gus, the eastern powers were defeated by the
inferior forces of the Goths and Huns; the flower and even the hope
of the Roman armies was irretrievably destroyed; and such was the
temperance with which Theodoric had inspired his victorious troops,
that, as their leader had not given the signal of pillage, the rich
spoils of the enemy lay untouched at their feet. Exasperated by this
disgrace, the Byzantine court despatched two hundred ships and eight
thousand men to plunder the sea-coast of Calabria and Apulia: they
assaulted the ancient city of Tarentum, interrupted the trade and
agriculture of a happy country, and sailed back to the Hellespont, proud
of their piratical victory over a people whom they still presumed to
consider as their _Roman_ brethren. Their retreat was possibly hastened
by the activity of Theodoric; Italy was covered by a fleet of a thousand
light vessels, which he constructed with incredible despatch; and his
firm moderation was soon rewarded by a solid and honorable peace. He
maintained, with a powerful hand, the balance of the West, till it was
at length overthrown by the ambition of Clovis; and although unable to
assist his rash and unfortunate kinsman, the king of the Visigoths, he
saved the remains of his family and people, and checked the Franks in
the midst of their victorious career. I am not desirous to prolong or
repeat this narrative of military events, the least interesting of the
reign of Theodoric; and shall be content to add, that the Alemanni were
protected, that an inroad of the Burgundians was severely chastised, and
that the conquest of Arles and Marseilles opened a free communication
with the Visigoths, who revered him as their national protector, and
as the guardian of his grandchild, the infant son of Alaric. Under
this respectable character, the king of Italy restored the praetorian
praefecture of the Gauls, reformed some abuses in the civil government
of Spain, and accepted the annual tribute and apparent submission of its
military governor, who wisely refused to trust his person in the palace
of Ravenna. The Gothic sovereignty was established from Sicily to the
Danube, from Sirmium or Belgrade to the Atlantic Ocean; and the Greeks
themselves have acknowledged that Theodoric reigned over the fairest
portion of the Western empire.

The union of the Goths and Romans might have fixed for ages the
transient happiness of Italy; and the first of nations, a new people of
free subject