver Cromwell, and the Rule of the Puritans in England. By
Charles Firth, Balliol College, Oxford.
Marlborough, and England as a Military Power. By C. W. C.
Oman, A.M., Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
New York London
27 and 29 West Twenty-third Street 27 King William Street, Strand

PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

> Editors.

THE SCRIPTURES,
HEBREW AND CHRISTIAN.
ARRANGED AND EDITED AS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
Rev. EDWARD T. BARTLETT, D.D.,
Dean of the Divinity School of the P. E. Church in Philadel
phia, and Mary Wolfe, Prof, of Ecclesiastical History.
Rev. JOHN P. PETERS, Ph.D.,
Professor of Old Testament Literature and Language in the
Divinity School of the P. E. Church in Philadelphia, and
Professor of Hebrew in the University of Pennsylvania.
The work is to be completed in three volumes, containing each about
500 pages, Vols. I. and II. now ready.
Vol. I. includes Hebrew story from the Creation to the time of Nehe-
miah, as in the Hebrew canon.
Vol. II. is devoted to Hebrew poetry and prophecy.
Vol. III. will contain the selections from the Christian Scriptures.
The volumes are handsomely printed in i2mo form, and with an open,
¦readable page, not arranged in verses, but paragraphed according to the
ense of the narrative.
Each volume is complete in itself, and will be sold separately at $1.50.
The editors say in their announcement : "Our object is to remove stones
of stumbling from the path of young readers by presenting Scriptures to
them in a form as intelligible and as instructive as may be practicable. This
plan involves some re-arrangements and omissions, before which we have
not hesitated, inasmucn as our proposed work will not claim to be the Bible,
but an introduction to it. That we may avoid imposing our own interper-
tation upon Holy Writ, it will be our endeavor to make Scripture serve as
the commentary on Scripture. In the treatment of the Prophets of the Old
Testament and the Epistles of the New Testament, it will not be practica
ble entirely to avoid comment, but no attempt will be made to pronounce
upon doctrinal questions."
The first volume is divided into four parts :
Part I. — Hebrew Story, from the Beginning to the Time of Saul,
" II. — The Kingdom of all Israel.
" in. — Samaria, or the Northern Kingdom.
" IV. — JUDAH, FROM REHOBOAM TO THE EXILE.

PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

The second volume comprises :
Part I. — Hebrew History from the Exile to Nehemiah.
" II. — Hebrew Legislation.
" III. — Hebrew Tales.
" IV. — Hebrew Prophecy.
" V. — Hebrew Poetry.
" VI. — Hebrew Wisdom.
The third volume will comprise the selections from the New Testament,
arranged as follows :
I. — The Gospel according to St. Mark, Presenting the Evan-
gf.lical Story in its Simplest Form ; Supplemented by
Selections from St. Matthew and St. Luke.
II. — The Acts of the Apostles, with some Indication of the
Probable Place of the Epistles in the Narrative.
III. — The Epistles of St. James and the First Epistle of St. Peter.
IV. — The Epistles of St. Paul.
V. — The Epistle to the Hebrews.
VI. — The Revelation of St. John (A Portion).
VII. — The First Epistle of St. John.
VIII. — The Gospel of St. John.
Full details of the plan of the undertaking, and of the methods adopted
by the editors in the selection and arrangement of the material, will be found
in the separate prospectus.
" I congratulate you on the issue of a work which, I am sure, will find a
wide welcome, and the excellent features of which make it of permanent
value." — Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, Bishop of New York.
"Should prove a valuable adjunct of Biblical instruction." — Rt. Rev. W.
E. Stevens, Bishop of Pennsylvania.
"Admirably conceived and admirably executed. . . . It is the Biblt
story in Bible words. The work of scholarly and devout men. . . .
Will prove a help to Bible study." — Rev. Howard Crosby, D.D.
" We know of no volume which will better promote an intelligent
understanding of the structure and substance of the Bible than this work,
prepared, as it is, by competent and reverent Christian scholars." — Sunday-
School Times.
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
New York : London :
37 and 29 west 23d street 27 king william st., strand