their immediate predecessors, and aspiring at a character of refinement, moderation, and humanity, which would have done no dishonor to the better times and more fortunate periods of that declining state.

CHAPTER VII.

Character of the Gothic Nations after the Conquest of Italy

IT has been usual to consider the Gothic nations as a savage and barbarous race, pouring down from the inclement and uncultivated regions of the North, marking their course with bloodshed and devastation, and, like hungry wolves, falling upon the provinces of the empire, and involving all in undistinguished ruin. It is certainly not surprising that the name of Goth should to the ears of the moderns convey the idea of ferocity and barbarism, when we find popular writers, and those even of no limited degree of information, promoting this false and erroneous opinion, by holding forth a few instances of brutality and ignorance among some of the princes of the Gothic nations, as characteristic of the manners and genius of the whole. Voltaire, in his Essai sur les Mœurs et l'Esprit des Nations (chap. xvii.), after recapitulating some examples of the cruelty of Clovis and his successors in the monarchy of the Franks (and among the rest, the monstrous fiction of the atrocious murders said to be committed by Queen Brunehilda), concludes with this observation, that besides the foundation of some religious houses, there is no trace remaining of those frightful ages but a confused tradition of misery and devastation - Il ne reste de monumens de ces âges affreux que des fondations de monasères et un confus souvenir de misère et de brigandage. Figurezvous *des déserts, où les loups, les tigres, et les renards égorgent un bétail épars et timide; c'est le portrait de l'Europe pendant tant de siècles." That this portrait of Europe, as M. Voltaire terms it, was a very false and exaggerated one, we shall now proceed to show.

What were the manners of those Gothic nations before they left their seats in the North, we have already seen, and must acknowledge that, at this period, their character, if not marked by absolute barbarism, was at least distinguished by a most sangumary and ferocious spirit. This, however, is not absolutely inconsistent with a species of humanity, and is frequently allied to great gen

erosity of mind. Though bloody and implacable in war, they were not strangers to the virtues of peace ;-hospitality and kindness to strangers, which are the common virtues of rude nations, they possessed in a high degree. The respect, likewise, which the Scandinavians entertained for the female sex was a striking feature in their character, and could not fail, in many respects, to humanize their dispositions.

The Goths, in their progress southwards, subduing nations more refined than themselves, would naturally make proportional advances in civilization; and therefore it is not surprising that, by the time they had attained a footing in the empire, we find them in many respects a humane, and even a cultivated and enlightened people. Before their settlement in the Roman provinces, they had laid aside their idolatrous superstitions for the Christian religion. To their notions of morality, we have the most honorable testimonies from various authors. Grotius, in his preface to his publication of Procopius and Jornandes, has collected many of these testimonies. Salvianus, the bishop of Marseilles, who lived about the middle of the fifth century, has drawn a parallel between the manners of the Romans and those nations whom they still affected to term barbarous-which is as much to the honor of the latter, as it is to the disgrace of the former. "Omnes fere barbari," says he,qui modo sunt unius gentis ac regis se mutuò amant ; omnes pæne Romani se mutuò persequuntur. Vastantur pauperes, viduæ gemunt, orphani proculcantur; in tantum, ut multi eorum et non obscuris natalibus editi et liberaliter instituti, ad hostes fugiant-quærentes scilicet apud barbaros Romanam humanitatem, quia apud Romanos barbaram immanitatem ferre non possunt.

From this honorable character as a nation, from their integrity, love of justice, and good faith, "we may remark," says Grotius, "that in the whole course of those wars carried on in Italy under the generals of Justinian, no province or district ever voluntarily departed from their allegiance to the Gothic government." In fact, it is not possible to produce a more beautiful picture of an excellent administration than that of the Gothic monarchy under Theodoric the Great, in Italy. Of this the letters of Cassiodorus, his secretary, a man of eminent learning and abilities, give a very complete idea. We find in these the political constitutions of a prince who seems to have continually, employed his thoughts on what might equally aggrandize his empire and promote the happiness of his subjects. It is a high pleasure to set in a conspicuous light the almost forgotten merits of one of the most illustrious characters that ever adorned the annals of history; I shall therefore,

否

*«The barbarians, if of the same nation and under the same sovereign, entertain for each other the most kindly feelings of regard. The Romans as universally persecute each other: so much so, that many of them, and these of no low degree, fly for protection to the enemy; exposed to barbarian cruelty among the Romans, they seek Roman hospitality from the barbarians."

while on this subject of the genius and character of the Gothic nations, throw together some particulars descriptive of the excellent administration of this truly great and excellent monarch.*

In a former chapter we have seen Theodoric derive his right to the kingdom of Italy from the gift of the emperor Zeno, after he had subdued the country. He was received by the Romans with the submission due to a conqueror, which his humane policy soon changed into the affection due to a native prince. Where laws and customs were good, he attempted no innovations; he retained the Roman laws, the Roman magistrates, the same internal police, and the same distribution of the provinces. The Goths, as conquerors, were naturally entitled to the chief military honors and commands; but the Romans alone were preferred to all civil employinents. He seems from the first to have adopted the spirit of a Roman, in the most enthusiastic regard for every remain of the ancient grandeur of the empire. Instead of that savage spirit which pleases itself often in effacing those remnants of antiquity, which are too strong a contrast to modern barbarism, it was the regret of Theodoric to find such noble works in ruins,his highest pleasure to preserve and to imitate them.†

Of this

He re

As Theodoric made no alteration in the laws, superior magistrates, or forms of government, so he contented himself with the same tributes and taxes which had been levied by the emperors. These, however, he collected in the manner the least possibly oppressive; and he was ever ready to abate, and even remit them entirely, on occasions of public scarcity or calamity. humane indulgence we have many beautiful instances. mitted to the inhabitants of Campania the taxes of a year, in consideration of what they had suffered from an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. In his letter on that occasion to the governor of Campania, he tells him that the inhabitants of the province had petitioned him for relief; that to grant their request he wished only to be rightly informed of the extent of their sufferings; he required him, therefore, to send some person of character and integrity into the territory of Nola and Naples to view the lands, that he might proportion his relief to their misfortunes. The citizens of Naples, in gratitude for their sovereign's benevolence, erected in the forum his statue, in mosaic work-a specimen of art which attracted the admiration of all Italy. In the same humane and liberal spirit he exempted the inhabitants of Lipontuin, in Apulia, from all taxes for the space of two years, in consideration of their lands being laid waste by the Vandals, in a descent from the coast of Africa. It was a maxim of his which he often

*

A very curious picture of the ordinary mode of life of Theodoric is contained in an epistle of Sidonius Apollinaris (1. i., ep. 2.), of which Mr. Gibbon, in the 36th chapter of his History, has given an elegant translation.

↑ Acerbum nimis est (Theod. loq.) nostrum temporibus antiquorum facta decrescere qui ornatum urbium quotidie desideramus augere.- Cass. Var. Q. 35,

وو

exemplified: "Sola virtus est misericordia, cui omnes virtutes cedere honorabiliter non recusant. (Cass. Var. Q. 9.) A most beautiful instance of his clemency-nay, something beyond itis preserved in one of his letters to the Roman senate. Liberius had been an active minister under Odoacer, whom Theodoric had stripped of the kingdom of Italy. Theodoric acquainted the senate, by letter, that he had bestowed rewards and honors on Liberius and on his son, for the very reason that he had meritoriously and faithfully served Odoacer, though his enemy; that to him whom fortune had now made his sovereign he had not fled as a base refugee, nor courted his favor by vilifying his former

master.*

One of the first actions which signalized the reign of this illustrious prince is an example equally of the most judicious policy and of singular humanity. In the reign of Odoacer, in a predatory expedition of the Burgundians, under Gondebald, into Italy, the whole province of Liguria was desolated, and a great number of the inhabitants carried into captivity. Theodoric undertook to repair this misfortune; he sent Epiphanius, a bishop of great eloquence as well as sanctity of character, to Lyons, which was the court of Gondebald, with an offer of ransom from Theodoric for all the Ligurian captives. The Burgundian prince, won by the eloquence of the prelate to emulate the generosity of his brother sovereign, gratuitously discharged all who had not been taken in arms, and required for the rest a very moderate ransom. The return of these captives, to the amount of many thousands, into Italy, exhibited a spectacle which drew tears from the eyes of all the beholders, and contributed equally (as Muratori remarks) to the glory of religion, and to the honor of that humane prince by whose means so unexpected a blessing was derived to his subjects. The religion of Theodoric (as that of all the Gothic nations after their conversion from idolatry) was Arianism, or that system which professes the Unity of the Godhead, and holds the Son only to be the first and most excellent of created beings, whom God has chosen to be his instrument in the redemption of mankind a doctrine which is commonly supposed to have been first openly professed and vindicated by Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, in the fourth century. It was, however, condemned by the council of Nice, summoned by Constantine the Great; and as the Gothic nations paid no regard to this ecclesiastical decree, but adhered to those opinions which their own bishops had taught

* "Et ideo," says he, "sic factum est ut ei libenter daremus præmium quia nostrum fideliter juvabat inimicum.' In another of the letters of Theodoric to the senate he has these fine expressions: "Benigni principis est non tam delicta velle punire, quam tollere, ne aut acriter vindicando, æstimetur nimius, aut leviter agendo putetur improvidus. At vos quos semper gravitas decet, nolite truculenter insequi inania verba populorum. Quid enim discrepit a peccante, qui se per excessum nititur vindicare ?"

them, they were treated by the Catholics as little better than neathens. Even the excellent Theodoric has been loaded with calumnies by some of the most bigoted fathers of the church, while those of a more truly Christian spirit have done ample justice to his merits. Partial as he was to the tenets of Arius, yet, after his establishment in Italy, he attempted no reformation of the prevailing religion of the country. The Catholics were not only unmolested in the exercise of their religion, but, by the excellent ecclesiastical regulations for the maintenance of peace and good order, and by the care shown in the appointment of prelates of known probity of character, it is acknowledged by the Catholics themselves, that at no period did the church enjoy greater harmony or prosperity. The humane toleration of Theodoric extended not only to different sects of Christians, but even to those who, as inveterate enemies of the Christian faith, are generally regarded with a degree of abhorrence. The Synagogue of the Jews at Genoa had fallen to ruin; Theodoric allowed them to rebuild it. "Religionem," says he, "imperare non possumus; quia nemo cogitur ut credat invitus." This truly laudable spirit of toleration was common, as Grotius remarks, to all the Gothic nations.

Such was the character of Theodoric the Great, a prince, whom it is certainly no exaggeration to term, in the words of Sidonius Apollinaris, "Romanæ decus columenque' gentis.' It may, perhaps, be remarked, that one extraordinary example of this kind, which might have arisen in any age or nation, is not sufficient to warrant any general inference with regard to the manners of a whole people; and had this example been singular in the annals of the Gothic nations in Europe, we must have admitted the force of the objection. It was not, however, singular, as may be proved by the example of many of the Gothic princes, whose characters, if not attaining on all points to the striking eminence of Theodoric, were yet such as justly entitle them to the admiration and respect of posterity. I shall instance Alaric, Amalasonta, the daughter of Theodoric, and Totila. We have seen, in the course of our historical detail, the progress of the conquests of Alaric upon the Western empire, and the perfidious conduct of Honorius, who, under the direction of his ministers Stilicho and Olympius, compelled the generous Goth to extremities. In revenge of their repeated acts of treachery and perjury, wearied out at length, and highly exasperated by their perfidy, Alaric revenged himself by the sack of Rome, which he had twice before spared on the faith of a treaty which Honorius had violated. Yet such was the humanity of this barbarian captain, that he gave the most express orders for restraining all effusion of blood, unless in case of obstinate resistance. He particularly enjoined that the churches should be held as an inviolable asylum for all who fled thither for shelter, and that, the treasures and jewels