Note 102 — Chapter I · ODOACER TO THE TRIUMPH OF NARSES [476-568 A.D.]
Reading edition
[This story is told in the Dialogues of Pope Gregory. On the legend Hodgkinc comments, “For that noble heart Hell itself could scarcely reserve any sorer punishment than the consciousness of a life’s labour wasted by one fierce outbreak of Berseker rage.” Procopiusj calls his treatment of Boethius and Symmachus “the first and last act of injustice which he had committed against any of his subjects; and the cause was his failure to look deeply enough into the evidence before he gave his verdict.”]