e has conferred on you perpetual. And
in truth we hope not only to defend but to increase the blessings
wrought by him. All the Goths in the Royal City [Ravenna] have taken
the oaths to us. Do you do the same by this Count whom we send to you.

'Receive then a name which ever brought prosperity to your race, the
royal offshoot of the Amals, the sprout of the Balthae[506], a
childhood clad in purple. Ye are they by whom, with God's help, our
ancestors were borne to such a height of honour, and obtained an ever
higher place amid the serried ranks of kings[507].'

[Footnote 506: 'Amalorum regalem prosapiem, Baltheum germen.' I know
not how Athalaric had any blood of the Balths in his veins. The other
reading, 'blatteum,' gives the same idea as the following clause,
'infantiam purpuratam.']

[Footnote 507: 'Inter tam prolixum ordinem Regum susceperunt semper
augmenta.' Perhaps we should translate 'by such a long line of (Amal)
kings obtained advancement for their nation;' but the meaning is not
very clear.]

6. KING ATHALARIC TO LIBERIUS, PRAETORIAN PRAEFECT OF THE GAULS (A.D.
526).

[Sidenote: To the Governor of Gaul.]

'You will be grieved to hear of the death of our lord and grandfather
of glorious memory, but will be comforted in learning that he is
succeeded by his descendant. Thus, by God's command, did he arrange
matters, associating us as lords in the throne of his royalty, in
order that he might leave his kingdom at peace, and that no revolution
might trouble it after his death.'

[Invitation to take the oath, as in previous letters.]

7. KING ATHALARIC TO ALL THE PROVINCIALS SETTLED IN GAUL (A.D. 526).

[Sidenote: To the Gaulish subjects of Athalaric.]

'Our grandfather of glorious memory is dead, but we have succeeded
him, and will faithfully repay, both on his account and our own, the
loyalty of our subjects.

'So unanimous was the acclamation of our [Italian] subjects when we
succeeded to the throne, that the thing seemed to be of God rather
than of man.

'We now invite you to follow their example, that the Goths may give
their oath to the Romans, and the Romans may confirm it by a
_Sacramentum_ to the Goths, that they are unanimously devoted to our
King.'

'Thus will your loyalty be made manifest, and concord and justice
flourish among you.'

[There is an appearance of mutuality about this oath of allegiance as
between Goths and Romans, not merely by both to Athalaric, which we
have not