Ostrogothic Kingdom

  General Description   Beginning with the Emperor Honorius (r. 393-423 CE), the Western Empire experienced a continuous decline and a series of invasions at the hands of Germanic, Vandal, Alan, and Hun forces throughout the 5th century. In 476 CE, a Roman military officer of likely Germanic decent (though his exact ancestry is not certain) named Odoacer led a revolt against the western emperor Romulus Augustus (r. 475-476 CE), a child whose rule was overseen by his father, a high-ranking general named Orestes. Odoacer and his fellow soldiers killed Orestes and effectively deposed Romulus Augustus, and Odoacer’s authority was recognized by the Eastern Roman emperor at the time, Zeno, although he was not proclaimed Emperor in the West. In 480 CE, after the death of Julius Nepos, whom Zeno recognized as the legitimate Western Emperor, Zeno abolished the co-emperorship, claiming to rule over both halves of the Empire, although much of the Western Empire had already been lost and Italy itself remained under the control of Odoacer, who ruled as king. ^{[1] [2]}
In 488 CE, the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno convinced Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths (r. 475-526), to invade Italy and remove Odoacer from power. ^[3] Theodoric and his Ostrogoths were successful, expelling Odoacer from Italy and establishing an Ostrogothic Kingdom over most of Italy, which lasted from 489 to 554 CE. Theodoric’s agreement with Zeno, which may have been written down but no longer exists, ^[4] led Theodoric’s rule to be officially recognized by the Eastern Empire in Constantinople. ^[5]
The period ends with Ostrogothic Italy’s defeat at the hands of the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I in 455 CE. Justinian managed to reassert Roman rule and institutions over much of Italy, though this quickly evaporated in the face of invasions by Salvic, Turkic, and Germanic tribes. Only central and some parts of southern Italy remained under Byzantine authority into the later half of the 5th century CE. ^[6]
Population and political organization
The Ostrogothic Kingdom was essentially split between three separate power centres: Constantinople, Ravenna and Rome. The Ostrogothic king, traditionally elected by a Gothic military elite, ^[3] but made hereditary after Theodoric, made high-level administrative appointments to a court based in Ravenna and to the northern Italian cities of Pavia and Verona. ^[7] The Ostrogothic King was, however, in principle under the authority of the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople, on whose invitation Theodoric had invaded Odoacer’s Italy. The emperors in Constantinople retained the right to name senators, consuls, and other high-ranking officials for the West, ^[8] while Rome remained an influential symbolic, economic, and ecclesiastical centre. ^[7] The Roman Senate at Rome functioned as a local governing centre; ^[9] many wealthy Romans found traditional positions of authority and prestige in the administration at Ravenna. ^{[10] [9]} Ostrogothic kings kept the existing late Roman governmental structure relatively unchanged, ^[11] but reduced in size ^[12] and more tightly centred on the royal court. ^[13]
The king’s administrative and advisory council was made up of both Gothic and Roman officials. ^{[14] [15]} This period also saw a ’blurring of the boundaries between civil and military functions’. ^[13] The praetorian prefect was the most powerful individual in the kingdom below the king; he was responsible for enforcing the king’s laws, had some power to issue his own edicts and set taxation rates, received the taxes from all provinces, paid military and administrative salaries, made personnel recommendations to the king and had the right of dismissal. ^[16] He also commanded the largest branches of the bureaucracy, was responsible for the public food supply, and was the final judge of appeal. ^[16]
The Ostrogothic Kingdom reached a population of approximately 5.5 million people and witnessed a revival in economic fortunes for the region of Italy. Apart from the many Roman institutions, the Roman aristocracy and their privileges that were maintained, tax receipts were spent on public services ^[17] and Theodoric commanded that money be set aside for the restoration of walls and monuments in several Roman cities. ^[18] Theodoric also oversaw the construction of baths and an amphitheatre, and restored aqueducts from Ravenna to Rome - the latter had seen its population fall to around 100,000-200,000 inhabitants - and built churches such as the Arian Saint Theodor, the palatial San Apollinare Nuovo, and the San Andrea dei Gothi. ^[19]

[1]: (Cameron 1993) Averil Cameron. 1993. The Later Roman Empire, A.D. 284-430. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[2]: (Burns 1991, 74) Thomas S. Burns. 1991. A History of the Ostrogoths. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

[3]: (Heydemann 2016, 21) Gerda Heydemann. 2016. ’The Ostrogothic Kingdom: Ideologies and Transitions’, in A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy, edited by Jonathan J. Arnold, Shane M. Bjornlie and Kristina Sessa, 15-46. Leiden: Brill.

[4]: (Heydemann 2016, 20) Gerda Heydemann. 2016. ’The Ostrogothic Kingdom: Ideologies and Transitions’, in A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy, edited by Jonathan J. Arnold, Shane M. Bjornlie and Kristina Sessa, 15-46. Leiden: Brill.

[5]: (Stearns, ed. 2001, 169) Peter N. Stearns, ed. 2001. The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. 6th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

[6]: (Burns 1991, 215) Thomas S. Burns. 1991. A History of the Ostrogoths. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

[7]: (Barnish 2007, 327) Sam J. Barnish. 2007. ’Cuncta Italiae Membra Componere: Political Relations in Ostrogothic Italy’, in The Ostrogoths from the Migration Period to the Sixth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective, edited by Sam J. Barnish and Federico Marazzi, 317-37. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.

[8]: (Wolfram and Dunlap 1990, 287-88) H. Wolfram and T. J. Dunlap. 1990. History of the Goths. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

[9]: (Arnold, Bjornlie and Sessa 2016, 8) Jonathan J. Arnold, Shane M. Bjornlie and Kristina Sessa. 2016. ’Introduction’, in A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy, edited by Jonathan J. Arnold, Shane M. Bjornlie and Kristina Sessa, 1-13. Leiden: Brill.

[10]: (Heydemann 2016, 25) Gerda Heydemann. 2016. ’The Ostrogothic Kingdom: Ideologies and Transitions’, in A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy, edited by Jonathan J. Arnold, Shane M. Bjornlie and Kristina Sessa, 15-46. Leiden: Brill.

[11]: (Bjornlie 2016, 59) Shane M Bjornlie. 2016. ’Governmental Administration.’ in A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy edited by Jonathan J Arnold, Shane M Bjornlie, Kristina Sessa. Leiden: BRILL.

[12]: (Bjornlie 2016, 53) Shane M. Bjornlie. 2016. ’Governmental Administration’, in A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy, edited by Jonathan J. Arnold, Shane M. Bjornlie and Kristina Sessa, 47-72. Leiden: Brill.

[13]: (Heydemann 2016, 26) Gerda Heydemann. 2016. ’The Ostrogothic Kingdom: Ideologies and Transitions’, in A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy, edited by Jonathan J. Arnold, Shane M. Bjornlie and Kristina Sessa, 15-46. Leiden: Brill.

[14]: (Bjornlie 2016, 58) Shane M. Bjornlie. 2016. ’Governmental Administration’, in A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy, edited by Jonathan J. Arnold, Shane M. Bjornlie and Kristina Sessa, 47-72. Leiden: Brill.

[15]: (Barnish 2007, 322) Sam J. Barnish. 2007. ’Cuncta Italiae Membra Componere: Political Relations in Ostrogothic Italy’, in The Ostrogoths from the Migration Period to the Sixth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective, edited by Sam J. Barnish and Federico Marazzi, 317-37. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.

[16]: (Bjornlie 2016, 61) Shane M. Bjornlie. 2016. ’Governmental Administration’, in A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy, edited by Jonathan J. Arnold, Shane M. Bjornlie and Kristina Sessa, 47-72. Leiden: Brill.

[17]: (Wolfram and Dunlap 1990, 296) H. Wolfram and T. J. Dunlap. 1990. History of the Goths. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

[18]: (Purton 2009, 14) Peter Purton. 2009. A History of the Early Medieval Siege, c. 450-1220. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.

[19]: (Burns 1991, 129) Thomas S. Burns. 1991. A History of the Ostrogoths. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.