Res Gestae

Now at that same time the emperor Anastasius had three grandsons, namely, Pompeius, Probus, and Hypatius. Considering which one of them he should make his successor, he invited them to have luncheon with him one day, and after luncheon to take their midday siesta within the palace, where he had a couch prepared for each of them. Under the pillow on one couch he ordered the symbol of royalty to be put, and decided that whichever of them chose that couch for his nap, in him he ought to recognise the one to whom he should later turn over the rule. One of the grandsons threw himself down on one couch, but the other two, from brotherly affection, took their places together on another, and so it happened that none of them slept on the couch where the emblem of royalty had been placed.

When Anastasius saw this, he began to ponder, and learning from it that none of them should rule, he began to pray to God that He would show him a sign, so that while he still lived he might know who should receive the royal power after his death. While he was considering the question with fasting and

Now it chanced that Justinus, who was commander of the watch, on coming to a place whither he had been directed to go[*](Or: arriving when he had been summoned . . .) by the emperor, was the first to be announced to him by his head-chamberlain. And when the king knew this, he began to thank God for having deigned to reveal to him who his successor should be.

These words[*](Of the man seen in his dream, see § 75.) he kept to himself, but one day, when the emperor was in a procession, and Justinus wished to pass along quickly on one side of the emperor, in order to put his followers in line, he trod on the emperor’s cloak.

But the emperor only said to him: What is your hurry?[*](Thus implying that Justinus would succeed him.) Then in the last days of his reign the devil tempted him, wishing him to follow the Eunomian sect;[*](The followers of Eunomius, a native of Cappadocia (died about 392). He became Bishop of Cyzicus, and was an extreme Arian.) but the people of the faith checked him and even cried out to him in the church: You shall not hurl your puny lance against the Trinity. Not long afterwards Anastasius was taken ill and confined to his bed in the city of Constantinople, and ended his last day.

Now King Theodoric was without training in letters, and of such dull comprehension that for ten years of his reign he had been wholly unable to learn the four letters necessary for endorsing his edicts. For that reason he had a golden plate with

Then Theodoric made Eutharicus[*](He was the king’s son-in-law, husband of Amalasuntha.) consul and celebrated triumphs at Rome and at Ravenna. This Eutharicus was an excessively rough man, and an enemy to the Catholic faith.

After this, while Theodoric was remaining at Verona through fear of the neighbouring peoples, strife arose between the Christians and the Jews of the city of Ravenna; accordingly the Jews, being unwilling to be baptised, often in sport threw the holy water that was offered to them into the water of the river. Because of this the people were fired with anger, and without respect for the king, for Eutharicus, or for Peter, who was bishop at the time, they rose against the synagogues and presently set them on fire. And this same thing happened in a similar affair at Rome.

Presently the Jews hastened to Verona, where the king was, and there the head-chamberlain Triwane acted on their behalf; he, too, as a heretic favoured the Jews, and cajoled the king into taking action against the Christians. Accordingly Theodoric, on the presumption that they had resorted to arson, presently gave orders that the whole Roman[*](The Gothic population was not included, since they had taken no part in the burning.) population should furnish money for the rebuilding of the

Shortly after that the devil found an opportunity to steal for his own a man who was ruling the state well and without complaint. For presently Theodoric gave orders that an oratory of St. Stephen, that is, a high altar, beside the springs in a suburb of the city of Verona, should be destroyed. He also forbade any Roman to carry arms, except a small pen-knife.

Also a poor woman of the Gothic race, lying in a colonnade not far from the palace at Ravenna, gave birth to four snakes; two of these in the sight of the people were carried up on clouds from west to east and then fell into the sea; the two others, which had but a single head, were taken away. A star with a train of fire appeared, of the kind called a comet,[*](See Amm. xxv. 10, 2 ff.) and shone for fifteen days. There were frequent earthquakes.

After this the king began from time to time, when he found an opportunity, to vent his rage upon the Romans. Cyprianus, who was then a referee,[*](See Index II, Vol. I.) afterwards count of the privy purse and a master,[*](Perhaps magister mititm. ) was led by avarice to make a charge against the patrician Albinus, to the effect that he had sent to the emperor Justinus a letter hostile to Theodoric’s rule. When Albinus was summoned

Then Cyprianus, after some hesitation, produced false witnesses, not only against Albinus, but against his defender Boethius. Moreover, the king was plotting evil against the Romans and seeking an opportunity for killing them; hence he trusted the false witnesses rather than the senators.

Then Albinus and Boethius were imprisoned in the baptistery of a church. And the king summoned Eusebius, prefect of the city, to Ticinum, and pronounced sentence on Boethius without giving him a hearing. Presently at the Calventian estate,[*](Apparently named from an otherwise unrecorded CCalventius, modern Calvenzeno.) where Boethius was confined,[*](The sentence of death had been changed to exile.) he had him put to a wretched death. He was tortured for a long time with a cord bound about his forehead so tightly that his eyes cracked in their sockets, and finally, while under torture, he was beaten to death with a cudgel.

Then the king, on his return to Ravenna, acted no longer as a friend of God, but as an enemy to His law; forgetful of all His kindness and of the favour which He had shown him, trusting to his own arm, believing, too, that the emperor Justinus stood in great fear of him, he sent and summoned to Ravenna Johannes,[*](The first Roman pope of that name, successor to Hormisdas.) who at that time sat upon the apostolic throne, and said to him: Go to the emperor Justinus in Constantinople, and tell him

To him the Pope Johannes replied: What you will do, O king, do quickly. Lo! here I stand before you. But this thing I will not promise you to do, nor will I give the emperor your command. But anything else which you may enjoin upon me with God’s help I shall be able to obtain from him.

Thereupon the king in anger gave orders that a ship should be built, and that Johannes should be embarked on it with the other bishops; that is, Ecclesius of Ravenna, Eusebius of Fanum Fortunae,[*](On the Metaurus river, in Umbria; cf. Tac., Hist. iii. 50. Also called Fanum, Caes., B.C. i. 11, 4 (modern Fano) and Colonia Julia Fanestris; cf. Mela, ii. 4, 64; Dessau, Inscrr. 6651, 6652; C.I.L. xi, 6238, 6240.) Sabinus of Campania, and two others; and with them the senators Theodorus, Importunus, and Agapitus, with another Agapitus. But God, who does not desert his faithful worshippers, conducted them in safety.