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II, outline This text has not yet been proofread. If you find a mistake though, please let me know! II.2

H. B. Cotterill
Medieval Italy

CHAPTER I
THEODERIC1

The chief political and military events of Theoderic's life have already been related. In this chapter I shall give some information about his lineage and personality, his character, his legislation and government, his churches, palaces, and other public works, and the legends about his death. One most important item — the fate of Boëthius — will be reserved for the next chapter.

Theoderic belonged to the royal Gothic family of Amala,2 which (according to Jordanes) claimed descent from Capt, one of the demigod ancestors of the race called 'Anses' — evidently the 'Asen' of Scandinavian mythology, the superhuman race that inhabited Asgard, the Garden of the Asen, in the Golden Age. He was, it is said, a direct descendant, in the tenth generation, of Hermanric, the founder of the great Gothic Empire (pp. 30, 35).

When a lad of eight (462) he was sent by his father Theodemir as a hostage to Constantinople, where he lived for ten years — a fact which accounts fully for his sympathies with Roman and Byzantine civilization. Theodemir died in 474, and his only surviving legitimate heir had gone off to Italy and Gaul as a soldier of fortune; Theoderic therefore, though not the son of a legal wife, succeeded his father as the chieftain of the East Goths.

It has already been remarked that the personality of the famous Ostrogoth king has been confused in old German sagas with that of Theoderic the Visigoth, who fell at the great battle on the Catalaunian plains when fighting on the side of Aëtius and the Romans against Attila — an event that took place (451) three years before Theoderic the Great was born. In the Hildebranslied, which is one of the very oldest of the German sagas (Susan note), Theoderic (exiled, according to some accounts, by his ancestor Hermanric, who really died a century earlier) attacked Odovacar in Italy, but was conquered and, together with Hildebrand, took refuge at the court of Attila, with whose aid he finally conquered Odovacar in a fierce battle, the Rabenschlacht, or the Strit vor Rabene (i.e. the Raven-battle, or the Flight before Ravenna). Here of course we have much dislocation of chronology and confusion of persons. And in the ancient German epic, the Nibelungenlied — a grand old poem, which in pathos and the power of simple and direct expression is not unworthy to be compared with Homer — still greater confusion prevails, for Dietrich is here brought on to the stage not only with Etzel (Attila) but with Siegfried, the dragon-slayer of Scandinavian Edda-mythology, a superhuman hero of dim prehistoric times.3 With the Siegfried myth and with Dietrich sagas the poet of the Nibelungenlied has interwoven the terrible massacre of the Burgundians by the Romans under Aëtius and the Huns under Attila, which took place in 437 (see p. 90). Gunther, the king of the Nibelungen — as the Burgundians were called, according to the myth, after they had got possession of the famous Nibelungen hoard — is evidently the Burgundian king Gundocar, who perished in this massacre; but the scene of the tragedy is transported from Burgundy in Gaul to Etzelnburg, the camp and palace of Attila on the Danube.

There is also an old German saga on the subject of Dietrich's death which intimates his mysterious disappearance. This offers an interesting contrast to certain Italian myths on the same subject which I shall ere long relate.

In spite of the ten years spent by Theoderic at Constantinople during the most receptive period of his life, in spite too of his seventeen extant letters (doubtless much emended and polished up by his minister, Cassiodorus), and in spite of many other evidences of his admiration for classic art and literature, some have believed that Theoderic was so illiterate as to have been unable to sign his name. The first four letters of his name, says Gibbon, were inscribed (cut out?) in a plate of gold, and the king drew his pen over the paper through the apertures. But it is possible that this device was only used by him for signing documents with his rather complicated monogram, which is found on some of his coins.4 A metal plate the apertures of which are smeared over with ink or paint is surely a common device for rapidly marking words or signs on wood, linen, or paper.

As we have already seen, the one great ambition of Theoderic was to weld the Goths and Italians into one nation. His efforts were specially directed towards encouraging the civilizing influences of classical art and literature and bringing his fellow-Goths under such influences and under the restraint of constitutional law. In Rome the schools of art, rhetoric, medicine, and law were generously supported by him, as also by his daughter Amalasuntha, who even outdid him in erudition and in her 'Romanizing' predilections. Literary studies became fashionable — partly through the patronage of Romanizing Goths, partly also doubtless as a protest against the illiterate barbarian or against his insolent patronage. Virgil was publicly recited in the forum, classical verse and prose were imitated, and much would-be classical Latin was used in religious and political functions. The letters, rescripts, and other writings of Theoderic's chief Secretary of State, Cassiodorus, and of the senator and philosopher Boëthius, are for their elegant Latinity comparable with the writings of Pliny and Seneca, if not with those of Cicero. The public monuments in Rome and other cities were protected by the institution of a special police and night-watch, by which the Gothic king endeavoured to check the vandalism of the 'Roman' — a title of as bitter contempt as the 'barbarian' or the 'Graeculus esuriens' (Susan note) of earlier days; for the natives of Rome and other Italian cities were much addicted to chopping off the heads and arms of bronze statues5 or wrenching away bronzen plates and fastenings for the sake of the metal. We hear of Theoderic offering a large sum of gold pieces for the recovery of a bronze statue that had been stolen in Como.

And it was not only by preserving the memorials of past civilization that he tried to forward the best interests of both the peoples subject to this rule. He also favoured agriculture, instituted a postal system, regulated fisheries, founded iron factories in Dalmatia, opened a gold-mine in the Abruzzi, and drained large tracts of the Pomptine Marshes.

As regards his actual legislation, perhaps Theoderic was not so wise as the Visigoth Athaulf, who, it will be remembered, declared his conviction that no permanent state was possible for the Goths except one founded on the laws and subject to the constitution of the Empire. It is true that Theoderic nominally assented to the principle that 'laws were made in Constantinople and only edicts in Italy,' and he seems to have fully acquiesced in the fact that, even though he had received the imperial insignia from Anastasius, he was neither an Emperor nor even recognized at the Eastern courts as an hereditary king,6 but only as a 'tyrant'; nevertheless he issued edicts which had all the essentials of Gothic laws for his kingdom, and although he retained the names of the ancient Roman magistracies and paid great respect (at first) to the Roman Senate, and entrusted his distant provinces in Gaul and Sicily to Roman prefects, his power rested solely on his army of Gothic warriors,7 and he really governed through his Gothic military counts (comites) and his privy council of Gothic nobles; for the Senate was now nothing but a dignified and politically powerless assembly of Roman patricians — such a figure-head as the Athenian Areopagus became in the age of Philip of Macedon.

The coins of Theoderic afford an index of his attitude towards the Empire. Gibbon asserts that his image — instead of that of the Emperor — is engraved on his coins, and alleges this as evidence that he 'assumed under a kingly title the whole substance and plenitude of imperial prerogative.' On the other hand, Villari states that 'only the Emperor could coin money with his own portrait,' and leads one to infer that Theoderic never assumed the prerogative of placing his own image on a coin. The truth seems to be that he did sometimes stamp his own effigy even on gold coins, thus assuming an exclusively imperial prerogative, for one such coin has been discovered; but in Gibbon's day this fact was unknown, seeing that this coin (for which see p. 118) was only found in 1894.

His most important edict (Edictum Theoderici) consisted of 154 articles. These were founded on Roman law modified by Christian sentiment. Nominally the Italians were allowed to retain their legal rights, and were safeguarded against illegalities on the part of the Goths, while the Goths were under the military régime of the counts; but this dual legislation could not but result in great friction between the military and the civil authorities and in the subordination of the latter; for the dominant military caste of arrogant barbarians naturally overrode all equity, and Italians were not allowed to bear arms, except as mercenaries in the Gothic ranks; they were regarded as useful shopkeepers and mechanics and artists and physicians, and were much employed for collecting tribute from their fellow-countrymen. The land was to a great extent given over to the Gothic soldiery, who ousted the veterans of Odovacar from their estates.

Thus Theoderic's attempt to fuse into one the two nations produced, as it was bound to produce, intense hostility and embitterment. This caused him more and more to assume an absolute and tyrannical attitude. Finally religious fanaticism added its venom to racial enmity. Then his innate savagery, roused by opposition, proved uncontrollable.

Thus we are led to the last unhappy years of his reign-to the deaths of Boëthius and Symmachus, whose tragic fates will be related elsewhere — and to the death of Theoderic himself, which took place some two years later.

The terror and abhorrence excited in many minds by the gloomy and ferocious personality of the heretical barbarian king in his latter days were doubtless the origin of the numerous uncanny stories told about his death.8 Procopius relates the following, which is almost as 'creepy' as the banquet-scene in Macbeth. It was shortly after Pope John had died in Ravenna prison, not long after the death of Boëthius — strangled in the most cruel fashion imaginable — and of Symmachus, the father-in‑law of Boëthius and the head of the Roman Senate, whom Theoderic had caused to be executed — probably strangled — without any trial. There was a banquet being held in the palace at Ravenna, and a plate was set in front of the king containing a great fish. Its protruding eyes and gaping mouth — like those of a strangled man — inspired Theoderic with such terror that shuddering he rose from his seat and, leaving the discomfited guests, retired to his bed — where violent ague and dysentery soon caused his death. Another story, which Pope Gregory the Great did not feel ashamed to relate with all seriousness in his Dialogues, asserted that a collector of taxes who touched at the island of Lipari was told by a hermit that Theoderic was dead. 'Surely not!' exclaimed the tax-gatherer. 'I left him quite well a short time since.' 'Ay, but I saw him just now,' replied the hermit. 'He was being dragged along with fettered hands by demons in the presence of Pope John and Symmachus in order to be cast into the crater of our volcano.' A third story, current at Ravenna in later times, stated that, in order to prevent the fulfilment of a prophecy that threatened him with death by lightning, Theoderic roofed his mausoleum with one enormous concave disk of stone, and always took refuge under it during thunderstorms; but the lightning pierced the mighty mass and killed him, leaving the great stone split to its very centre — as may be seen by everyone to‑day!

Theoderic's Mausoleum, built by himself (possibly finished by Amalasuntha), consists of a massive ten-sided arched substructure surmounted by a round edifice, once surrounded by a colonnade, and still roofed with the huge monolith above mentioned, which forms a shallow dome, thirty-six feet in diameter, and weighing probably not much less than five hundred tons. How this immense mass was raised to its present position it is difficult to say — if it was not by magic, aided perhaps by huge cranes and ropes passed through the strange protuberances of the mighty stone. (Susan note-Does Bill have a picture?) The upper part of the building, originally the chapel of the Mausoleum, was reconsecrated — 'reconciled' — as a Catholic church (Sta. Maria della Rotonda) after Ravenna was captured by Belisarius (540), and had come again (549) into the hands of the Byzantines and Catholics.9 It is believed by some that the urn or sarcophagus of Theoderic stood on four small columns on the top of the roof; by others that an empty urn or stone coffin (a cenotaph) stood there, but that the sarcophagus with the body stood in the substructure. However that may be, it seems almost certain that the bones of the Arian king were either burnt and dispersed, or else secretly stolen away and buried by monks who were anxious to prove the story of the fiends and the Lipari volcano. Anyhow, they seem to have suddenly disappeared; and perhaps the strangest part of the whole business it the fact that in 1854 what was believed to be Theoderic's skeleton (formerly stolen by monks) was discovered by some masons in the old cemetery of Cenceda, near the city wall, and that it once more disappeared (evidently this time carried off by fiends!), together with a golden ornament — Villari says a golden cuirass — that, curiously enough, the monks failed to appropriate. As a set-off to all these stories it should be remarked that Jordanes, who was himself a Goth, is silent about them and does not even intimate that Theoderic felt any pricks of conscience or pangs of remorse. Indeed he pictures him on his death-bed surrounded by his family and his Gothic nobles and laying his hand on the head of the little Athalaric, whom, together with his mother Amalasuntha, he surrenders to their loyalty and affection, recommending them also to love and respect the Roman people and the Roman Senate and 'to cherish the friendship and favour of the Eastern Emperor above all else except the love of God.'

The palaces, churches, and other public buildings erected by Theoderic were evidently very numerous. He built, or rebuilt, aqueducts at Rome (the Aqua Claudia and others). at Terracina, Spoleto, Parma, Trient, and Ravenna (the Trajana); amphitheatres and thermae at Pavia and other places; city walls at Verona and at Rome; basilicas at Ravenna, Rome, Capua, Naples, Spoleto (where some beautiful relics of the ancient S. Agostino del Crocifisso are certainly Ostrogothic), and doubtless at his favorite Verona, and at Pavia; palaces at Rome — where he rebuilt parts of the Domus of the Caesars; at Terracina — if the very extensive ruins are really Ostrogothic; at Monza — where afterwards Queen Theodelinda,

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Picture of an old seal showing the Castle of Theoderic at Verona

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according to Paul the Deacon, 'restored Theoderic's summer-palace'; at Pavia — where the Ravennate chronicler Agnellus afterwards saw the Gothic king on his war-steed depicted in mosaic on the vault of the Tribunal of his great palace; at Verona — where, on the site now occupied by the Castello San Pietro, may perhaps be recognized relics of a palace10 of Theoderic that is delineated on an old Verona seal. Lastly, at Ravenna there still exists an edifice known as Theoderic's Palace. It is close to his splendid basilica, and one may feel certain that it once formed a part of the royal buildings, but Professor Ricci and other experts consider that it dates from a later age, and that the great palace of Theoderic stood somewhat nearer the city walls, amidst what are now the public gardens below S. Apollinare Nuovo, where foundations and pavements have been excavated. We are told by Agnellus that it commanded a view of the sea — which, however, was then much nearer the city — and that it was surrounded by fine gardens and adorned with splendid mosaics and statues; and he describes a mosaic (or relief?) of Theoderic on horseback somewhat similar to that which he saw at Pavia. This palace was despoiled by Belisarius (540) and by the Lombards, but many of its splendid marbles and works of art remained intact until Charles the Great transported them to Aachen (Aix-la‑Chapelle) to decorate his palace and the cathedral which he was erecting after the model of S. Vitale.

Besides his Mausoleum and the relics of his palace Ravenna still possesses, in a wonderful state of preservation, a very beautiful and wonderfully decorated building erected by Theoderic — the basilica, now called S. Apollinare Nuovo, which he built in connexion with his palace. When (in 493) he first captured the city, which had been held so long by Odovacar, the existing churches were probably those which I have already mentioned in connexion with Galla Placidia (p. 92). These churches all belonged to the Catholics, and it seems that at first Theoderic contented himself with appropriating, and perhaps rebuilding for his Arians, the church of S. Teodoro11 and converting the adjacent Roman bath into a baptistery, which is known to‑day as the Battistero degli Ariani. Later, as we already know, he answered Justin's order to close all Arian churches by shutting up or converting to Arian service all Catholic churches, and the so‑called 'Arian cross' was doubtless to be seen in all the churches of Ravenna.12 His special basilica — the cathedral probably of his Arian bishops — was the church, already mentioned, which he built in connexion with his palace, bringing many splendid marble columns from Rome for this purpose. It was consecrated to Jesus Christ, and retained that denomination until it was 'purged' and 'reconciled' to Catholic use by Archbishop Agnellus (c. 560). It then received the name of Sanctus Martinus in Caelo aureo (the

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Classe, Ravenna

Mosaic in S. Apollinare Nuovo

'golden heaven,' as in other cases, referring to a gilded roof). About 800 it was rechristened as S. Apollinare and distinguished from the other magnificent basilica of that name, which had been built on the spot where the saint13 had suffered martyrdom just outside the walls of Ravenna's harbour-town (then 'Classis'), by being called S. Apollinare Nuovo, or Dentro ('Within').

Besides its beautiful antique (Roman) marble columns crowned with capitals of white marble carved into delicate foliage and basket-work in Byzantine style and surmounted by the Byzantine 'dosseret' or 'pulvino' — a sort of second capital — the basilica possesses very special value and attraction on account of the resplendent and most interesting mosaics with which both sides of the nave are covered. Above the clerestory windows on one side are depicted thirteen miracles of Christ and on the other thirteen scenes from His Passion — the absence of the Crucifixion being characteristic of earlier

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THEODERIC'S PALACE AT RAVENNA Mosaic in S. Apollinare Nuovo

Christian art, which shrank from the representation of the agony of the dying Saviour.

Between the windows are delineated on a large scale figures of prophets and saints, many of them of great dignity. All these clerestory mosaics date from the reign of Theoderic, and show, especially in the varied attitudes, beautifully designed and shaded drapery, and finely graduated colouring of the grand figures of prophets and saints, the characteristics of the Roman as contrasted with the Byzantine school of art. Still more magnificent are the mosaics which on both sides of the nave fill the space between the summits of the arches and the clerestory windows. On one side is depicted the Saviour enthroned amidst four angels — a majestic group — approached by twenty-five martyrs, at the further end of which procession stands the palace of Theoderic. On the other side is the Virgin with the Child, enthroned likewise between four angels and approached by the three Magi followed by twenty-two virgins, and at the further end is a picture of the walled town and the harbour of Classe. Now it seems quite certain (for reasons that will be given in a later chapter on Byzantine art) that these processions of virgins and martyrs are of later date than the rest of the mosaics, and that when the church was 'purged' for Catholic use they were inserted in the place of the original mosaics put up by Theoderic, which probably represented the king on horseback and various processions of Gothic nobles and warriors. In the picture of the palace the spaces of the arches are now filled by representations of curtains, evidently intended to hide the figures of Theoderic himself (under the main portal) and of his courtiers or warriors — an intention not entirely fulfilled, for here and there one can trace a dim outline of a human form, and from behind more than one of the curtains is to be seen a hand projecting and clasping the column of the arch.

One more fact in this connexion is of historical interest. In the background of the palace and also of the walls of Classe are depicted numerous buildings, some of them most evidently basilicas and others baptisteries. One cannot of course expect strict accuracy in representation, but it is not likely that these buildings are imaginative. I think we may be pretty sure that we have here rough delineations of the old Ursian cathedral and the adjacent Baptistery (still extant) and probably of the original S. Giovanni Evangelista, built by Galla Placidia, or of S. Teodoro, rebuilt by Theoderic, and of the Battistero degli Ariani — all of which edifices I have described elsewhere. It will be noticed that there is no sign of any campanile as yet existing. There is also of course no sign of the two magnificent Ravenna churches S. Vitale and S. Apollinare in Classe, which were erected, or finished, during the somewhat later period of the Gothic War and the Byzantine supremacy (c. 535‑50), and will be described in the chapter that treats of Justinian.

LINEAGE OF THEODERIC THE GREAT

Theodemir (or Dietmar)

(one of three brothers of the regal Amala family)

________________________________

 Theoderic (454‑526) Amalafrida

m. Theodemunda?  m. Audefleda m. Thrasamund,

dt. of Clovis king of Vandals;
______________  killed by Hilderic

 c. 527



Theudegotha Ostrogotha Amalasuntha Theodahad

m. Alaric II. m. Sigismund m. Eutharic [possibly by second

king of Visigoths of Burgundy marriage of his

Athalaric mother with a Goth14]


THE VANDAL KINGS

Visimar

(killed in war with Constantius I, c. 305)

* * * *

Godegisel

(killed by Franks, c. 406)

* * * *

Gunderic, 409‑27

Gaiseric (Genseric), 427‑77

Hunneric, 477‑84

(m. Eudocia, dt. of Valentinian III)

Gunthamund, 484‑96

Thrasamund, 496‑523

(m. Amalafrida, Theoderic's sister)

Hilderic, 523‑31

Gelimer, 531‑34

(captured by Belisarius)

* The forms 'Theoderic' and 'Theodatus' (for Theodahad) are assimilations to the Greek and Roman 'Theōdorus' and 'Deōdatus.' Procopius writes (ACCENT-Greek font), and doubtless Theuderic is nearest the Gothic. Compare Theudemir, Theudebald, Theudelinda, etc. Theude must be, I think, the Gothic thiuda (folk, people), which in O.G. is diut. Hence thiudsk (tedesco), diut-sch or deutsch, means the people's language, as distinguished from Latin and Romance. Diut-rich (Dietrich), or Theode-ric, would thus mean 'Prince of the people.' For -ric see p. 30 n. See also Theoderic's gold coin, Plate I, 18, and explanation, p. 118.

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2 Amala is said to mean 'Might.' In the Nibelungenlied (which is founded on very old sagas, though the poem as we have it took form only about 1200) Dietrich von Bern, son of Dietmar (i.e. Theoderic of Verona, son of Theodemir), is called der Amelunge, and his men are die Amelungen. Verona, not Ravenna, is regarded in German sagas as Dietrich's capital. He had, as we shall see, a palace there. Medieval legend gives him the Arena as his residence! As I know of no other edition of the Nibelungenlied with English annotations (though others probably exist), perhaps I may refer to my modernized Extracts given in two booklets (price 6d.) published by Messrs. Blackie and Son.

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3 In other sagas Dietrich is evidently confused with Siegfried himself. He possesses magical powers and slays dragons.

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4 Such monograms occur on coins of Theodosius, Justinian, and other Emperors, as well as on some of Odovacar (Plate 1, coin 17), Athalaric, Baduila, Liutprand, etc., and on coins of cities, as Ravenna and Lucca. Theoderic's monogram ('Theodorus') is generally of this form: (Susan note)

(Insert monogram picture)

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5 In spite of all the ravages of Goths and Vandals there was still in Rome, says Cassiodorus, a multitudinous 'people' of statues and 'droves' of (bronzen) horses.

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6 Procopius, however, zealous anti-Goth though he was, says: 'Theoderic loved justice. He was nominally a tyrant, but really a king.' Moreover an inscription found in the Pomptine Marshes, a part of which Theoderic drained, gives him the title 'semper Augustus,' and in one of his later rescripts he gives himself the imperial title 'Romanus princeps.'

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7 In the army there were also Romans, but they seemed to glory in the privilege of being called Goths!

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8 His mysterious disappearance — like the passing of King Arthur — to which allusion is made in German sagas, is of course not due to abhorrence, but to the Germanic conception of him as a great hero.

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9 Later it was the chapel of the Benedictine monastery in the vicinity, probably often visited by Peter the Sinner (Dante, Par. xxi), whose monastery was not far off. It was also for centuries used as the Pantheon, or S. Croce, of Ravenna, and was surrounded by many tombs.

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10 The seal bears as legend (not given in the picture) the motto conferred on the city by Frederick Barbarossa after the Peace of Constance. It cannot therefore date before 1183. But the palace is known to have existed long after the time of Theoderic, and to have been used by the Lombard and Carolingian kings and (as a fort) as late as 1400. It was demolished in 1801. The building in the foreground is a portico in connexion with the city walls. The dome and pointed towers are probably Carolingian.

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11 Given back to the Catholics after 540 and rechristened as Spirito Santo, Theoderic's Arian Baptistery being then changed into a church by additions. At present nothing remains of it but the cupola, in the centre of which is a very fine mosaic of Christ's baptism and the twelve Apostles.

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12 It is shaped something like the 'Maltese cross,' and may be seen still at Ravenna, though later it was, of course, almost exterminated.

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13 Apollinaris, the patron saint of Ravenna, was a disciple and friend of St. Peter, and was sent by him to evangelize North Italy. He was beaten to death by a heathen mob.

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14 So stated by Villari. But Thrasamund died in 523, and Theodahad at his accession (534) would thus have been only about ten years old. Thrasamund was therefore probably his father.