Theodoric

clock (see Chapter 27).

this part of Italy’s called Magna Graecia

Between the eighth and sixth centuries BC, a number of flourishing Greek colonies (Metapontum, Tarentum, etc.) was established in southern Italy, which thus (by the time of Pythagoras, according to Polybius) acquired the name Magna Graecia. Arriving at Crotona c. 530 BC, the great philosopher and mathematician soon exerted supreme influence in Megale Hellas, as the region was called in Greek.

Like ancient legionaries

Simon MacDowall’s Twilight of the Empire (one of the splendid Osprey series about armies and campaigns) contains graphic descriptions, together with illustrations (based on contemporary evidence) of the appearance of sixth-century East Roman soldiers. Exchange their oval shields for long rectangular ones, and they would be practically indistinguishable from legionaries of the classical period. The example of orders (still given in Latin in East Roman armies at this time) in the text, is taken from Mauricius’ Strategikon, a sixth-century training manual.

The seaboard of Apulia and then Calabria

Calabria, the ancient ‘heel’ of Italy, has since (at some time prior to the eleventh century) moved westwards, to become its ‘toe’! The ‘toe’ was anciently the region known as Bruttium.

along with the title of Augustus

‘Honorary consul’ was an established title, but ‘honorary emperor’ would be a constitutional absurdity. ‘Augustus’ admits of only one interpretation: emperor; and that Clovis certainly was not, in any sense except, perhaps, the complimentary. Yet Gregory of Tours (in Historia Francorum, c. 560) is unequivocal: ‘from that day [i.e., Clovis’s victory over the Visigoths] he was called consul or augustus’. Procopius probably had these titles in mind when he says (in Opera) that the Franks looked for Anastasius’ ‘seal of approval’. The conundrum is perhaps best explained by seeing the titles as ammunition in Anastasius’ campaign to put Theoderic very firmly in his place after the king’s Pannonian/Moesian adventure in 504 and 505, a campaign of which the naval expedition against south Italy formed a major part. In this context the award of the title ‘Augustus’ to Clovis can be interpreted as constituting a snub to Theoderic, designed to puncture any imperial pretensions the king may have entertained, reminding him that only Anastasius had the power to dispense such appellations. There can be no doubt that Anastasius intended ‘Augustus’ to be purely titular. Yet it seems rather to have gone to Clovis’ head. Gregory describes him wearing purple and a diadem, and, in imitation of Emperor Constantine, dedicating a church to the Holy Apostles (viz. Saints Peter and Paul).

his own consular nominee

This has to be yet another example of Anastasius’ determination to punish Theoderic for invading imperial territory. The sole consul for 507 was Anastasius himself, making him consul for the third time.

Chapter 31

once more come under Ostrogothic rule

The only source that I can find that disagrees with this is Wolfram’s History of the Goths wherein he says, ‘Probably in 510 Theoderic. . ceded to Byzantium. . the eastern part of Pannonia Sirmiensis’. But Burns (in A History of the Ostrogoths) states, ‘Sabinianus accepted the restoration of Ostrogothic control at Sirmium, and the Ostrogoths gave up any designs on expanding their power beyond Sirmium’ — a conclusion backed up by maps of Theoderic’s realm, as shown in historical atlases.

the wars that turned out happily for him

From a letter of Theoderic to Clovis, quoted by Cassiodorus (in Variae).

a father-figure to all Germanic peoples

Theoderic emerges as a heroic figure, of immensely prestigious status among Germanic peoples, in early mediaeval legends such as those appearing in the Hildebrandslied, which dates from the time of Charlemagne.

dark skin and tightly curled black hair

These features were probably inherited from Berber rather than negro ancestry. Though black people were by no means unknown in Roman Africa, their presence was accounted for by slavery, or by immigration via Nubia, Ethiopia and Axum (Sudan). The appearance of native North Africans is well represented in busts of Emperor Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla. Moorhead (in Theoderic in Italy) confirms that Priscian ‘was probably an African’.

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