Thela

Thela (also Okla ; † 493 ) was a son of the Western Roman officer Odoacer , who ruled in Italy since 476 , and the Sunigilda .

Life

Thela's father Odoacer had deposed the opposing emperor Romulus Augustulus, who was not recognized by Byzantium , in 476 . After the death of the legitimate western emperor Julius Nepos 480 in exile in Dalmatia , patricius Odoacer officially ruled Italy as governor of the eastern Roman emperor Zenon , but de facto independently.

In 488 Zenon sent an Ostrogothic force under Theodoric to overthrow Odoacer. The cornered Odoacer now proceeded to open usurpation : even before the Battle of the Adda (August 11, 490) he elevated Thela in Rome to Caesar and had his own portrait minted on coins.

When Ravenna was surrendered in February 493 ( Battle of the Ravens ), Thela was delivered as a hostage to the Ostrogoths. Theodoric murdered Odoacer with his own hands a little later. Thela was exiled to Gaul , but was killed a little later after trying to escape or return.

swell

• Anonymous Valesianus , 2 , 11:54
• John of Antioch , Fragments , 214a [Fragment 238 in Mariev's current edition]

literature

• John B. Bury : History of the Later Roman Empire. 2 volumes. Macmillan, London 1923, chap. 12.6 .
• Dirk Henning: Periclitans res Publica. Empire and elites in the crisis of the Western Roman Empire 454 / 5–493 AD (= Historia - individual writings. Vol. 133). Steiner, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-515-07485-6 (also: Marburg, Univ., Diss., 1998).
• John M. O'Flynn: Generalissimos of the western Roman Empire. University of Alberta Press, Edmonton 1983, ISBN 0-888-64031-5 .
• Edward A. Thompson : Romans and Barbarians. The decline of the Western Empire. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison WI 1982, ISBN 0-299-08700-X .
• Herwig Wolfram : Gothic studies. People and rule in the early Middle Ages. CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-52957-7 .
• Herwig Wolfram: Odowakar. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 21, pp. 573-575.

Remarks

1. ↑ In research it is controversial whether this act was applied to the vacant Western Roman imperial throne (as decidedly Thompson, Romans and Barbarians , p. 71). Since Thela was not immediately raised to Augustus and Odoacer renounced the acceptance of this title for himself, the son should possibly only be installed as a successor or co-regent in the regnum Italiae (cf. Wolfram, Gotische Studien , p. 164).
2. ↑ See Henning, Periclitans , p. 68.
3. ↑ Sergei Mariev (ed.): Ioannis Antiocheni fragmenta quae supersunt . Berlin-New York 2008.