s jealous monarch;
the artful or peremptory refusal of the Byzantine court might excuse an
equal, and would provoke a larger, measure of retaliation; and a mandate
was prepared in Italy, to prohibit, after a stated day, the exercise of
the Catholic worship. By the bigotry of his subjects and enemies, the
most tolerant of princes was driven to the brink of persecution; and the
life of Theodoric was too long, since he lived to condemn the virtue of
Boethius and Symmachus. [88]

[Footnote 86: The Jews were settled at Naples, (Procopius, Goth. l. i.
c. 8,) at Genoa, (Var. ii. 28, iv. 33,) Milan, (v. 37,) Rome, (iv. 43.)
See likewise Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, tom. viii. c. 7, p. 254.]

[Footnote 8611: See History of the Jews vol. iii. p. 217.--M.]

[Footnote 87: Rex avidus communis exitii, &c., (Boethius, l. i. p. 59:)
rex colum Romanis tendebat, (Anonym. Vales. p. 723.) These are hard
words: they speak the passions of the Italians and those (I fear) of
Theodoric himself.]

[Footnote 8711: Gibbon should not have omitted the golden words of
Theodoric in a letter which he addressed to Justin: That to pretend to a
dominion over the conscience is to usurp the prerogative of God; that
by the nature of things the power of sovereigns is confined to external
government; that they have no right of punishment but over those who
disturb the public peace, of which they are the guardians; that the most
dangerous heresy is that of a sovereign who separates from himself a
part of his subjects because they believe not according to his belief.
Compare Le Beau, vol viii. p. 68.--M]

[Footnote 88: I have labored to extract a rational narrative from the
dark, concise, and various hints of the Valesian Fragment, (p. 722, 723,
724,) Theophanes, (p. 145,) Anastasius, (in Johanne, p. 35,) and
the Hist Miscella, (p. 103, edit. Muratori.) A gentle pressure and
paraphrase of their words is no violence. Consult likewise Muratori
(Annali d' Italia, tom. iv. p. 471-478,) with the Annals and Breviary
(tom. i. p. 259--263) of the two Pagis, the uncle and the nephew.]

The senator Boethius [89] is the last of the Romans whom Cato or Tully
could have acknowledged for their countryman. As a wealthy orphan,
he inherited the patrimony and honors of the Anician family, a name
ambitiously assumed by the kings and emperors of the age; and the
appellation of Manlius asserted his genuine or fabulous descent from
a race of consuls and dictators, who had repulse