[Footnote 35: See the public and private alliances of the Gothic
monarch, with the Burgundians, (Var. i. 45, 46,) with the Franks,
(ii. 40,) with the Thuringians, (iv. 1,) and with the Vandals,
(v. 1;) each of these epistles affords some curious knowledge of
the policy and manners of the Barbarians.]
[Footnote 36: His political system may be observed in
Cassiodorus, (Var. iv. l ix. l,) Jornandes, (c. 58, p. 698, 699,)
and the Valesian Fragment, (p. 720, 721.) Peace, honorable peace,
was the constant aim of Theodoric.]
[Footnote 37: The curious reader may contemplate the Heruli of
Procopius, (Goth. l. ii. c. 14,) and the patient reader may
plunge into the dark and minute researches of M. de Buat, (Hist.
des Peuples Anciens, tom. ix. p. 348 - 396.)

Note: Compare Manso, Ost Gothische Reich. Beylage, vi.
Malte- Brun brings them from Scandinavia: their names, the only
remains of their language, are Gothic. "They fought almost
naked, like the Icelandic Berserkirs their bravery was like
madness: few in number, they were mostly of royal blood. What
ferocity, what unrestrained license, sullied their victories!
The Goth respects the church, the priests, the senate; the Heruli
mangle all in a general massacre: there is no pity for age, no
refuge for chastity. Among themselves there is the same
ferocity: the sick and the aged are put to death. at their own
request, during a solemn festival; the widow ends her days by
hanging herself upon the tree which shadows her husband's tomb.
All these circumstances, so striking to a mind familiar with
Scandinavian history, lead us to discover among the Heruli not so
much a nation as a confederacy of princes and nobles, bound by an
oath to live and die together with their arms in their hands.