master, who showed his appreciation of the zeal and loyalty of the panegyrist by appointing him magister officiorum-a post which involved constant attendance on the king's person, and which, as he tells us, had never before been bestowed on a privatus.

But all the honours heaped upon him only serve to heighten the tragedy of his sudden fall. A burst of ill-timed enthusiasm for the ancient Roman liberty aroused the slumbering suspicion of the Ostrogoth, who soon showed that he could hate as well as he had loved; while the servile and nerveless senate was easily induced to hand over without a murmur the noblest of its number to his vindictive vengeance.

The circumstances of his arraignment and condemnation are important enough to claim a closer attention, and involve a scrutiny of one of the most interesting, as it certainly is one of the most perplexing, state-trials on record. Moreover, the very truthfulness and common honesty of Boethius, apart from any question of political wisdom, are here at stake, and so I must crave the reader's indulgence while I endeavour to cast upon the case the different lights afforded by the 'Anonymus Valesii,' by Procopius in his 'Gothic War,' by Boethius himself in the 'Consolation of Philosophy,' and by Cassiodorus in his Miscellaneous Letters.'

The authorship of the fragment which takes its title from its discoverer, Henri de Valois, the seventeenth century scholar, and is to be found appended to the history of Ammianus Marcellinus, may in all probability be ascribed to Maximian, bishop of Ravenna from 546 to 556.

After a description of Theodoric's decrees for the protection of the Ravennese Jews, whose synagogue had been destroyed by the Christians, there follows this account of the trial of the senators:

"From this time the devil found occasion to subvert the man [Theodoric], who had been hitherto governing the state well and blamelessly. For he presently ordered that the oratory and altar of St Stephen, by the fountains in the suburb of the city of Verona, should be thrown down. He also commanded that no Roman should carry arms-no, not so much as a knife.

Also, a poor woman of the Gothic nation lying under a porch, not far from the palace of Ravenna, brought forth four dragons; two of which were seen by the people borne along in the clouds from the west to the east, and cast into the sea; two were carried off, having one head between them. A star with a torch, which is called a comet, did appear,

shining brightly for fifteen days, and earthquakes happened frequently.

"After this the king began suddenly to chafe against the Romans whenever he found occasion. Cyprian, who was then Referendary,1 and afterwards Count of the Sacred Largesses, impelled by greed, laid an information against Albinus the patrician, on the ground that he had sent letters to the emperor Justin, which were hostile to the king's rule.

"As he was denying this before the court" (" revocitus dum negaret "), "Boethius the patrician, who was Master of the Offices, said to the king's face: False is the information of Cyprian; but if Albinus did it, then both I and the whole senate did it with one consent. It is altogether false, O lord, my king!' Then Cyprian with hesitation brought forward false witnesses, not only against Albinus, but also against Boethius, his defender. But the king was laying a snare for the Romans, and seeking how he might destroy them: he put more trust in the false witnesses than in the senators. Then Albinus and Boethius were taken in custody to the

1 The referendarius held a post in the royal court of appeal, to which we have no corresponding term in our legal system. His duties appear to have included the casting into an intelligible form the claims of either side in a lawsuit.

baptistery of the church. But the king sent for Eusebius, prefect of the city of Ticinum, and without giving Boethius a hearing, passed sentence upon him. The king sent and caused him to be put to death on the Calventian property, where he was held in custody. He was tortured for a very long time with a cord bound round his forehead, so that his eyes started; then at last in the midst of his torments he was killed with a club."

Two more short quotations from the 'Anonymus,' and the reader will be in possession of the whole story of Theodoric's vengeance,—of that pitiful exhibition of barbarian fury which mars the last page of a record, else one of the fairest in the history of Italy. In the first we have the epilogue of the tragedy, the death of Symmachus.

Meanwhile Symmachus, the head of the senate, was brought from Rome to Ravenna. The king, fearing lest grief for his son-in-law should lead him to attempt something against his rule, had him accused and killed."

The second, which narrates Pope John's ill-fated mission to Constantinople, is necessary to my present purpose only in so far as it throws light on the later tradition which numbered Boethius among "the

1 The modern Calvenzano, in the province of Milan.

noble army of martyrs." This tradition was based upon a confusion of dates. The persecution of the Catholics, threatened but never carried out by Theodoric, is not heard of until after the execution of Boethius. The cause of this unkind promise is to be found in the proclamation against the Arians which the emperor Justin issued in the year 524. Behind the religious zeal which was the ostensible motive of this measure, it is easy to trace a wish to wean the Italians from their allegiance to the Ostrogoth. Theodoric felt this, and was no doubt indignant, and not unnaturally, that the studied toleration of his long reign should be so ungratefully requited by his eastern colleague.1 And so he prepared to retaliate, and despatched the reluctant Pope John to Constantinople to make known his intention to the court there, and to demand from Justin that all heretics who had been compelled against their will to conform to Catholicism should be allowed to return to their own particular forms of heterodoxy.2

Despite his protestations, the unfortunate John was hurried on board ship, together with five other bishops, and in due course arrived at Constantinople.

1 For the relations between the King of Italy and the Cæsar of Constantinople consult Hodgkin, op. cit., vol. iii. chap. x.

2 This seems to be the meaning of "ut reconciliatos hæreticos in Catholica restituat religione."

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