If Theodoric was successful in removing Odoacer, Zeno said, then he would be allowed to take whatever land he wanted for himself.Īfter defeating the Odoacer, Theodoric the Great made his capital at Ravenna in Italy. Sources of the period do conflict, however, on whether the decision to go after Odoacer was Zeno’s or Theodoric’s own. As such, Emperor Zeno gave Theodoric another important task: Theodoric was sent to relieve the problem of King Odoacer in Italy, who had taken the moniker of king after defeating the last of the Roman emperors. Strabo’s defeat saw Theodoric’s power over the Ostrogothic kingdom grow, solidifying at the same time an alliance between the Byzantine Empire and the Ostrogoths. Theodoric was therefore raised in the Greco-Roman education system, and learned the ways of governing and running an empire during his time there.īecoming a comrade of the Byzantine emperor Zeno, Theodoric was entrusted at the young age of eighteen to command his own army in an attempt to stifle the rise of another Theodoric called Strabo, who sought power over the Ostrogoths. It was some time before this that Theodoric was sent to Constantinople to as a hostage in an effort by his father to make peace with the surviving empire and his presence in Constantinople served as a beacon of the treaty his father had enacted between the Ostrogoths and Byzantine Emperor Leo I. 476 AD, though the eastern Byzantine Empire survived and continued to thrive. The Ostrogoths continued to make incursions against the surviving Roman Empire, considered to have officially “ fallen” c. ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) Theodoric and the Ostrogothic Kingdom Having defeated the Odoacer in 493 AD, Theodoric the Great guided the rise of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy. This chain of events led to the eventual creation of an Ostrogothic Empire with its center in Ravenna, Italy. 453 AD, but the Roman Empire had been significantly weakened.
After the fall of the Huns, a nomadic tribe which led to the migration of the Goths and other peoples into Rome, the Ostrogoths became an independent nation c. Together (though not necessarily as a team), the two tribes of Goths led invasions into Rome and against the Roman Empire before 375 AD. Most of our knowledge of the early Ostrogothic culture comes from the writer Cassiodorus, a Roman statesman living from approximately 485 to 585 AD, and thereby surviving the reign of Theodoric the Great.Īlong with the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths formed one of the two great Gothic kingdoms of the late Roman Empire. It is hypothesized that the Ostrogoths rose as a political entity in the area north of the Black Sea, around the region of modern day Hungary. The Ostrogoths are believed to have originally come from one of the more eastern Germanic tribes. The Ostrogoths were a Germanic people who emerged in the 5 th century AD, part of the greater Gothic presence which itself appeared in the Roman record in the 3 rd century. Theodoric the Great ensured peace between the Romans and Goths of Ravenna during his reign. As such, the mausoleum of Theodoric highlights the memory of the Ostrogothic leader, not only for his achievements in defining the Ostrogoths in Italy but also for his role in the transition from the Roman period into the early medieval period of Italy. Furthermore, the structure’s combination of Roman construction and Christian Gothic designs makes it a paramount feature of the transitional 5 th century in Italy which saw Italy shift from Roman territory into eastern hands. The structure’s dome weighs 230 tons but scholars, archaeologists, and historians have no idea how the gigantic piece was placed in its current position. One of the most fascinating aspects of Theodoric’s life is the tomb that he had constructed for himself, c. Born in 454 AD to the Gothic king Theodemir, Theodoric became the founder of the Ostrogothic dynasty in Italy from 474 AD onwards. Theodoric the Great was the king of the Ostrogoths from 475 to 526 AD.
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