Theodahad.

[Sidenote: Vacillation of Theodahad.]

Throughout the latter half of 535, Belisarius in Sicily and Mundus in
Dalmatia were warring for Justinian against Theodahad. The rhetorician
Peter, who had boldly rebuked the Gothic King for the murder of his
benefactress, and had on his master's behalf denounced a truceless war
against him, still lingered at his Court. Theodahad, who during part
of the summer and autumn of 535 seems to have been at Rome, not at
Ravenna, was more than half inclined to resume his old negotiations
with the Emperor, and either to purchase peace by sinking into the
condition of a tributary, or to sell his kingdom outright for a
revenue of £48,000 a year and a high place among the nobles of the
Empire. Procopius[65] gives us a vivid and detailed narrative of the
manner in which these negotiations were conducted by Theodahad, who
was perpetually wavering between arrogance and timidity; trembling at
the successes of Belisarius, elated by any victory which his generals
might win in Dalmatia; and who at length, upon receiving the tidings
of the defeat and death of Mundus, broke off the negotiations
altogether, and shut up Peter and his colleague Athanasius in prison.

[Footnote 65: De Bello Gotthico, i. 6.]

[Sidenote: Silence of the 'Variae' as to many of the negotiations
between Theodahad and Justinian.]

Here again, while not doubting the truth of the narrative of
Procopius, I do not find it possible exactly to fit in the letters
written by Cassiodorus for Theodahad with the various stages of the