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 chap, xxxix] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 189 were required for the least considerable of their armies ; 18 and the Isaurians, who guarded not the empire but the emperor, enjoyed, besides the privilege of rapine, an annual pension of five thousand pounds. The sagacious mind of Theodoric soon perceived that he was odious to the Romans, and suspected by the Barbarians ; he understood the popular murmur that his subjects were exposed in their frozen huts to intolerable hard- ships, while their king was dissolved in the luxury of Greece ; and he prevented the painful alternative of encountering the Goths, as the champion, or of leading them to the field as the enemy, of Zeno. Embracing an enterprise worthy of his courage and ambition, Theodoric addressed the emperor in the following words : « Although your servant is maintained in affluence by [Theodo- your liberality, graciously listen to the wishes of my heart ! constanti- Italy, the inheritance of your predecessors, and Rome itself, the^ 16 * ADl head and mistress of the world, now fluctuate under the violence and oppression of Odoacer the mercenary. Direct me, with my national troops, to march against the tyrant. If I fall, you will be relieved from an expensive and troublesome friend ; if, with the Divine permission, I succeed, I shall govern in your name, and to your glory, the Roman senate, and the part of the republic delivered from slavery by my victorious arms." The proposal of Theodoric was accepted, and perhaps had been suggested, by the Byzantine court. But the forms of the commission or grant appear to have been expressed with a prudent ambiguity, which might be explained by the event ; and it was left doubtful, whether the conqueror of Italy should reign as the lieutenant, the vassal, or the ally of the emperor of the East. 19 The reputation both of the leader and of the war diffused an His march universal ardour ; the Walamirs were multiplied by the Gothic a.d. 488] n ' swarms already engaged in the service, or seated in the provinces, of the empire ; and each bold Barbarian, who had heard of the wealth and beauty of Italy, was impatient to seek, through the 18 Malehus, p. 85. In a single action, which was decided by the skill and dis- cipline of Sabinian, Theodoric could lose 5000 men. [In Epirus, a.d. 479.] 19 Jornandes (c. 57, p. 696, 697) has abridged the great history of Cassiodorius. See, compare, and reconcile, Procopius (Gothic. 1. i. c. 1), the Valesian Fragment (p. 718 [§ 49]), Theophanes (p. 113 [p. 131 ed. De Boor ; cp. p. 94]), and Marcellinus (in Chron.). [Hodgkin translates and compares the Gothic version in Jordanes, and the Imperial version in Procopius and Anon. Val. He is inclined to ascribe this idea of invading Italy to Theodoric. It seems clear that Theodoric was to stand in the same relation to Zeno, in which Athaulf and Wallia stood to Honorius.]