Chap, xxxix] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 183 of Pannonia. 3 The Huns still threatened their revolted sub- jects, but their hasty attack was repelled by the single forces of Walamir, and the news of his victory reached the distant camp of his brother in the same auspicious moment that the favourite concubine of Theodemir was delivered of a son and [Ereiieva] heir. In the eighth year of his age, Theodoric was reluctantly yielded by his father to the public interest, as the pledge of an [Thiuda- i*fiil? ft alliance which Leo, emperor of the East, had consented to-ruierof purchase by an annual subsidy of three hundred pounds of gold, people"] The royal hostage was educated at Constantinople with care and tenderness. His body was formed to all the exercises of war, his mind was expanded by the habits of liberal conversa- tion ; he frequented the schools of the most skilful masters ; but he disdained or neglected the arts of Greece, and so ignor- ant did he always remain of the first elements of science that a rude mark was contrived to represent the signature of the illiterate king of Italy. 4 As soon as he had attained the age of eighteen, he was restored to the wishes of the Ostrogoths, whom the emperor aspired to gain by liberality and confidence. Walamir had fallen in battle ; the youngest of the brothers, [ c . 470 a.d.] Widimir, had led away into Italy and Gaul an army of Bar- barians, and the whole nation acknowledged for their king the father of Theodoric. His ferocious subjects admired the strength and stature of their young prince ; 5 and he soon convinced them that he had not degenerated from the valour of his ancestors. At the head of six thousand volunteers he secretly left the [ C . 471 a.d.] 3 [This division of the kingdom, which we find so often among the Franks, meets us here first among the Goths. Walamir's part seems to have been be- tween the rivers Save and Drave, Widimir' s between the Save and the Plattensee, Theodemir's between the Plattensee and the Danube. Cp. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, iii. p. 14.] 4 The four first letters of his name (0EOA) were inscribed on a gold plate, and when it was fixed on the paper, the king drew his pen through the intervals (Anonym. Valesian. ad calcem Amm. Marcellin. p. 722). This authentic fact, with the testimony of Procopius, or at least of the contemporary Goths (Gothic. 1. i, c. 2, p. 311), far outweighs the vague praises of Ennodius (Sirmond, Opera, torn. i. p. 1596) and Theophanes (Chronograph, p. 112). [The same story is told of the Emperor Justin in the Secret History of Procopius, c. 6. Hodgkin thinks it was transferred from Justin to Theodoric. It might be legitimate to make the reverse supposition, seeing that Procopius was ill disposed to Justin, the Anon. Val. impartial towards Theodoric] Statura est quee resignet proceritate [leg. prolixitate] regnantem (Ennodius, p. 1614 [§ 89 ; p. 214, ed. Vogel]). The bishop of Pavia (I mean the ecclesiastic who wished to be-a bishop) then proceeds to celebrate the complexion, eyes, hands, &c. of his sovereign.
