and permission to
another nobleman to erect a row of workshops or manufactories
overlooking the Roman Forum.[73] The whole tenour of these State papers,
however, shows that public works were being diligently pushed on in
every quarter of Italy, and is entirely consistent with the praise
awarded to Theodoric "as a lover of manufactures".

[Footnote 73: Cass., Var., ix., 3; iv., 30; iii., 25; ii., 23.]

His zeal for the restoration of cities is by the same documents
abundantly manifested. At one time we find him giving orders for the
transport of marble slabs and columns to Ravenna, at another, directing
the repair of the walls of Catana, now rebuilding the walls and towers
of Arles, and now relieving the distress of Naples and Nola, which have
been half ruined by an eruption of Vesuvius.[74] His care for the
adornment of the cities of Italy with works of art is manifest, as well
as his zeal for their material enrichment. He hears with great disgust
that a brazen statue has been stolen from the city of Como. "It is
vexatious" says his Secretary, "that while we are labouring to increase
the ornaments of our cities, those which Antiquity has bequeathed to us
should be diminished by such deeds as this". A reward of 100 aurei
(L60), and a free pardon is offered to any accomplice who will assist in
the discovery of the chief offender.[75]

[Footnote 74: _Ibid_., iii., 9, 10, 49, 44; iv., 50.]

[Footnote 75: _Ibid_., ii., 35.]

But it is above all for Rome, for the glory and magnificence of Rome,
that this Ostrogothic king, in a certain sense the kinsman and
successor of her first ravager, Alaric, shows a tender solicitude. Her
Aqueducts, as we have seen, are to be repaired, her Cloacae, those still
existing memorials of the civilisation of the earliest, the regal, Rome,
are to be carefully upheld; the thefts of brass and lead from the public
buildings, which have become frequent during the disorders of the past
century, are to be sternly repressed[76]; a spirited patrician[77] who
has restored the mighty theatre of Pompeius is encouraged and rewarded,
the Prefect of the City is stimulated to greater activity in the repair
of all the ruined buildings therein. "In Rome, praised beyond all other
cities by the world's mouth, it is not right that anything should be
found either sordid or mediocre".

[Footnote 76: Cass., Var., iii., 30, 31]

[Footnote 77: Symmachus.]

In all these counsels for the material well-being of It