[50] The Gothic sovereignty was established from Sicily to the Danube, from Sirmium or Belgrade to the Atlantic Ocean; and the Greeks themselves have acknowledged that Theodoric reigned over the fairest portion of the Western empire.

[51] [Footnote 44: See the Hist.

des Peuples Anciens, &c., tom.ix.

p.
255--273, 396--501.

The count de Buat was French minister at the court of Bavaria: a liberal curiosity prompted his inquiries into the antiquities of the country, and that curiosity was the germ of twelve respectable volumes.] [Footnote 45: See the Gothic transactions on the Danube and the Illyricum, in Jornandes, (c.