Raven battle
The battle of raven describes a military encounter between the rex italiae ("King of Italy") Odoacer and the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great in 493. This was preceded by a two-year siege of the Odoacer-held city of Ravenna ( German ravens ).
Prehistory and historical battle
In September 476, the Germanic officer Odoacer deposed the last Western Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus and made himself king ( rex italiae ). Odoacer had sent the insignia of the Western Roman Empire ( ornamenta palatii ) to Constantinople and submitted to the sovereignty of Eastern Europe . In 480 at the latest he was de facto recognized by the Eastern Roman Emperor Zenon as regent of the western part of the empire.
Odoaker was able to significantly expand his sphere of influence in the following years: in 477 he leased Sicily from the Vandals , in 481 he conquered, after the death of Julius Nepos , Dalmatia and in 488 he destroyed the Rugian Empire in Noricum . To counter this increased power, Zenon sent his Ostrogothic foederati under their leader Theodoric to overthrow Odoacer. Theodoric was supposed to retake Italy for the empire until the emperor himself came to the west.
After several victories over Odoacer (489 on the Isonzo and near Verona , on August 11, 490 on the Adda ), Theodoric began in 491 with the siege of Ravenna. After the trapped prisoners failed to break out in July 491, the siege dragged on for two years. At the beginning of 493 Odoacer was exposed to the danger of famine, as Theodoric had succeeded in blocking the port, but Ravenna could only be supplied via the sea. Odoacer therefore tried a new outbreak (the legendary raven battle ), but it failed. On February 25, he therefore agreed to start peace talks.
consequences
In politics
Since both sides had suffered heavy losses during the years of fighting, Theodoric consented to the proposal of Bishop John of Ravenna, who envisaged a joint reign over Italy for both rulers. The contract was signed and sworn on February 27th. But ten days after the Ostrogoths entered Ravenna, on March 15, 493, Theodoric killed Odoacer himself at a meal of reconciliation and rose to become sole ruler. Under his rule, Italy enjoyed peace again after around 90 years of war and increasing disruption.
In the consciousness of the people
The wild slaughter has preoccupied our contemporaries and the following generations. The events possibly form the template for the legends about Dietrich von Bern (= Theoderich), as well as for the report about Wittich's fight against Dietrich's brother and Etzel's sons and about Dietrich's revenge. Rabenschlacht is the title of a Middle High German heroic poem of the 13th century, which is assigned to the group of historical Dietrichepik . The Hildebrandslied , a Germanic hero song, shows motifs that indicate the temporal and political context of the battle.
literature
- Wilhelm Enßlin : Theodoric the Great. 2nd Edition. Bruckmann, Munich 1959, p. 62ff.
- John Moorhead: Theoderic in Italy. Clarendon Press, Oxford et al. 1992, ISBN 0-19-814781-3 , pp. 17ff.