If Rome have need in these times of another breed of citizens--and who can gainsay that ?--she will not forget such men as he, who lived with dignity when they could do no more.

You, my dear lord'-- he turned towards Basil--'Anicius though you are, see another way before you, what ?' They talked far into the night.

When he spoke of the Imperial conquerors--'Greeklings' he called them--Venantius gave vent to his wrath and scorn.

The Goths were right when they asked what had ever come out of Greece save mimes and pirates; land-thieves they might have added, for what else were the generals of Justinian with their pillaging hordes?
They dared to speak of the Goths as barbarians--these Herules, Isaurians, Huns, Armenians, and Teutons!--of the Goths, whose pride it had so long been to defend Roman civilisation, and even to restore the Roman edifices.

What commander among them could compare with Totila, brave, just, generous?
'By the Holy Mother!' he cried, with a great gesture, 'if I were not wedded to a wife I love, who has borne me already three boys as healthy as wolf cubs, I would follow your example, O Basil, and take to myself a blue-eyed daughter of that noble race.