dedicating three treatises to me
These tracts were De figuris numerorum, De metris fabularum Terentianis, and Praeexercitamina.
another geriatric emperor
It was an age of redoubtable old men living active or productive lives extending far beyond the biblical span: Anastasius, who died aged eighty-eight; Justinian, at eighty-two still working in his study; Liberius, commanding troops not long before his death at eighty-nine; Cassiodorus — still writing at ninety-three — who lived to be a hundred, and whose life (468–568) encompassed both the Western Empire’s fall and its partial restitution under Justinian; Narses, Justinian’s general, who, aged eighty, took Verona from the Ostrogoths, and who died in 575, aged ninety-five.
Amal pedigree has. . had to be concocted
This was actually carried out by Cassiodorus (not acknowledged in the text for reasons connected with plot development), who, digging in Ammianus Marcellinus, barefacedly added the heroic Ermanaric (who ritually committed suicide following his defeat by the Huns) to the Amal family tree, then attached Eutharic’s line to him. Ermanaric was actually a Visigoth, not an Ostrogoth, but Cassiodorus was not going to let a piffling distinction like that deter him. ‘Creative genealogy’ is not, it would appear, a modern phenomenon, but was alive and well in the sixth century.
especially should the couple have a son
Which they duly did. Their offspring, Athalaric, succeeded Theoderic while still a child, Eutharic having already died in mysterious circumstances.
Chapter 32
Theoderic felt his heart swell with pride
There is no evidence that Theoderic visited Rome again subsequent to his extended stay in 500. But, considering the symbolic importance of Eutharic’s consulship as a gesture of imperial approval for Theoderic’s own rule and his son-in-law as his successor, it would have been fitting, to say the least, for him to have been present at the investiture. So having him attend is not, hopefully, stretching possibility too far. As for Eutharic himself, the records are scanty and contradictory. According to Cassiodorus, he was old; but Jordanes maintains he was youthful and attractive (‘wholesome in body’). Some sources say he was a Visigoth, others an Amal (i.e., an Ostrogoth), while Wolfram refers to him as a ‘Visigothic Amal’ — a contradiction in terms, surely. Eutharic is certainly a Germanic name, but Cilliga is not; so his ethnic origins seem far from clear. Altogether, a man of mystery. Taking all this into account, I think it was legitimate for me to select those components which seemed best suited to the story.
patterned in a wondrous raised design
Pop-eyed, they stare out at us, those late Roman consuls, from the ivory covers of their consular diptychs, with their page-boy bob haircuts and robes of ‘wondrous design’, consular baton in left hand, mappa raised in right, ready to start the Games. (Cassiodorus’ description of the robe as ‘palm-enwoven’ may refer to the raised lines of the patterns of rectangles, flowers, etc., perhaps suggestive of the ribs and stem of palm-fronds?) Could their expressions of stoic alarm hint at uncertainty about the survival of their institution? (The last Western consul was appointed for the year 530, the last Eastern, nine years later.) Or perhaps they merely indicate concern about their ability to pay the enormous expenses incurred by giving the Games.
the roar from the Circus Maximus
Roman chariot-racing was big business, involving a vast network of organizations run by huge corporations with thousands of stockholders. It’s ironic to think that the colossal enterprise survived (in attenuated form) the collapse of the Western Empire, only to fizzle out (in Rome, not Constantinople) under that empire’s partial restitution by Justinian.
the last Western Emperor
What happened to Romulus — nicknamed, with affectionate contempt, Romulus ‘Augustulus’ — little emperor’ — after he was compulsorily retired with a generous pension (an act which reflects most creditably on the ‘barbarian’ Odovacar)? If a letter written to ‘Romulus’ by Cassiodorus in the period 507-11 refers to the ex-emperor, that means he was still alive more than thirty years after his deposition. Other than this, we can only speculate as to how long he may have survived, which allows me to have him still living (imagined as a gentle recluse) in Lucullus’ villa near Naples in 519. The villa, constructed by a famous general of the late Republic, was a celebrated beauty spot. (Gibbon gives a good description of the place and its history).
Chapter 33
a successful orchard in Ravenna
‘After the example of the last emperors, Theoderic preferred the residence of Ravenna, where he cultivated an orchard with his own hands’ (Gibbon).
the newly appointed minister
Boethius became Master of Offices (comparable in some ways to our role of Prime Minister) in 523. In the interests of the story, I have put this date back a little without, I think, distorting the sequence of historical events.
resentment over growing German influence
Germans had never been acceptable as emperors. Though it was never put to the test, there are good reasons for supposing that overstepping such a ‘red line’ could have had dire consequences. For example, in Constantinople in 400, as an indirect result of Alaric’s Goths going on the rampage in the Balkans, anti-German violence flared up and several thousand Goths were massacred. And in Italy, following the execution of the Vandal general Stilicho in 408, suspicion of the Germans in the army had led the Roman element to launch a pogrom against the families of the German troops. Despite such precedents, did Theoderic attempt to cross that line?
The rioting of 519-20, which I have suggested could well have been a cover for anti-Arian (i.e. anti-Gothic) resentment, was not an immediate consequence of any measure enforcing religious toleration, which had long been in force. (‘They respected the armed heresy of the Goths; but their pious rage was safely pointed against the rich and defenceless Jews’ — Gibbon.) So what could have sparked it off? Cassiodorus, according to Moorhead (in Theoderic in Italy) suggests that the disturbances were not specifically anti-Jewish but were rooted in some other cause. Is it too fanciful to suggest that the Terracina inscription proclaiming Theoderic emperor, which may well have been contemporary with the riots, could have been that cause? The planned coronation in St Peter’s is invention, but the fact that nearly three centuries later a German monarch (Charlemagne) was crowned there as (Holy) Roman Emperor, gives food for thought. Was the idea behind the coronation of 800 original, or was it perhaps inspired by a memory of Theoderic’s unfulfilled dream?
retribution was swift and harsh
This is confirmed by Anonymous Valesianus, who ascribes to Eutharic the punishments meted out to the Romans of Ravenna. To quote Wolfram (in History of the Goths), ‘Eutharic’s popularity among the Romans must have declined quickly for during the unrest of 520 he advocated stern countermeasures’.
his imperial dreams
The wording and imagery of the Senigallia medallion, the Ravenna mosaic portrait head crowned with a diadem, the Terracina inscription: these are but the most telling manifestations of Theoderic’s ambition to become a Roman emperor, occasions when, as Heather (in The Goths) says, ‘the mask slipped’.
Chapter 34
a sneaking sympathy for a people