venna alone, secure in the
fortifications of art and nature, still sustained a siege of almost
three years; and the daring sallies of Odoacer carried slaughter and
dismay into the Gothic camp. At length, destitute of provisions and
hopeless of relief, that unfortunate monarch yielded to the groans of
his subjects and the clamors of his soldiers. A treaty of peace was
negotiated by the bishop of Ravenna; the Ostrogoths were admitted into
the city, and the hostile kings consented, under the sanction of an
oath, to rule with equal and undivided authority the provinces of Italy.
The event of such an agreement may be easily foreseen. After some days
had been devoted to the semblance of joy and friendship, Odoacer, in the
midst of a solemn banquet, was stabbed by the hand, or at least by the
command, of his rival. Secret and effectual orders had been previously
despatched; the faithless and rapacious mercenaries, at the same moment,
and without resistance, were universally massacred; and the royalty
of Theodoric was proclaimed by the Goths, with the tardy, reluctant,
ambiguous consent of the emperor of the East. The design of a conspiracy
was imputed, according to the usual forms, to the prostrate tyrant; but
his innocence, and the guilt of his conqueror, [22] are sufficiently
proved by the advantageous treaty which force would not sincerely have
granted, nor weakness have rashly infringed. The jealousy of power,
and the mischiefs of discord, may suggest a more decent apology, and
a sentence less rigorous may be pronounced against a crime which was
necessary to introduce into Italy a generation of public felicity.
The living author of this felicity was audaciously praised in his own
presence by sacred and profane orators; [23] but history (in his time
she was mute and inglorious) has not left any just representation of the
events which displayed, or of the defects which clouded, the virtues of
Theodoric. [24] One record of his fame, the volume of public epistles
composed by Cassiodorus in the royal name, is still extant, and has
obtained more implicit credit than it seems to deserve. [25] They
exhibit the forms, rather than the substance, of his government; and
we should vainly search for the pure and spontaneous sentiments of the
Barbarian amidst the declamation and learning of a sophist, the wishes
of a Roman senator, the precedents of office, and the vague professions,
which, in every court, and on every occasion, compose th