hardships, while their king was dissolved in the luxury of
Greece, and he prevented the painful alternative of encountering
the Goths, as the champion, or of leading them to the field, as
the enemy, of Zeno. Embracing an enterprise worthy of his
courage and ambition, Theodoric addressed the emperor in the
following words: "Although your servant is maintained in
affluence by your liberality, graciously listen to the wishes of
my heart! Italy, the inheritance of your predecessors, and Rome
itself, the head and mistress of the world, now fluctuate under
the violence and oppression of Odoacer the mercenary. Direct me,
with my national troops, to march against the tyrant. If I fall,
you will be relieved from an expensive and troublesome friend:
if, with the divine permission, I succeed, I shall govern in your
name, and to your glory, the Roman senate, and the part of the
republic delivered from slavery by my victorious arms." The
proposal of Theodoric was accepted, and perhaps had been
suggested, by the Byzantine court. But the forms of the
commission, or grant, appear to have been expressed with a
prudent ambiguity, which might be explained by the event; and it
was left doubtful, whether the conqueror of Italy should reign as
the lieutenant, the vassal, or the ally, of the emperor of the
East. ^16

[Footnote 13: As he was riding in his own camp, an unruly horse
threw him against the point of a spear which hung before a tent,
or was fixed on a wagon, (Marcellin. in Chron. Evagrius, l. iii.
c. 25.)]

[Footnote 14: See Malchus (p. 91) and Evagrius, (l. iii. c. 35.)]