Now Theodoric had sent Faustus Niger as an envoy to Zeno. But when the news of the latter’s death came, before the envoy returned, but after Theodoric had entered Ravenna and killed Odoacar, the Goths, without waiting for the command of the new emperor, made Theodoric their king.

For he was a most brave and warlike man, whose father, Walamir, was called King of the Goths; but Theodoric was his natural son; his mother was called in Gothic Ereriliva,Jordanes calls her Erelieva. With Gothica sc. lingua. but being a Catholic received at her baptism the name Eusebia.

Hence Theodoric was a man of great distinction and of good-will towards all men, and he ruled for thirty-three years. In his times Italy for thirty years enjoyed such good fortune that his successors also inherited peace.

For whatever he did was good. He so governed two races at the same time, Romans and Goths, that although he himself was of the ArianSee note on § 94 (p. 569), and for spelling, on § 48. sect, he nevertheless made no assault on the Catholic religion; he gave games in the circus and the amphitheatre, so that even by the Romans he was called a Trajan or a Valentinian, whose times he took as a model; and by the Goths, because of his edict, in which he established justice, he was judged to be in all respects their best king. Military service for the Romans he kept on the same footing as under the emperors. He was generous with gifts and the distribution of grain, and although he had found the public treasury nothing but a haystack,Literally, consisting of hay; i.e. he found nothing there but hay; cf. Catull. 13, 7 f., Catulli plenus sacculus est aranearum. by his efforts it was restored and made rich.

Although untrained in letters, he was nevertheless so wise that even now some of his sayings are regarded among the people as aphorisms, and for that reason I am glad to place on record a few out of many. He said, One who has gold and a demon cannot hide the demon. Also, A poor Roman plays the Goth, a richFor this meaning of utilis, cf. Gregory of Tours, iv. 3, and passim. The rich Goth imitates the luxury of the wealthy Romans. Goth the Roman.

A certain man died, leaving a wife and a little son who did not know his mother. Her son, when a small boy, was taken from her by some one, carried to another province, and there brought up. When he became a youth, he somehow returned to his mother, who had now become betrothed to another man. When the mother saw her son, she embraced him, thanking God that she had seen her son again, and he lived with her for a month. And behold! the mother’s betrothed came, and seeing the young man, asked who he was. She replied that he was her son. But when her betrothed learned that the youth was her son, he began to ask the return of the earnest-moneyAs his part of the agreement of betrothal; arra is derived from a Hebrew word. and to say: Either deny that he is your son, or I certainly depart hence. The mother yielded to her betrothed and began to deny her son, whom she herself had before acknowledged, saying: Leave my house, young man, since I took you up as a stranger. But he kept saying that he had come back to his mother and to the house of his father. To make a long story short, while this was going on the son appealed against his mother to the king, who ordered her to appear before him. And he said to her: Woman, your son appeals against you; what have you to say? Is he your son, or not? She replied: He is not my son, but I took him up as a stranger. And when the woman’s son had told the whole story in order to the king, he again said to the woman: Is he your son, or not? She said: He is not my son. The king said to her: How much property have you, woman? She replied: As much as a thousand gold-pieces. And when the king declared with an oath that he would not make anyone else than the young man himself her husband, and that she should receive no other husband, then the woman was disconcerted and confessed that the young man was her son.Suet., 15, 2, tells a similar story of Claudius. And there are many other things told of the king.