The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Gibbon, Volume IV
Volume IV: Theodoric to the Greek emperors — Justinian and Belisarius, the Roman law, Mahomet's forerunners. Read with Gibbon's own footnotes and Milman's corrections of them beside the text.
Edition: Edward Gibbon · Project Gutenberg #734 (Milman edition) — public domain
Voices: Chapter XXXIX · Gothic Kingdom Of Italy · Chapter XL · Reign Of Justinian · Chapter XLI · Conquests Of Justinian, Character Of Balisarius · Chapter XLII · State Of The Barbaric World · Chapter XLIII · Last Victory And Death Of Belisarius, Death Of Justinian · Chapter XLIV · Idea Of The Roman Jurisprudence · Chapter XLV · State Of Italy Under The Lombards · Chapter XLVI · Troubles In Persia · Chapter XLVII · Ecclesiastical Discord · Chapter XLVIII · Succession And Characters Of The Greek Emperors
After the fall of the Roman empire in the West, an interval of fifty years, till the memorable reign of Justinian, is faintly marked by the obscure names and imperfect annals of Zeno, Anastasius, and Justin, who successively ascended to the throne of Constantinople. During the same period, Italy revived and flourished under the government of a Gothic king, who might have deserved a statue among the best and bravest of the ancient Romans.
Theodoric the Ostrogoth, the fourteenth in lineal descent of the royal line of the Amali, was born in the neighborhood of Vienna two years after the death of Attila. A recent victory had restored the independence of the Ostrogoths; and the three brothers, Walamir, Theodemir, and Widimir, who ruled that warlike nation with united counsels, had separately pitched their habitations in the fertile though desolate province of Pannonia. The Huns still threatened their revolted subjects, but their hasty attack was repelled by the single forces of Walamir, and the news of his victory reached the…Read it in the reading room ›