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NOTES ON COINS PENDING ASSISTANCE FOR PHOTOS VOLUNTEERS ANYONE? 121 PART II HISTORICAL OUTLINE 476-568 The second period, which will be treated in the next Part of our book, begins with two centuries (568-774) of Lombard domination,
a long series of years which, except for some very interesting personalities and certain questions concerning architecture,
is almost as dreary as that so-called Dark Age which followed the Dorian invasion of ancient Greece. Finally we shall have
the appeal of the Papacy 122 to the Frank monarchs, followed by the interference and domination of the Franks and the so-called re-establishment of
the Western Roman Empire by the act of Pope Leo III, who placed a crown of gold on the head of the Frankish monarch when,
all unsuspecting (some say), he rose from his devotions before the tomb of St. Peter in Rome. As in Part I, so also in Parts II and III I shall first give succinct narratives of the chief political occurrences to
serve as a kind of framework, and shall then select some of the more important episodes and characters and certain facts of
special literary or artistic interest as subjects for the succeeding chapters, trusting that in these sketches it may not
be necessary on all occasions to explain anew the chronological sequence. l. ODOVACAR'S REIGN (476-93) The thread of narrative was dropped (p. 17) at the deposition of Romulus Augustulus by Odovacar, and at the end of Part
I a sketch was given of the subsequent life of the deposed Emperor and another illustrating the earlier life of the barbarian
king who for more than sixteen years (if we reckon up to his death, August 15, 493) occupied the throne, though he did not
assume the title or the diadem, of the Roman Emperors. It was at Ravenna that the youth Romulus Augustulus had resided, and here he was captured; here, too, Odovacar took up
his residence. The realm over which his rule was recognized comprised the whole of Italy south of the Alps, and Rhaetia, between
the Alps and the Danube. The greater part of Sicily also became subject to him after the death of Gaiseric (477); but the
Vandals continued to hold Lilybaeum and other parts of the island, as well as Sardinia and Corsica, while beyond the Western
Alps the Burgundian monarchs held the country of the Rhone and Sa™ne, the Visigoths occupied all Spain and the south of Gaul,
and further north the great Germanic nations of Alemanni and Franks were supreme. As soon as Odovacar felt himself securely seated he sent an embassy to the Eastern Empire in order to define his position
and claim recognition. This embassy was empowered to 123 declare in the name of the Roman Senate and also in that of the late Emperor, Romulus Augustulus--whose signature Odovacar
had doubtless procured--that the Roman, or rather the Italian, people had decided that one Emperor was sufficient for both
parts of the Empire; and in the name of Odovacar they delivered up to Zeno the imperial insignia--the ornamenta Palatii--the
purple robe, the diadem, the globe and sceptre--with the request that the Emperor would allow the ruler of Italy the title
of Patrician.(1) Zeno gave answer that his predecessors, Leo I and the Empress Verina, had elected two Emperors for the Romans: one, Athemius,
they had killed; the other Nepos, they had exiled; but Nepos was still living and was occupied in ruling his province (2)
of Dalmatia. They should therefore apply to him for what they required. Privately, however, Zeno wrote to Odovacar and addressed
him as “Patricius.’ It will be remembered that the fall of Orestes, the father of Romulus Augustulus, was mainly due to the fact that he had
refused to give over to his soldiers a third of the land of Italy, which they had demanded. Odovacar had gained the support
of the army by promising to grant this demand, and it was now necessary to do so. The details of this most important political
measure are not known for certain, but there are evident signs of the eviction and ruin of many large landowners who occupied
great tracts of the fertile districts, and of the division of such estates among those veterans who undertook to cultivate
the soil. In other cases the new possessors contented themselves with acting as lords of the manor, employing the former owners
as their tenants, and probably ameliorating the condition of the former slaves, whom they adopted as villeins, according to
northern feudal custom. Odovacar, like Alaric and Athaulf and like the great Ostrogoth, 123 Theoderic, had deep reverence for the constitution of the Empire and seems to have depended entirely on the ancient imperial
officials for the administration of the laws and the collection of taxes. In 480 Nepos, who was still formally recognized by the Eastern Empire, was killed at Salona by his comites palatii (palace
officials). Odovacar was thus relieved of the only rival claimant to the throne of Italy. He had collected at Ravenna,
which still possessed a fine harbour, a considerable fleet, intended chiefly for operations against the piratical Vandals
and for the conquest of Sicily. On the death of Nepos he sailed across the Adriatic and annexed Dalmatia to his Italian kingdom.
This was of course an act of open hostility against Zeno and a violation of the integrity of the Eastern Empire; but Zeno
was not in a condition to retaliate, being too dangerously involved in the religious disturbances which had spread from the
East, that hotbed of doctrinal sophistries, where the patriarch of Alexandria had been murdered by fanatics. These conflicts
were now agitating Constantinople, and had reached a serious climax, due to Zeno’s well-meant attempt to reconcile two
embittered opponents--the Monophysites (who asserted that the human and divine nature of Christ were combined in one) and
the so-called Orthodox party. With the help of the patriarch Acacius he had published a letter which is known by the name
Henotikon (i.e. an Appeal for Unity), but it was met, as such attempts are generally met, by the bitterest
opposition, especially on the part of the Pope and the Catholics of Rome, and for a long time it only aggravated the miserable
strife, until finally the so-called Orthodox party won the victory. (3) Though Odovacar was an Arian, he kept in this quarrel on the side of Pope Simplicius; but when the Pope died, in 483, he
rightly considered it within his province to prevent the 125 tumults usual at papal elections by causing the Prefect to summon the electing body (not in that age limited to the Cardinals)
and by insisting that no election should be valid without his sanction; and it was his candidate, Felix II, who was elected.
This interference in the affairs of the Church is viewed with sorrow and indignation by some writers. It is true that the
Eastern Emperors had sometimes arrogated to themselves authority not merely in the election of prelates but even in the definition
and promulgation of dogmas; and at Rome Honorius had decided between two rival Popes. But Odovacar was a barbarian and an
Arian, and his strong and successful policy is stigmatized as the beginning of the long and disastrous feud between the temporal
ambitions of the Church and the legitimate powers of the State, whereas, had it been worthily imitated, a vast amount of bloodshed
and mutual hatred might have been prevented and the fair name of Christianity might have been spared a great deal of terrible
defilement that it has suffered by religious persecution and by war waged in the name of the Gospel of Peace. The truth is that from amidst the ruins of imperial Rome was arising, under the name of the Papacy, a new political power--nominally
spiritual, but essentially temporal in its nature and ideals--which, claiming as its ally the religious and moral sense of
mankind and armed with all the weapons that superstition supplies, was able to hold the field for centuries against the highest
civil authority. In this the history of Christendom differs radically from that of Islam, where from the first the highest
religious and the highest civic authority were combined in a single person; for, whatever other evils resulted from this system,
there could be no question of a purely spiritual influence degenerating into a political institution whose chief aim was the
acquisition of temporal power, and thus coming into conflict with legally constituted civic authority. In spite of Odovacar’s wise and not unsuccessful rule, in spite of his efforts to neutralize the evils of large estates
(latifundia), to which Pliny the Elder attributes the ruin of Italy, the state of many parts of his kingdom seems to
have 126 been pitiable. Thus in a letter of Pope Gelasius (492) we read that in Tuscany and Emilia and other provinces--‘hardly
a human being exists’--hominum prope nullus exsistit. In Rome also the working people--the city mechanics and
the scholae of builders, painters, physicians, etc.--had sunk into a state of destitution and neglect, from which they
were later with difficulty aroused for a time by the favouring patronage of Theoderic. About 486 happened that which was apparently the immediate cause of Odovacar’s overthrow. In Noricum the hermit-saint
Severinus (p. 116) had died, and the land had relapsed into anarchy. The wild German tribe of the Rugi, who dwelt in what
is now Moravia and Southern Bohemia, beyond the Danube, incited probably by Zeno, took the opportunity to press southwards,
pillaging and devastating the country. Odovacar marched across the Alps with a large army of barbarians and Italians, and
after defeating the Rugi in Noricum followed them up across the Danube and took their king prisoner. But the king’s
son escaped and took refuge with the Ostrogoths, who at this time occupied the great region between Noricum and Dacia--the
country of the Save and Drave, extending northwards to the Danube. The chieftain of these Ostrogoths was Theoderic the Amal,
a man of about thirty-two years of age. For some time past Theoderic’s army had been a growing menace to the Eastern
Empire. He had been suggesting the invasion of Italy to Zeno, or perhaps listening to the suggestions of Zeno, who was longing
not only to suppress Odovacar but also to check the insolence of the Popes. The entreaties of the young prince of Rugiland
now turned the balance, and Theoderic determined to attack Odovacar. This he did nominally under the mandate of the Eastern
Emperor. He was invested with the title of Patrician (4)--the same title that Zeno had informally granted to Odovacar 127 --and he had under his command an imperial general (magister militum) and other imperial officials (comites
or ‘counts’). His openly professed object was to attack the usurper or ‘tyrant’ and recover Italy
for the Empire. During the autumn, winter, and spring of 488-89 a great host of various peoples, but mainly composed of Ostrogoths, probably
about 200,000 in all, with some 50,000 fighting men, led by Theoderic, crossed the Julian Alps, evidently starting from Aemona
(Laybach) and using the same mountain route that had been used by Theodosius, Alaric, and Attila. On the river Sontius (Isonzo)
near Aquileia, and again on the Athesis (ACCENT) (Adige) near Verona, battles were fought in which, though Odovacar was forced
to retreat, great losses were suffered by the Goths, and Theoderic, instead of pushing southward over the Apennines, made
his way to Milan and then took up his quarters at Ticinum (later Papia, now Pavia). Then, it is said by some writers, Odovacar
hastened to fortify himself in Rome, but found the city gates closed against him. Whether or not this occurred, it seems certain
that at the news from North Italy the Roman Senate and the ecclesiastics made overtures to Theoderic, for of late years Odovacar
had caused great embitterment by plundering Church property in order to pay his troops. Some writers also speak of the desertion
to Theoderic of Tufa, Odovacar’s magister militum; but it seems likely that the desertion was feigned, and that
Tufa succeeded in bringing over to Odovacar’s camp a number of Theoderic’s Goths. Anyhow, a little later we find
Odovacar vigorously holding his own in North Italy--occupying Milan, and with the aid of Burgundians, whom he had summoned
to his help, compelling Theoderic to keep himself within the walls of Ticinum, where the great multitude of his followers
suffered much from want of space and of food. But at this juncture (490) the Visigoths from Gaul came to the rescue of their fellow Goths, and Odovacar suffered a crushing
defeat near the river Adda. He retired to the stronghold of Ravenna, which was soon beleaguered by Theoderic on the land side.
But the port afforded free access to the 128 sea, as the Goths possessed no fleet, and on account of its marshes and strong ramparts Ravenna was not easy to storm.
Thus for three years, although he seems to have been recognized as master in every other part of Italy, Theoderic was defied
(5) by the city which afterwards was the capital of his kingdom and which is still so closely associated with his name. At last, early in the year 493, Odovacar was compelled to propose capitulation--for the Goths had seized the maritime stronghold
of Rimini and had collected enough vessels to blockade Ravenna also from the sea. We know scarcely anything of the terms of
the capitulation, (6) except that they certainly assured Odovacar’s life. Nevertheless--as was so often the case in
Italian history--this condition was violated, seeing that about three weeks later Theoderic invited his prisoner to a banquet
in that Palace of the Council which, says an old writer, ‘was in the south-east corner of Ravenna’ (just possibly
the building which is still pointed out as the Palace of Theoderic), and on his arrival had him assassinated. Or perhaps he
finished the bloody and treacherous deed himself; for this is stated by one chronicler (John of Antioch), who adds the dramatic
detail that when the sword of Theoderic had cleft almost clean asunder the body of his victim ‘from the collar to the
loin,’ he turned and grimly smiling muttered: ‘The wretched creature seems to have no bones.’ 2 THE OSTROGOTHIC DOMINATION (493-535) As Theoderic and much that is connected with Theoderic will form the subject of later chapters, only a brief account of
his long reign of thirty-three years need here be given. After the battle on the Adda (490) he sent news of his victory to Constantinople, and asked permission to assume the kingly
129 title; but Zeno died in April of 491, and as his successor, Anastasius, (7) sent no reply, Theoderic allowed his men to
proclaim him king. By this act he of course forfeited the insignia and office of an imperial delegate and put himself in much
the same position as that which the ‘tyrant’ Odovacar had held. But in course of time Anastasius, impressed, it
seems, with the masterful government of the Ostrogoth king, found it advisable to recognize the fait accompli and to
make the best of the situation. When therefore some seven years later (498) another embassy arrived at the Eastern court,
it was graciously received, and was charged to take back to Theoderic the imperial insignia, which the Roman Senate had sent
to Zeno in the name of Odovacar. Of course this did not mean that Anastasius recognized Theoderic as Emperor of the West.
What it did mean, and what the real position of Theoderic was, will be discussed later, when we review his legislation and
government. Gradually but surely Theoderic consolidated and extended his power. By 504 we find that he not only is ruler of all the
former realm of Odovacar, namely, Italy, Rhaetia, and Dalmatia, but has subdued Noricum and Pannonia and has aided a descendant
of Attila to organize something like a temporary revival of the Hunnish kingdom in the old territories of the Ostrogoths in
Dacia and to inflict a crushing defeat on the army of the Eastern Emperor. Nor did Theoderic--even while writing with imperturbable
gravity the most loyal and submissive letters (8) to Anastasius--shrink from invading what was still unquestionably imperial
territory, for he not only captured Sirmium, on the Danube, but advanced into Illyricum. Hereupon Anastasius, much incensed,
dispatched (in 508) a fleet of two hundred vessels to assault Tarentum and ravage the 130 coasts of Southern Italy--a foolish reprisal that attained nothing but what a contemporary writer (Marcellino Conte) calls
a ‘dishonourable victory of Romans over Romans,’ seeing that the people of Apulia and Calabria were in no wise
responsible for the acts of Theoderic. Also towards the West the overlordship, and also the territory, of Theoderic had become
widely extended. Probably from fear lest Anastasius should incite others against him as he had been incited against Odovacar,
he had made alliances with the three most powerful barbarian nations, giving his sister Amalafrida to Thrasamund, the king
of the Vandals, (9) and his daughter Theudegotha to Alaric II, king of the Visigoths, and another daughter, Ostrogotha, to
Sigismund, son of the Burgundian king. Moreover he himself had married, apparently about 497, Audefleda, the daughter of the
powerful and aggressive Chlodovech (Chlodwig, Ludwig, Clovis), king of the Franks. When we come to the days of Charles the Great we shall trace the rise of this nation and empire of the Franks. Here it
suffices to say that they had of late years advanced rapidly from what is now the Netherlands, and under Clovis (as we may
most conveniently call him) had spread over all the north of Gaul and had vanquished the Burgundians. When, however, Clovis
proceeded to attack the Visigoths--whose vast kingdom extended over all the south of Gaul and most of Spain--Theoderic came
to the help of his fellow Goths and obliged Clovis, his father-in-law, to raise the siege of Arles and to withdraw beyond
the Loire (c. 509), after a defeat in which, according to Jordanes, he lost 30,000 men. Theoderic now held the supreme
authority in the Visigoth kingdom--his son-in-law, Alaric II, having been killed in battle. He constituted himself regent
and guardian of the heir, his infant grandson Amalaric, and thus became the virtual sovereign of the whole Visigoth dominions
in Gaul and Spain, besides being the acknowledged King of Italy, Sicily, Rhaaeti (Susan note), Pannonia, Dalmatia, and also
of Provence, which he had annexed to his 131 Italian kingdom. For some sixteen years (510-26) he was master of a larger and fairer portion of the Western Empire than
that which was subject to some of the later Western Emperors, and, as we shall see later, he regarded himself as a ‘Romanus
Princeps’ and was addressed, informally at least, as an “Augustus,’ although he continued to write in the
most humble and submissive style to the Eastern Emperor. But the last years of the great Ostrogoth king were destined to be unhappy. Discords on doctrinal questions, the disastrous
effects of which we have already so often traced, resulted in an ever-deepening hostility against him, and this roused in
the depths of his barbarian nature the most savage resentment. He became moody and embittered and suspicious. At first, like
Odovacar, although he was an Arian, he had sided with the Pope against the execrated attempt of the Emperor Zeno to bring
about reconciliation between Catholics and Monophysites. (It will be remembered that Zeno’s unfortunate Henotikon--the
Appeal for Unity made by him and the patriarch Acacius--had been denounced by the Church of Rome as a work of Satan, although
it had been signed by all the bishops of the Eastern Empire.) After Zeno’s death (491) these quarrels became still more
intense, and we have already seen his successor, Anastasius, begging for his life before a mob of Constantinople fanatics.
All this time Theoderic seems to have steered a prudent course and to have played off skilfully three consecutive Popes against
the Eastern Emperor--thus securing, although himself an Arian, the favour of his Catholic subjects. But a sudden change took place in these relations when Anastasius died in 518. He was succeeded by Justin--an uneducated,
valorous, simple-minded, and stolidly orthodox Dardanian (Bulgarian) peasant, who not long after his election began to be
strongly influenced by his far more gifted and equally orthodox nephew, Justinian, afterwards in his own opinion a very conspicuous
pillar of what he himself held to be the one true Church. At the court of Constantinople that Monophysite heresy and other
questionable doctrines suddenly 132 fell into great disrepute, and persecution soon began to raise its head. At Rome Pope Hormisdas, less accommodating than
his predecessors, offered a cold reception to the friendly advances and the church-building zeal of the Arian Theoderic and
entered into negotiations with Justin and his masterful nephew with a view to anathematizing tolerance of heretics. Ere long
Theoderic finds Pope and Emperor allied against him, and this alliance is formally confirmed by a Council, held at Constantinople
and attended by envoys from the Pope, at which Catholic Uniformity is proclaimed as the Rule for the Empire, and the Henotikon
is solemnly condemned, and its co-author, the patriarch Acacius, is solemnly anathematized. About 523 the order arrived from Justin that all Arian churches were to be given up to the Catholics. Theoderic retaliated
by shutting up Catholic churches. His irritation was extreme. The one great object of his government and legislation during
thirty years had been to weld the Goths and Romans together into a single nation, and he had himself adopted many Roman habits
and professed a profound admiration for the laws, the literature, and the monuments of the Roman Empire. But his well-meant
and doubtless sometimes rather uncouth affectation of Roman customs, language, and ideals excited the ridicule of the native
Italians, among whom, especially among the rich, arose a strong movement in favour of Nationalism and Catholicism, as a protest
against the alien Gothic invader whose overbearing soldiery had appropriated the best of their lands and the best of their
churches and the best of their official dignities and emoluments. Embittered by this ever-increasing hostility and disdain,
Theoderic seems to have cast scornfully aside his perhaps somewhat superficial admiration for things Roman, and to have followed
the dictates of that innate German savagery which he revealed in his murder of Odovacar. His wrath against the Catholics was
fanned by the fanatic zeal of his son-in-law, Eutharic, a ferocious Arian, to whom he had given his only unmarried daughter,
the heir to his throne, Amalasuntha. (10) His INSERT FIG 10 133 unpopularity spread and deepened rapidly, and acts of violence were met first by acts of just repression--as when Ravenna
Catholics burnt down the Jews’ synagogue and were made to rebuild it--and then by acts of savage reprisal. At Rome the
ill-feeling against the barbarian heretics became especially virulent, so that orders were issued to the Goths that no citizen
should be allowed to use any sort of weapon--usque ad cultellum. That there should be, so to speak, pro-Goths among the very mixed population of Rome (far more mixed in these days than
it was when Juvenal exclaimed that the ‘Syrian Orontes had poured its flood into the Tiber’) is not surprising.
The tragic story of the accusation brought by one such ‘delator’ against a patrician, Albinus, and of the consequent
ruin and death (524) of the philosopher Bo‘thius and his father-in-law Symmachus, the head of the Roman Senate, will be found
in a later chapter. It throws a lurid light on the last two years of the reign of Theoderic and makes less unintelligible
another act of savagery which he perpetrated shortly before his death. Pope Hormisdas had died (523) and had been succeeded
by a worthy but uncompromisingly anti-Arian prelate, John the First. Incensed at the action of the Constantinople Council
and at Justin’s order for the closure of Arian churches in Italy, Theoderic resolved to send a strong remonstrance to
the Eastern Emperor. He summoned Pope John to Ravenna and dispatched him, together with several senators and the Arian Archbishop
of Ravenna, Ecclesius, (11) to demand from Justin a repeal of his order. The embassy was received with honour at the city
gate and conducted in festal procession to Constantine’s basilica of Hagia Sophia--soon to be rebuilt as S. Sofia--the
Emperor paying special reverence to the first Pope who had ever entered Constantinople. But Theoderic’s demands were
refused or evaded, and on the return of the envoys the Pope, who was evidently suspected of collusion with the Emperor, was
thrown into prison, where soon afterwards he died. ‘The grateful Church,’ says 134 Gregorovius, ‘has honoured him with the nimbus of a martyr.’ To fill his place Theoderic proposed, or perhaps
commanded, the election of Felix (some say the Third, some the Fourth). The Romans trembled and obeyed. We have already seen how Odovacar wisely attempted to control the disorders that were wont to accompany papal elections.
Theoderic’s assumption of the right of investiture, not merely of bishops but of the Vicar of Christ himself, was something
of quite another nature, and as this right--anyhow the right of veto--was assumed also by Theoderic’s successors and
by Belisarius, who with the help of Theodora deposed and elected Popes, and --in spite of his Pragmatic Sanction--by Justinian,
who imprisoned the refractory Pope Vigilius, and later by various potentates of the so-called Holy Roman Empire, it may be
regarded as a veritable fons et origo mali. Theoderic died in 526, some three months after the decease in prison of
Pope John. Fantastic legends about the king’s death are recorded seriously by Procopius and Gregory the Great. These
stories will be given in the next chapter. The real cause of his death was probably an attack of dysentery, and an old writer
affirms that it took place on the very day when the king’s decree for giving over the Catholic churches to the Arians
was to come into force--a curious parallel to the story of the death of Arius himself (p. 45). The chronicler Jordanes, whose
facts are taken from the lost History of Cassiodorus, the chief minister of Theoderic, describes the death of the king
as peaceful and dignified. Before the end he summoned his ministers and the chief men of the Ostrogoths and presented to them
as his successor his grandson Athalaric--for Eutharic, his son-in-law, had died. Athalaric was a boy of ten. His mother Amalasuntha was therefore made regent, with Cassiodorus as her minister. She is
described as both beautiful and learned--equally at home in Gothic, Greek, and Latin and devoted to classical literature;
and a favourable impression of her character is made on us by the fact that she caused the confiscated property of Bo‘thius
and Symmachus to be restored to their families. But her 135 Romanizing proclivities finally proved her ruin. The Goths, contemptuous of all such effeminate pursuits, became clamorous
in their demands that the young Athalaric should give up the studies chosen for him by his mother and have an athletic and
military education, asserting that it was a maxim of Theoderic that no man could ever face boldly the sword of an enemy who
had trembled at the ferule of a pedagogue; and the matter came to a climax when one day they discovered the lad weeping after
receiving a blow from his teacher, or his mother. Military education, however, seems to have given him opportunities of self-indulgence
which ruined his weakly health, and after eight years of nominal kingship he died (534) before he had come of age or had been
crowned. It was, says Gibbon, a fundamental maxim of the Goths that the succession should never pass from the lance to the distaff.
The next male heir was Amalasuntha’s cousin, Theudehad, or Theodahad, as he calls himself on his coins (see Plate I),
although he is better known by a Graeco-Roman corruption of his name, viz. ‘Theodatus.’ He was the son of Theoderic’s
sister Amalafrida, who, as we have seen, married the Vandal king Thrasamund. (12) He was a zealous student of Plato and had
vast estates in Tuscany, where he was hated by the natives for his land-grabbing; and he in his turn hated Amalasuntha for
attempting to curb his avarice and accused her of violating the law by retaining the regency. In this he was supported by
three of the most influential Gothic nobles, and her unpopularity became ere long so alarming to her that she appealed to
the Eastern Emperor--who was now Justin’s nephew, Justinian. He put at her disposal a splendid palace at Dyrrachium
(Durazzo), whither she began to transport her treasures; but at the last moment, perhaps (though one is very loth to believe
it of her) because she had succeeded in getting the three hostile nobles assassinated, she gave up her intended flight and
offered to share the government with her 136 cousin. The offer was accepted, and her minister, Cassiodorus, wrote a magniloquent letter in her name to Justinian, informing
him that ‘as the human body has two ears, two eyes, and two hands, so the Gothic kingdom had now two sovereigns.’ This dual sovereignty soon came to an end. Theodahad’s masculine policy and the hostility of the Gothic nobility
gained the ascendant and Amalasuntha was relegated to a small island in the lake of Bolsena, where a short time afterwards
(535) she was found strangled in her bath. The murder was committed perhaps by avengers of the three Gothic nobles above mentioned,
and certainly with the knowledge of Theodahad. (13) This event, though it does not mark the actual end of the Gothic domination,
which was gradually extinguished, was the immediate cause of the so-called Gothic War, which resulted in the expulsion of
the Northern conquerors and the temporary possession by the Eastern Emperor of the ‘diocese’ of Italy, in which
Rome and Ravenna were merely the capitals of two Byzantine provinces. And it is to be remembered that during this period Justinian
was also the ruler of the whole of the provinces in North Africa, as well as of Sicily and other Mediterranean islands and
the south of Spain--most of which countries his generals had recovered from the domination of the Vandals--and that he had
purchased from the Persians with a vast expenditure the so-called ‘endless Peace,’ which for a time ensured tranquillity
to his provinces in the far East--Asia Minor and Syria and Egypt. It is remarked by Gregorovius, who is an ardent admirer of the famous Ostrogothic king, that the extinction of Theoderic’s
dynasty and of the Gothic domination in Italy was due to the too great contrast between the vigorous Northern spirit and the
effete spirit of ancient civilization. To such minds even the temporary re-establishment of the old Southern influences, especially
in the degenerate semi-Oriental form of Byzantinism, is regarded as a great calamity; nor can it be denied that the campaigns
of Belisarius and Narses against the 137 Goths brought great misery on Italy. But, if for her future greatness in art and literature and for her final risorgimento
Italy needed union with a Northern race, would the nobly conceived but vain attempt of Theoderic to weld into one the
Italian and Ostrogothic races, had it been granted success, have accomplished what was accomplished by the Lombards and Franks? 3. THE GOTHIC WAR (535-53) The Byzantine conquest of Italy may conveniently be regarded as consisting of two periods, the first extending from the
arrival of Belisarius until his capture of Ravenna and his recall in 540; the other from that date (or the revival of the
war in 542) until the battle of Mt. Vesuvius, the death of Theia, and the expulsion of the Goths in 553. These two periods
included a great part of the long reign of Justinian, and in histories of Italy much space is sometimes given to his personality,
to his legislation, to the court of Constantinople, and to the war in which his general, Belisarius, overthrew the Vandal
power in Africa. Remarks on these subjects and a few others connected with the period will be found in later chapters. Here
I shall confine myself chiefly to events connected closely with Italy. The murder of Amalasuntha was made by Justinian a casus belli. It is likely that he had long meditated an attack
on the Goths, and his policy in regard to Amalasuntha had shown clearly how strong were his sympathies with the Romanizing
and anti-Gothic movement in Italy. And now he found himself in a position to act, for his great general Belisarius, (14) having
completed his victorious campaign in Persia (530), had overthrown the Vandal power in North Africa by the capture 138 of Carthage (533) and of king Gelimer, who, after wandering about among the desert tribes for some time in great destitution,
had given himself up to the victor and was led through the streets of Constantinople in a triumphal procession which was also
rendered notable by the presence of the thrice-captured spoils of the Temple of Jerusalem. In order to threaten North Italy and thus divide the Gothic forces Justinian sent an army into Dalmatia, and with only
about 7500 fighters Belisarius crossed (535) from Africa to Sicily. He depended mainly, as he told his secretary Procopius,
on his mounted bowmen, a kind of light cavalry strange to the Goths. But with such a small body of men he could never have
hoped to succeed had he not relied on very considerable support from the Italian people, who were becoming daily more impatient
of the Gothic domination. Indeed, as soon as he landed in Sicily all the cities except Palermo opened their gates to him.
In Palermo was a strong Gothic garrison, but the archers of Belisarius poured their shafts into the city from their lofty
vessels and the city capitulated. In seven months all Sicily was won, and the unwarlike, Plato-loving Theodahad was so consternated
that he offered to abdicate and retire on a big pension. The offer was accepted, but hearing of some small advantage gained
by his troops in Dalmatia, he began to haggle. While he was still hesitating, Belisarius, who had meanwhile flashed across
to Africa like his predecessors, the fulmina belli, Scipiadae, and had suppressed a rebellion and was back again in
Sicily, crossed over to the mainland, where Rhegium was betrayed to him by Theodahad’s son-in-law and other cities opened
their gates. Naples however resisted; but ere long it was captured and sacked, a body of about 600 imperialists having wormed
their way into the city through an unused acqueduct. Among the Goths at Rome great consternation prevailed, as well as indignation against their craven king. They held an assembly
in the Campagna and deposed him. A valorous soldier, Vitiges (or Witigis), was elected in his stead. Theodahad fled towards
Ravenna, but he was overtaken by a personal 139 enemy and slain. Vitiges also, from other motives, hastened to reach Ravenna, leaving in Rome, a garrison of 4000 Goths.
From Ravenna he sent envoys to the Franks, securing their neutrality by a large bribe and the cession of Gallia Narbonensis
(Languedoc). Then he summoned in hot haste all the Gothic troops and auxiliaries that were in Provence and North-west Italy.
But ere they were assembled Belisarius had entered Rome--doubtless aided by the enthusiastic support (15) of the native Italians
and formally invited, it is said, by Pope Silverius--and as his men marched in through the Porta Asinaria the Goths marched
out northwards by the Flaminian Gate. He at once set to work to repair the old fortifications of Aurelian and to provision
the city for a siege. Then Vitiges, who had collected 150,000 fighters, came sweeping down on Rome, where the whole imperial
army now amounted (according to Procopius) to only 5000 men--a small force to defend twelve miles of fortification. In an
engagement outside the walls Belisarius is overwhelmed by numbers and nearly perishes, the Romans having shut the city gate
in his face; but he repels the Goths with a desperate assault and re-enters Rome; and here he is besieged for a year and nine
days (537-38). The incidents of this long siege need not be detailed. Stratagems, engines of war, alarms, surprises, assaults, desperate
sallies, Homeric combats--such things enter largely into the vivid picture given us by Procopius. Vitiges cuts the aqueducts,
pollutes the river with corpses (an old Vandal custom), captures the Port, brings up his movable towers and catapults and
rams, and on one occasion nearly captures Hadrian’s Mole; but he is repelled by showers of marble statues, with a loss
(as Procopius gravely asserts) of 30,000, and although his army still numbers 150,000 men (probably another huge exaggeration)
he is unable to prevent the arrival of provisions or of reinforcements from Constantinople--1600 horsemen mainly Huns, as
well as Isaurian and other barbarian auxiliaries. Indeed, the siege must have been at times very 140 ineffective, for we hear of Procopius being sent to Naples to fetch more reinforcements and provisions which he succeeds
in doing. The wife too of Belisarius, Antonina, arrived in Rome safely and with apparent ease, and was soon followed by a
prelate, Vigilius, (16) sent from Constantinople by the Empress Theodora, who requested Belisarius to have him elected Pope--the
fulfilment of which request was without difficulty attained by accusing poor old Silverius of complicity with the Goths. Tired out by their vain attempts, the Goths at last proposed conditions. They reminded Belisarius that Theoderic had been
sent to Italy to recover it from the tyrant Odovacar, and that he had always acknowledged the Emperor as his overlord and
had honoured and kept the laws of the Empire. Wherefore, then, they asked, did Justinian make war on them? If Belisarius would
leave Italy taking with him all his plunder, they would be satisfied. When these proposals med with a blank refusal, Vitiges
offered to renounce Sicily and South Italy and even to pay a tribute; but the response was again an absolute negative. At
last a three months’ truce was concluded, and Belisarius used it unfairly, not only for revictualling, refortifying,
and reinforcing, but for seizing various points which the Goths had temporarily vacated according to agreement. Moreover an
officer, Johannes by name, was sent by him with a strong force to ravage Picenum and succeeded in surprising and capturing
the stronghold of Rimini, so that the Goths, indignant at such proceedings, attempted to force their way into Rome. They were
however repulsed, and at once burnt their camp (March 538), raised the siege, and withdrew northwards. The forces that Belisarius had brought over from Africa amounted only to 7500 men, if we are to believe Procopius, who,
like Polybius of old, accompanied the conqueror of Carthage in his victorious campaigns. The enthusiasm of the Italians seems
to have added little or nothing to the number of his fighters, and he felt unable to follow up closely the retreat of 141 the Goths. He therefore waited until reinforcements should arrive from Constantinople. The main body of these reinforcements
landed in the autumn of 538 on the coast of Picenum, probably at Ancona, Fano, or Pesaro, not far to the south of the stronghold
of Rimini, which, as above mentioned, had been occupied by imperial troops under the command of Johannes. By this time Belisarius
had sent up the Flaminian road a body of 2000 men, who had forced the famous tunnelled pass (17) over the eastern ridge of
the Apennines, routing the Goths that held it, and had reached Rimini; and ere long he followed, and formed a junction with
the newly arrived forces. |
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