ITALY. 



HUturjr- 



Thnxloric 

 king oi the 

 tiuihs. 



A. D. 466. 



Invades 

 Italy. 1 



Thcodoric 

 assumes the 

 title of king 

 af Italy. 



from making any change in the laws, and in order to 

 conciliate the eastern t-inperor, assumed only the title of 

 patrician of Home, and protended to acknowledge his au- 

 thority. Having expelled from Noricum, Frederic, king 

 iifthe'Kug*, a German tribe, the latter took refuge with 

 Thcodoric, kJng of the Goths, who then resided at No- 

 v* in Mii<-i.i, nd implored his assistance against Odo- 

 ucer. Thi prince, endowed by nature with superior 

 talents and cotir.._' . was descended from the most il- 

 lustrious family of the Goths; and had enjoyed the ad- 

 vantage of being educated at the court of the Byzan- 

 tine emperor, Zeno, who had several times distin- 

 guished him with peculiar marks of favour, and as 

 often, moved by fickleness or jealousy, attempted to 

 deprive him of the possessions with which he himself 

 had invested him; At this period, Theodoric, justly 

 wearied with his duplicity and pwfidy, had taken up 

 arms against him, and extendad his ravages till within 

 a short distance from Constantinople. Zeno, alarmed 

 at his approach, hastened to appease the wrath of Theo- 

 doric ; ajid to remove to a distance so formidable a 

 neighbour, proposed to him the invasion of Italy, and 

 on his consenting, invested him with the title of his 

 lieutenant. The government of Odoacer, although in 

 general just and politic, had now become extremely 

 unpopular; and a division of one-third of the lands 

 among the soldiery, in consequence of his promise, 

 had wounded the pride, and excited the indignation 

 of the Italians. They were therefore inclined to sub- 

 mit to Theodoric, who, arriving in Italy at the head of 

 his whole nation, fought several battles with Odoacer, 

 with various success. Being however deserted by se- 

 veral of his allies, he was besieged in Pavia by Odoa/. 

 cer, and obliged to have recourse to the assistance of 

 the Western or Visi- Goths, a branch of his nation set- 

 tled in Gaul. With this reinforcement, he obliged 

 Odoacer to raise the siege of Pavia and retire to Ra- 

 venna, where, having surrendered himself, he was put 

 to death a few days after his capitulation. Theodoric 

 now assumed the title of king of Italy, but, like his 

 predecessor Odoacer, made no alteration on the laws, 

 and declared himself not the enemy, but the deliverer 

 of the Romans, and the vassal of the emperor. He 

 nevertheless allotted, to his Goths a third part of the 

 Jands, but, whether from the moderation of the con- 

 querors, or the peculiar mode in which this partition 

 was executed, it appears neither to have excited com- 

 plaint nor dissatisfaction ; and on the contrary, to have 

 united more closely the interests of the two nations. 

 This is said to have been chiefly effected by the wis- 

 dom of Liberius, the first pra-torian prefect, in the 

 choice of whom and of his other ministers, Theodoric 

 appears to have been equally prudent and fortunate : 

 and under their administration, Italy not only recover- 

 ed from the state of misery in which it had been so 

 long involved, but was restored to her former power, 

 opulence, and splendour. Agriculture, commerce, and 

 the arts, the most unequivocal signs of prosperity, re- 

 vived and flourished: and notwithstanding the fre- 

 quent wars in which he was engaged, the king appears 

 never to have lost sight of the real and substantial in- 

 terests of his people. In the later years of his reign, 

 however, Theodoric became suspicious and cruel, and 

 the execution of the virtuous Boethius and Symma- 

 chus will for ever tarnish the lustre of his early great- 

 ness. The king himself did not long survive, and his 

 death is said to have been accelerated by feelings of 

 remorse for the injustice of which he had been guilty. 

 lie was succeeded by his grandson Athalarie, under 



the guardianship of his mother Atnalasuntha, a women 

 ot' talents and virtue, whft.was desirous -that her eon 

 should enjoy the advantages of a literary education : 

 but in this wish she was thwarted by the prejudices of 

 her Gothic counsellors, and the young prince, left to 

 himself, became profligate and debauched. The pros- 

 perity of the state began in consequence to decline, 

 and the dissatisfaction of the Italians with the govern- 

 ment began to excite in the breast of the Emperor 

 Justinian, the hope of again regaining possession of the 

 ancient seat of the Roman empire. 



The excesses of Athalaric having injured his consti- 

 tution, the succession to the throne, in the event of 

 his decease, was contested between his iriother Amala- 

 suntha, and Theodotus the nephew of Theodoric ; 

 both of whom distrusting their own powers, secretly 

 applied for the assistance of Justinian. In order to 

 secure this, Theodotus even promised to give up to the 

 emperor the province of Tuscany, in which he was 

 possessed of extensive estates. On the death of Atha- 

 laric, however, the Gothic nation associated Theodotus 

 with Amalasuntha in the sovereignty, but the former 

 contrived to make the situation of the Queen so un- 

 comfortable, that she was on the point of leaving Italy 

 and seeking an asylura at Constantinople, when she 

 was murdered by order of Theodotus, who is said to 

 have been instigated to this crime by the empress 

 Theodora, who dreaded the influence of Amalasuntha's 

 charms and accomplishments on the heart of Justinian'. 

 This atrocious action rendered Theodotus detestable in 

 the eyes of his subjects, and afforded the Grecian em. 

 peror an additional pretext for the invasion of Italy. 

 Alarmed by his preparations, the Gothic prince hasten- 

 ed to make submissions, and declared himself willing 

 to become the vassal of the empire, and even promised 

 to the Grecian ambassador to resign the kingdom, on 

 condition of receiving an annual allowance. But these 

 promises he soon retracted, on hearing of a defeat of 

 the imperial forces in Dalmatia ; and the troops of Jus- 

 tinian, under the command of Belisarius, landed in Ita- 

 ly, took the city of Naples by assault.'and having with 

 a very small body of men defeated the Gothic army, 

 entered Rome, deposed the worthless Theodotus, and 

 shortly after put him to death. The Goths elected as 

 his successor Vitiges, an officer of distinguished valour, 

 who married the niece of Theodoric, and under whose 

 command they attempted to recover Rome, but were 

 repulsed, and their new king obliged to take refuge in 

 Ravenna, in which he was closely besieged by Belisa- 

 rius. In the mean time, Theodebert, king of the 

 Franks, entered Italy with a considerable army, but 

 without joining any party, and at first attacking both 

 Greeks and Goths. On perceiving the distressed state 

 of the latter, however, he offered his assistance to Vi- 

 tiges, on condition of his ceding to' him one half of the 

 kingdom of Italy. On this Belisarius redoubled his 

 efforts to take Ravenna, and having succeeded by the 

 treachery of. some of the inhabitants, took Vitiges 

 prisoner. But this great general being shortly after, 

 by court intrigues, recalled to Constantinople, the 

 Grecian interests in Italy began to languish, and the 

 Goths, having chosen as a successor to Vitiges, Totila, 

 a prince no less distinguished for his political than his 

 military talents, soon recovered their former ascen- 

 dancy. Alarmed at their victories, Justinian again 

 sent Belisarius into Italy, but with an army by no 

 means adequate for the service. The result was, as 

 might have been expected: the Grecian army, feeble in 

 itself, and led on by a general who distrusted it, and 



Hi>toryv 



Is succeeded 



by Athala- 



ric. 



A. D. 528. 



Amalasun- 

 tha and 

 Theodotu* 



invades 

 Italy., 



Totila*. 



