Theodoric. ^24 One record of his fame, the volume of public
epistles composed by Cassiodorus in the royal name, is still
extant, and has obtained more implicit credit than it seems to
deserve. ^25 They exhibit the forms, rather than the substance,
of his government; and we should vainly search for the pure and
spontaneous sentiments of the Barbarian amidst the declamation
and learning of a sophist, the wishes of a Roman senator, the
precedents of office, and the vague professions, which, in every
court, and on every occasion, compose the language of discreet
ministers. The reputation of Theodoric may repose with more
confidence on the visible peace and prosperity of a reign of
thirty-three years; the unanimous esteem of his own times, and
the memory of his wisdom and courage, his justice and humanity,
which was deeply impressed on the minds of the Goths and
Italians.

[Footnote 21: Hist. Miscell. l. xv., a Roman history from Janus
to the ixth century, an Epitome of Eutropius, Paulus Diaconus,
and Theophanes which Muratori has published from a Ms. in the
Ambrosian library, (Script. Rerum Italicarum, tom. i. p. 100.)]
[Footnote 22: Procopius (Gothic. l. i. c. i.) approves himself an
impartial sceptic. Cassiodorus (in Chron.) and Ennodius (p. 1604)
are loyal and credulous, and the testimony of the Valesian
Fragment (p. 718) may justify their belief. Marcellinus spits
the venom of a Greek subject - perjuriis illectus, interfectusque
est, (in Chron.)]

[Footnote 23: The sonorous and servile oration of Ennodius was
pronounced at Milan or Ravenna in the years 507 or 508, (Sirmond,
tom. i. p. 615.) Two or three years afterwards, the orator was