12

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to hls troops immediatcly filll thcm with tctror nncl clcjection. There
followed a,n ignominious collnpse of thcir mornle nncl thcy were reduccd to
cowardice and no longer capable of fighting bnck. Pence was concluded on
the terms dictated by the victors and in the way they felt best setved their
own interests. The remnant of the Frankish rmy tffs only too glad to return

home.

6 Soon after Chlodomer had met this end his kingdom was patcelled

out among his brothers. since he had no drildren. Not long afterwards
Theuderic was taken ill and he too died, Ieaving to his son Theudebert all
his possessions and his title.
4. On succeeding to his father's throne Theudebert subdued the
Alamanni and certain other neighbouring peoples. He was exceedingly daring
and wild and inordinately fond of taking unnecessary risks. Accordingly,
when the Romans were embroiled in the war with Totila the lcing of the
Coths he hit upon the plan, which he earnestly sought to put into efiect, o[
raising a large and powerful force of fighting men while Narses and his
troops were fully engaged and involved tntaly, and then heading for Thrace,
suMuing the entire region, and bringing the war to the Impetial city of
Byzantium. z He made extensive preparatiorls and so far executed his
plan as to send embassies to the Gepids and Lombards and certain otler
neighbouring peoples with a view to securing their participation in the war.
3 He found it intolerable that the emperor Justinian should announce himself in his imperial edicts by the titles of Francicus, Alamannicus, Gepidicus,
Lombardicus and so forth, as though these peoples had all become his
subjects. He took tt as a personal insult and expected the others to share
his resentment since it was an afiront to them as well. 4 Personally,I arn
of the opinion that even i{ he had laundred this expe<lition he would h,ave
met an inglorious end after engaging with the Roman forces in Thrace or
possibly in Illyria. Indeed the ele frct of conceiving this design and then
resolving to carry it out and thro,wing all his weight into its execution is
overwhelming proof of his wild and headstrong.natLrre and that he was
capable of equating sheer lunacy with courage. If death had not forestalled the attempt he might well have begun his marcI. 5 But, as- it
happened, he was confronted when out hunting by a huge bull with gigantic
horns, not one of the domesticated kind that draws the plough, but a creature of the woods and the mountains that deals death with its horns to its
adversaries. I believe they are called "bufialoes". They live in great nurnbers
in that region, steep overgrown valleys, thid<ly wooded mo'r.rntains and a
wintry terrain providing them with an ideal habitat.
6 7hen'Theudebert saw the anlmal come pounding o'trt of some valley
and drarging towards him he stood his ground, meaning to face it head on
with his spear. But when it got near it was swept along by the momentum
of its drarge and crashed headfirst into a tree of not particularly larye

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iir

dimenrlonr. The tree war ehaken violently and bowcd right over, and it s{
happenccl thrrt o bullcy brunc'lr, whidr was the largest o[ those that had been
brought down was snapped off with violence and struc] Theudebert on the
heacl. The blow wns fatal and beyond remedy; he fell at once flat on his
bad< nncl ofter being camied with difficulty to his home he died on the same
.hy. 7 I{e was succeeded by his son Theudobald, who was vety young and
etill under the care of a tutor, but ancestral custom required his succession
notwithstanding.
5, At this juncture then, when Teias was dead and the Goths were in a
position where they would be needing foreign help for the future, the kings
of the Franks \r/ere the young lad Theudobald and Childebert and Chlotar,
the boy's great uncles, s they would be called in Roman law. z But the
Goths did not think it a good idea to approadr, these tsro since they lived
a long way away; instead they sent an open embassy to Theudobald. It was
not from the whole people, however, but only those living beyond the Po.
Not that the others were not delighted at their attempt at subverting the
established order, but being overawed by the uncertainty of the future, and
fearful of the capriciousness o fortune they suspended judgment, and kept
awary eye on events, since they were detetmined to be on the winning side.
3 flhen the embassy from the Goths arrived, then, they came before the
king alrd all the high otricials and asked them not to stand by and let them
be opfiressed by the Romans, but to join in the struggle and save a neighbouring and friendly people from imminent destruction. 4 And they
pointed out that it was in their own best interests too not to allow any
further expansion of Roman posrer, but to make every dort to curtail it.
"If", the embassadors declared, "they succeed in eliminating the entire
Gothic nation, they will soon marcih against you too and fight old wars all
over again. 5 They are sure to have some specious justification with which
to cover up their temitorial arnbitions and will in fact apper to be pursuing a
just claim against you, citing as. a precedent men like Marius and Camillus
and the majority of the Caesars on the grounds that they had fought in the
past against the inhabitants of upper Germany and had occupied all the,
territory aooss the Rhine. In this way they will not give the impression of
resorting to violence, b'ut of fighting a just war aimed not at the expropriation
of a foteign nation but at the recovery of the possessions of their forefathers.
6 They brought a similar charge against us, saying that in the past Theodoric
who was the founder o our lcingdom had no right to take ltaly. In consequence of whidr they have robbed us of our property, murdered most of
our nation and mercilessly enslaved the womenfolk and drildren of our
wealthiest citizens. 7 And yet Theodoric did not take ltaly by force, he
anner<ed it with the express permission of their o'wTl emperor,Zeno. He did
not in any vray deprive the Romans of it (they had already forfeited it).