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 Chap, xxxix] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 193 orders had been previously dispatched ; the faithless and rapacious mercenaries, at the same moment and without re- sistance, were universally massacred ; and the royalty of Theo- doric was proclaimed by the Goths, with the tardy, reluctant, ambiguous consent of the emperor of the East. The design of a conspiracy was imputed, according to the usual forms, to the prostrate tyrant ; but his innocence and the guilt of his con- queror 30 are sufficiently proved by the advantageous treaty which force would not sincerely have granted nor weakness have rashly infringed. The jealousy of power and the mischiefs of discord may suggest a more decent apology, and a sentence less rigorous may be pronounced against a crime which was necessary to introduce into Italy a regeneration of public felicity. The Living author of this felicity was audaci- ££g g n d °£ ic ously praised in his own presence by sacred and profane j?jng of orators ; 31 but history (in his time she was mute and inglorious) ^arch 3 !;- has not left any just representation of the events which dis-^526. played, or of the defects which clouded, the virtues of Theo- doric. 32 One record of his fame, the volume of public epistles composed by Cassiodorius in the royal name, is still extant, and has obtained more implicit credit than it seems to deserve. 33 They exhibit the forms, rather than the substance, of his government ; and we should vainly search for the pure and spontaneous sentiments of the Barbarian amidst the declama- 30 Proeopius (Gothic. 1. i. c. 1) approves himself an impartial soeptic :  rpSiry eKTeive. Cassiodorius (in Chron.) and Ennodius (p. 1604 [p. 210, ed. Vogel]) are loyal and incredulous, and the testimony of the Valesian Fragment (p. 718 [§ 55]) may justify their belief. Marcellinus 6pits the venom of a Greek subject — perjuriis illectus interfectusque est (in Chron.). 31 The sonorous and servile oration of Ennodius was pronounced at Milan or Ravennna in the years 507 or 508 (Sirmond, torn. i. p. 1615). Two or three years afterwards, the orator was rewarded with the bishopric of Pavia, which he held till his death in the year 521 (Dupin, Bibliot. Eccles., torn. v. p. 11-14. See Saxii Onomasticon, torn. ii. p. 12). 32 Our best materials are occasional hints from Proeopius and the Valesian Fragment, which was discovered by Sirmond, and is published at the end of Am- mianus Marcellinus. The author's name is unknown, and his style is barbarous ; but in his various facts he exhibits the knowledge, without the passions, of a con- temporary. [See Appendix 1.] The president Montesquieu had formed the plan of an history of Theodoric, which at a distance might appear a rich and interest- ing subject. 33 The best edition of the Variaram Libri xii. is that of Joh. Garretius (Rotomagi, 1679, in Opp. Cassiodor., 2 vols, in fol.) ; but they deserved and re- quired such an editor as the Marquis Scipio Maffei, who thought of publishing them at Verona. The Barbara Eleganza (as it is ingeniously named by Tiraboschi) is never simple and seldom perspicuous. [See further, Appendix 1.] VOL. IV. — 13