pension of
six thousand _soldi_, and Odoacer reigned as the first king of Italy;
the western empire, as such, was at an end.

And the senate addressed, by unanimous decree, to the emperor Zeno in
Constantinople an epistle, in which they disclaimed "the necessity, or
even the wish, of continuing any longer the imperial succession in
Italy, since, in their opinion, the majesty of a sole monarch is
sufficient to pervade and protect at the same time both East and West.
In their own name and in the name of the people they consent to the
seat of universal empire being transferred from Rome to
Constantinople, and they renounce the right of choosing their master.
They further state that the republic (they repeat that name without a
blush) might safely confide in the civil and military virtues of
Odoacer; and they humbly request that the emperor would invest him
with the title of patrician and the administration of the _diocese_ of
Italy."

And Odoacer sent the diadem and the purple robe, the imperial ensigns,
the sacred ornaments of the throne and palace to Byzantium and
received thence the title of patrician.

VI

THEODORIC

We may well ask what was the condition of Ravenna when the western
empire fell and Odoacer made himself king of Italy. And by the
greatest of good fortune we can answer that question. For we have a
fairly vivid account of Ravenna from the hand of Sidonius Apollinaris
who passed through the city on his way to Rome in 467.

Ravenna had been the chief city of Italy during the seventy years of
revolution and administrative disaster and decay which had followed
the incursion of Alaric. For the greater part of that period she had
been the seat of the emperors and of their government, and it is
perhaps for reasons such as these that we find, after all, but little
change in her condition. She does not seem to have suffered much decay
since Honorius retreated upon her.

"It is difficult," Sidonius tells us, "to say whether the old city of
Ravenna is separated from the new port or joined to it by the Via
Caesaris which lies between them. Above the town the Po is divided
into two streams, of which one washes its walls and the other passes
through its streets. The whole river has been diverted from its true
channel by means of large mounds thrown across it at the public
expense, and being thus drawn off into channels marked out for it, so
divides its waters, that they offer protection to the walls w