address to the Senate on his promotion to the Praefecture[40]: 'He
extended his labours even to our remote ancestry, learning by his
reading that which scarcely the hoar memories of our forefathers
retained. He drew forth from their hiding-place the Kings of the
Goths, hidden by long forgetfulness. He restored the Amals to their
proper place with the lustre of his own[41] lineage (?), evidently
proving that up to the seventeenth generation we have had kings for
our ancestors. He made the origin of the Goths a part of Roman
history, collecting as it were into one wreath all the flowery growth
which had before been scattered through the plains of many books.
Consider therefore what love he showed to you [the Senate] in praising
us, he who showed that the nation of your Sovereign had been from
antiquity a marvellous people; so that ye, who from the days of your
forefathers have ever been deemed noble, are yet ruled over by the
ancient progeny of Kings[42].'

[Footnote 39: It could not have been written, at any rate in its
present shape, before 516, because Athalaric's birth is mentioned in
it. I prefer Jordanes' date for this event, 516 or 517, to that given
by Procopius, 518. On the other hand, Usener proves (p. 74), from the
reference to it in the Anecdoton Holderi, that it could not have been
written after 521.]

[Footnote 40: Var. ix. 25.]

[Footnote 41: 'Iste Amalos cum generis _sui_ claritate restituit.'
Perhaps it is better to take 'sui' as equivalent to 'illorum,' and
translate 'their lineage.']

[Footnote 42: 'Ut sicut fuistis a majoribus vestris semper nobiles