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188 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxix traitor, the enemy of his blood and nation. " Are you ignorant," exclaimed the son of Triarius, "that it is the constant policy of the Eomans to destroy the Goths by each other's swords? Are you insensible that the victor in this unnatural contest will be exposed, and justly exposed, to their implacable revenge? Where are those warriors, my kinsmen and thy own, whose widows now lament that their lives were sacrificed to thy rash ambition? Where is the wealth which thy soldiers possessed when they were first allured from their native homes to enlist under thy standard ? Each of them was then master of three or four horses ; they now follow thee on foot like slaves, through the deserts of Thrace ; those men who were tempted by the hope of measuring gold with a bushel, those brave men who are as free and as noble as thyself." A language so well suited to the temper of the Goths excited clamour and discontent ; and the son of Theodemir, apprehensive of being left alone, was compelled to embrace his brethren, and to imitate the example of Roman perfidy. 15 He under- In every state of his fortune, the prudence and firmness of conquest Theodoric were equally conspicuous ; whether he threatened a.d. 489 Constantinople at the head of the confederate Goths, or retreated with a faithful band to the mountains and sea-coast of Epirus. [a.d. 48i] At length the accidental death of the son of Triarius 16 destroyed the balance which the Romans had been so anxious to preserve, the whole nation acknowledged the supremacy of the Amali, and the Byzantine court subscribed an ignominious and oppressive treaty. 17 The senate had already declared that it was necessary to choose a party among the Goths, since the public was unequal to the support of their united forces ; a subsidy of two thousand pounds of gold, with the ample pay of thirteen thousand men, 15 Jornandes (c. 56, 57, p. 696) displays the services of Theodoric, confesses his rewards, but dissembles his revolt, of which such curious details have been preserved by Malchus (Excerpt. Legat. p. 78-97 [fr. 11, 15, 16, ed. Miiller]). Marcellinus, a domestic of Justinian [he seems to have been a cancellarius of Justinian when he was magister militum in Justin's reign ; Mommsen, Chron. Min., ii. p. 41], under whose fourth consulship (a.d. 534) he composed his Chronicle (Scaliger, Thesaurus Temporum, P. ii. p. 34-57), betrays his prejudice and passion : in GrsBciam debacohantem . . . Zenonis niunificentia pene pacatus . . . beneficiis nunquam satiatus, <fcc. 16 As he was riding in his own camp, an unruly horse threw him against the point of a spear which hung before a tent, or was fixed on a waggon (Marcellin. in Chron., Evagrius, 1. iii. c. 25). 17 See Malchus (p. 91) and Evagrius (1. iii. c. 25).