Lessico
Ostrogoti
Popolazione germanica, ramo dei Goti. Secondo le saghe germaniche i Goti, provenienti dalla Scandinavia, già nel sec. II, in Germania, erano divisi in due gruppi: i Teroingi o Visigoti (Goti saggi) e i Gretungi od Ostrogoti (Goti risplendenti). Nel sec. III si trovavano nella Russia meridionale, a nord del Mar Nero: gli Ostrogoti a est del Dnepr, i Visigoti a ovest del fiume stesso (donde l'identificazione Ostrogoti, Ostgothen, Goti dell'est; Visigoti, Westgothen, Goti dell'ovest). Ostrogotha, della dinastia degli Amali, il più antico re goto menzionato (ca. 250), condusse i due gruppi di Goti nella valle del Danubio, donde incominciarono le loro scorrerie nell'area dell'Impero romano.
L'imperatore Decio morì combattendoli (251); Claudio II li sconfisse
a Naisso (269); Aureliano li respinse oltre il Danubio (270-275); ma più
tardi, guidati da Geberico, vinsero i Vandali
e presero la Dacia (ca. 340).
Seguì per loro un periodo di grande fortuna con Ermanrico, che fondò un
ampio regno gotico (da cui però si allontanarono i Visigoti). In questo
periodo appresero il cristianesimo (ariano). L'invasione degli Unni, verso il
370, segnò la fine di questo periodo fortunato; gli Ostrogoti rimasero
soggetti agli Unni fino alla morte di Attila (453), mentre i Visigoti si
rifugiavano in territorio imperiale. Anche sotto gli Unni gli Ostrogoti
continuarono ad avere re della casa degli Amali e quando, con la fine di
Attila, l'impero unnico si sfasciò, gli Ostrogoti ricuperarono l'indipendenza
e, guidati dai fratelli Valamiro, Videmiro e Teodemiro, passarono in Pannonia,
nel Norico come federati dell'impero; con Teodemiro invasero anche l'Illiria,
costringendo l'imperatore Leone I a venire a patti e ad adattarsi alla loro
influenza nell'impero.
Teodorico, figlio
di Teodemiro, cresciuto a Costantinopoli come ostaggio (dal 462) e onorato
dall'imperatore Zenone per avergli reso grandi servigi, quando succedette al
padre come re degli Ostrogoti (474), li condusse nella Mesia e di là, in
veste di patrizio dell'imperatore, in Italia (488-489), per abbattere Odoacre
e stabilirvisi. In quattro anni l'impresa fu compiuta e Teodorico instaurò il
regno degli Ostrogoti in Italia. Il governo di Teodorico (489-526),
riconosciuto anche dal successore di Zenone, Anastasio, relativamente felice
per la collaborazione con i Romani e l'alleanza con Franchi, Vandali, Burgundi
e Visigoti, fu nell'ultimo periodo travagliato da una grave crisi
politico-religiosa; il regno degli Ostrogoti perdette le alleanze coi vicini
regni romano-barbarici e subì l'urto della politica di restaurazione
cattolica e imperiale degli imperatori Giustino e Giustiniano.
All'estinzione della dinastia filoromana degli Amali, Giustiniano mise in atto la riconquista dell'Italia con la guerra greco-gotica (535-553), condotta da Belisario e Narsete. La prima fase della guerra terminò nel 540 con la conquista bizantina di Ravenna e la cattura del re Vitige e Matalasunta. Gli Ostrogoti si ripresero tuttavia con Baduila, detto Totila (l'Immortale), succeduto nel 541 a Ildibado ed Erarico, che giunse a riconquistare Napoli e Roma; ma nel 552 fu vinto e ucciso a Tagina da Narsete. Poco dopo anche l'ultimo re goto, il valoroso Teia, morì in battaglia presso i monti Lattari (553). Spente le ultime resistenze nel 555 (Conza) gli Ostrogoti furono parte deportati in Oriente, parte arruolati nell'esercito imperiale, parte si trasferirono in Gallia.
Durante la dominazione degli Ostrogoti nell'Italia, per tanto tempo funestata dalla guerra, le manifestazioni culturali più notevoli appartengono all'età di Teodorico e agli anni immediatamente successivi, quando fiorirono Boezio, Cassiodoro, Ennodio, Massimiano, tardi esponenti della cultura romana. Nel campo dell'arte, le testimonianze più insigni sono quelle di Ravenna: il palazzo (perduto) e il mausoleo di Teodorico, il Battistero e Sant'Apollinare Nuovo. Alla vigilia della guerra greco-gotica San Benedetto di Norcia fondò i monasteri di Subiaco, poi di Montecassino (verso il 529) e dettò la Regola del più importante ordine monastico dell'alto Medioevo. Ispirato al diritto romano è il cosiddetto Editto di Teodorico, nel quale alcune disposizioni integrative a favore delle classi rurali, prese da Totila durante la guerra (e poi revocate da Giustiniano) manifestano una singolare sensibilità per i problemi sociali. Ma, nel complesso, la cultura dell'età gotica può considerarsi debitrice, in tutti i suoi aspetti positivi, di quella romana.
Ostrogoti
Gli Ostrogoti furono una tribù germanica che influenzò gli eventi politici
del tardo Impero Romano. In origine erano chiamati Grutungi ed erano
probabilmente originari del Gotland, in Scandinavia. Erano denominati Barbari
dai Romani. Sconfissero Odoacre, che aveva deposto Romolo Augustolo (476),
ultimo Imperatore Romano d'Occidente, e si insediarono in Italia. Furono poi
sconfitti dai Bizantini. Stanziati fin dal 382 lungo il Danubio, nel
territorio della Mesia e della Dacia, servirono l'Impero come federati.
La prima menzione di Ostrogoti si ha nel 269, quando l'imperatore Claudio II li riconobbe fra i barbari Sciti. Nel 250 si divisero dai Goti e nacque appunto il regno ostrogoto. Il loro primo re si chiamava Ostrogotha ed era della stirpe degli Amali. Nelle prime fasi della loro migrazione dalla Scandinavia, gli Ostrogoti, o Goti d'Oriente fondarono un regno a nord del Mar Nero, dal III al IV secolo (cultura di Chernyakov). Nel 251 gli Ostrogoti uccisero l'imperatore Decio, e più tardi saccheggiarono isole dell'Egeo e conquistarono la Tracia e la Mesia. Nel 269 l'imperatore Claudio II riuscì a fermare l'avanzata degli Ostrogoti. Ma nel 340 ricominciarono le scorrerie e conquistarono il regno vandalo, che prima della conquista del nord Africa si trovava in Dacia, e presero questa popolosa regione. Dopo queste vittorie assoggettarono popoli slavi e arrivarono fino al Baltico, e alcuni storici paragonarono le loro imprese a quelle di Alessandro Magno, perché avevano creato un regno che partiva dalla Grecia e arrivava fino al mar Baltico. Con l'invasione degli Unni, gli Ostrogoti dovettero emigrare verso un'altra terra, e scelsero l'Italia.
In Italia, nel 476 il barbaro Odoacre depose l'ultimo imperatore romano Romolo, detto Augustolo, e non osando proclamarsi imperatore si proclamò re di un misto di popoli barbari (Eruli, Sciri, Rugi, Gepidi, Turcilingi). Egli riscattò la Sicilia dai Vandali con un tributo, che rimase dunque unita all'Italia e ne seguì le sorti.
Caduto l'Impero Romano d'Occidente, era rimasto in piedi quello d'Oriente, il cui imperatore Zenone intendeva riconquistare l'Occidente, in mano ai barbari. L'imperatore era preoccupato dall'intraprendenza di Odoacre, che aveva saputo governare in modo da non urtare la suscettibilità dei Latini e da estendere i confini del suo regno. Altra circostanza che preoccupava l'imperatore d'Oriente era la vicinanza di un popolo bellicoso, quello degli Ostrogoti, che, guidati da Teodorico, si erano stanziati nella valle del basso Danubio a ridosso di Costantinopoli. Zenone pensò di risolvere con una sola mossa i due problemi indirizzando in Italia contro Odoacre l'ambizioso Teodorico, barbaro vissuto alla corte bizantina, il quale nel 493 sconfisse Odoacre e si proclamò re degli Ostrogoti, ottenendo il riconoscimento dell'imperatore Anastasio.
In numero forse di 300.000, da Novae (centro militare e commerciale romano della Mesia inferiore i cui resti sono a 4 km dall'odierna Svistov in Bulgaria) risalirono la Sava condotti da Teodorico loro re, si scontrarono con Odoacre ad Aquileia e lo batterono a Verona (489). Odoacre scese invano nell'Italia centrale per ottener aiuti da Roma. Riguadagnata Ravenna riuscì a battere l'avversario e a chiuderlo in Pavia: ma i Visigoti, giunti dalla Spagna in aiuto dei loro consanguinei, ruppero il blocco. Odoacre, battuto una volta sull'Adda (agosto 490) e chiuso in Ravenna, si arrese nel febbraio del 493. Venne infine pugnalato durante un banchetto (marzo 493).
Gli Ostrogoti costituirono un nuovo regno romano-barbarico in Italia, che si estendeva fino alla Pannonia a nord est e alla Prouincia (l'odierna Provenza) a nord ovest. Il regno sopravvisse fino all'intervento diretto in Italia dell'imperatore d'Oriente Giustiniano I e alla susseguente guerra goto-bizantina.
The Ostrogoths (Latin: Ostrogothi or Austrogothi) were a branch of the Goths, an East Germanic tribe that played a major role in the political events of the late Roman Empire. The other branch was the Visigoths. The Ostrogoths established a relatively short-lived successor state of Rome in Italy and the Balkans, even briefly incorporating most of Hispania and southern Gaul. They reached their zenith under their Romanised king Theodoric the Great, who patronised such late Roman figures as Boethius and Cassiodorus, in the first quarter of the sixth century. By mid-century, however, they had been conquered by Rome in the Gothic War (535-554), a war with devastating consequences for Italy.
Divided Goths: Greuthungi and Ostrogothi
The division of the Goths is first attested in 291. The Tervingi are first attested around that date, the Greuthungi, Vesi, and Ostrogothi are all attested no earlier than 388. The Greuthungi are first named by Ammianus Marcellinus, writing no earlier than 392 and perhaps later than 395, and basing his account of the words of a Tervingian chieftain who is attested as early as 376. The Ostrogoths are first named in a document dated September 392 from Milan. Claudian mentions that they together with the Gruthungi inhabit Phrygia. According to Herwig Wolfram, the primary sources either use the terminology of Tervingi/Greuthungi or Vesi/Ostrogothi and never mix the pairs. All four names were used together, but the pairing was always preserved, as in Gruthungi, Austrogothi, Tervingi, Visi. That the Tervingi were the Vesi/Visigothi and the Greuthungi the Ostrogothi is also supported by Jordanes. He identified the Visigothic kings from Alaric I to Alaric II as the heirs of the fourth-century Tervingian king Athanaric and the Ostrogothic kings from Theodoric the Great to Theodahad as the heirs of the Greuthungian king Ermanaric. This interpretation, however, though very common among scholars today, is not universal. According to the Jordanes' Getica, around 400 the Ostrogoths were ruled by Ostrogotha and derived their name from this "father of the Ostrogoths", but modern historians often assume the converse, that Ostrogotha was named after the people.
Both Herwig Wolfram and Thomas Burns conclude that the terms Tervingi and Greuthungi were geographical identifiers used by each tribe to describe the other. This terminology therefore dropped out of use after the Goths were displaced by the Hunnic invasions. In support of this, Wolfram cites Zosimus as referring to a group of "Scythians" north of the Danube who were called "Greuthungi" by the barbarians north of the Ister. Wolfram concludes that this people was the Tervingi who had remained behind after the Hunnic conquest. He further believes that the terms "Vesi" and "Ostrogothi" were used by the peoples to boastfully describe themselves. On this understanding, the Greuthungi and Ostrogothi were more or less the same people.
The nomenclature of Greuthungi and Tervingi fell out of use shortly after 400. In general, the terminology of a divided Gothic people disappeared gradually after they entered the Roman Empire. The term "Visigoth", however, was an invention of the sixth century. Cassiodorus, a Roman in the service of Theodoric the Great, invented the term "Visigothi" to match that of "Ostrogothi", which terms he thought of as "western Goths" and "eastern Goths" respectively. The western-eastern division was a simplification and a literary device of sixth-century historians where political realities were more complex. Furthermore, Cassiodorus used the term "Goths" to refer only to the Ostrogoths, whom he served, and reserved the geographical term "Visigoths" for the Gallo-Spanish Goths. This usage, however, was adopted by the Visigoths themselves in their communications with the Byzantine Empire and was in use in the seventh century.
Other names for the Goths abounded. A "Germanic" Byzantine or Italian author referred to one of the two peoples as the Valagothi, meaning "Roman Goths". In 484 the Ostrogoths had been called the Valameriaci (men of Valamir) because they followed Theodoric, a descendant of Valamir. This terminology survived in the Byzantine East as late as the reign of Athalaric, who was called tou Oualemeriakou by John Malalas.
Etymology of Greuthungi and Ostrogothi
"Greuthungi" may mean "steppe dwellers" or "people of the pebbly coasts". The root greut- is probably related to the Old English greot, meaning "flat". This is supported by evidence that geographic descriptors were commonly used to distinguish people living north of the Black Sea both before and after Gothic settlement there and by the lack of evidence for an earlier date for the name pair Tervingi-Greuthungi than the late third century. That the name "Greuthungi" has pre-Pontic, possibly Scandinavian, origins still has support today. It may mean "rock people", to distinguish the Ostrogoths from the Gauts (in what is today Sweden). Jordanes does refer to an Evagreotingi (Greuthung island) in Scandza, but this may be legend. It has also been suggested that it may be related to certain place names in Poland, but this has met with little support. "Ostrogothi" means "Goths of (or glorified by) the rising sun". This has been interpreted as "gleaming Goths" or "east Goths".
Prehistory
The Goths were a single nation mentioned in several sources up to the 3rd century when they apparently split into at least two groups, the Greuthungi in the east and Tervingi in the west. Both tribes shared many aspects, especially recognizing a patron deity that the Romans named Mars. This so-called "split" or, more appropriately, resettlement of western tribes into the Roman province of Dacia was a natural result of population saturation of the area north of the Black Sea. The Goths there established a vast and powerful kingdom, during the 3rd and 4th centuries, between the Danube and the Dniepr in what is now Romania, Moldavia and western Ukraine (see Chernyakhov culture; Gothic runic inscriptions). This was a multi-tribal state ruled by a Gothic elite but inhabited by many other interrelated but multi-tongue tribes including the Iranic speaking Sarmatians, the Germanic speaking Gepids, the Thracian speaking Dacians, other minor Celtic and Thracian tribes and possibly early Slavs.
Hunnic invasions
The rise of the Huns around 370 overwhelmed the Gothic kingdoms. Many of the Goths migrated into Roman territory in the Balkans, while others remained north of the Danube under Hunnic rule. They became one of the many Hunnic vassals fighting in Europe, as in the Battle of Chalons in 451. Several uprisings against the Huns were suppressed. The collapse of Hunnic power in the 450s led to further violent upheaval in the lands north of the Danube, during which most of the Goths resident in the area migrated to the Balkans. It was this group that became known as the Ostrogoths. Gothic was still spoken sporadically in Crimea as late as the 16th century: the Crimean Gothic language.
Post-Hunnic movements
Their recorded history begins with their independence from the remains of the
Hunnic Empire following the death of Attila the Hun in 453. Allied with the
former vassal and rival, the Gepids and the Ostrogoths led by Theodemir broke
the Hunnic power of Attila's sons in the Battle of Nedao in 454.
The Ostrogoths now entered into relations with the Empire, and were settled on
lands in Pannonia. During the greater part of the latter half of the 5th
century, the East Goths played in south-eastern Europe nearly the same part
that the West Goths played in the century before. They were seen going to and
fro, in every conceivable relation of friendship and enmity with the Eastern
Roman power, until, just as the West Goths had done before them, they passed
from the East to the West.
Kingdom in Italy
Map of Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy and the Balkans
The greatest of all Ostrogothic rulers, the future Theodoric the Great (whose name means "leader of the people") of Ostrogothic Kingdom, was born to Theodemir in or about 454, soon after the Battle of Nedao. His childhood was spent at Constantinople as a diplomatic hostage, where he was carefully educated. The early part of his life was taken up with various disputes, intrigues and wars within the Byzantine empire, in which he had as his rival Theodoric Strabo, a distant relative of Theodoric the Great and son of Triarius. This older but lesser Theodoric seems to have been the chief, not the king, of that branch of the Ostrogoths which had settled within the Empire at an earlier time. Theodoric the Great, as he is sometimes distinguished, was sometimes the friend, sometimes the enemy, of the Empire. In the former case he was clothed with various Roman titles and offices, as patrician and consul; but in all cases alike he remained the national Ostrogothic king. Theodoric is also known for his attainment of support from the Catholic church, which he gained by appeasing the pope in 520. During his reign, Theodoric, who was Arian, allowed "freedom of religion" which had not been done before. However, he did try to appease the pope and tried to keep his allies with the church strong. He saw the pope as an authority not only in the church but also over Rome.
Theodoric sought to revive Roman culture and government and in doing so, profit the Italian people. It was in both characters together that he set out in 488, by commission from the Byzantine emperor Zeno, to recover Italy from Odoacer. By 493 Ravenna was taken, where Theodoric would set up his capital. It was also at this time that Odoacer was killed by Theodoric's own hand. Ostrogothic power was fully established over Italy, Sicily, Dalmatia and the lands to the north of Italy. In this war the Ostrogoths and Visigoths began again to unite, if we may accept the witness of one writer that Theodoric was helped by Visigothic auxiliaries. The two branches of the nation were soon brought much more closely together; after he was forced to become regent of the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse, the power of Theodoric was practically extended over a large part of Gaul and over nearly the whole of the Iberian peninsula. Theodoric also attempted to forge an alliance with the Frankish and Burgundian kingdoms by means of a series of diplomatic marriages. This strengthening of power eventually led the Byzantine emperor to fear that Theodoric would become too strong, and motivated his subsequent alliance with the Frankish king, Clovis I, to counter and ultimately overthrow the Ostrogoths.
A time of confusion followed the death of Alaric II, the son-in-law of Theodoric, at the Battle of Vouillé. The Ostrogothic king stepped in as the guardian of his grandson Amalaric, and preserved for him all his Iberian and a fragment of his Gaul dominion. Toulouse passed to the Franks but the Goth kept Narbonne and its district and Septimania, which was the last part of Gaul held by the Goths and kept the name of Gothia for many ages. While Theodoric lived, the Visigothic kingdom was practically united to his own dominion. He seems also to have claimed a kind of protectorate over the Germanic powers generally, and indeed to have practically exercised it, except in the case of the Franks.
The Ostrogothic dominion was now again as great in extent as and far more splendid than it could have been in the time of Hermanaric; however it was now of a wholly different character. The dominion of Theodoric was not a barbarian but a civilized power. His twofold position ran through everything. He was at once national king of the Goths, and successor, though without any imperial titles, of the West Roman emperors. The two nations, differing in manners, language and religion, lived side by side on the soil of Italy; each was ruled according to its own law, by the prince who was, in his two separate characters, the common sovereign of both. It is believed that between 200,000 to 250,000 Ostrogoths settled in Italy but these are guesses and the numbers may have been much lower or higher.
The picture of Theodoric's rule is drawn for us in the state papers drawn up, in his name and in the names of his successors, by his Roman minister Cassiodorus. The Goths seem to have been thick on the ground in northern Italy; in the south they formed little more than garrisons. In Theodoric's theory the Goth was the armed protector of the peaceful Roman; the Gothic king had the toil of government, while the Roman consul had the honour. All the forms of the Roman administration went on, and the Roman policy and culture had great influence on the Goths themselves. The rule of the prince over distinct nations in the same land was necessarily despotic; the old Germanic freedom was necessarily lost. Such a system needed a Theodoric to carry it on. It broke in pieces after his death.
War with Rome (535-554)
Upon the death of Theodoric in 526 the Ostrogoths and Visigoths were again separated. The few instances in which they are found acting together after this time are as scattered and incidental as they were before. Amalaric succeeded to the Visigothic kingdom in Iberia and Septimania. Provence was added to the dominion of the new Ostrogothic king Athalaric, the grandson of Theodoric through his daughter Amalasuntha. Both were unable to settle disputes among Gothic elites. Theodahad, cousin of Amalasuntha and nephew of Theodoric through his sister, took over and slew them; however the usurping ushered in more bloodshed. Three more rulers stepped in during the next five years.
The weakness of the Ostrogothic position in Italy now showed itself. Byzantine emperor Justinian I had always strived to restore as much of the West Roman Empire as he could and certainly would not pass up the opportunity. In 535, he commissioned Belisarius to attack the Ostrogoths. Belisarius quickly captured Sicily and then crossed into Italy where he captured Naples and Rome in 536 and then marched north, taking Mediolanum (Milan) and the Ostrogoth capital of Ravenna in 540. At this point Justinian offered the Goths a generous settlement - too generous by far in Belisarius' eyes - the right to keep an independent kingdom in the Northwest of Italy, and the demand that they merely give half of all their treasure to the empire. Belisarius conveyed the message to the Goths, although he himself withheld from endorsing it. They, on the other hand felt there must be a snare somewhere. The Goths did not trust Justinian, but because Belisarius had been so well-mannered in his conquest they trusted him a little more, and agreed to take the settlement only if Belisarius endorsed it. This condition made for something of an impasse.
A faction of the Gothic nobility pointed out that their own king Witiges, who had just lost, was something of a weakling and they would need a new one. Eraric, the leader of the group, endorsed Belisarius and the rest of the kingdom agreed, so they offered him their crown. Belisarius was a soldier, not a statesman, and still loyal to Justinian. He made as if to accept the offer, rode to Ravenna to be crowned, and promptly arrested the leaders of the Goths and reclaimed their entire kingdom - no halfway settlements - for Byzantium. This upset Justinian greatly: the Persians had been attacking in the east, and he wanted a stable neutral country separating his western border from the Franks, who weren't so friendly. Belisarius was sent to face the Persians and therefore left John, a Byzantine officer, to govern Italy temporarily. In 545 Belisarius then returned to Italy, where he found the situation had changed greatly. Eraric was slain and the pro-Roman faction of Gothic elite had been toppled. In 541 the Ostrogoths had elected a new leader Totila; this Goth nationalist and brilliant commander had recaptured all of northern Italy and even driven the Byzantines out of Rome. Belisarius took the offensive, tricked Totila into yielding Rome along the way, but then lost it again after a jealous Justinian, fearful of Belisarius' power, starved him of supplies and reinforcements. Belisarius was forced to go on the defensive, and in 548, Justinian relieved him in favor of the eunuch general Narses, of whom he was more trustful.
Totila was slain in the Battle of Taginae in July 552 and his followers Teia, Aligern, Scipuar, and Gibal were all killed or surrendered in the Battle of Mons Lactarius in October 552 or 553. Widin, the last attested member of the Gothic army revolted in late 550s, with minimal military help from the Franks. His uprising was fruitless; the revolt ended with Widin captured and brought to Constantinople for punishment in 561 or 562. With that final defeat,the remaining Ostrogoths went back north and (re)settled in south Austria. The Ostrogothic name wholly died... The nation had practically evaporated with Theodoric's death. "The leadership of western Europe therefore passed by default to the Franks. Consequently, Ostrogothic failure and Frankish success were crucial for the development of early medieval Europe", for Theodoric had made it "his intention to restore the vigor of Roman government and Roman culture". The chance of forming a national state in Italy by the union of Roman and Germanic elements, such as those which arose in Gaul, in Iberia, and in parts of Italy under Lombard rule, was thus lost. As a result the Goths hold a different place in Iberian memory from that which they hold in Italian memory: In Italy the Goth was but a momentary invader and ruler, while in Iberia the Goth supplies an important element in the modern nation. That element has been neither forgotten nor despised. Part of the unconquered region of northern Iberia, the land of Asturias, kept for a while the name of Gothia, as did the Gothic possessions in Gaul.
Ostrogothic culture
Ostrogoth ear jewels - Metropolitan Museum of Art
Of Gothic literature in the Gothic language we have the Bible of Ulfilas and some other religious writings and fragments. Of Gothic legislation in Latin we have the edict of Theodoric of the year 500, and the Variae of Cassiodorus may pass as a collection of the state papers of Theodoric and his immediate successors. Among the Visigothic written laws had already been put forth by Euric. Alaric II put forth a Breviarium of Roman law for his Roman subjects; but the great collection of Visigothic laws dates from the later days of the monarchy, being put forth by King Reccaswinth about 654. This code gave occasion to some well-known comments by Montesquieu and Gibbon, and has been discussed by Savigny (Geschichte des romischen Rechts, ii. 65) and various other writers. They are printed in the Monumenta Germaniae, leges, tome i. (1902).
Of special Gothic histories, besides that of Jordanes, already so often quoted, there is the Gothic history of Isidore, archbishop of Seville, a special source of the history of the Visigothic kings down to Suinthila (621-631). But all the Latin and Greek writers contemporary with the days of Gothic predominance make their constant contributions. Not for special facts, but for a general estimate, no writer is more instructive than Salvian of Marseilles in the 5th century, whose work, De Gubernatione Dei, is full of passages contrasting the vices of the Romans with the virtues of the "barbarians", especially of the Goths. In all such pictures we must allow a good deal for exaggeration both ways, but there must be a groundwork of truth. The chief virtues that the Roman Catholic presbyter praises in the Arian Goths are their chastity, their piety according to their own creed, their tolerance towards the Catholics under their rule, and their general good treatment of their Roman subjects. He even ventures to hope that such good people may be saved, not withstanding their heresy. This image must have had some basis in truth, but it is not very surprising that the later Visigoths of Iberia had fallen away from Salvian's somewhat idealistic picture.
Ostrogothic rulers
Amal Dynasty
Valamir (not yet in Italy)
Theodemir (not yet in Italy)
Theodoric the Great 493-526
Athalaric 526-534
Theodahad 534-536
Later kings
Witiges 536-540
Ildibad 540-541
Eraric 541
Baduela 541-552 (also known as Totila)
Theia 552-553 (also known as Teiam or Teja)
