Note 503 — Chapter X · ROME IN THE SIXTH CENTURY: WAR WITH THE GOTHS IN ITALY

Malchus, Exc. i, 3.

[504] Marcellinus Com., an. 476; Jordanes, De Reg. Suc., etc. He seems to have made a show of resigning voluntarily; Malchus, loc. cit.

[505] Anon. Vales., 64.

[506] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., i. 1, etc.

[507] Jordanes, De Reb. Get., 57.

[508] Marcellinus Com., an. 488.

[509] Procopius, loc. cit.; Cassiodorus, Chron., etc.

[510] The only circumstantial account of this affair comes from Jn. Antioch.; Müller, Frag. Hist. Graec., v, p. 29.

[511] Anon. Valesii, 64.

[512] Procopius, loc. cit. The administration of Theodoric is fully displayed in the so-called Epistles of Cassiodorus, his quaestor, which form in reality a book of the Acts or rescripts of the Gothic King. Everything in Italy was maintained according to the Imperial system of Rome, and Theodoric differed only from the obsolete Western Emperors by the modesty of his title and the limited extent of his dominions.

[513] Theodoric himself was illiterate, and is said to have used the same device as Justin (see p. 303) for signing his name; Anon. Vales. A critic suggests that the four letters were LEGI.

[514] For the events narrated henceforward in this chapter, there is generally no source but Procopius (De Bel. Goth., i, ii). Some jottings occur in Marcellinus Com. and Jordanes, but the Liber Pontificalis is indispensable as regards the local Church history.

[515] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., i, 3. His own professions as to his devotion to literature, etc.; Ibid., 6. The five last books of Cassiodorus, written after the death of Theodoric, contain letters supposed to have been dictated by Athalaric, Amalasuntha, and Theodahad, etc.

[516] Procopius, De Bel. Vand., ii, 5.

[517] Ibid., i, 9; Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., ix, 1. She was accused of plotting against the King with her Gothic guards after her husband's death.

[518] Ibid.

[519] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., i, 3, whence the narrative continues as below.

[520] They held out at Panormus, but by means of archers hoisted in boats to the mastheads of his ships, Belisarius overtopped the sea-walls, and forced a speedy surrender.

[521] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., i, 14.

[522] C. 400 Rome contained 1,797 palaces of nobles, etc., and 46,202 insulae; Notitia Occid. Including slaves, the first would account for at least 100,000 inhabitants, and the latter (large apartment houses) for something like 2,000,000. This is about the best basis for guessing at the population.

[523] Hist. August., 21, 39.

[524] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., i, 19; Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., vii, 6. The Porta Maggiore and the so-called Arch of Drusus belonged to aqueducts.

[525] He perhaps equalled Justinian as a builder; Suetonius, Augustus. See the Mon. Ancyr. for a list.

[526] Suetonius and Hist. August. enumerate most of their productions in masonry.

[527] The Baths of Diocletian covered nearly thirty acres, and some others were almost as large.

[528] Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., vii, 13, 15.

[529] The Notitia gives 423 temples, 11 great baths, 11 forums, 36 triumphal arches, 6 obelisks, etc.

[530] Olympiodorus, p. 469. A private circus was an essential part of such establishments; and, of course, a temple, perhaps more than one.

[531] As in the case of Constantius II on his visit to Rome in 356; Ammianus, xvi, 10.

[532] Strabo, V, iii, 8. The ring of wall which formed the base still exists, and has recently been used as a circus.

[533] The churches said to have been built by Constantine are referred to in the life of Pope Sylvester; Lib. Pontif. (Duchesne). St. Peter's and St. Paul's are mentioned by Procopius, De Bel. Goth., i, 22; ii, 4, etc.

[534] Ammianus, xiv, 6.

[535] Ibid., xxviii, 4.

[536] Ammianus, xxviii, 4. The modern craze for "Bridge" may be compared, and with the aid of Father Vaughan's denunciations of the "Smart Set" at the West End, the parallel might be carried further. But all this is merely a subsidiary part of our social fabric.

[537] Ibid., xiv, 6.

[538] Ibid., xxviii, 4.

[539] Ibid., xiv, 6.

[540] Ammianus, xiv, 6. Garments of this pictorial class were of course common to the whole Empire, and were inveighed against in the East about the same time by Asterius, Hom. 1 (Migne, S. G., xl, 165).

[541] Ibid., xxviii, 4.

[542] Ibid., xiv, 6.

[543] Ibid., xxviii, 4.

[544] Ibid., xxvi, 3; xxviii, 1.

[545] Ammianus, xxviii, 4.

[546] Ibid., 1. Cf. Voltaire's account of the fashionable poisoning craze under Louis XIV.

[547] Ammianus, xxvi, 3; xxviii, 1.

[548] Ibid.

[549] Ibid., xiv, 6; xxviii, 4; Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., i. 20; iii, 51, etc.

[550] Ammianus, xix, 10; xxvii, 3.

[551] Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., i, 13, 27, 42; iii, 12; v, 41, etc.

[552] Ibid., vii. This book consists of forms of instruction to newly appointed officers, from Consuls and Praetorian Praefects downwards.

[553] Ibid., i, 25, 28; iii, 31, etc. Procopius (De Bel. Goth., iv, 22) remarks that the Romans were proud of their buildings and took great care of them.

[554] Ibid., i, 20; iii, 51, etc.

[555] A small part of southern France, modern Provence.

[556] Procopius, De Bel. Goth., i, 11-14, whence the narrative proceeds as below.

[557] I forgot to mention that when Belisarius was merely on his way to Naples, Ebrimuth, the son-in-law of Theodahad, came over to the Byzantines. He was sent to CP., where he became a patrician, etc. There were other unnecessary transfers of allegiance, showing that many of the Goths were incapable of remaining true to themselves. In general, indeed, the barbarians were dazzled by the glory of the Eastern Emperor, and when they had been formed into cohorts under the title of "Justinian's Goths," "Justinian's Vandals," etc., their ambition was gratified to the utmost.

[558] Of the misery caused throughout Italy by the protracted war, Procopius has some anecdotal illustrations to give about this time. In one case a fugitive mother had to abandon her infant in its cradle, whereupon the family goat, attracted by its wailing, entered the hut, and managed to suckle the child effectively. This lasted for some time till the villagers returned, when the maternal solicitude of the animal for its anomalous nursling became a spectacle for exhibition in the district. As agriculture was brought to a standstill in many places famine was often urgent, and he mentions the instance of two women killing and eating seventeen men whom they had received as guests, but they were detected and killed by the eighteenth; De Bel. Goth., ii, 17, 20.

[559] It is curious that among the conquests of Narses in this campaign should be mentioned "the island of the Vulsinian Lake," that is the scene of Amalasuntha's death; Marcellinus Com., an. 538.

[560] At this date the French Kings alone, of the potentates outside the Empire, issued a gold coinage bearing their own effigy. Even the Shahinshah stamped his image on the silver currency only. The reason of this restriction was that all but Byzantine gold, denoted by the figure and superscription of the Eastern Emperor, was excluded from commerce as suspect; Procopius, De Bel. Goth., iii, 33.

[561] Here we are informed that the Byzantine infantry used a trumpet made of wood and leather, the cavalry one of brass. They were, however, merely blown on occasion to make an impressive noise. Procopius makes a great point of his having suggested that the latter should be used to sound an attack, the former a recall. Belisarius summoned a military meeting, and formally adopted his suggestion; De Bel. Goth., ii, 23.

[562] The description of Strabo (V, iii, 7) shows that Ravenna was a town like modern Venice, built in the brackish lagoons on piles, etc. While the vine flourished in the vicinity, potable water was scarce and valuable. Hence the joke (Martial, iii, 56, 57) that wine was cheaper than water at R. Sidonius Apol. (Epist., i, 5, 8, c. 470) inveighs against the bad water, turbid canals, stinging gnats, incessant croaking of bullfrogs, etc. But the sea was receding, and even at that time much new land was being recovered from the water; Jordanes, De Reb. Get., 29.

[563] Procopius begins the third book of his Gothic War with this characterization and eulogy of Belisarius.