Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 4 | Page 4

encampments, and boldly to advance into the warm and wealthy
neighborhood of the Byzantine court, which already maintained in
pride and luxury so many bands of confederate Goths. After proving,
by some acts of hostility, that they could be dangerous, or at least
troublesome, enemies, the Ostrogoths sold at a high price their
reconciliation and fidelity, accepted a donative of lands and money, and
were intrusted with the defence of the Lower Danube, under the
command of Theodoric, who succeeded after his father's death to the
hereditary throne of the Amali. ^5
[Footnote 1: Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 13, 14, p. 629, 630, edit.
Grot.) has drawn the pedigree of Theodoric from Gapt, one of the
Anses or Demigods, who lived about the time of Domitian.
Cassiodorus, the first who celebrates the royal race of the Amali,
(Viriar. viii. 5, ix. 25, x. 2, xi. 1,) reckons the grandson of Theodoric as
the xviith in descent. Peringsciold (the Swedish commentator of
Cochloeus, Vit. Theodoric. p. 271, &c., Stockholm, 1699) labors to
connect this genealogy with the legends or traditions of his native

country.
Note: Amala was a name of hereditary sanctity and honor among the
Visigoths. It enters into the names of Amalaberga, Amala suintha,
(swinther means strength,) Amalafred, Amalarich. In the poem of the
Nibelungen written three hundred years later, the Ostrogoths are called
the Amilungen. According to Wachter it means, unstained, from the
privative a, and malo a stain. It is pure Sanscrit, Amala, immaculatus.
Schlegel. Indische Bibliothek, 1. p. 233. - M.]
[Footnote 2: More correctly on the banks of the Lake Pelso,
(Nieusiedler- see,) near Carnuntum, almost on the same spot where
Marcus Antoninus composed his meditations, (Jornandes, c. 52, p. 659.
Severin. Pannonia Illustrata, p. 22. Cellarius, Geograph. Antiq. (tom. i.
p. 350.)]
[Footnote !: The date of Theodoric's birth is not accurately determined.
We can hardly err, observes Manso, in placing it between the years 453
and 455, Manso, Geschichte des Ost Gothischen Reichs, p. 14. - M.]
[Footnote 3: The four first letters of his name were inscribed on a gold
plate, and when it was fixed on the paper, the king drew his pen
through the intervals (Anonym. Valesian. ad calcem Amm. Marcellin p.
722.) This authentic fact, with the testimony of Procopius, or at least of
the contemporary Goths, (Gothic. 1. i. c. 2, p. 311,) far outweighs the
vague praises of Ennodius (Sirmond Opera, tom. i. p. 1596) and
Theophanes, (Chronograph. p. 112.) Note: Le Beau and his
Commentator, M. St. Martin, support, though with no very satisfactory
evidence, the opposite opinion. But Lord Mahon (Life of Belisarius, p.
19) urges the much stronger argument, the Byzantine education of
Theodroic. - M.] [Footnote 4: Statura est quae resignet proceritate
regnantem, (Ennodius, p. 1614.) The bishop of Pavia (I mean the
ecclesiastic who wished to be a bishop) then proceeds to celebrate the
complexion, eyes, hands, &c, of his sovereign.] [Footnote 5: The state
of the Ostrogoths, and the first years of Theodoric, are found in
Jornandes, (c. 52 - 56, p. 689 - 696) and Malchus, (Excerpt. Legat. p.
78 - 80,) who erroneously styles him the son of Walamir.] A hero,
descended from a race of kings, must have despised the base Isaurian

who was invested with the Roman purple, without any endowment of
mind or body, without any advantages of royal birth, or superior
qualifications. After the failure of the Theodosian life, the choice of
Pulcheria and of the senate might be justified in some measure by the
characters of Martin and Leo, but the latter of these princes confirmed
and dishonored his reign by the perfidious murder of Aspar and his
sons, who too rigorously exacted the debt of gratitude and obedience.
The inheritance of Leo and of the East was peaceably devolved on his
infant grandson, the son of his daughter Ariadne; and her Isaurian
husband, the fortunate Trascalisseus, exchanged that barbarous sound
for the Grecian appellation of Zeno. After the decease of the elder Leo,
he approached with unnatural respect the throne of his son, humbly
received, as a gift, the second rank in the empire, and soon excited the
public suspicion on the sudden and premature death of his young
colleague, whose life could no longer promote the success of his
ambition. But the palace of Constantinople was ruled by female
influence, and agitated by female passions: and Verina, the widow of
Leo, claiming his empire as her own, pronounced a sentence of
deposition against the worthless and ungrateful servant on whom she
alone had bestowed the sceptre of the East. ^6 As soon as she sounded
a revolt in the ears of Zeno, he fled with precipitation into the
mountains of Isauria, and her brother Basiliscus, already infamous by
his African expedition, ^7 was