THEODORIC, surnamed THE GREAT, the founder of the Ostrogothic monarchy, which comprised Italy, Sicily, south-eastern Gaul, Rhmtia, Noricum, Pannonia, and Dalma tia, was born on the banks of the Neusiedler See, to the s. of Vienna, in 455 A.D. His father, Theodemir, was one of the three brothers (the other two were Walamir and Widimir) who, on the death of Attila (453 A.D), freed their nation from the yoke of the Huns, and being the representatives of the royal line of the Amali, exercised a united sovereignty over it; but the death of Walamir, and the departure to Italy and Gaul of Widimir with a part of the nation, left Theodoric's father sole ruler of the Ostro goths who remained in Pannonia. Previous to these events, Theodoric had been given as• hostage to the eastern emperor, in accordance with whose directions he had been accustomed to all kinds of athletic and martial exercises, so that after his return (473) home, he was well qualified to fill the post of ruler of his ferocious and valiant kinsmen, which, by the death of his father, was left vacant in 475. In the previous year, the Ostrogoths had obtained parts of Mcesia and Dacia as settlements from the emperor Zeno, and for years they gallantly defended the empire from foreign aggressors, other Gothic tribes included; but the impolitic faithlessness of Zeno produced in revenge the devastation of Thessaly and Macedonia, and subsequently (487) a raid directed on the capital itself. The emperor, to free himself from his troublesome ally, gave him per mission to invade Italy, a suggestion gladly adopted by the warlike monarch, who started for Italy in 488; and after forcing his way through the Gepidie and others who attempted to bar his progress, and gathering recruits on the way, arrived in the summer of 489 on the frontiers of Italy. Odoacer was both forewarned and forearmed; and a desperate conflict between the two powerful armies took place near Aquileia (August 28, 489), distinctly to the advantage of the Ostrogoths. A second and more disastrous defeat was inflicted on Odoacer near Verona (Sept. 27), after which he took refuge in Ravenna; but having again gathered a large force, he was totally routed a third time on the banks of the Adda (August, 490), again blockaded in Ravenna, while the whole of Italy was being subdued; and having at last surrendered, was treacherously mur dered (March, 493). Theodoric now assumed the title of king of _Italy, resisted the claim of suzerainty preferred by the eastern emperor; and with the exception of a vic torious campaign against the Franks, to compel them to cease their assaults on the Visi gothic dominions, the suppression of a rebellion in Spain against the authority of the infant monarch, his own grandson Amalric (during whose minority Theodoric adminis tered also the government of the Visigothic kingdom), and an expedition against the robber hordes of the Bulgarians, the whole of his long reign was devoted to the consoli dation and development of his new kingdom. His followers only received one-third of
the conquered country; the rest was legally secured to the then possessors, and by de grees his barbarous followers were placed upon a footing, of harmony with their fellow subjects. Theodoric made Ravenna his capital; occasionally, when his northern fron tier was threatened, removing to Verona. He died in 526. Theodoric holds the very highest rank among monarchs. An uneducated barbarian, and master of a power which even the most formidable of his neighbors, the Frauks,could not have long with stood, he showed no desire of conquest; cultivated the friendship and esteem of the surrounding nations; ruled all classes of his subjects with irresistible authority, but with corresponding justice and moderation; zealously promoted agriculture and com merce till Italy again took its old position as the most prosperous country in Europe; and, himself an Arian, exhibited a tolerance of all other sects, which the latter, when their turn for supremacy came, were very far from imitating. The foul blot on his character is the judicial murder of Boethius (q.v.) and Symmachus, for a supposed con nivance with the senator Albinus to restore the authority of the eastern emperor in. Italy; but every fact that can be gathered respecting this event bears out the belief that it was the result of a burst of passion, intensified by his extreme, nay, almost morbid, jealousy of Byzantine interference in Italy. The one great error of his administration consisted in his wholly neglecting to assimilate his Ostrogothic subjects with the previ ous inhabitants, either by a common code of laws, or by common official preferment; for though, under his sway, the evil of this separation did not appear, yet, when the scepter fell to weaker hands, an antagonism necessarily arose between the ruling and the subject races, which was the chief cause of the successful restoration of Byzantine authority in Italy by Belisarius (q.v.) and Narses (q.v.). Theodoric left no son; but his third daughter, Amalaswintha, succeeded him as regent for her son Athalaric; the eldest, Theodicusa, having become queen of the Visigoths, and the mother of Amalric; and the second, Ostrogotha, the wife of Sigismund, the last king of the Burgundian.