Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/248

214 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxix were exhausted by public and private rapine; and Boethius alone had courage to oppose the tyranny of the Barbarians, elated by conquest, excited by avarice, and, as he complains, encouraged by impunity. In these honourable contests, his spirit soared above the consideration of danger, and perhaps of prudence ; and we may learn from the example of Cato that a character of pure and inflexible virtue is the most apt to be misled by prejudice, to be heated by enthusiasm, and to con- found private enmities with public justice. The disciple of Plato might exaggerate the infirmities of nature and the imperfections of society ; and the mildest form of a Gothic kingdom, even the weight of allegiance and gratitude, must be insupportable to the free spirit of a Roman patriot. But the favour and fidelity of Boethius declined in just proportion with the public happi- ness ; and an unworthy colleague was imposed, to divide and control the power of the master of the offices. In the last gloomy season of Theodoric, he indignantly felt that he was a slave ; but, as his master had only power over his life, he stood without arms and without fear against the face of an angry Barbarian, who had been provoked to believe that the safety He is of the senate was incompatible with his own. The senator treason ° Albinus was accused and already convicted on the presumption of hoping, as it was said, the liberty of Rome. "If Albinus be criminal," exclaimed the orator, " the senate and myself are all guilty of the same crime. If we are innocent, Albinus is equally entitled to the protection of the laws." These laws might not have punished the simple and barren wish of an unattainable blessing; but they would have shewn less indul- gence to the rash confession of Boethius that, had he known of a conspiracy, the tyrant never should. 107 The advocate of Al- binus was soon involved in the danger and perhaps the guilt of his client ; their signature (which they denied as a forgery) was affixed to the original address, inviting the emperor to deliver Italy from the Goths ; and three witnesses of honourable rank, perhaps of infamous reputation, attested the treasonable designs of the Roman patrician. 108 Yet his innocence must be presumed, 107 Si ego scissem tu nescisses. Boethius adopts this answer (1. i. pros. 4, p. 53) of Julius Canus, whose philosophic death is desoribed by Seneca (De Tranquilli- tate Animi, c. 14). 108 The characters of his two delators, Basilius (Var. ii. 10, 11 ; iv. 22) and Opilio (v. 41 ; viii. 16), are illustrated, not much to their honour, in the epistles of