ic a fuller kingship, perhaps more of a territorial and less of a
tribal sovereignty than he had possessed when he was wandering with his
followers over the passes of the Balkans.

[Footnote 62: Gothi sibi confirmaverunt regem Theodericum, non expectata
jussione novi principis (Anastasii).--Anon. Vales., 57.]

Though Theodoric had not consulted the Emperor before taking this step,
he sent an ambassador, again Faustus, who now held the important post of
"Master of the Offices",[63] to Constantinople, probably in order to
give a formal notification of his self-assumed accession of dignity.[64]

[Footnote 63: The _Magister Officiorum_, who was at the head of the
civil service of the Empire (or Kingdom), combined some of the duties of
our Home Secretary with some of those of the Secretary for Foreign
Affairs.]

[Footnote 64: Faustus was accompanied by another nobleman--Irenaeus. We
are not definitely informed of the object of their mission, but may
fairly infer it from the date of their departure.]

No messages or embassies, however, could yet soothe the wounded pride of
Anastasius. There was deep resentment at the Eastern Court, and for
three or four years there seems to have been a rupture of diplomatic
relations between Constantinople and Ravenna. At length, in the year
497, Theodoric sent another ambassador, Festus, (also an eminent Roman
noble and Chief of the Senate,) to Anastasius. This messenger, more
successful than his predecessor, "made peace with Anastasius concerning
Theodoric's premature assumption of royalty, and brought back all the
ornaments of the palace which Odovacar had transmitted to
Constantinople".[65]

[Footnote 65: Anon. Valesii.]

(497) This final ratification of the Ostrogoth's sovereignty in Italy is
so vaguely described to us that it is difficult to see how much it may
have implied. Probably it was to a certain extent convenient to both
parties that it should be left vague. The Emperor would not abandon any
hope, however shadowy, of one day winning back full possession of "the
Hesperian kingdom". The King might hope that, in the course of years or
generations, he himself, or his descendants, might sever the last link
of dependence on Constantinople, perhaps might one day establish
themselves as full-blown Emperors of Rome. The claims thus left in
vagueness were the seeds of future difficulties, and bore fruit forty
years later in a bloody and desolating war, but meanwhile the position,