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 Chap, xxxix] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 203 every office was deemed honourable which was consecrated to the care of their health and happiness. The public games, such as a Greek ambassador might politely applaud, exhibited a faint and feeble copy of the magnificence of the Caesars, yet the musical, the gymnastic, and the pantomime arts had not totally sunk in oblivion ; the wild beasts of Africa still exercised in the amphitheatre the courage and dexterity of the hunters ; and the indulgent Goth either patiently tolerated or gently restrained the blue and green factions, whose contests so often filled the circus with clamour, and even with blood. 71 In the visit of seventh year of his peaceful reign, Theodoric visited the old a .d. 500 capital of the world ; the senate and people advanced in solemn procession to salute a second Trajan, a new Valentinian ; and he nobly supported that character by the assurance of a just and legal government, 71 ' in a discourse which he was not afraid to pronounce in public and to inscribe on a tablet of brass. Rome, in this august ceremony, shot a last ray of declining glory ; and a saint, the spectator of this pompous scene, could only hope, in his pious fancy, that it was excelled by the celestial splendour of the New Jerusalem. 73 During a residence of six months, the fame, the person, and the courteous demeanour of the Gothic king, excited the admiration of the Romans, and he contemplated, with equal curiosity and surprise, the monu- ments that remained of their ancient greatness. He imprinted the footsteps of a conqueror on the Capitoline hill, and frankly confessed that each day he viewed with fresh wonder the forum of Trajan and his lofty column. The theatre of Pompey appeared, even in its decay, as a huge mountain artificially hollowed and polished, and adorned by human industry ; and he vaguely computed, that a river of gold must have been drained to erect the colossal amphitheatre of Titus. 74 From 71 See his regard and indulgence for the spectacles of the circus, the amphi- theatre, and the theatre, in the Chronicle and Epistles of Cassiodorius (Var. i. 20, 27, 30, 31, 32 ; iii. 51 ; iv. 51, illustrated by the xivth Annotation of Mascou's History), who has contrived to sprinkle the subject with ostentatious though agree- able learning. [It is supposed that Theodoric' s visit to Eome may have been the occasion of the publication of the Edictum TJieodorici ; which in that case would probably be the work of Liberius.] 72 Anonym. Vales, p. 721 [§ 69]. Marius Aventicensis in Chron. In the scale of public and personal merit, the Gothic conqueror is at least as much above Valen- tinian, as he may seem inferior to Trajan. 73 Vit. Fulgentii in Baron. Annal. Eccles. A.D..500, No. 10. 74 Cassiodorius describes in his pompous style the forum of Trajan (Var. viii. [leg. vii.] 6), the theatre of Marcellus (iv. 51), and the amphitheatre of Titus (v. 42) ;