s and enlightened soldiers, might have gradually arisen from
the mutual emulation of their respective virtues. But the sublime merit
of guiding or seconding such a revolution was not reserved for the reign
of Theodoric: he wanted either the genius or the opportunities of a
legislator; and while he indulged the Goths in the enjoyment of rude
liberty, he servilely copied the institutions, and even the abuses,
of the political system which had been framed by Constantine and his
successors. From a tender regard to the expiring prejudices of Rome,
the Barbarian declined the name, the purple, and the diadem, of the
emperors; but he assumed, under the hereditary title of king, the whole
substance and plenitude of Imperial prerogative. His addresses to the
eastern throne were respectful and ambiguous: he celebrated, in pompous
style, the harmony of the two republics, applauded his own government as
the perfect similitude of a sole and undivided empire, and claimed above
the kings of the earth the same preeminence which he modestly allowed to
the person or rank of Anastasius. The alliance of the East and West was
annually declared by the unanimous choice of two consuls; but it should
seem that the Italian candidate who was named by Theodoric accepted a
formal confirmation from the sovereign of Constantinople. The Gothic
palace of Ravenna reflected the image of the court of Theodosius or
Valentinian. The Praetorian praefect, the praefect of Rome, the quaestor,
the master of the offices, with the public and patrimonial treasurers,
* whose functions are painted in gaudy colors by the rhetoric of
Cassiodorus, still continued to act as the ministers of state. And
the subordinate care of justice and the revenue was delegated to seven
consulars, three correctors, and five presidents, who governed the
fifteen _regions_ of Italy according to the principles, and even the
forms, of Roman jurisprudence. The violence of the conquerors was
abated or eluded by the slow artifice of judicial proceedings; the civil
administration, with its honors and emoluments, was confined to the
Italians; and the people still preserved their dress and language, their
laws and customs, their personal freedom, and two thirds of their landed
property. It had been the object of Augustus to conceal the introduction
of monarchy; it was the policy of Theodoric to disguise the reign of a
Barbarian. If his subjects were sometimes awakened from this pleasing
vision of a R