Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/221

Chap, xxxix] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 187 flames of war from Constantinople to the Adriatic ; many flourishing cities were reduced to ashes, and the agriculture of Thrace was almost extirpated by the wanton cruelty of the Goths, who deprived their captive peasants of the right hand that guided the plough. 13 On such occasions, Theodoric sus- tained the loud and specious reproach of disloyalty, of ingrati- tude, and of insatiate avarice, which could be only excused by the hard necessity of his situation. He reigned, not as the monarch, but as the minister of a ferocious people, whose spirit was unbroken by slavery, and impatient of real or imaginary insults. Their poverty was incurable ; since the most liberal donatives were soon dissipated in wasteful luxury, and the most fertile estates became barren in their hands ; they despised, but they envied, the laborious provincials ; and, when their subsist- ence had failed, the Ostrogoths embraced the familiar resources of war and rapine. It had been the wish of Theodoric (such at least was his declaration) to lead a peaceful, obscure, obedient life, on the confines of Scythia, till the Byzantine court, by splendid and fallacious promises, seduced him to attack a confederate tribe of Goths, who had been engaged in the party of Basiliscus. He marched from his station in Msesia, on the solemn assurance that before he reached Hadrianople he should meet a plentiful convoy of provisions and a reinforcement of eight thousand horse and thirty thousand foot, while the legions of Asia were encamped at Heraclea to second his operations. These measures were disappointed by mutual jealousy. As he advanced into Thrace, the son of Theodemir found an inhospit- able solitude, and his Gothic followers, with an heavy train of horses, of mules, and of waggons, were betrayed by their guides among the rocks and precipices of Mount Sondis, 14 where be was assaulted by the arms and invectives of Theodoric the son of Triarius. From a neighbouring height, his artful rival [a-d. 478] harangued the camp of the Walamirs, and branded their leader with the opprobrious names of child, of madman, of perjured 13 This cruel practice is specially imputed to the Triarian Goths, less barbarous, as it should seem, than the Walamirs ; but the son of Theodemir is charged with the ruin of many Roman cities (Malchus Excerpt. Leg. p. 95). [This is the right interpretation of the words of Malchus, x^pa* re airori^vaiv a/j.a r§ 'Ap/xari^. He does not mean " cutting off the hands of Harmatius," but that in mutilating the peasants his conduct resembled that of Harmatius. Malch. p. 120, ed. Muller.] 14 [The site of this mountain is unknown.]