“A sure method of introduction to the society of the great is skill in gambling. The confederates are united by an indissoluble bond of friendship, or rather of conspiracy. The acquisition of knowledge seldom engages their attention who abhor the fatigue and disdain the advantages of study. The distress which chastises extravagant luxury often reduces them to the most humiliating expedients. When they wish to borrow, they are as suppliant as a slave. When called upon to pay, they assume airs of indolence, as if they were the grandsons of Hercules.”
Italy had indeed fallen: the barbaric leader of a semi-civilized band was her enthroned monarch. During a reign of fourteen years, vast crowds of emigrants from the bleak realms north of the Rhine and the Danube flocked into sunny Italy.
They received a cordial welcome from Odoacer, and rapidly blended with the people among whom they took up their residence. But fertile and beautiful Italy was too rich a prize inthe eyes of the powerful Northern nations to be long left in the undisputed possession of Odoacer.
Upon the northern banks of the Euxine Sea there was a populous nation called the Ostrogoths. Their king, Theodoric, had been educated at Constantinople, and was a civilized man, reigning over a comparatively barbaric people. He commenced his march upon Italy, accompanied by the whole nation.
“The march of Theodoric,” says Gibbon, “must be considered as the emigration of an entire people. Each bold barbarian who had heard of the wealth and beauty of Italy was impatient to seek, through the most perilous adventures, the possession of such enchanting objects. The wives and children of the Goths, their aged parents and most precious effects, were carefully transported; and some idea may be formed of the heavy baggage that followed the camp, by the loss of two thousand wagons, which had been sustained in a single action in the war of Epirus. For their subsistence the Goths depended on the magazines of corn, which was ground in portable mills by the hands of their women; on the milk and flesh of their flocks and herds; on the casual produce of the chase; and upon the contributions which they might impose on all who should presume to dispute their passage or to refuse their friendly assistance. Notwithstanding these precautions, they were exposed to the danger and almost to the distress of famine in a march of seven hundred miles,which had been undertaken in the depth of a rigorous winter.”[195]
Their march was through provinces devastated by war and famine. Still Theodoric had many fierce battles to wage ere he descended the southern declivities of the Julian Alps, and displayed his banners on the confines of Italy. Odoacer met him on the eastern frontiers of Venetia. Conquered in a bloody battle, he retreated to the walls of Verona; and all Venetia fell into the hands of the Ostrogoths. Odoacer made another stand upon the banks of the Adige: a still more sanguinary battle was fought, and the broken bands of Odoacer fled to Ravenna, on the Adriatic. Theodoric marched triumphantly to Milan,where the ever-fickle multitude received the conqueror with every demonstration of joy. Still, for three years, wretched Italy was desolated by war: misery reigned from the Alps to the extremity of the Peninsula, as man’s inhumanity to man caused countless millions to mourn.
At length, Theodoric was victorious: having annihilated the armies of the Goths, and plunged his sword into the bosom of Odoacer, he entered upon the undisputed sovereignty of the whole of Italy. Theodoric governed this most beautiful of realms with energy, wisdom, and humanity. A third of the lands of Italy were divided among his own people. For thirty-three years he reigned with sagacity, which has given him the designation of “the Great.” He was nominally a Christian, as were very many of his followers. The days of paganism had passed, never to return. Christianity had in a remarkable degree pervaded the barbaric nations outside the limits of the Roman empire.
Christianity, which had gained such signal victories over the learned and luxurious Romans, was equally triumphant over the warlike barbarians of Scythia and Germany. These fierce hordes, in their military incursions, carried back into their savage wilds thousands of captives. Many of these were Christians, and some were clergymen. They were dispersed as slaves throughout the wide realms of their conquerors. They, like the early disciples who were scattered from Jerusalem, proclaimed, in the huts of their barbaric masters, the gospel of Jesus, and won many triumphs to the cross of Christ.
John Chrysostom, whom we have mentioned as one of the most illustrious men of these days, upon becoming a Christian when but little over twenty years of age, abandoned all the ambition of life, and retired to the cells of the anchorites who were dwelling on the mountains in the vicinity of Antioch. Chrysostom gives us the following account of the mode of life then adopted by the anchorites:—
“They rise with the first crowing of the cock, or at midnight. After having read psalms and hymns in common, each, in his separate cell, is occupied in reading the Holy Scriptures, or incopying books. Then they proceed to church, and, after mass, return quietly to their habitations. They never speak to each other. Their nourishment is bread and salt: some add oil to it, and the invalids vegetables. After meals they rest a few moments, and then return to their usual occupations. They till the ground, fell wood, make baskets and clothes, and wash the feet of travellers. Their bed is a mat spread upon the ground; their dress consists of skins or cloths made of the hair of goats or camels. They go barefooted, have no property, and never pronounce the words mine and thine. Undisturbed peace dwells in their habitations, and a cheerfulness scarcely known in the world.”