Produced by Charles Bowen, page scans provided by the Web Archive Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/astruggleforrom00dahngoog 2. The diphthong OE and oe are represented by [OE] and [oe]. A STRUGGLE FOR ROME. BY FELIX DAHN. _T R A N S L A T E D F R O M T H E G E R M A N_ BY LILY WOLFFSOHN. "If there be anything more powerful than Fate, It is the courage which bears it undismayed." GEIBEL. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON. 1878. [_All Rights Reserved._] PREFACE. These pictures of the sixth century originated in my studies for the following works: "The Kings of the Goths," vol. ii., iii., iv. Munich and Würzburg, 1862-66. "Procopius of Cæsarea:" a contribution to the historiography of the migration of nations and the decay of the Roman Empire. Berlin, 1865. By referring to these works, the reader may distinguish the details and changes which the romance has added to the reality. In history the events here described filled a period of almost thirty years' duration. From reasons easily understood, it was necessary to shorten, or at least to disguise, this long interval. The character of the Roman hero of the story, Cethegus Cæsarius, is a pure invention. That such a person existed is, however, known. The work was begun at Munich in 1859, continued at Ravenna, Italy, and concluded at Königsberg in 1876. FELIX DAHN. Königsberg: _January_, 1876. A STRUGGLE FOR ROME. BOOK I. THEODORIC. "Dietericus de Berne, de quo cantant rustici usque hodie." CHAPTER I. It was a sultry summer night of the year five hundred and twenty-six, A.D. Thick clouds lay low over the dark surface of the Adrea, whose shores and waters were melted together in undistinguishable gloom; only now and then a flash of distant lightning lit up the silent city of Ravenna. At unequal intervals the wind swept through the ilexes and pines on the range of hills which rise at some distance to the west of the town, and which were once crowned by a temple of Neptune. At that time already half ruined, it has now almost completely disappeared, leaving only the most scanty traces.