ds beneath the
recovered might of the king _de jure_.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XV.

AMALASUENTHA.

Accession of the Emperor Justinian--His place in history--Overthrow of
the Vandal kingdom in Africa by Belisarius--Battles of Ad Decimum and
Tricamaron--Belisarius' triumph--Fall of the Burgundian kingdom--Death
of Amalaric, king of Spain--Amalasuentha's troubles with her subjects as
to her son's education--Secret negotiations with Justinian--Death of
Athalaric--Theodahad made partner in the throne--Murder of
Amalasuentha--Justinian declares war.

[Illustration: O]

Our special subject, the life of Theodoric, is ended, but so closely was
the king identified with the people that the narration can hardly close
without a sketch of the fortunes of the Ostrogothic nation during the
generation which followed his death. I shall not attempt any detailed
history of this period, but shall draw merely its broadest outlines.

Notwithstanding the melancholy and apparently threatening circumstances
which attended the death of Theodoric, his descendants succeeded to his
power without a contest. In Spain, his grandson, Amalaric, who had
probably by this time attained his majority, was hailed as king of the
Visigoths. In Italy, Athalaric, now barely ten years old, became the
nominal ruler, the real powers being exercised by his widowed mother,
Amalasuentha, who was guided more implicitly than her father had been by
the counsel of Cassiodorus, and availed herself of his fertile pen for
the proclamations in which she addressed the subjects of her son. In
writing to the Roman Senate, Cassiodorus made his child-sovereign
enlarge on the felicity of the country in which the accession of a new
ruler could take place without war or sedition or loss of any kind to
the republic. "On account of the unsurpassed glory of the Amal race, the
promise of my youth has been preferred to the merits of all others. The
chiefs, glorious in council and in war, have flocked to recognise me as
King, so gladly that it seems like a Divine inspiration, and the kingdom
has been changed as one changes a garment. The general consent of Goths
and Romans has crowned one King, and they have confirmed their
allegiance by an oath. You, though distant from my person, are as near
to me in heart as they, and I therefore call on you to follow their
example. We all know that the most excellent fathers of