twenty difficult
years, to maintain peace among European nations, like one convinced in
his heart that War is the supreme calamity for mankind.

It is a threadbare saying, "Happy is the nation that has no annals", and
the miserable historians of the time tell us far too little about the
thirty years of peace which Italy enjoyed under the wise rule of
Theodoric; still we are told enough to enable us in some degree to
understand both what he accomplished and how he accomplished it. And one
thing which makes us accept the statements of these historians with
unquestioning belief is that they have no motive for the praises which
they so freely bestow on the great Ostrogoth. They are not his
countrymen, nor his fellow-religionists. Our chief authorities are Roman
and Orthodox, and bitterly condemn Theodoric for the persecution of the
Catholics, into which, as we shall see, he was provoked in the last two
years of his reign. Still, over the grave of this dead barbarian and
heretic, when they have nothing to gain by speaking well of him, they
cannot forbear to praise the noble impartiality and anxious care for the
welfare of his people, which, for the space of one whole generation,
gave happiness to Italy. It will be well to quote here one or two of
these testimonies, borne by impartial witnesses.

Our chief authority,[58] who is believed to have been a Catholic Bishop
of Ravenna, says:

"He was an illustrious man, and full of good-will towards all. He
reigned thirty-three (really thirty-two) years, and during thirty of
these years so great was the happiness of Italy that even the wayfarers
were at peace. For he did nothing wrong. So did he govern the two
nations, the Goths and Romans, as if they were one people, belonging
himself to the Arian sect, yet he ordained that the civil administration
should remain for the Romans as it had been under their Emperors. He
gave presents and rations to the people, yet, though he found the
Treasury ruined, he brought it round, by his own hard work, into a
flourishing state. He attempted nothing (during these first thirty
years) against the Catholic faith. Exhibiting games in the circus and
amphitheatre, he received from the Romans the names of Trajan and
Valentinian (the happy days of which most prosperous Emperors he did in
truth seek to restore), and, at the same time, the Goths rendered true
obedience to their valiant King, according to the Edict which he had
promulgated for them".