Barbarian king of Italy; b. 454, d. 30 August 526 (Ravenna).
Theodoric was the son of the Ostrogoth chieftain Theodemir. The Ostrogoths had suffered much oppression from the Huns, who had robbed them of their grain and driven them out of their homeland in the Ukraine. They were now roaming the Balkan trying to find a new home, fighting other German tribes year after year, sometimes supported by the Eastern Roman Empire, sometimes occupying the empire's provinces.
The young Theodoric grew up as a hostage in the eastern capital Constantinople. After his father's death in 471 he became chieftain himself and continued the search for a place to settle his people, occupying first what is now Bulgaria but then turning on provinces of the empire and even threatening Constantinople.
In an attempt to control the situation emperor Zeno appointed Theodoric as consul in 484 and in 488 ordered him to take his troops and people to Italy and depose Odoacer, who refused to acknowledge Zeno's authority.
Theodoric left with an estimated 100,000 people and arrived in Italy in 489. The war lasted four years and brought immense destruction and suffering. By 493 all of Italy including Sicily was under Theodoric's control, and Odoacer's influence was reduced to the besieged city of Ravenna. Odoacer negotiated an agreement of joint government and opened the city to the Ostrogoths. Ten days later Theodoric organized a banquet, at which Odoacer was suddenly seized and killed by Theodoric's sword. The assassination was followed by the murder of Odoacer's wife and son and large numbers of Odoacer's Sciri tribe.
Theodoric was now king of the Ostrogoths and of the Romans, who lived parallel lives in one empire. They spoke and wrote different languages (Gothic and Latin), practiced different versions of Christianity (Arian and Catholic) and were not allowed to intermarry. While Goths had to serve in the army and received an annual donative, Romans were not allowed to carry arms.
Whether Theodoric ever acknowledged Zeno's authority is unclear, but in his actions he avoided confrontation. He did not promulgate new laws (a prerogative of the Eastern Emperor) but ruled by edict. He gave away the fur skins worn by Odoacer and other barbarian rulers and clothed himself in the purple of the Roman emperors, but he accepted that he could not confer Roman citizenship on Goths or appoint Goths to the Roman civil service or Senate. He also published the Edict, a collection of 154 rules, essentially a reformulation of existing Roman laws in plain language, and introduced Roman law uniformly across his kingdom for Goths and Romans alike.
After the Ostrogoths were settled in northern and central Italy, Theodoric reigned Italy peacefully for 33 years. Throughout these years he tried to counteract Gothic animosity towards Romans. Letters of appointment contained stipulations that the Roman population must be left in peace and their property respected. He constantly appealed to the Goths (who were carrying the arms) not to plunder their houses or ravage their fields. He even tried to influence his people by pointing out the benefit they obtained from amicable neighbourly life, saying that "it is in your interests that the Romans should be undisturbed, for while they enrich our Treasury they multiply your donatives."
Contemporary sources claimed that Theodoric was illiterate. His upbringing in Constantinople makes this claim hard to believe; but it appears certain that he did not absorb Roman civilization to the same degree as someone born into it. As king he propagated civilitas, which for him meant peace and order, racial harmony, and the punishment of oppression and violence. One of his documents expressed this with the words: "We do not love anything that is uncivilized. We hate wicked pride and its authors. Our piety execrates men of violence. In a law suit let justice prevail, not the strong arm."
The portrait of Theodoric at the top of the frame is from a coin issued under his rule. The art of minting went through one of its best periods during Theodoric's reign.