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Medieval Sourcebook:
Jordanes:
Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths
Davis Introduction: The Ostrogoths had
been reduced to vassalage by the Huns. After the breakup of
Attila's empire, they recovered their liberty, and entered the
Eastern Empire seeking a place of settlement and
loot----something after the manner of their kinsfolk the
Visigoths.
At the time peace was made between the
Ostrogoths and the Romans, the Romans received as a hostage of
peace, Theodoric the son of Thiudimir. He had now attained the
age of seven years and was entering upon his eighth [461 A.D.].
While his father hesitated about giving him up, his uncle
Valamir, besought him to do it, hoping that peace between the
Romans and the Goths might thus be assured. Therefore, Theodoric
was given as a hostage by the Goths and brought to the city of
Constantinople to the Emperor Leo, and, being a goodly child,
deservedly gained the imperial favor.
After a while Theodoric returned as a
young man to his people and became king over them. He was
treated with great favor by the Emperor Zeno but resolved to go
as the Emperor's deputy to Italy, and deliver it from the Rugi
and other barbarians oppressing it, saying to Zeno, "If I
prevail I shall retain Italy as your grant and gift: if I am
conquered Your Piety will lose nothing." So the Emperor sent him
forth enriched by great gifts and commended to his charge the
Senate and the Roman People.
Therefore, Theodoric departed from the
royal city and returned to his own people. In company with the
whole tribe of the Goths who gave him their unanimous consent he
set out for Hesperia. He went in a straight march through
Sirmium to the places bordering on Pannonia and, advancing into
the territory of Venetia, as far as the bridge of the Sontius,
encamped there. When he had halted there for some time to rest
the bodies of his men and pack animals, Odovocar sent an armed
force against him which he met on the plains of Verona, and
destroyed with great slaughter. Then he broke camp and advanced
through Italy with greater boldness. Crossing the river Po, he
pitched camp near the royal city of Ravenna.
When Odovocar saw this, he fortified
himself within the city. He frequently harassed the army of the
Goths at night, sallying forth stealthily with his men, and this
not once or twice, but often; and thus he struggled for almost
three whole years. But he labored in vain, for all Italy at last
called Theodoric its lord and the Empire obeyed his nod. But
Odovocar suffered daily from war and famine in Ravenna. Since he
accomplished nothing he sent an embassy and begged for mercy.
Theodoric first granted it, then deprived him of his life.
It was in the third year [493 A.D.] after
his entrance into Italy that Theodoric, by the advice of the
Emperor Zeno, laid aside the garb of a private citizen and the
dress of his race, and assumed a costume with a royal mantle, as
he had now become a ruler over both Goths and Romans.
Source.
From: William Stearns Davis, ed.,
Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts from the
Sources, 2 Vols., (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-1913), pp.
325-327.
Scanned by Jerome S. Arkenberg, Cal.
State Fullerton. The text may have been modernized by Prof.
Arkenberg.
This text is part of the
Internet
Medieval Source Book. The Sourcebook is a collection of
public domain and copy-permitted texts related to medieval and
Byzantine history.
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© Paul Halsall, August 1998
halsall@murray.fordham.edu
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