Ostrogothic ruler Theodoric the Great was king of the Germanic tribe of the Ostrogoths, who dominated the western Balkans in the fi fth century c.e.. When he returned to his people, Theo
Trang 1(c 454–526 c.e.) Ostrogothic ruler
Theodoric the Great was king of the Germanic tribe of
the Ostrogoths, who dominated the western Balkans
in the fi fth century c.e He received a Roman education
during his teenage years spent as a political hostage in
Constantinople under the watchful eyes of the
Byz-antine government When he returned to his people,
Theodoric took up arms against the empire and gained
additional land, a position in the Byzantine military
command, and imperial rank Faced with a
power-ful and sometimes hostile neighbor, Byzantine emperor
Zeno encouraged Theodoric to attack Italy where
anoth-er Ganoth-erman, Odovacar, had deposed the last legitimate
Roman ruler, Romulus Augustulus Theodoric and his
Ostrogoths migrated to Italy, defeated Odovacar, and
ruled as the representative of the Byzantine emperor His
capital was in the northeastern Italian city of Ravenna,
located on the Adriatic Sea
As ruler of Italy, Theodoric attended to the
redevel-opment of this land He encouraged settlement to areas
that had been depopulated due to war and fostered
agri-cultural production and trade He was also concerned
with the repairing and building of walls, aqueducts,
churches, and other buildings in Roman cities Several
of his impressive monuments still stand in Ravenna,
including the Church of St Apollinare Nuovo, the
Arian Baptistery, and his own mausoleum
Although a German king, Theodoric respected
Roman traditions Since the majority of the subject
popu-lation was Roman, Theodoric respected prevailing
struc-tures of government, from local urban magistrates to the
Roman Senate, as well as Roman law Many Romans
served in his court, such as Boethius and Cassiodorus,
two of the most important Latin authors of the period
Even the pope and the Roman Senate received him in the
city of Rome, where he stayed for a short period before
returning to Ravenna Besides developing a certain
har-mony between cultures, Theodoric was also a shrewd
and powerful German king, cognizant of the reality of
German power in the West He sought to expand his
kingdom and also to secure his position He married a
sister of Clovis, the king of the Franks and founder of the
Merovingian dynasty, and joined his family by marriage
to the kings of the Vandals, Visigoths, and Burgundians
The Italian cultural harmony was made more diffi cult
by the fact that the Ostrogoths were Arian Christians,
while the Roman population was Orthodox Christian
They differed theologically over their understanding of
Jesus’s relationship to God the Father, whether he was
created (Arian) or begotten (Orthodox) The Orthodox condemned Arian theology at the Council of Nicaea (325) and Council of Constantinople (381) At fi rst Germans and Romans joined together as allies against the East But when rapprochement occurred between Rome and Constantinople, Theodoric feared a Byzan-tine invasion with potential Roman support
Making matters worse, the Byzantine government began to persecute Arians in the early 520s
Theodor-ic commenced a more hostile approach to his Roman population Roman offi cials were accused of collabora-tion and arrested, among them Boethius, who wrote his
Consolation of Philosophy while awaiting his execution
Theodoric sent the pope to negotiate with Constantino-ple but did not trust him and, upon his return, impris-oned him Theodoric died in 526, only a few years before the start of the Byzantine invasion that did, in fact, end Ostrogothic rule
See also Arianism; late barbarians; Roman Empire; rome: decline and fall; Rome: government
Further reading: Bury, J B A History of the Later Roman
Empire Vols 1 and 2 New York: Dover, 1958; Moorhead, J Theodoric in Italy Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.
Matthew Herbst
Theodosius I
(c 347–395 c.e.) Roman emperor
Theodosius was born in Spain and followed in his father’s footsteps as an able military commander This changed when his father was condemned and executed, and Theodosius withdrew from public life The West-ern Roman emperor desperately needed his talents in
378 c.e., when the German Goths defeated the Roman army and killed the Eastern Roman emperor at the Bat-tle of Adrianople and overran the Balkans Theodo-sius was recalled to military command and promoted
to Eastern Roman emperor in 379 He recruited a new army (including many Germans), fought the Goths, and
made peace by settling them as independent allies (foe-derati) inside the empire They ruled their own people,
provided military service, and received positions in the empire’s military command
It was a precarious situation, but it restored a level
of order and security Theodosius’s military ability was also demonstrated by two victorious campaigns against western usurpers in 384 and 394 In the latter campaign, the usurper murdered the Western Roman emperor but
460 Theodoric