Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

ostrogothic italy, 493,555 127
take his confederacy to Italy to dispossess Odoacer (476–93). The ensuing
migration and four years of fighting began the process of uniting these disparate
Germanic elements into a more coherent and ethnically self-conscious
people. 25
The Ostrogothic conquest of Italy was initially hard-fought. Moving
westwards, they had to defeat the Gepids around Sirmium in 488 before
forcing their way into Italy in August 489. Odoacer was defeated in battle
twice that year and again in 490, after he had for a while besieged
Theoderic in Pavia. After a battle near the Addua in August, Odoacer fled
to Ravenna, which the Ostrogoths proved unable to take. The blockade
of the city lasted until 493, when an agreement was finally made whereby
Theoderic and Odoacer undertook joint rule of Italy. This proved meaningless,
as, once admitted to the city, Theoderic rapidly secured the
murder of Odoacer and his family. Such an outcome may have been
prompted by the attitude of some of the leading Roman office-holders
who refused to enter Theoderic’s service while their former master still
lived. This was the position of Liberius, who became praetorian prefect
of Italy immediately following Odoacer’s death. 26 In general, the seizure
of power by Theoderic was marked by remarkable continuity as far as the
Roman aristocracy was concerned. Families and individuals who had
served Odoacer continued to hold office under the Ostrogoths. Despite
some initial hesitation, and following three embassies to Constantinople,
the new eastern emperor Anastasius I (492–518) finally recognized
Theoderic as ruler of Italy around 497.
The Roman landowners had already found the regime of Odoacer an
improvement on the political instability and military disorder of the last
twenty years of western imperial rule, and they were to benefit even more
from the government of Theoderic. 27 In particular, the external security of
Italy attained a level previously unmatched in the fifth century. The defeats
of the Alamans at the hands of the Franks in the 490s led a significant body
of them to put themselves under Theoderic’s protection. They were then
settled in the Alps to defend the northern passes into Italy. Further north,
the defence of Italy and a wider stability in the region were augmented by
an alliance with the Thuringians. In 510 the Thuringian king Herminafrid
married Theoderic’s niece Amalaberga. The eastern approaches were
secured by the conquest of Pannonia in 504–5. Theoderic’s general Pitzia
took Sirmium from the Gepids and defeated a Bulgar army sent by the
emperor. The Heruls on the Danube were also at this time brought into the
Ostrogothic political orbit – a change marked by Theoderic’s adoption of
their king Rodulf as his ‘son by arms’. To the south, good relations were
25 Heather, Goths and Romans 227–308. 26 PLRE ii, s.v. Liberius 3, 677–81.
27 See ch. 19 (Humphries), pp. 544,8 below.
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