Austria's Rise: Ostrogothic Legacy And Influence

The Ostrogothic Kingdom, established by the Germanic Ostrogoths, controlled Italy and neighbouring areas between 493 and 553. During this period, most of present-day Austrian territory was part of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, which was mostly concentrated on the Italian peninsula. The Ostrogoths were the eastern branch of the Goths, who settled and established a powerful state in Dacia. However, there is no direct relation between the names Austria and Ostrogoth, beyond the shared meaning of east.

The Ostrogothic Kingdom was established by Germanic Ostrogoths

The Ostrogothic Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of Italy, was established by the Germanic Ostrogoths and controlled Italy and neighbouring areas between 493 and 553. The Ostrogoths were the eastern branch of the Goths and were led by Theodoric the Great.

The origins of the Ostrogoths can be traced back to the first century AD when they migrated from southern Scandinavia to the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. They settled between the Oder and Vistula rivers before slowly drifting into Ukraine, or Scythia as it was known to the ancients. Over time, the Goths formed various sub-groups with their own names, such as the Tervingi and the Greuthungi. The Ostrogoths, or the Greuthungi, lived further east of the Tervingi, in modern-day eastern Ukraine and southern Russia.

In the late 4th century, the Ostrogoths came under the dominion of the Huns and were forced westwards. After the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in 454, large numbers of Ostrogoths were settled by Emperor Marcian in the Roman province of Pannonia as foederati. The Ostrogoths retained a strong identity and cohesion, and in 460, they ravaged Illyricum due to the cessation of annual payments. Peace was concluded in 461, and Theodoric Amal, the son of Theodemir of the Amals, was sent as a hostage to Constantinople, where he received a Roman education.

In 474, Theodoric rose to become the ruler of the Ostrogoths and led them out of their unpromising lands in Moesia, close to Constantinople. The Ostrogoths were now largely settled in Moesia, distancing themselves from the remaining Ostrogoths in the Crimean Peninsula, who became known as the Tauric Ostrogoths.

In 488, Theodoric and his people set out from Moesia and crossed the Julian Alps into Italy. By 493, Ravenna was taken, and Theodoric established the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy. He defeated and killed Odoacer, the Germanic soldier and erstwhile leader of the foederati, at a banquet celebrating their treaty. Theodoric ruled as the King of the Goths and Romans, demonstrating his desire to lead both peoples.

Under Theodoric, the Ostrogothic Kingdom reached its zenith, stretching from modern-day Southern France to western Serbia. Most social institutions of the late Western Roman Empire were preserved during his rule, and he fostered good relations with the Roman Church. He also sought to establish a central position among the barbarian states of the West through marriage alliances.

Following Theodoric's death in 526, the Ostrogothic Kingdom experienced a period of instability, with various rulers succeeding one another. In 535, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I embarked on a campaign to reconquer Italy, leading to the Gothic War, which lasted until 554. Despite a period of resurgence under Totila, the Ostrogoths were eventually defeated, and the Ostrogothic name wholly died out. The remaining Ostrogoths in Italy were absorbed into the Lombards, who established a kingdom in 568.

The Kingdom controlled Italy and neighbouring areas from 493 to 553

The Ostrogothic Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of Italy, was established by the Germanic Ostrogoths and controlled Italy and neighbouring areas from 493 to 553. Led by Theodoric the Great, the Ostrogoths killed Odoacer, a Germanic soldier and erstwhile leader of the foederati, who had deposed the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, Romulus Augustulus, in 476.

Under Theodoric, the Ostrogothic kingdom reached its zenith, stretching from modern-day Southern France in the west to modern-day western Serbia in the southeast. Theodoric called himself "King of the Goths and Romans", demonstrating his desire to be a leader for both peoples. He ruled for thirty-three years, during which Italy enjoyed peace and prosperity. Theodoric governed two races at the same time: the Romans and the Goths. Although he was of the Arian sect, he did not assault the Catholic religion and maintained good relations with the Roman church.

The administrative machinery of Odoacer's kingdom was more or less retained by the Ostrogoths. The Senate continued to function normally and was consulted on civil appointments. The laws of the Empire still ruled the Roman population, though Goths were ruled under their own traditional laws. The army and all military offices remained the exclusive preserve of the Goths, who settled mostly in northern Italy.

In his foreign policy, Theodoric sought to establish a central position among the barbarian states of the West. He formed marriage alliances with other barbarian kingdoms, such as the Visigoths, Burgundians, and Vandals. However, these policies were not always successful in maintaining peace. Theodoric found himself at war with Clovis, the Frankish king, when the latter attacked the Visigoth dominions in Gaul in 506.

After the death of Theodoric in 526, his achievements began to collapse due to a lack of a strong heir. The network of alliances that surrounded the Ostrogothic state disintegrated, and the Franks embarked on expansion, subduing the Thuringians and Burgundians. The Ostrogothic kingdom was eventually defeated by the Byzantine Empire, which invaded Italy under Justinian I in 535. The last king of the Ostrogothic Kingdom was Teia.

The Kingdom was led by Theodoric the Great

The emperor Zeno made him a commander of the Eastern Roman forces in 483 and consul in 484. However, Theodoric remained in constant hostilities with the emperor and frequently raided East Roman territory. At the behest of Zeno, in 489, Theodoric attacked Odoacer, the king of Italy, emerging victorious in 493. As the new ruler of Italy, he upheld a Roman legal administration and scholarly culture while promoting a major building program across Italy.

Theodoric's kingdom was among the most "Roman" of the barbarian states, and he successfully ruled most of Italy for thirty-three years following his treachery against Odoacer. He was of the Arian (nontrinitarian) faith and, in his final years, became less tolerant of other religious groups. Despite the complex relationship between Theodoric and his son-in-law, the Catholic Burgundian king Sigismund, the two enjoyed a mutual peace for fifteen years. Then, in 522, Sigismund killed his own son—Theodoric's grandson—Sigeric; an act that infuriated Theodoric and led him to invade the Burgundian kingdom, accompanied by the Franks.

Theodoric died in 526 and was buried in a grand mausoleum in Ravenna. He was succeeded by his grandson Athalaric, with Theodoric's daughter Amalasuntha serving as regent.

The Ostrogoths were the eastern branch of the Goths

In 460, during the reign of Leo I, because the payment of annual sums had ceased, they ravaged Illyricum. Peace was concluded in 461, whereby the young Theodoric Amal, son of Theodemir of the Amals, was sent as a hostage to Constantinople, where he received a Roman education.

In previous years, a large number of Goths, first under Aspar and then under Theodoric Strabo, had entered service in the Roman army and were a significant political and military power in the court of Constantinople. The period 477–483 saw a complex three-way struggle among Theodoric the Amal, who had succeeded his father in 474, Theodoric Strabo, and the new Eastern Emperor Zeno. In this conflict, alliances shifted regularly, and large parts of the Balkans were devastated.

In the end, after Strabo's death in 481, Zeno came to terms with Theodoric. Parts of Moesia and Dacia ripensis were ceded to the Goths, and Theodoric was named magister militum praesentalis and consul for 484. Barely a year later, Theodoric and Zeno fell out, and again Theodoric's Goths ravaged Thrace. It was then that the thought occurred to Zeno and his advisors to direct Theodoric against another troublesome neighbour of the Empire – the Italian kingdom of Odoacer.

Odoacer's kingdom (476–493)

In 476, Odoacer, leader of the foederati in the West, had staged a coup against the rebellious magister militum Orestes, who was seeking to have his son Romulus Augustulus recognised as Western Emperor in place of Emperor Julius Nepos. Orestes had reneged on the promise of land in Italy for Odoacer's troops, a pledge made to ensure their neutrality in his attack on Nepos. After executing Orestes and putting the teenage usurper in internal exile, Odoacer paid nominal allegiance to Nepos (now in Dalmatia) while effectively operating autonomously, having been raised to the rank of patrician by Zeno. Odoacer retained the Roman administrative system, cooperated actively with the Roman Senate, and his rule was efficient and successful. He evicted the Vandals from Sicily in 477, and in 480 he occupied Dalmatia after the murder of Julius Nepos.

The Ostrogothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of Italy (Latin: Regnum Italiae), was a barbarian kingdom established by the Germanic Ostrogoths that controlled Italy and neighbouring areas between 493 and 553. Led by Theodoric the Great, the Ostrogoths killed Odoacer, a Germanic soldier and erstwhile leader of the foederati. Odoacer had previously become the de facto ruler of Italy following his deposition of Romulus Augustulus, the final emperor of the Western Roman Empire, in 476. Under Theodoric, the Ostrogothic kingdom reached its zenith, stretching from modern Southern France in the west to modern western Serbia in the southeast. Most of the social institutions of the late Western Roman Empire were preserved during his rule. Theodoric called himself Gothorum Romanorumque rex 'King of the Goths and Romans', demonstrating his desire to be a leader for both peoples.

The Ostrogoths were one of several peoples referred to more generally as Goths. The Goths appear in Roman records starting in the third century, in the regions north of the Lower Danube and Black Sea. They competed for influence and Roman subsidies with peoples who had lived longer in the area, such as the Carpi, and various Sarmatians, and they contributed men to the Roman military. Based on their Germanic language and material culture, it is believed that their Gothic culture derived from cultures from the direction of the Vistula river in the north, now in Poland and originally from Götaland (in English Western and Eastern Gothlands) and Gotland in present-day Sweden. By the third century, the Goths were already composed of sub-groups with their own names, because the Tervingi, who bordered on the Roman Empire and the Carpathian Mountains, were mentioned separately on at least one occasion.

The Ostrogoths, not mentioned until later, are associated with the Greuthungi who lived further east. The dividing line between the Tervingi and the Greuthungi, was reported by Ammianus to be the Dniester River, and to the east of the Greuthungi were Alans living near the River Don.

The Ostrogoths in Italy used a Gothic language which had both spoken and written forms, and which is best attested today in the surviving translation of the Bible by Ulfilas. Goths were a minority in all the places they lived within the Roman empire, and no Gothic language or distinct Gothic ethnicity has survived. On the other hand, the Gothic language texts which the Ostrogothic kingdom helped preserve are the only eastern Germanic language with "continuous texts" surviving, and the earliest significant remnants of any Germanic language.

The first part of the word "Ostrogoth" comes from a Germanic root *auster- meaning 'eastern'. According to the proposal of Wolfram, this was originally a boastful tribal name meaning "Goths of the rising sun", or "Goths glorified by the rising sun". By the 6th century, however, Jordanes, for example, believed that the Visigoths and Ostrogoths were two contrasting names simply meaning western and eastern Goths.

The Kingdom was also called the Kingdom of Italy

The Ostrogothic Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of Italy, was established by the Germanic Ostrogoths and controlled Italy and neighbouring areas between 493 and 553. Led by Theodoric the Great, the Ostrogoths killed Odoacer, a Germanic soldier and erstwhile leader of the foederati.

Under Theodoric, the Ostrogothic kingdom reached its peak, stretching from modern Southern France in the west to modern western Serbia in the southeast. Theodoric called himself 'King of the Goths and Romans', demonstrating his desire to lead both peoples. He ruled over two distinct populations: the Romans and the Goths, each with their own laws and traditions. The Goths were mostly settled in northern Italy, keeping themselves separate from the Roman population. Theodoric encouraged good relations with the Roman church, although questions of jurisdiction regarding clerics remained potentially fraught.

The Ostrogoths retained a strong identity and cohesion, even as they served in the Roman army and entered Roman service. They were settled in Pannonia as foederati by Emperor Marcian after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in 454. Unlike other foederati formations, they were not absorbed into the structure and traditions of the Roman military.

The Ostrogothic Kingdom, or Kingdom of Italy, was eventually conquered by the Byzantine Empire under Justinian I. The Ostrogothic ruler, Witiges, was unable to defend the kingdom successfully, and the capital, Ravenna, fell. The Ostrogoths were eventually defeated, and the last king of the Ostrogothic Kingdom was Teia.

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