The fifth and sixth centuries do not supply us
with many materials for pictorial illustrations, and
I do not know where to look for authentic and contemporary
representations of the civil or military life
of Theodoric and his subjects. We have, however,
a large and interesting store of nearly contemporary
works of art at Ravenna, illustrating the ecclesiastical
life of the period, and of these the engraver has
made considerable use. The statue of Theodoric at
Innsbruck, a representation of which is included with
the illustrations, possesses, of course, no historical
value, but is interesting as showing how deeply the
memory of Theodoric's great deeds had impressed
itself on the mind of the Middle Ages.
And here I will venture on a word of personal
reminiscence. The figure of Theodoric the Ostrogoth
has been an interesting and attractive one to me
from the days of my boyhood. I well remember
walking with a friend on a little hill (then silent and
lonely, now covered with houses), looking down on
London, and discussing European politics with the
earnest interest which young debaters bring to such
a theme. The time was in those dark days which
followed the revolutions of 1848, when it seemed as
if the life of the European nations would be crushed
out under the heel of returned and triumphant despotism.
For Italy especially, after the defeat of
Novara, there seemed no hope. We talked of Mazzini,
Cavour, Garibaldi, and discussed the possibility--which
then seemed so infinitely remote--that there
might one day be a free and united Italy. We both
agreed that the vision was a beautiful one, but was
there any hope of it ever becoming a reality? My
friend thought there was not, and argued from the
fact of Italy's divided condition in the past, that
she must always be divided in the future. I, who
was on the side of hope, felt the weakness of my
position, and was driven backward through the centuries,
till at length I took refuge in the reign of
Theodoric. Surely, under the Ostrogothic king,
Italy had been united, strong, and prosperous. My
precedent was a remote one, but it was admitted,
and it did a little help my cause.
Since that conversation more than forty years
have passed. The beautiful land is now united, free,
and mighty; and a new generation has arisen, which,
though aware of the fact that she was not always
thus, has but a faint conception how much blood
and how many tears, what thousands of broken
hearts and broken lives went to the winning of
Italy's freedom. I, too, with fuller knowledge of her
early history, am bound to confess that her unity
even under Theodoric was not so complete as I
then imagined it. But still, as I have more than
once stated in the following pages, I look upon his
reign as a time full of seeds of promise for Italy and
the world, if only these seeds might have had time
to germinate and ripen into harvest. Closer study
has only confirmed me in the opinion that the
Ostrogothic kingdom was one of the great "Might-have-beens"
of History.
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