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 184 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxix camp in quest of adventures, descended the Danube as far as Singidunum or Belgrade, and soon returned to his father with the spoils of a Sarmatian king whom he had vanquished and slain. Such triumphs, however, were productive only of fame, and the invincible Ostrogoths were reduced to extreme distress by the want of clothing and food. They unanimously resolved to desert their Pannonian encampments, and boldly to advance into the warm and wealthy neighbourhood of the Byzantine court, which already maintained in pride and luxury so many [a.d. 473] 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 (i and money, and were [c.474 entrusted 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. 7 The reign An hero, descended from a race of kings, must have despised a.d. 474 ' the base Isaurian who was invested with the Boman purple, Apr. 9 without any endowments of mind or body, without any advan- tages of royal birth or superior qualifications. After the failure of the Theodosian line, the choice of Pulcheria and of the senate might be justified in some measure by the characters of Marcian and Leo, but the latter of these princes confirmed and dis- honoured 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 peace- ably 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 6 [Namely, certain cities in Macedonia Prima : — Pella, Cyrrhus, Europus, Methone, Pydna, Beroea, and (?) Dius. Cp. Mommsen's Jordanes, p. 132.] 7 The state of the Ostrogoths, and the first years of Theodoric, are found in Jornandes (o. 52-56, p. 689-696) and Malohus (Excerpt. Legat. p. 78-80), who erroneously style him the son of Walamir. [Hodgkin (p. 27) suggests that Theodoric's triumphal entry into Eome in 500 a.d., described by Anon. Vales. (67) as a triennial celebration, may have commemorated his reception of the title king in 471 a.d. in subordination to his i father.]