. This region includes Vienna and the
eastern part of the Archduchy of Austria, Graetz, and the eastern part of
the Duchy of Styria, but it is chiefly composed of the great
corn-growing plain of Western Hungary, and contains the two considerable
lakes of Balaton and Neusiedler See. Here then the three Ostrogothic
brethren took up their abode, and of this province they made a kind of
rude partition between them, while still treating it as one kingdom, of
which Walamir was the head. The precise details of this division of
territory cannot now be recovered,[12] nor are they of much importance,
as the settlement was of short duration. We can only say that Walamir
and Theudemir occupied the two ends of the territory, and Widemir dwelt
between them. What is most interesting to us is the fact that
Theudemir's territory included Lake Balaton (or Platten See), and that
his palace may very possibly have stood upon the shores of that noble
piece of water, which is forty-seven miles in length and varies from
three to nine miles in width. To the neighbourhood of this lake, in the
absence of more precise information, we may with some probability assign
the birth-place and the childish home of Theodoric.[13]

[Illustration: Graphic element.]

[Footnote 12: Jordanes (Getica) says: "Valamer inter Scarniungam et
Aquam Nigram fluvios, Thiudimer juxta lacum Pelsois, Vidimer inter
utrosque manebat". It seems to be hopeless to determine what rivers are
denoted by "Scarniunga" and "Aqua Nigra".]

[Footnote 13: Of course the location of Theudemir's palace on the actual
shore of Lake Balaton can only be treated as a conjecture, but the
pointed way in which Jordanes, in the passage last quoted, speaks of him
as "_juxta_ lacuna Pelsois", seems to make the conjecture a probable
one. Some geographers have identified Pelso Lacus with the Neusiedler
See, but apparently on insufficient grounds.]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER III.

THEODORIC'S BOYHOOD.

Inroad of the Huns--Their defeat by Walamir--Birth of Theodoric--War
with the Eastern Empire--Theodoric a hostage--Description of
Constantinople--Its commerce and its monuments.

The Ostrogoths had yet one or two battles to fight before they were
quite rid of their old masters. The sons of Attila still talked of them
as deserters and fugitive slaves, and a day came when Walamir found
himself compelled to face a sudden inroad of the Huns. He