the other, but the Romans labouring at the arts of peace, the Goths
wielding for their defence the sword of war. Over all was to be the
strong hand of the King of Goths and Romans, repressing the violence
of the one nation, correcting the chicanery of the other, and from one
and all exacting the strict observance of that which was the object of
his daily and nightly cares, CIVILITAS. Of this civilitas--which we
may sometimes translate 'good order,' sometimes 'civilisation,'
sometimes 'the character of a law-abiding citizen,' but which no
English word or phrase fully expresses--the reader of the following
letters will hear, even to weariness. But though we may be tired of
the phrase, we ought none the less to remember that the thing was that
which Italy stood most in need of, that it was secured for her during
forty years by the labours of Theodoric and Cassiodorus, and that
happiness, such as she knew not again for many centuries, was the
result.

[Sidenote: Foresight of Cassiodorus in aiding this policy.]

But the theory of a warrior caste of Goths and a trading and labouring
caste of Romans was not flattering to the national vanity of a people
who, though they had lost all relish for fighting, could not forget
the great deeds of their forefathers. This was no doubt the weak point
of the new State-system, though one cannot say that it is a weakness
which need have been fatal if time enough had been given for the
working out of the great experiment, and for Roman and Goth to become
in Italy, as they did become in Spain, one people. The grounds upon
which the praise of far-seeing statesmanship may be claimed for
Cassiodorus are, that notwithstanding the bitter taste which it must
have had in his mouth, as in the mouth of every educated Roman, he
perceived that here was the best medicine for the ills of Italy. All
attempts to conjure with the great name of the Roman Empire could only
end in subjection to the really alien rule of Byzantium. All attempts
to rouse the religious passions of the Catholic against the heretical
intruders were likely to benefit the Catholic but savage Frank. The
cruel sufferings of the Italians at the hands of the Heruli of
Belisarius and from the ravages of the Alamannic Brethren are
sufficient justification of the soundness of Cassiodorus' view that
Theodoric's State-system was the one point of hope for Italy.

[Sidenote: His religious tolerance.]

Allusion has been made in the last paragr