Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 4 | Page 6

donatives were soon dissipated in wasteful luxury,
and the most fertile estates became barren in their hands; they despised,
but they envied, the laborious provincials; and when their subsistence
had failed, the Ostrogoths embraced the familiar resources of war and
rapine. It had been the wish of Theodoric (such at least was his
declaration) to lead a peaceful, obscure, obedient life on the confines of
Scythia, till the Byzantine court, by splendid and fallacious promises,
seduced him to attack a confederate tribe of Goths, who had been
engaged in the party of Basiliscus. He marched from his station in
Maesia, on the solemn assurance that before he reached Adrianople, he
should meet a plentiful convoy of provisions, and a reenforcement of
eight thousand horse and thirty thousand foot, while the legions of Asia
were encamped at Heraclea to second his operations. These measures

were disappointed by mutual jealousy. As he advanced into Thrace, the
son of Theodemir found an inhospitable solitude, and his Gothic
followers, with a heavy train of horses, of mules, and of wagons, were
betrayed by their guides among the rocks and precipices of Mount
Sondis, where he was assaulted by the arms and invectives of
Theodoric the son of Triarius. From a neighboring height, his artful
rival harangued the camp of the Walamirs, and branded their leader
with the opprobrious names of child, of madman, of perjured traitor,
the enemy of his blood and nation. "Are you ignorant," exclaimed the
son of Triarius, "that it is the constant policy of the Romans to destroy
the Goths by each other's swords? Are you insensible that the victor in
this unnatural contest will be exposed, and justly exposed, to their
implacable revenge? Where are those warriors, my kinsmen and thy
own, whose widows now lament that their lives were sacrificed to thy
rash ambition? Where is the wealth which thy soldiers possessed when
they were first allured from their native homes to enlist under thy
standard? Each of them was then master of three or four horses; they
now follow thee on foot, like slaves, through the deserts of Thrace;
those men who were tempted by the hope of measuring gold with a
bushel, those brave men who are as free and as noble as thyself." A
language so well suited to the temper of the Goths excited clamor and
discontent; and the son of Theodemir, apprehensive of being left alone,
was compelled to embrace his brethren, and to imitate the example of
Roman perfidy. ^12 ^*
[Footnote 10: In ipsis congressionis tuae foribus cessit invasor, cum
profugo per te sceptra redderentur de salute dubitanti. Ennodius then
proceeds (p. 1596, 1597, tom. i. Sirmond.) to transport his hero (on a
flying dragon?) into Aethiopia, beyond the tropic of Cancer. The
evidence of the Valesian Fragment, (p. 717,) Liberatus, (Brev. Eutych.
c. 25 p. 118,) and Theophanes, (p. 112,) is more sober and rational.]
[Footnote 11: This cruel practice is specially imputed to the Triarian
Goths, less barbarous, as it should seem, than the Walamirs; but the son
of Theodemir is charged with the ruin of many Roman cities, (Malchus,
Excerpt. Leg. p. 95.)]

[Footnote 12: Jornandes (c. 56, 57, p. 696) displays the services of
Theodoric, confesses his rewards, but dissembles his revolt, of which
such curious details have been preserved by Malchus, (Excerpt. Legat.
p. 78 - 97.) Marcellinus, a domestic of Justinian, under whose ivth
consulship (A.D. 534) he composed his Chronicle, (Scaliger, Thesaurus
Temporum, P. ii, p. 34 - 57,) betrays his prejudice and passion: in
Graeciam debacchantem ...Zenonis munificentia pene
pacatus ...beneficiis nunquam satiatus, &c.] [Footnote *: Gibbon has
omitted much of the complicated intrigues of the Byzantine court with
the two Theodorics. The weak emperor attempted to play them one
against the other, and was himself in turn insulted, and the empire
ravaged, by both. The details of the successive alliance and revolt, of
hostility and of union, between the two Gothic chieftains, to dictate
terms to the emperor, may be found in Malchus. - M.]
In every state of his fortune, the prudence and firmness of Theodoric
were equally conspicuous; whether he threatened Constantinople at the
head of the confederate Goths, or retreated with a faithful band to the
mountains and sea-coast of Epirus. At length the accidental death of the
son of Triarius ^13 destroyed the balance which the Romans had been
so anxious to preserve, the whole nation acknowledged the supremacy
of the Amali, and the Byzantine court subscribed an ignominious and
oppressive treaty. ^14 The senate had already declared, that it was
necessary to choose a party among the Goths, since the public was
unequal to the support of their united forces; a subsidy of two thousand
pounds of gold, with the ample pay of thirteen thousand men, were
required for