n the shield thirteen years before, and among whom he
had divided one-third part of the soil of Italy. But many other
barbarians had flocked to his standard, so that he had, as it were, a
little court of kings, chieftains serving under him as supreme leader.
He himself, however, was now in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and his
genius for war, if he ever had any, seems to have failed him. He fought
(as far as we can discern his conduct from the fragmentary notices of
the annalists and panegyrists) with a sort of sullen savageness, like a
wild beast at bay, but without skill either of strategy or tactics. The
invaders, encumbered with the waggons and the non-combatants, had
greatly the disadvantage of position. Odovacar's camp had been long
prepared, was carefully fortified, and protected by the deep and rapid
Isonzo. But Theodoric's soldiers succeeded in crossing the river,
stormed the camp, defended as it was by a strong earthen rampart, and
sent its defenders flying in wild rout over the plains of Venetia.
Odovacar fell back on the line of the Adige, and the beautiful
north-eastern corner of Italy, the region which includes among its
cities Udine, Venice, Vicenza, Padua, now accepted without dispute the
rule of Theodoric, and perhaps welcomed him as a deliverer from the
stern sway of Odovacar.[53] From this time forward it is allowable to
conjecture that the most pressing of Theodoric's anxieties, that which
arose from the difficulty of feeding and housing the women and children
of his people, if not wholly removed was greatly lightened. Odovacar
took up a strong position near Verona, separated from that city by the
river Adige. Theodoric, though not well provided with warlike
appliances,[54] rightly judged that it was of supreme importance to his
cause to follow up with rapidity the blow struck on the banks of the
Isonzo, and accordingly, towards the end of September, he, with his
army, stood before the _fossatum_ or entrenched camp at Verona. In order
to force his soldiers to fight bravely, Odovacar had, in defiance of the
ordinary rules of war, placed his camp where retreat was almost
hopelessly barred by the swift stream of the Adige, and he addressed his
army with stout words full of simulated confidence in victory. On the
morning of the 30th of September, when the two armies were about to join
in what must evidently be a most bloody encounter, the mother and sister
of Theodoric, Erelieva and Amalfrida, sought hi