, and landscape of Baiae, (Var. ix. 6;
see Cluver Italia Antiq. l. iv. c. 2, p. 1119, &c.,) Istria, (Var. xii.
22, 26,) and Comum, (Var. xi. 14; compare with Pliny's two villas, ix.
7,) are agreeably painted in the Epistles of Cassiodorus.]

[Footnote 73: In Liguria numerosa agricolarum progenies, (Ennodius, p.
1678, 1679, 1680.) St. Epiphanius of Pavia redeemed by prayer or ransom
6000 captives from the Burgundians of Lyons and Savoy. Such deeds are
the best of miracles.]

[Footnote 74: The political economy of Theodoric (see Anonym. Vales.
p. 721, and Cassiodorus, in Chron.) may be distinctly traced under the
following heads: iron mine, (Var. iii. 23;) gold mine, (ix. 3;) Pomptine
marshes, (ii. 32, 33;) Spoleto, (ii. 21;) corn, (i. 34, x. 27, 28, xi.
11, 12;) trade, (vi. 7, vii. 9, 23;) fair of Leucothoe or St. Cyprian in
Lucania, (viii. 33;) plenty, (xii. 4;) the cursus, or public post, (i.
29, ii. 31, iv. 47, v. 5, vi 6, vii. 33;) the Flaminian way, (xii. 18.)
* Note: The inscription commemorative of the draining of the Pomptine
marshes may be found in many works; in Gruter, Inscript. Ant.
Heidelberg, p. 152, No. 8. With variations, in Nicolai De' bonificamenti
delle terre Pontine, p. 103. In Sartorius, in his prize essay on the
reign of Theodoric, and Manse Beylage, xi.--M.]

[Footnote 75: LX modii tritici in solidum ipsius tempore fuerunt, et
vinum xxx amphoras in solidum, (Fragment. Vales.) Corn was distributed
from the granaries at xv or xxv modii for a piece of gold, and the price
was still moderate.]

A difference of religion is always pernicious, and often fatal, to the
harmony of the prince and people: the Gothic conqueror had been educated
in the profession of Arianism, and Italy was devoutly attached to the
Nicene faith. But the persuasion of Theodoric was not infected by
zeal; and he piously adhered to the heresy of his fathers, without
condescending to balance the subtile arguments of theological
metaphysics. Satisfied with the private toleration of his Arian
sectaries, he justly conceived himself to be the guardian of the
public worship, and his external reverence for a superstition which he
despised, may have nourished in his mind the salutary indifference of a
statesman or philosopher. The Catholics of his dominions acknowledged,
perhaps with reluctance, the peace of the church; their clergy,
according to the degrees of rank or merit, were honorably entertained
in the palace of Theodoric; he estee