Ostrogoth Empire

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Largest expansion of the empire.

The Ostrogoth Empire was founded by the Ostrogoths (or Ostrogoths ) in Italy and neighboring regions and existed from 493 to 553.

According to several researchers, it can also be seen as the continuation of the Western Roman Empire , whose internal structures remained largely unchanged under the Gothic reges .

Conquest of Italy by the Ostrogoths

The Ostrogoth Theodoric moved to Italy in 488 on behalf of the Eastern Roman emperor Zeno , who apparently wanted to get rid of the Amaler , as an army master with the majority of his Ostrogoth foederati to drive Odoacer out. In 476 he deposed Romulus Augustulus , the last western emperor in Italy, and ruled the country as patricius . Theodoric was made patricius by Zeno instead of Odoacer and was supposed to recapture Rome and Italy for the empire and rule until the emperor himself came to the west. The Goths invaded Italy in 489. Odoacer's forces were defeated and driven back in two battles, but Odoacer himself holed up in Ravenna ; thus began the four-year raven battle .

Reign of Theodoric the Great

In 493 Theodoric and Odoacer agreed on a division of power. Theodoric moved into Ravenna on March 5, 493 and murdered Odoacer a few days later. From then on Theodoric ruled as princeps Romanus and "in place of the emperor" over Italy, while at the same time he carried the title rex . Ostrom had to accept this, even if the new emperor Anastasius initially refused the Goth recognition. In 497/8 a provisional agreement was reached between Ravenna and Constantinople, whereby the toleration of Gothic rule from the emperor's point of view only related to Theodoric, not to any descendants. Theodoric's formal legal status - was he more of a Gothic king or was he more in the tradition of western Roman army masters and patricii like Ricimer ? - is controversial in research.

After the elimination of competition in his own camp, Theodoric's reign was characterized by the connection to late antique administrative practice in Italy, the striving for a balance between his Gothic warriors and the numerically far superior Roman civilian population and the consolidation of power through a marriage and alliance policy. However, he could not prevent the establishment of Frankish rule over Gaul ; only the Mediterranean coast remained Visigothic after 507. In 511 he made himself king over the Visigoths who had been defeated by the Franks four years earlier . In the interior there was a late cultural bloom in Italy, which also recovered economically thanks to the internal pacification. Although the Ostrogoths stuck to their Arian creed, their relationship with the Roman Church remained unproblematic for a long time. The Roman elite came to terms with Gothic rule, and many senators entered Theodoric's service. The late Roman cursus honorum remained.

Death of Theodoric and dynastic conflicts

Theodoric's last years were overshadowed by tensions with Constantinople, which led to mistakes such as the execution of Boethius : In 519 the Akakian schism between Rome and Constantinople ended, so that the Catholics of Italy now lived in communion with the Eastern Roman emperor again. This apparently led Theodoric to fear a political alliance between Pope and Emperor against the Arian Goths. In the Senate, friends of the Goths and friends of the emperors also seem to have been hostile to each other. Since his successor-designated son-in-law died before him, Theodoric reacted increasingly sensitive and brutal. He finally died on August 30, 526, with numerous legends arising about his death. His grave in Ravenna is empty, the Eastern Romans removed the mortal remains of the rex , who was soon to be called "the great", during the reconquest in 540. In the Latin and Greek sources, Theodoric is mostly portrayed very positively.

The time after his death was chaotic: Theoderic's daughter Amalasuntha acted as the guardian of the designated but only 10-year-old successor Athalaric . Many Gothic warriors seem to disagree with this and allegedly forced the child into a lifestyle that made Athalaric die at the age of 18. Amalasuntha's cousin Theodahad , whom she had acclaimed as rex after Athalaric's death , disempowered her in 534. Ostrom intervened in the power struggle under the energetic Emperor Justinian : the Eastern Roman general Belisarius , whom Amalasuntha had supported in 533 in the fight against the vandal Gelimer , landed in 535 in Sicily, then conquered southern Italy with Naples and quickly advanced as far as Rome. The Goths overthrew the militarily unsuccessful Theodahad and raised 536 Witichis to rex , which Belisarius was able to withstand until 540. But in May 540 Belisarius entered Ravenna after the Ostrogoths had offered him the Empire of the West, and captured the rex : the Ostrogoths seemed defeated. Belisarius sent Witichis prisoner to Justinian and knocked out the imperial crown.

The remnants of the Goths army therefore elevated Totila to rex in 541 , which then completely surprisingly succeeded in recapturing large parts of Italy within a short time. Apparently the imperial officials had made themselves so unpopular in a very short time that Totila found many followers. In the following ten years the country was so thoroughly devastated by the war that this catastrophe marked the end of the late ancient culture of Italy; a cruel war raged with varying fortunes. The Belisarius, who was sent again, was unable to bring about a decision due to insufficient troop strength - the main imperial army was bound by a war against the Persian Sassanids - and was finally recalled. In 552 the new Eastern Roman army of Italy (around 30,000 soldiers) was then led by Narses , who decisively defeated Totila in 552 in the battle of Busta Gallorum , where the rex was killed.

With Totila's successor Teja , the last rex of the Ostrogoths, the Ostrogoth agony ended in the autumn of 552 in the battle of the Milchberg . Most of the Goths submitted to Narses. In 554 Justinian reorganized the administration of Italy and abolished the court in Ravenna and most of the senatorial offices; Italy was now directly subordinated to Constantinople. Some of the surviving Goths became Eastern Roman subjects, some of them offered persistent resistance in some places until 562, and some of them joined the Franks and Lombards .

Ruler of the Ostrogoth Empire

literature

  • Patrick Amory: People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554. Cambridge 1997.
  • Jonathan J. Arnold: Theoderic and the Roman Imperial Restoration. Cambridge 2014.
  • Jonathan J. Arnold, M. Shane Bjornlie, Kristina Sessa (Eds.): A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy. Leiden 2016.
  • Frank M.äbüttel: Theodoric the great. Darmstadt 2004.
  • Henning Börm: Westrom. From Honorius to Justinian. Stuttgart 2013.
  • Wilhelm Enßlin : Theodoric the Great . 2nd edition, Munich 1959.
  • John Moorhead: Theoderic in Italy. Oxford 1992.
  • Massimiliano Vitiello: Momenti di Roma Ostrogota. Stuttgart 2005.
  • Herwig Wolfram : The Goths. 5th edition, Munich 2009.