Part 15 (1/2)

In the same year (534) which witnessed the triumph of Belisarius over the conquered Vandals caismund, the son-in-law of Theodoric, the convert to Catholicism who ordered the murder of his son, had been defeated in battle by the sons of Clovis, and together with his wife and two sons had been thron a deep well and so slain Theodoric, incensed at the ise accession of territory in Dauphin as the price of his alliance with the Franks But a brother of Sigisundians, defeated the Franks in a battle in which one of their kings was slain, and succeeded in er the independence of his nation In the year 532, however, the Frankish kings again entered the valley of the Rhone with their desolating hosts, and in 534 they coreat unwieldy monarchy over which they ruled in a kind of fas had achieved some successes, and at the cost of a descendant of Theodoric Aoths, had randfather's death, Clotilda, daughter of Clovis, and for a time seems to have pursued a tolerant policy towards the Catholics, but gradually drifted into a position of unreasoning and barbarous hostility towards them, hostility from which his oas not exempted He caused filth to be cast at the devout Clotilda, when she was on her way to the Catholic basilica, nay, he even lifted his hand to strike her The cowardly blow brought blood, and the drops of this blood, royal and Frankish, collected on a handkerchief and sent northward over the Pyrenees, brought the two brother-kings of the Franks into Spain (431) Aht to escape thence by sea, probably to Italy; but his passage to the harbour was barred by his own mutinous soldiers, and he perished by a javelin hurled by one of thereat booty, to their own land, and Theudis, the Ostrogothic noble, whose power had long overshadowed hiscaused the mutiny of his troops, succeeded to his throne

[Footnote 142: At Narbonne The part of Languedoc called Septireat Arian league and the network of fauard it froness: and thus did the Ostrogothic kingdom now stand alone and without allies before the rejuvenated E such a head as Justinian, such a terrible right arm as Belisarius Not many months had elapsed from the battle of Tricamaron when the ambassadors of the Empire appeared at Ravenna to present those claienuity would soon fashi+on a pretext for war The town of Lilybuo been handed over by Theodoric to the Vandal king Thrasamund as part of Amalafrida's dowry

Apparently it had been recaptured by the Goths after the death of the Vandal queen, but Justinian urged that it was still the rightful possession of Gelimer, and therefore of himself, who now by the fortune of as Gelimer's master Then there were certain Huns, deserters froovernor of Naples to enlist in the Gothic areneral who had to conduct some warlike operations near Sirmium had crossed the Danube and sacked Gratiana, a city in Msia All these grievances were rehearsed by the Imperial ambassador, who hinted, not obscurely, that ould follow if they were not redressed

In fact, however, the real object of the erievances was to discuss a strange proposition which had beenof which we o back a few years (we are not told exactly how many) to an event which illustrates the manner in which the Gothic princess conducted the education of her son She wished, we are told, to have hiht up in all respects after the o to the house of a grammarian to learn his lessons

Moreover, she chose out three Gothic ancients, ned these venerable persons to Athalaric as his constant coly boy did not at all suit the ideas of the Goths, the Roman historian says, ”because they wished hiht have thetheir subjects”: a est, ”because they remembered their own childhood and kneas in the heart of a boy”, of which Amalasuentha, as evidently elderly and wise in her cradle, had no conception One day, for so was slapped in the face by his mother, and thereupon, in a tempest of passionate tears, he burst out of the wo in the men's hall of audience All Gothic hearts were stirred when they saw the princely Aan to hint the insulting suspicion that Arave, that sheof the Goths and Roether, and seeking an audience with the princess, their spokes justly by us, nor doing that which is expedient for the nation, in your way of educating your son Letters and book-learning are very different froe and fortitude, and to hand a lad over to the teaching of greybeards is generally the way todeeds and win glory in the world ue and be practising martial exercises Your father Theodoric would never suffer his Goths to send their sons to the grammarian-school, for he used to say: 'If they fear their teacher's strap now they will never look on sword or javelin without a shudder'

And he himself, on the lordshi+p of such wide lands, and died king of so fair a kingdo even by hearsay of this book-learning Therefore, lady, you ive Athalaric coroith hi after the pattern of the barbarians”

Aue, and though filled with secret indignation recognised the people's voice to which she was forced to bow The meek old men were removed from Athalaric's bed-charaned to him as associates But the rebound was too sudden His barbarian co's heart after wine and woan to be undermined by his excesses, and the surly ill-nature which he manifested towards his mother was a sure indication of the defenceless position in which she would find herself as soon as her son should assu frootiations with Justinian to assure herself of his protection in case she should be driven froled out three of the Gothic nobles who had been proainst her authority and sent them, on one pretext or another connected with the defence of the realm, to widely separated towns on the extreh severed, they still found means to hold mutual communications and to plot the downfall of the princess Inforhted a vessel with forty thousand pounds' weight of gold (1,6000,000) and sent it to Dyrrhachium, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic, to await her further orders If things should go ill with her she would thus, in any event, have a line of retreat opened towards Constantinople and a co taken these precautions, she gave a commission to some of her bravest andparty in her favour) to seek out the three disaffected nobles in their various places of banish; no popular tumult was excited; the sceptre seerasped by the hand of the princess; the shi+p, without having discharged its cargo, was ordered back froround negotiations with Constantinople

But another candidate for the favours of Justinian was also appearing in the royal family of the Goths Theodahad, son of Amalfrida, and therefore nephew of Theodoric, was a man now pretty far advanced in middle life He had received in his boyhood that literary and rhetorical training which Amalasuentha yearned to bestow on her son; he ell versed in the works of the Roues of Plato Unhappily, this varnish of intellectual culture covered a thoroughly vile and rotten character He was averse to all the warlike employments of his forefathers, but his whole heart was set on robbery, under the form of civilisation, by means of extortion and chicane He had received from his uncle ample estates in the fertile province of Tuscany, but he was one who, as the cohbour”, and, on one pretence or other, he was perpetually adding farm after farm and villa after villa to his enorrave pen of Cassiodorus had been twice ear vice, which the kins and a man of Amal blood is especially bound to avoid”, and to colorious h-handed spoliation” After Theodoric's death the process of unjust accumulation went on rapidly From every part of Tuscany the cry went up that the provincials were being oppressed and their lands taken from them on no pretext whatever; and the Counts of the Royal Patri from Theodahad's depredations

He was su's Court, at Ravenna; his various acts of alleged spoliation were inquired into; their injustice was clearly proved, and he was cofully appropriated lands

It was perhaps before this process was actually begun, but after Theodahad waslouder and had reached the ears of his cousin, that he sought an intervieith the Bishops of Ephesus and Philippi, who had come over to Italy on some ecclesiastical errand from the Emperor to the Pope To these clerical ambassadors Theodahad made the extraordinary proposal that Justinian should buy of hie sunity of a Senator of Constantinople If this negotiation could be carried through, the diligent student of Plato and Cicero proposed to end his days in dignified retirement at the Eastern capital

We may now return to the palace of Ravenna and be present at the audience granted, probably in the summer of 534, by Amalasuentha to Alexander, the ambassador of Justinian To the demands for the surrender of Lilybum and the complaints as to the enlistment of Hunnish deserters, Amalasuentha made, in public, a suitable and sprited reply: ”It was not the part of a great and courageousto be accurately infor on in all parts of his dominions, about such paltry matters as the possession of Lilybum, a barren and worthless rock of Sicily, about ten wild Huns who had sought refuge in Italy, and about the offence which the Gothic soldiers had, in their ignorance, coainst a friendly city in Msia Justinian should look at the other side of the account, should remember the aid and coainst the Vandals, had received frooths in Sicily, and should ask himself whether without that aid he would ever have recovered possession of Africa If Lilybureat a reward for hi ally for such opportune assistance”

This was publicly the answer of Amalasuentha--a bold and determined refusal to surrender the rock of Lilybum In her private intervieith the ambassador, she assured hiements for the transfer to the Emperor of the whole of Italy

When the two sets of ambassadors, civil and ecclesiastical, returned to Constantinople the Eotiations to be carried on of thethe presence of a ly despatched to Ravenna a rhetorician named Peter, a man of considerable intellectual endowments--he was a historian as well as an orator--and one who had, eighteen years before, held the high office of consul But it was apparently winter before Peter started on his journey, and when he arrived at Aulon (now Valona), just opposite Brindisi, he heard such startling tidings as to the events which had occurred on the Italian side of the Adriatic, that he waited there and asked for further instructions from hisposition of affairs (2nd Oct, 534)

First of all cahteenth year, the victim of unwise strictness, followed by unwise licence, and of the barbarian's passion for swinish and sensual pleasures When her son was dead, A that the Goths would never sube and desperate resolution She sent for Theodahad, now the only survivingher lips to a s sentence which had issued against hi”, she said, ”that her boy would die, and as he, Theodahad, would then be the one hope of Theodoric's line, she had wished to abate his unpopularity and set hi their rights against him Now all that was over: his record was clear and she was ready to invite him to become the partner of her throne;[143] but he must first swear the most solemn oaths that he would be satisfied with the name of royalty and that the actual power should remain, as it had done for nine years, in the hands of Aue, not as husband; Theodahad's wife, Gudelina, was still living when he ascended the throne]

Theodahad cheerfully swore tremendous oaths to the observance of this cons were put forth to all the Goths and Italians In therovelled in admiration of the wisdom, the virtue, the eloquence of the noble lady who had raised hih a station and who had done hi hirace Feeeks, however, passed, before Amalasuentha was a prisoner, hurried away to a little lonely island in the Lake of Bolsena in Tuscany by order of the partner of her throne Having taken this step, Theodahad began with craven apologies to excuse it to the Eastern Csar ”He had done no harh she had been guilty of the ht to protect her froeance of the kinsmen of the three Gothic nobles whom she had murdered” An embassy composed of Roman Senators was ordered to carry this tale to Justinian and to confir from the unfortunate princess in her prison When the ambassadors arrived at Constantinople one of them spoke the words of the part which had been set down for hiainst Amalasuentha of which any reasonable complaint could be made; but the others, headed by the brave Liberius, ”a h and noble nature, and of the ard to truth”, told the whole story exactly as it had happened to the Emperor The result was a despatch to the a Amalasuentha that Justinian would exert all his influence for her safety, and to inform Theodahad publicly, in presence of all his counsellors, that it was at his own peril that he would touch a hair of the head of the Gothic queen

Scarcely, however, had Peter touched the Italian shore--he had not conveyed a letter to the prison nor uttered a word in the palace--when the sad tragedy was ended The relations of the three nobles, who had ”blood-feud” with the queen, and ere perhaps, according to the code of barbariantheir death, made their way to Amalasuentha's island prison, and there, in that desolate abode, the daughter of Theodoric nity and cold self-possession hich she had lived

Justinian's a's Court, and there, in the presence of all the Gothic nobles, denounced the foul deed which they had permitted to be done, and declared that for this there must be ”truceless war” between the Emperor and them Theodahad, as stupid as he was vile, renewed his ridiculous protestations that he had no part in the violence done to Aret, and this although he had already rewarded the nal tokens of his favour

Thus, by the folly of the wise and the criminal audacity of the coward, had a train been laid for the destruction of the Ostrogothic kingdom

All the petty pretexts for war, the affair of Lilybum, the Hunnish deserters, the sack of Gratiana, faded into insignificance before this new and hteous cause of quarrel If Hilderic's deposition had been avenged by the capture of Carthage, with far ht the death of the noble Aed by the capture of Ravenna and of Roreat hich was soon to burst upon Italy Justinian could figure not only as the protector of the provincials, not only as the defender of the Catholics, but as the avenger of the blood of the daughter of Theodoric

[Illustration: PIECE OF FORTY NUMMI OF THEODAHAD NUMMI (COPPER)]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XVI

BELISARIUS

Justinian begins his great Gothic war--Dalmatia recovered for the Ee of Palere--The Goths evacuate Roe of Rome by the Goths who fail to take it--Belisarius marches northward and captures Ravenna