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83-408: Scholasticus was Exarch of Ravenna from 713 to 723. In 713 he was appointed as exarch , the same year Anastasius II became Byzantine emperor and overthrew his Monothelite predecessor Philippicus . Scholasticus was charged with giving a letter to Pope Constantine , which described Anastasius' allegiance to orthodoxy, helping to heal the rift between Rome and Constantinople . Around 723, he

166-471: A pragmatica sanctio pro petitione Vigilii (pragmatic sanction on the requests of Pope Vigilius ), the Prefecture of Italy returned, although not yet completely pacified, to Roman dominion. However, Sicily and Dalmatia were separated from the Prefecture of Italy: the former did not become part of any prefecture, being governed by a praetor dependent on Constantinople, while the latter was aggregated to

249-580: 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

332-598: A campaign to recover Pannonia and the strategically important town of Sirmium , formerly parts of the praetorian prefecture of Italy , which were now occupied by the Gepids . The campaign was successful, but it also led to a brief conflict with imperial troops, where the Goths and their allies were victorious. Domestically, the Acacian schism between the patriarchates of Rome and Constantinople, caused by imperial support for

415-716: A defensive measure, and in part as a counterbalance to the influence of the Empire. His daughters were wedded to the Visigothic king Alaric II and the Burgundian prince Sigismund , his sister Amalfrida married the Vandal king Thrasamund , while he himself married Audofleda, sister of the Frankish king Clovis I . These policies were not always successful in maintaining peace: Theodoric found himself at war with Clovis when

498-549: A leader for both peoples. Under Justinian I , the Byzantine Empire embarked on a campaign to reconquer Italy in 535. Witiges , who was the Ostrogothic ruler at that time, could not defend the kingdom successfully and was finally captured when the capital Ravenna fell. The Ostrogoths rallied around a new leader, Totila , and largely managed to reverse the conquest, but were eventually defeated. The last king of

581-639: A life of dissipation and excess, which would send him to a premature death. Eventually, a conspiracy started among the Goths to overthrow her. Amalasuntha resolved to move against them, but as a precaution, she also made preparations to flee to Constantinople, and even wrote to Justinian asking for protection. In the event she managed to execute the three leading conspirators, and her position remained relatively secure until, in 533, Athalaric's health began to seriously decline. Amalasuntha then turned for support to her only relative, her cousin Theodahad , while at

664-533: A peaceful disposition, immediately sent envoys to announce his ascension to Justinian and to reassure him of Amalasuntha's safety. Justinian immediately reacted by offering his support to the deposed queen, but in early May 535, she was executed. This crime served as a perfect pretext for Justinian, fresh from his forces' victory over the Vandals, to invade the Gothic realm in retaliation. Theodahad tried to prevent

747-515: A widow or caused a fire. They could not legally marry people and were not allowed to be assigned to peasants. Slavery would continue in Italy after the Ostrogoths. ^   a:  The exact date and circumstances surrounding Amalasuntha's execution remain a mystery. In his Secret History , Procopius proposes that Empress Theodora might have had a hand in the affair, wishing to get rid of

830-531: Is illustrated by the fact that several senior ministers of Odoacer, like Liberius and Cassiodorus the Elder, were retained in the new kingdom's top positions. The close cooperation between Theodoric and the Roman elite began to break down in later years, especially after the healing of the ecclesiastical rift between Rome and Constantinople (see below), as leading senators conspired with the Emperor. This resulted in

913-457: Is in his foreign policy rather than domestic affairs that Theodoric appeared and acted as an independent ruler. By means of marriage alliances, he sought to establish a central position among the barbarian states of the West. As Jordanes states: "...there was no race left in the western realms which Theodoric had not befriended or brought into subjection during his lifetime." This was in part meant as

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996-724: The exercitus romanae militiae , who were the forerunners of the free armed burghers of the Italian cities of the Middle Ages . Other cities of the exarchate were organized on the same model. During the 6th and 7th centuries, the growing menace of the Lombards and the Franks , as well as the split between Eastern and Western Christendom inspired both by iconoclastic emperors and medieval developments in Latin theology and culminating in

1079-514: The Henotikon , as well as Anastasius' Monophysite beliefs, played into Theodoric's hands, since the clergy and the Roman aristocracy of Italy, headed by Pope Symmachus , vigorously opposed them. Thus, for a time, Theodoric could count on their support. The war between the Franks and Visigoths led to renewed friction between Theodoric and the Emperor, as Clovis successfully portrayed himself as

1162-591: The Balkans were devastated by it. 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

1245-664: The Burgundians and almost evicting the Visigoths from their last holdings in southern Gaul. The position of predominance which the Ostrogothic Kingdom had enjoyed under Theodoric in the West now passed irrevocably to the Franks. This dangerous external climate was exacerbated by the regency's weak domestic position. Amalasuntha was Roman-educated and intended to continue her father's policies of conciliation between Goths and Romans. To that end, she actively courted

1328-604: 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 ,

1411-456: The Mausoleum of Theodoric displays purely Gothic elements, such as its construction not from the usual brick , but of massive slabs of Istrian limestone, or the 300-ton single-piece roof stone. Maintenance, restoration, and in some cases new construction of functioning water systems in many cities outside of Ravenna also occurred in the Ostrogothic Kingdom. An official, the comes formarum

1494-735: The Po (bordering territory of the duke of Venice , nominally in imperial service) and south to the Marecchia River , beyond which lay the Duchy of the Pentapolis on the Adriatic, also under a duke nominally representing the Emperor of the East. The exarchate was organised into a group of duchies ( Rome , Venetia , Calabria , Naples , Perugia , Pentapolis , Lucania , etc.) that were mainly

1577-725: The Prefecture of Illyricum . Consequently, at the end of the conflict, the prefecture of Italy, also called Provincia Italiae by the Pragmatic Sanction as if to demonstrate a loss of importance, was reduced to only continental and peninsular Italy (Sardinia and Corsica, conquered by the Vandals in the century, after Justinian's reconquest they became part of the Praetorian prefecture of Africa ). Narses still remained in Italy with extraordinary powers and also reorganized

1660-510: The Saracen Berbers in 847 but recovered in 871. Later after Sicily was conquered by Arabs the remnants were placed into newly established military/administrative themes of Calabria and Langobardia. Istria at the head of the Adriatic was attached to Dalmatia . Note: For some exarchs there exists some uncertainty over their exact tenure dates. Ostrogothic Kingdom Timeline The Ostrogothic Kingdom , officially

1743-479: The 554 invasion by the Franks and Alamanni . In the same year, Justinian promulgated the Pragmatic Sanction which prescribed Italy's new government. Several cities in northern Italy continued to hold out, however, until the early 560s. The war had its roots in the ambition of Justinian to recover the provinces of the former Western Roman Empire , which had been lost to invading barbarian tribes in

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1826-501: The Byzantines of continental and peninsular Italy), which necessarily entailed the militarization of Byzantine Italy . The necessities of war pushed military commanders to centralize powers, thus depriving the civil authorities which are no longer attested by sources starting from the second half of the 7th century. Thus the separation of civil and military powers introduced by Diocletian and Constantine disappeared. Byzantine Italy

1909-473: The Empire - the Italian kingdom of Odoacer . 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 recognized 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

1992-536: The Franks acted first and invaded Burgundy in 523, quickly subduing it. Theodoric could only react by expanding his domains in the Provence north of the river Durance up to the Isère . The peace with the Vandals, secured in 500 with the marriage alliance with Thrasamund, and their common interests as Arian powers against Constantinople, collapsed after Thrasamund's death in 523. His successor Hilderic showed favour to

2075-461: The Goths were not absorbed into the structure and traditions of the Roman military but retained a strong identity and cohesion of their own. 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

2158-485: The Italian coast still received their trade from North Africa and places on the Eastern Mediterranean. In the Ostrogothic Kingdom chattel slavery was practiced with it primarily being seen in the rural areas. Slaves had a harsh life enjoying little rights or privileges and "could be transferred at will from one estate to another." A slave could be killed by their owner if they had sexual relations with

2241-625: The Lombard incursions, the Roman possessions had fragmented into several isolated territories. In 580, Emperor Tiberius II reorganized them into five province eparchies : the Annonaria in northeastern Italy around Ravenna, Calabria , Campania , Aemilia and the Urbicaria around the city of Rome ( Urbs ). What would become the Republic of Venice was at some point created out of part of

2324-560: The Lombards fragmented into several autonomous duchies (the " Rule of the Dukes "). Emperor Justin II tried to take advantage of the Lombardian fragmentation in 576 by sending his son-in-law, Baduarius , to Italy. However, he was defeated and killed in battle, and the continuing crises in the Balkans and the East meant that another imperial effort at reconquest was not possible. Because of

2407-580: The Lombards), or Naples and Calabria (being overrun by the Lombard duchy of Benevento). In Rome, the pope was the real master. At the end, 740, the Exarchate consisted of Istria , Venetia, Ferrara , Ravenna (the exarchate in the limited sense), with the Pentapolis , and Perugia . These fragments of the province of Italy, as it was when reconquered for Justinian , were almost all lost, either to

2490-632: The Lombards, who finally conquered Ravenna itself in 751, or by the revolt of the pope, who finally separated from the Empire on the issue of the iconoclastic reforms . The relationship between the Pope in Rome and the Exarch in Ravenna was a dynamic that could hurt or help the empire. The Papacy could be a vehicle for local discontent. The old Roman senatorial aristocracy resented being governed by an Exarch who

2573-617: The Lombards. Four years later, after the Franks drove the Lombards out, Pope Stephen II claimed the territory. The Pope's ally in the military action against the Lombards, Pepin the Short , King of the Franks, then donated the conquered lands back to the Papacy; this donation, which was confirmed by Pepin's son Charlemagne in 774, marked the beginning of the temporal power of the popes as the Patrimony of Saint Peter . The archbishoprics within

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2656-617: The Nicaean Christians, and when Amalfrida protested, he had her and her entourage murdered. Theodoric was preparing an expedition against him when he died. Theodoric's relations with his nominal suzerain, the Eastern Roman Emperor, were always strained, for political as well as for religious reasons. Especially during the reign of Anastasius, these led to several collisions, none of which however escalated into general warfare. In 504-505, Theodoric's forces launched

2739-638: The Ostrogothic Kingdom was Teia . The Ostrogoths were the eastern branch of the Goths . They settled and established a powerful state in Dacia , but during the late 4th century, they came under the dominion of the Huns . 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 . Unlike most other foederati formations,

2822-399: The Ostrogothic kingdom was overwhelmingly of those who had lived prior to the Ostrogoths arriving with a minority being Ostrogothic. Little Ostrogothic settlement appears to have happened in Italy south from Rome and Pescara . Picenum and the northern part of Samnium were areas of heavy Ostrogothic settlement while the same was true of places west of Ravenna near Milan and Pavia along with

2905-418: The Papacy and Byzantium accelerated the disintegration of the exarchate. The armies, recruited from the local population, tended to take the pontiff's defense, and did not hesitate to turn on the exarch if he plotted against the Papacy. The Lombards took advantage of this to extend their conquests in an attempt to unify Italy under their domination. The exarchate fell in 751 with the Lombard conquest of Ravenna at

2988-596: The acrimonious rivalry between the Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople , made the position of the exarch more and more untenable. Ravenna remained the seat of the exarch until the revolt of 727 over iconoclasm. Eutychius , the last exarch of Ravenna, was killed by the Lombards in 751. In 752, the northeastern portion of the Exarchate known as the Ducatus Pentapolis was conquered by King Aistulf of

3071-431: The arrest and execution of the magister officiorum Boethius and his father-in-law, Symmachus, in 524. On the other hand, the army and all military offices remained the exclusive preserve of the Goths. The Goths were settled mostly in northern Italy, and kept themselves largely apart from the Roman population, a tendency reinforced by their different faiths: the Goths were mostly Homoian Christians (' 'Arians") , while

3154-453: The autonomist tendencies of the local aristocracies and the ever-increasing temporal political role of the Church of Rome led to a progressive weakening of imperial authority in Italy. Byzantine Italy had now fragmented into a series of autonomous duchies outside the effective control of the exarch, whose authority no longer extended beyond the Ravenna area. Fiscal and religious conflicts between

3237-516: The beginning of Alps. Small amounts of Ostrogothic settlement happened in Dalmatia , west Pannonia and some areas of Tuscia . Villas that existed in the countryside would be abandoned or repurposed. Agriculture also became more diversified with woodland crops and animal husbandry becoming more common. Inland cities during the Ostrogothic period became more cut off from the outside world and became more reliant on local production areas. Cities along

3320-614: The border of the "five cities" in the Marches along the Adriatic coast, and reached even cities not on the coast, such as Forlì . All this territory, which lay on the eastern flank of the Apennines , was under the exarch's direct administration and formed the Exarchate in the strictest sense. Surrounding territories were governed by dukes and magistri militum ("masters of the soldiers") more or less subject to his authority. From

3403-494: The champion of the Western Church against the "heretical" Arian Goths, gaining the Emperor's support. This even led to the dispatch of a fleet by Anastasius in 508, which ravaged the coasts of Apulia . With the ascension of Justin I in 518, a more harmonious relationship seemed to be restored. Eutharic , Theodoric's son-in-law and designated successor, was appointed consul for the year 519, while in 522, to celebrate

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3486-518: The city. The kingdom of Odoacer, the first Roman-barbarian kingdom to exist in Italy, was short-lived: in 493 Odoacer was defeated by the king of the Ostrogoths , Theodoric , who became the new lord of Italy. The new Ostrogothic Kingdom established by Theodoric continued to maintain, as previously, the Roman provincial and state organisation. Around the middle of the 6th century , Emperor Justinian I launched an impressive series of campaigns for

3569-526: The coastal cities in the Italian peninsula since the Lombards held the advantage in the hinterland. The civil and military head of these imperial possessions, the exarch himself, was the representative at Ravenna of the emperor in Constantinople . The surrounding territory reached from the River Po, which served as the boundary with Venice in the north, to the Pentapolis at Rimini in the south,

3652-672: The defensive, administrative and fiscal apparatus. Four military commands were allocated to defend the prefecture, one in Forum Iulii , one in Trento , one in the region of Lake Maggiore and Como and finally one in the Cottian and Graian Alps . In 568, the Lombards under King Alboin , together with other Germanic allies, invaded Northern Italy . The area had only a few years ago been completely pacified, and had suffered greatly during

3735-406: The defunct praetorian prefecture of Gaul . Now Theodoric had a common border with the Visigothic kingdom, where, after Alaric's death, he also ruled as regent of his infant grandson Amalaric . Family bonds also served little with Sigismund, who as a staunch Chalcedonian Christian cultivated close ties to Constantinople. Theodoric perceived this as a threat and intended to campaign against him, but

3818-488: The emperor in Constantinople, acting as his viceroy for Italy, a position recognized by the new Emperor Anastasius in 497. At the same time, he was the king of his own people, who were not Roman citizens. In reality, he acted as an independent ruler, although unlike Odoacer, he meticulously preserved the outward forms of his subordinate position. The administrative machinery of Odoacer's kingdom, in essence that of

3901-545: The exarchy's territory. The title of the Doge of Venice included the phrase dux Veneciarum provinciae , marking it as a province of the Byzantine Empire. By the end of the 6th century the new order of powers had settled into a stable pattern. Ravenna, governed by its exarch, who held civil and military authority in addition to his ecclesiastical office, was confined to the city, its port and environs as far north as

3984-433: The fall of Ravenna and the apparent reconquest of Italy by the Byzantines. With the fall of Ravenna, the capital of the kingdom was brought to Pavia , which it became the last centres of Ostrogothic resistance that continued the war and opposed Eastern Roman rule. During the second phase (540/541–553), Gothic resistance was reinvigorated under Totila and put down only after a long struggle by Narses , who also repelled

4067-506: 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 the 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

4150-524: The following year. Honorius, no longer feeling safe, moved to Ravenna and established the new capital of the Western Empire there. In 476 Ravenna fell due to a military coup d'état by the general Odoacer who, at the head of a militia of Heruli , Sciri , Rugii and Turcilingi mercenaries (i.e. the Germanic component of the imperial troops), ousted Romulus Augustulus and took possession of

4233-435: The former Empire, was more or less retained by the Ostrogoths. According to the analysis of Jonathan J. Arnold, Theodoric presented himself - and was more or less accepted as - a Roman Emperor. But despite this rhetoric, Italy had undergone significant structural changes in the fifth century, which required that Roman administrative traditions had to be adapted by Theodoric's court. The Senate continued to function normally and

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4316-576: The former exarchate, however, had developed traditions of local secular power and independence, which contributed to the fragmenting localization of powers. Three centuries later, that independence would fuel the rise of the independent communes. The southern portions of the exarchate including the imperial possessions at Naples, Calabria, and Apulia were reorganized as the Catepanate of Italy headquartered in Bari . These territories were ultimately lost to

4399-515: The great imperial officials became local landowners, the lesser owners of land were increasingly kinsmen or at least associates of these officials, and new allegiances intruded on the sphere of imperial administration. Meanwhile, the necessity for providing for the defence of the imperial territories against the Lombards led to the formation of local militias, who at first were attached to the imperial regiments, but gradually became independent, as they were recruited entirely locally. These armed men formed

4482-498: The hands of the Lombard king Aistulf . In 395 Theodosius I bequeathed the throne of the Roman Empire to his two sons: Arcadius was Emperor of the East; Honorius became Western Roman Emperor . The Roman Empire would never return to a single ruler. The Prefecture of Italy suffered the invasion of barbarians in the 5th century : the first to cross the Alps was Alaric , king of the Visigoths . He arrived in Aquileia in 401 and from there headed for Milan , which he besieged

4565-450: The healing of the Acacian schism, Justin allowed both consuls to be appointed by Theodoric. Soon, however, renewed tension would result from Justin's anti-Arian legislation, and tensions grew between the Goths and the Senate, whose members, as Chalcedonians, now shifted their support to the Emperor. The suspicions of Theodoric were confirmed by the interception of compromising letters between leading senators and Constantinople, which led to

4648-414: The imprisonment and execution of Boethius in 524. Pope John I was sent to Constantinople to mediate on the Arians' behalf, and, although he achieved his mission, on his return he was imprisoned and died shortly after. These events further stirred popular sentiment against the Goths. After the death of Theodoric on 30 August 526, his achievements began to collapse. Since Eutharic had died in 523, Theodoric

4731-416: The inner workings of the Gothic state. Boethius is another prominent figure of the period. Well-educated and also from a distinguished family, he wrote works on mathematics, music and philosophy. His most famous work, Consolatio philosophiae , was written while imprisoned on charges of treason. In Germanic languages, King Theodoric inspired countless legends of questionable veracity. The population of

4814-442: The latter attacked the Visigoth dominions in Gaul in 506. The Franks were rapidly successful, killing Alaric in the Battle of Vouillé and subduing Aquitania by 507. However, starting in 508, Theodoric's generals campaigned in Gaul, and were successful in saving Septimania for the Visigoths, as well as extending Ostrogothic rule into southern Gaul ( Provence ) at the expense of the Burgundians. There in 510 Theodoric reestablished

4897-460: The long Gothic War. The local Byzantine forces were weak and, after taking several towns, in 569 the Lombards conquered Milan . They took Pavia after a three-year siege in 572 and made it their capital. In subsequent years, they took Tuscany . Other military initiatives led by Faroald and Zotto , penetrated into Central and Southern Italy , where they established the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento . However, after Alboin's murder in 573,

4980-423: The main Gothic base at Ticinum ( Pavia ). At that point, however, the Visigoths intervened, the siege of Ticinum was lifted, and Odoacer was decisively defeated at the river Adda on 11 August 490. Odoacer fled again to Ravenna, while the Senate and many Italian cities declared themselves for Theodoric. The Goths now turned to besiege Ravenna, but since they lacked a fleet and the city could be resupplied by sea,

5063-455: The murder of Julius Nepos . An agreement was reached between Zeno and Theodoric, stipulating that Theodoric, if victorious, was to rule in Italy as the emperor's representative. Theodoric with his people set out from Moesia in the autumn of 488, passed through Dalmatia and crossed the Julian Alps into Italy in late August 489. The first confrontation with the army of Odoacer was at the river Isonzo (the battle of Isonzo ) on August 28. Odoacer

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5146-420: The patronage of Theodoric and Amalasuntha, large-scale restoration of ancient Roman buildings was undertaken, and the tradition of Roman civic architecture continued. In Ravenna, new churches and monumental buildings were erected, several of which survive. The Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo , its baptistry , and the Archiepiscopal Chapel follow the typical late Roman architectural and decorative motifs, but

5229-472: The people they ruled over were adherents of Chalcedonian Christianity . Despite this fact, Theoderic enjoyed good relations with the Roman church, although questions of relative jurisdiction, especially in controversies involving clerics, remained potentially fraught. Jews in Theoderic's kingdom were both disadvantaged and protected as they had been under Roman law, which among other things, provided legal protections for their places of worship. Theodoric's view

5312-432: The perspective of Constantinople, the Exarchate consisted of the province of Italy. The Exarchate of Ravenna was not the sole Byzantine province in Italy. Byzantine Sicily formed a separate government, and Corsica and Sardinia , while they remained Byzantine, belonged to the Exarchate of Africa . The Lombards had their capital at Pavia and controlled the great valley of the Po . The Lombard wedge in Italy spread to

5395-423: The previous century (the Migration Period ). By the end of the conflict Italy was devastated and considerably depopulated. As a consequence, the victorious Byzantines found themselves unable to resist the invasion of the Lombards in 568, which resulted in the loss of large parts of the Italian peninsula. Because of the kingdom's short history, no fusion of the two peoples and their art was achieved. However, under

5478-449: The public baths in Spoleto . Some older works were copied in Greek and Gothic (e.g. the Codex Argenteus ), and the literature is solidly in the Greco-Roman tradition. Cassiodorus , hailing from a distinguished background, and himself entrusted with high offices (consul and magister officiorum ) represents the Roman ruling class. Like many others of his background, he served Theodoric and his heirs loyally and well, something expressed in

5561-451: The reconquest of the West and in particular Italy. On the peninsula the emperor began the long and bloody war against the Ostrogoths . In 540 Ravenna, capital of the Goths and seat of the prefecture, was reconquered and the Byzantines began to appoint their own prefects there. The long campaign ended only in 552-554 with the decisive expedition of the general Narses . On 13 August 554, with the promulgation in Constantinople by Justinian of

5644-403: The same time sending ambassadors to Justinian and proposing to cede Italy to him. Justinian indeed sent an able agent of his, Peter of Thessalonica , to carry out the negotiations, but before he had even crossed into Italy, Athalaric had died (on 2 October 534), Amalasuntha had crowned Theodahad as king in an effort to secure his support, and he had deposed and imprisoned her. Theodahad, who was of

5727-424: The siege could be endured almost indefinitely, despite privations. It was not until 492 that Theodoric was able to procure a fleet and capture Ravenna's harbours, thus entirely cutting off communication with the outside world. The effects of this appeared six months later, when, with the mediation of the city's bishop, negotiations started between the two parties. An agreement was reached on 25 February 493, whereby

5810-437: The south, and established duchies at Spoleto and Beneventum ; they controlled the interior, while Byzantine governors more or less controlled the coasts. Piedmont , Lombardy , the interior mainland of Venetia , Tuscany and the interior of Campania belonged to the Lombards, and bit by bit the Imperial representative in Italy lost all genuine power, though in name he controlled areas like Liguria (completely lost in 640 to

5893-453: The support of the Senate and the newly ascended Emperor Justinian I , even providing him with bases in Sicily during the Vandalic War . However, these ideas did not find much favour with the Gothic nobles, who in addition resented being ruled by a woman. They protested when she resolved to give her son a Roman education, preferring that Athalaric be raised as a warrior. She was forced to discharge his Roman tutors, but instead Athalaric turned to

5976-537: 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

6059-400: The two should divide Italy between them. A banquet was organised in order to celebrate this treaty. It was at this banquet, on March 15, that Theodoric, after making a toast, killed Odoacer with his own hands. A general massacre of Odoacer's soldiers and supporters followed. Theodoric and his Goths were now masters of Italy. Like Odoacer, Theodoric was ostensibly a patricius and subject of

6142-575: The war, sending his envoys to Constantinople, but Justinian was already resolved to reclaim Italy. Only by renouncing his throne in the Empire's favour could Theodahad hope to avert war. The Gothic War between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ostrogothic Kingdom was fought from 535 until 554 in Italy , Dalmatia , Sardinia , Sicily and Corsica . It is commonly divided into two phases. The first phase lasted from 535 to 540 and ended with

6225-500: The writings of the period. In his Chronica , used later by Jordanes in his Getica , as well as in the various panegyrics written by him and other prominent Romans of the time for the Gothic kings, Roman literary and historical tradition is put in the service of their Gothic overlords. His privileged position enabled him to compile the Variae Epistolae , a collection of state correspondence, which gives great insight into

6308-406: Was appointed to oversee the kingdom's aqueducts , which were of particular importance to Theodoric. Public bathing culture also continued in earnest under Ostrogothic administration, and there are numerous instances of Theodoric encouraging the practice through the restoration and construction of bathhouses in cities such as Verona and Pavia , and even subsidization of admission fees in the case of

6391-575: Was clearly expressed in his letters to the Jews of Genoa : "The true mark of civilitas is the observance of law. It is this which makes life in communities possible, and which separates man from the brutes. We therefore gladly accede to your request that all the privileges which the foresight of antiquity conferred upon the Jewish customs shall be renewed to you..." and "We cannot order a religion, because no one can be forced to believe against his will." It

6474-429: Was considered by many a meddlesome foreigner. Thus the exarch faced threats from outside as well as from within, hampering much real progress and development. In its internal history, the exarchate was subject to the splintering influences that were leading to the subdivision of sovereignty and the establishment of feudalism throughout Europe. Step by step, and in spite of the efforts of the emperors at Constantinople,

6557-409: Was consulted on civil appointments, and the laws of the Empire were still recognized as ruling the Roman population, though Goths were ruled under their own traditional laws. Indeed, as a subordinate ruler, Theodoric did not possess the right to issue his own laws ( leges ) in the system of Roman law , but merely edicts ( edicta ), or clarifications on certain details. The continuity in administration

6640-476: Was defeated and withdrew towards Verona , where a month later another battle was fought, resulting in a bloody, but crushing, Gothic victory. Odoacer fled to his capital at Ravenna , while the larger part of his army under Tufa surrendered to the Goths. Theodoric then sent Tufa and his men against Odoacer, but he changed his allegiance again and returned to Odoacer. In 490, Odoacer was thus able to campaign against Theodoric, take Milan and Cremona and besiege

6723-405: Was divided into various military districts governed by duces or magistri militum dependent on the exarch of Italy, the military governor with full powers chosen by the emperor from among his generals or trusted officials to govern and defend the remaining territories italics. These districts gradually evolved into increasingly autonomous duchies. Starting from the second half of the 7th century,

6806-416: Was replaced as exarch by Paul . This Byzantine biographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Exarchate of Ravenna The exarchate was established around 584, the year in which the presence of an exarch in Ravenna is attested for the first time, as a consequence of the perpetual state of war with the Lombards (who in the meantime had stolen approximately two thirds of

6889-469: Was succeeded by his infant grandson Athalaric , supervised by his mother, Amalasuntha , as regent. The lack of a strong heir caused the network of alliances that surrounded the Ostrogothic state to disintegrate: the Visigothic kingdom regained its autonomy under Amalaric, the relations with the Vandals turned increasingly hostile, and the Franks embarked again on expansion, subduing the Thuringians and

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