THE

DECLINE AND FALL

OF THE

OMAN EMPIRE.

CHAPTER XXVI.

ZENO AND ANASTASIUS, EMPERORS OF THE EAST BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND FIRST EXPLOITS OF THEODORIC, THE OSTROGOTH-HIS INVASION AND CONQUEST OF ITALY-THE GOTHIC KINGDOM OF ITALY-STATE OF THE WEST-MILITARY AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT-THE SENATOR BOETHIUS-LAST ACTS AND DEATH OF THEODORIC.

DURING the various vicissitudes and fall of the Empire of the West, the imperfect annals of the East present to us the names of Zeno, Anaftafius, and Juftin, who successively afcended the throne of Conftantinople. Italy, in that period, revived and flourished under a Gothic king, whose fame and merit entitles him to rank among the best and bravest of the Roman princes.

Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, descended from the royal line of Amali, was born in the neighbourhood of Vi

enna, two years after the death of Attila. The Ostrogoths, after their victory over the fons of the Scythian monarch, by the counsels of the three brothers, Walamir, Theodemir, and Widimir, had pitched their habitations in the fertile province of Panonia. The Huns, who still threatened their revolted subjects, were repelled by the fingle forces of Walamir; [A. D. 455.] and the news of this victory reached the camp of The. odemir, on the auspicious moment that his favourite concubine was delivered of Theodoric.

Theodemir reluctantly yielded his fon, when only in the eighth year of his age, as the pledge of an alliance purchased by Leo, the Emperor of the East. The royal hostage was educated at Constantinople, with care and tenderness; his body was formed to all the exercises of war, and his mind was expanded by liberal conversation; but the Gothic youth disdained the acquifition of science; and the illiterate king of Italy, to represent his fignature, had the four first letters of his name inscribed on a gold plate; and when it was fixed on the paper, he drew his pen through the intervals. At the age of eighteen, he was restored by Leo, to the wishes of the Ostrogoths. Walamir, in this interval, had fallen in battle; Widimir had led into Italy and Gaul, an army of Barbarians; and the nation of the Ostrogoths acknowledged Theodemir as their sole monarch; the ferocious Barbarians admired the strength and stature of their young Prince; and the fame of Theodoric was established by his early and active valour; at the head of fix thousand followers, he defcended the Danube as far as Belgrade, and ret nel

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turned to the camp of his father with the spoils of a Sarmatian king, whom he had vanquished and flain. But the martial exploits of Theodoric contributed not to relieve the distress of the Ostrogoths, who were compelled by the wants of clothing and food to defert their Pannonian encampment, and to advance into the neighbourhood of the Byzantine Court. After some acts of hostility, their alliance was purchased by a donative of lands and money; and they were entrusted with the defence of the lower Danube, under the command of Theodoric, who, on the death of his father, had fucceeded to the throne.

On the death of Leo, who dishonoured his reign by the ungrateful murder of Afpar and his fons, the inheritance of the East devolved on his grandfon, the offspring of his daughter Ariadne and her Isaurian husband, who changed the barbarous name of Trascalisseus, for the Greek appellation of Zeno. The father was foon elevated to the fecond rank of the empire; and the premature death of his infant son, [A. D. 474.] as it conduced to gratify his ambition, excited the public fufpicion, Verina, the widow of Leo, inflamed the passions of the populace against the unnatural pa

rent.

Zeno retired with precipitation into the mountains of Ifauria; and the successful Verina bestowed the purple on her brother Bafiliscus, who had already rendered himself infamous by the African expedition. Bafiliscus prefumed to afsassinate the lover of his patroness, and to offend the paramour of his wife. Zeno was recalled from exile by the malecontents; the cause and person of Bafiliscus were betrayed; and the un happy

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happy ufurper, with his whole family, was condemned by the conqueror to perish by cold and hunger. The haughty spirit of Verina was still incapable of repose; she provoked new rebellions in Syria and Egypt, and persisted to the last hour of her life in civil commotion; her turbulent disposition was contrasted with the mild virtues of her daughter Ariadne; who followed Zeno into exile; [A. D. 491.] and after his restoration and death, bestowed her hand and the imperial title on Anaftafius, an aged domestic of the palace, whose merit was attested by the acclamations of the people, " reign as you have lived."

Zeno had profusely lavished on Theodoric every favour imperial power could bestow; the rank of patrician and conful, the command of the palatine troops, an immenfe treasure, and the promise of a rich and honourable wife. The abilities of the son of Theodemir long supported the cause of his benefactor; the arms of the Walamirs, as they were called, had contributed to the restoration of the husband of Ariadne; but the faithful servant was converted into a formidable enemy; and his own inclinations for peace were forced to give way to the clamours of a ferocious people; over whom he reigned, rather as a minister, than a king; and whose unbroken spirit was impatient of slavery or infult.

Theodoric had been tempted by the fallacious promises of the Byzantine court to attack a confederate tribe of the Goths, who had been engaged in the party of Bafiliscus: but the support and supplies which had been promised him by the Imperial ministers were

withheld; and the son of Theodemir was betrayed by the perfidy of his guides among the rocks and precipices of Mount Sondis, in Thrace. From a neighbouring height his rival, Theodoric, the son of Triarius, harangued the discontented camp of the Walamirs. "Are you ignorant," exclaimed he, "that it is the "constant policy of the Romans to destroy the Goths " by each others 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 facrificed to "thy rash ambition? Where is the wealth which thy "foldiers 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 flaves, " through the deferts 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 thy"self." Such language was calculated to enflame the paffions of the Goths; and the fon of Theodemir, apprehenfive of being deferted, was compelled to embrace his brethren, and espouse their revolt.

The accidental death of the fon of Triarius, who foon after, as he was riding in his own camp, was thrown from his horfe on the point of a spear, united the Gothic nation under the fupremacy of the royal family of Amali; but the wealth of the East was unequal to the support of their joint forces; the subjects of Theodoric expressed their murmurs that they were exposed

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