violates. But
Theoderic reigned for thirty-seven years, and when he died, he had not
only made himself an object of terror to all his enemies, but he also left
to his subjects a keen sense of bereavement at his loss. And he died in
the following manner.[F]
DATE: [F] 526 A.D.
Symmachus and his son-in-law Boetius were men of noble and ancient
lineage, and both had been leading men[9] in the Roman senate and had
been consuls. But because they practised philosophy and were mindful
of justice in a manner surpassed by no other men, relieving the
destitution of both citizens and strangers by generous gifts of money,
they attained great fame and thus led men of the basest sort to envy
them. Now such persons slandered them to Theoderic, and he,
believing their slanders, put these two men to death, on the ground that
they were setting about a revolution, and made their property confiscate
to the public treasury. And a few days later, while he was dining, the
servants set before him the head of a great fish. This seemed to
Theoderic to be the head of Symmachus newly slain. Indeed, with its
teeth set in its lower lip and its eyes looking at him with a grim and
insane stare, it did resemble exceedingly a person threatening him. And
becoming greatly frightened at the extraordinary prodigy and shivering
excessively, he retired running to his own chamber, and bidding them
place many covers upon him, remained quiet. But afterwards he
disclosed to his physician Elpidius all that had happened and wept for
the wrong he had done Symmachus and Boetius. Then, having
lamented and grieved exceedingly over the unfortunate occurrence, he
died not long afterward. This was the first and last act of injustice
which he committed toward his subjects, and the cause of it was that he
had not made a thorough investigation, as he was accustomed to do,
before passing judgment on the two men.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Book III. ii. 7 ff., iv. 29 ff.
[2] Odoacer was defeated and shut up in Ravenna by Theoderic in 489,
surrendered to him in 493, and was put to death in the same year. His
independent rule ([Greek: tyrannis]) therefore lasted thirteen years.
[3] Meaning the whole Adriatic; cf. chap. xv. 16, note.
[4] Modern Cesena.
[5] He means that an estuary ([Greek: porthmos]) is formed by the
rising tide in the morning, and the water flows out again as the tide falls
in the evening.
[6] From the first until the third quarter.
[7] See note in Bury's edition of Gibbon, Vol. IV. p. 180, for an
interesting account of this event.
[8] This is a general observation; the title "rex" was current among the
barbarians to indicate a position inferior to that of a [Greek: basileus] or
"imperator"; cf. VI. xiv. 38.
[9] Probably a reminiscence of the "princeps senatus" of classical
times.
II
After his death[G] the kingdom was taken over by Atalaric, the son of
Theoderic's daughter; he had reached the age of eight years and was
being reared under the care of his mother Amalasuntha. For his father
had already departed from among men. And not long afterward
Justinian succeeded to the imperial power in Byzantium. [H]Now
Amalasuntha, as guardian of her child, administered the government,
and she proved to be endowed with wisdom and regard for justice in
the highest degree, displaying to a great extent the masculine temper.
As long as she stood at the head of the government she inflicted
punishment upon no Roman in any case either by touching his person
or by imposing a fine. Furthermore, she did not give way to the Goths
in their mad desire to wrong them, but she even restored to the children
of Symmachus and Boetius their fathers' estates. Now Amalasuntha
wished to make her son resemble the Roman princes in his manner of
life, and was already compelling him to attend the school of a teacher
of letters. And she chose out three among the old men of the Goths
whom she knew to be prudent and refined above all the others, and
bade them live with Atalaric. But the Goths were by no means pleased
with this. For because of their eagerness to wrong their subjects they
wished to be ruled by him more after the barbarian fashion. On one
occasion the mother, finding the boy doing some wrong in his chamber,
chastised him; and he in tears went off thence to the men's apartments.
And some Goths who met him made a great to-do about this, and
reviling Amalasuntha insisted that she wished to put the boy out of the
world as quickly as possible, in order that she might marry a second
husband and with him rule over the Goths
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