on. It is possible
that this conspiracy indicates the discontent of the old Gothic nobility
with the increasing tendency to copy Roman civilisation and to assume
Imperial prerogatives which they observed in the king who had once been
little more than chief among a band of comrades. But we have not
sufficient information as to this conspiracy to enable us to fix its
true place in the history of Theodoric, nor can we even say with
confidence that it was directed against the king and not against one of
his ministers. The result alone is certain. Odoin's treachery was
discovered and he was beheaded in the Sessorian palace, a building which
probably stood upon the patrimony of Constantine, hard by the southern
wall of Rome, and near to the spot where we now see the Church of Santa
Croce.

At the request of the people, the words of Theodoric's harangue on his
entrance into the City were engraved on a brazen tablet, which was fixed
in a place of public resort, perhaps the Roman Forum. Even so did the
_Joyeuse Entree_ of a Burgundian duke into Brussels confirm and
commemorate the privileges of his good subjects the citizens of
Brabant. Upon the whole, there can be little doubt that the half-year
which Theodoric spent in Rome was really a time of joyfulness both to
prince and people, and that the tiles which are still occasionally
turned up by the spade in Rome, bearing the inscription "Domino Nostro
Theodorico Felix Roma", were not merely the work of official flatterers,
but did truly express the joy of a well-governed nation. After six
months Theodoric returned to that city, which, during the last thirty
years of his life, he probably regarded as his home--Ravenna by the
Adriatic,--and there he delighted the heart of his subjects by the
pageants which celebrated the marriage of his niece Amalaberga with
Hermanfrid, the king of the distant Thuringians. This young prince, whom
Theodoric had adopted as his "son by right of arms" [118] had sent to
his future kinsman a team of cream-coloured horses of a rare breed,[119]
and Theodoric sent in return horses, swords and shields, and other
instruments of war, but, as he said, "the greatest requital that we make
is joining you in marriage to a woman of such surpassing beauty as our
niece".

[Footnote 118: Filius per arma.]

[Footnote 119: Perhaps it might be safe to call these horses cobs; but
let Cassiodorus describe their points. They were "horses of a silvery
colour, as nuptial h