Cr O 
w^ile the fenate, at the dl/lance of five hundred miles, 
pronounced a fcntence of confifcation and deatli againfl 
this molt illufirious of its members. Tlie unhappy fiif- 
ferer alleviated the horrors of imprifonnient by com- 
pofing his admired work on the “ Confjlations of Phi- 
lofophy;” a celeftial guide, which poured into his 
wounds her celeftial balm ; till fufpenfe, the worft of 
evils, was at length determined by the minifters of death, 
who executed, and pei haps exceeded, the inhuman man¬ 
date of Theodoric. A cord was faftened round the head 
of Boethius, and forcibly tightened, till his eyes almoft 
flarted fromtheir fockets ; while his executioners refined 
upon the torture by beating him with clubs till he expired, 
A. D. 525. In the laft hours of Boethius, he derived 
fome comfort from the fafety of his two fons, of his v/ife, 
and of his father-in-law, the venerable Synimachus. But 
the grief of Symmachus was indifereet; it almoft implied 
that he might dare to revenge the death of an injured 
friend. He was dragged in chains from Rome to the palace 
of Ravenna ; and the fufpicions of Theodoric could only 
beappeafedby thebloodof thisinnocentand aged fenator. 
After a life of philanthropy and glory, Theodoric was 
to defeend with lhame and infamy into the grave ; his 
mind was humbled by the conlraftof the paft, and juftly 
alarmed by the terrors of futurity. Anguilh and re- 
morfe will find their way into the moft obdurate heart, 
and fting the moft depraved confcience. The images of 
thefe innocent fuft'erers ftood conftantly before the eyes of 
Theodoric, till unable any longer to fuftain the weight 
of his own guilt, he retired to his chamber, and, as he 
lay trembling with cold, under a weight of bed-clothes, 
he exprefled in broken murmurs to his phyfician Elpi- 
dius, his deep repentance for the murders of Boethius 
and Symmachus. His malady increafed, and after three 
days he expired in the palace of Ravenna, A. D. 526, 
in the thirty-third year of his reign, and the thirty-fe- 
venth from his firft invafion of Italy. Confeious of his 
approaching end, he divided his treafures and provinces 
between his two grandfons, arid fixed the Rhone as their 
common boundary. Amalaric was reftored to the throne 
of Spain ; while Italy, with all the conquefts of the Of- 
frogoths, was bequeathed to Athalaric, whole age did 
not exceed ten years, but who was cheriftied as the laft: 
male offspring of the line of Amali, by the marriage of 
liis mother Amalafontha with a royal prince of the lame 
blood. Ih tlie prefence of the dying monarch, the 
Gothic chiefs and Italian magiftrates mutually engaged 
their faith ami loyalty to the young prince, and to his 
gatardian mother; and they received in the fame awful 
moment, his laft falutary advice to maintain the laws, 
to love tlie fenate and people of Rome^ ind to cultivate 
with decent reverence- the friendftiip of the emperor. 
The monument of Theodoiic was erected by his daugh¬ 
ter Amalafontha, in S confpicuous fituation, which 
commanded the city of Ravenna, the harbour, and the 
adjacent coaft. A chapel of a circular form, thirty feet 
jn diameter, is crowned by a dome of one entire piece 
of granite : from the centre of the dome, four columns 
aroi'e, which fupported, in a vafe of porphyry, the re¬ 
mains of the Gothic king, furrounded by the brazen 
ftatues of the twelve apottles. 
Amalafontha, the regent and queen of Italy, united 
in her perfon the two moft illuftrious families of the bar¬ 
barians. Her mother, the filler of Clovis, was def- 
cended from the long-haired kings of the Merovingian 
race; and the regal fuccellion of the Amali was illuf- 
trated in the eleventh generation by her father Theodo¬ 
ric. The fex of his daughter excluded her from the 
Gothic throne ; but his vigilant tendernefs for his fa¬ 
mily and his people difeovered the laft heir of the royal 
line, whofe anceftors had taken refuge in Spain; and 
the fortunate Eutiiaric was luddenly exalted to the rank 
of a conful and a prince. He enjoyed only a Ihort time 
the charms of Amalafo,ritha, and the hopes of the fuc- 
oeihonj and his widow', after the death ef her hufband 
T H S. 731 
and hither, became the only guardian of her Ton Atha¬ 
laric, and the kingdom of Italy. At the age of about 
twenty-eight years, the endowments of her mind and 
perfon liad attained their perfeit maturity. Her bcniity 
was animated by manly fenfe, atlivity, and rcl'oluiion. 
Education and experience had cultivated her talents; 
her philofophic ftudies were exempt from vanity ; and, 
though file exprelfed hcri'elf with equal elegance in tlie 
Greek, the Latin, and the Gothic, tongue, tlie daughter 
of Theodoric maintained in her counfsls a difereet and 
impenetrable iilence- By a faithful imitation of the vir¬ 
tues, ftie revived the profperity, of his reign : while ftie 
ftrove, with pious care, to expiate the faults, and to ob¬ 
literate the darker memory, of ills declining age. The 
children of Boethius and Symmachus were reftored to 
their paternal inheritance: her extreme lenity never 
confented to inflidl any corporal or pecuniary penalties 
on her Romasi fubjefts ; and ftie generoully defpifed tlie 
clamours of the Gotlis, who, at the end of forty years, 
ftill conlidered the people of Italy as their Haves or their 
enemies. Her falutary meafures were diredted by tlie 
wifdoin, and celebrated by the eloquence, of Caftio- 
doriiis; file folicited and deferved the friendfliip of the 
emperor ; and tlie kingdoms of Europe refpeefted, both 
in peace and war, the majefty of the Gothic throne. 
But the future liappinefs of the queen and of Italy de¬ 
pended on the education of her foil; who was deftined, 
by his birth, to fupport the different and almoft incom¬ 
patible charadlers of tlie chief of a barbarian camp, and 
the firft iiiagiftrate of a civilized nation. From the age 
of ten years, Athalaric was educated with the utmoft 
care and diligence ; and three venerable Goths were 
cliofen to iiirtil the principles of honour and virtue into 
the mind of their young king. But the untratfable 
youth betrayed the moft fallen and vicious difpofitioii; 
and as he advanced towards manhood, he became aban¬ 
doned to wine, to women, and to the mifehievous de- 
ligns of his favourites. Thus the king of Italy, at the 
age of fix teen, was confumed by premature intempe¬ 
rance, and left the tlirone deftitutc of legal authority. 
Inftead of I'ubmitting to the laws of lier country, the 
daughter of Theodoric conceived the iiiipraifticable de- 
figii of ftiaring, with one of lier coufins, the regal title, 
and of referving in her own hands the fupreme power. 
He received the propofal with refpeil and gratitude ; 
and the eloquent Cafliodorius announced to tlie fenate 
and the emperor, that Amalafontha and Theodatus had 
afeended the throne of Italy, His birth, (for his mo¬ 
ther was the fifter of Theodoric,) might be confidered 
as an iniperfedf title ; and the choice of Amalafontlia 
was more ftrongjiy diredted by her contempt of his ava¬ 
rice and pufilianiniity, whicli had deprived him of the 
efteem of the barbarians. But Theodatus was exafpe- 
rated by the contempt which he experienced : diaboli¬ 
cal revenge lurked in his bofom: and he caufed tlie 
queen of Italy to be iinprifoned in a fniall illand of the 
lake ofBolfena, where, after ftiort confinement, fiie was 
ftrangled in the bath by his order, A. D. 535. 
Although Theodatus defeended from a race of heroes,. 
he was ignorant of the art, and averfe to the dangers, of 
war. The feeble monarch refigned to Juftiniaii the pof- 
feftion of Sicily ; and was adlually treating with that em¬ 
peror to refign to him, for a penfioii, the whole of his 
dominions; when, in the interval, two Roman generals, 
who had entered the province of Dalmatia, were de¬ 
feated and flain by the Gothic troops. The march of 
Belifarius was inftaiitly diredted to the redudtion of, 
Italy, and here commenced, A.D. 5J7, the fecond. 
Italian Gothic War. 
Belifarius, after he had fecured Sicily, advanced with 
his fleet and army to the city of Naples, which he ftorni- 
ed and took, while Theodatus fecured his perlbii within 
the walls ot Rome. His cavalry, indeed, advanced forty 
miles on the Appianway, and encamped in the Pomptine 
marines; but the principal forces of the Goths were 
i dilpcrfeii 
