Theodoric the Great

Theodoric the Great (454 – August 30, 526), known to the Romans as Flavius Theodoricus, was king of the Ostrogoths (471-526), ruler of Italy (493–526), and regent of the Visigoths (511–526). He became a hero of Germanic legend as Þeodric in English legends, Dietrich von Bern in German legends and as Þjóðrekr and Þiðrekr in Norse mythology. Theodoric succeeded in bringing together the Roman and Gothic peoples with relative harmony. While he allowed the Romans to practice their own customs and laws, he simulatenously was able to increase Gothic settlement in the area. Theodoric initiated several internal improvements to address the condition of the kingdom's roads and waterways, as well. Near the end of Theodoric's reign had ended, disharmony had begun to set in.

Youth

The man who ruled under the name of Theodoric was born in 454 on the banks of the Neusiedler See near Carnuntum, a year after the Ostrogoths had thrown off nearly a century of domination by the Huns. The son of the King Theodemir and Erelieva, Theodoric went to Constantinople as a young boy, as a hostage to secure the Ostrogoths' compliance with a treaty Theodemir had concluded with the Byzantine Emperor Leo.

He lived at the court of Constantinople for many years and learned a great deal about Roman government and military tactics, which served him well when he became the Gothic ruler of a mixed but largely Romanized people. Treated with favor by the Emperors Leo I and Zeno, he became magister militum (Master of Soldiers) in 483, and one year later he became consul. He afterwards returned to live among the Ostrogoths when he was 31 years old, and became their king in 488.

Family and Issue

Theodoric was married once.

He had a concubine in Moesia, name unknown, and had two daughters:

• Theodegotha (ca. 473 – ?). In 494, she was married to Alaric II as a part of her father's alliance with the Visigoths.
• Ostrogotha or Arevagni (ca. 475 – ?). In 494 or 496, she was married to the king Sigismund of Burgundy as a part of her father's alliance with the Burgundians.

Married to Audofleda in 493 and had one daughter:

• Amalasuntha, Queen of the Goths. She was married to Eutharic and had two children: Athalaric and Matasuentha (the latter being married to Witiges first, then, after Witiges' death, married to Germanus Justinus, neither had children). Any hope for a reconciliation between the Goths and the Romans in the person of a Gotho-Roman Emperor from this family lineage was shattered.

Brick with the emblem of Theodoric, found in the temple of Vesta, Rome.

Reign

At the time, the Ostrogoths were settled in Byzantine territory as foederati (allies) of the Romans, but were becoming restless and increasingly difficult for Zeno to manage. Not long after Theodoric became king, the two men worked out an arrangement beneficial to both sides. The Ostrogoths needed a place to live, and Zeno was having serious problems with Odoacer, the King of Italy who had overthrown the Western Roman Empire in 476. Ostensibly a viceroy for Zeno, Odoacer was menacing Byzantine territory and not respecting the rights of Roman citizens in Italy. At Zeno's encouragement, Theodoric invaded Odoacer's kingdom.

Theodoric came with his army to Italy in 488, where he won the battles of Isonzo and Verona in 489 and at the Adda in 490. In 493 he took Ravenna. On February 2, 493, Theodoric and Odoacer signed a treaty that assured both parties would rule over Italy. A banquet was organised in order to celebrate this treaty. It was at this banquet that Theodoric, after making a toast, killed Odoacer with his own hands.

Theodoric was of Arian faith. At the end of his reign quarrels arose with his Roman subjects and the Byzantine emperor Justin I over the Arianism issue. Relations between the two nations deteriorated, although Theodoric's ability dissuaded the Byzantines from waging war against him. After his death, that reluctance faded quickly. Theodoric the Great was interred in Ravenna. His mausoleum is one of the finest monuments in Ravenna.

Legend

Theodoric was included into epic poetry as Dietrich von Bern, who is depicted as the archetype of the wise and just ruler. The Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911) noted that "the legendary history of Dietrich differs so widely from the life of Theodoric that it has been suggested that the two were originally unconnected." Anachronisms abound, for example in making Ermanaric (died 376) and Attila (died 453) contemporary with Theodoric (born 454). Bern is the Middle High German form of Verona, which was one of the historical Theodoric's residences.

Bronze statue of Theodoric the Great , from the monument of the Emperor Maximillian in the Franciscan church at Innsbruck.

Dietrich figures in a number of surviving works, and it must be assumed that these draw on long-standing oral tradition. He first appears in the Hildebrandslied and the Nibelungenlied, in neither of which is Dietrich a central character, and other epics, which were composed or written down after 1250. In Scandinavia he appears on the Rök Stone, carved in Sweden in the 800s, in Guðrúnarkviða II and III of the Poetic Edda and in Þiðrekssaga. He moreover appears in the Old English Waldere, Deor and Widsith poems.

The earliest evidence of the legend is provided by the heroic lay, the Hildebrandslied, recorded in around 820. In this, Hadubrand recounts the story of his father Hildebrand's flight eastwards in the company of Dietrich, to escape the enmity of Odoacer (this character would later become his uncle Ermanaric). Hildebrand reveals that he has lived in exile for 30 years. Hildebrand has an arm ring given to him by the (unnamed) King of the Huns, and is taken to be an "old Hun" by Hadubrand. The obliqueness of the references to the Dietrich legend, which is just the background to Hildebrand's story, indicates an audience thoroughly familiar with the material. In this work Dietrich's enemy is the historically correct Odoacer (though in fact Theodoric the Great was never exiled by Odoacer), indicating that the figure of Ermaneric belongs to a later development of the legend.

In the heroic epic the Nibelungenlied (c. 1200), Dietrich is living in exile at the court of Etzel (Attila), the Hunnish King. He fights on Etzel's side against the Burgundians, and his whole retinue apart from Hildebrand is slain. He ends the conflict by capturing Hagen and then Gunther in single combat.

The Norse saga deals with Dietrich's return home. The most familiar version is that by an Icelandic or Norwegian author writing in Norway in the 13th century, who compiled a consecutive account of Dietrich, with many additional episodes. This Norse prose version, known as the Þiðrekssaga (Thidrek's saga), incorporates much extraneous matter from the Nibelungen and Weyland legends.

The late Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg reinspected the Old Swedish version of the Thidreks saga for the historical information it contained, and established its topographical accuracy. Further, he concluded that these oldest of the "Dietrich" sources cannot refer to Theodoric the Great of the Goths, whose movements are moderately well known, mainly because of irreconcilable topographical anomalies. Ritter-Schaumburg asserted that their narration relates instead to a contemporary of the famous Goth, who bore the same name, rendered Didrik in Old Swedish. Moreover, he identified Berne as Bonn to which was ascribed, in the medieval age, an alternative (Latinized) name Verona of unknown origin. According to Ritter-Schaumburg, Dietrich lived as a Frankish petty king in Bonn. This theory has found much opposition by other scholars.,

Another modern author, Rolf Badenhausen, starts from Ritter-Schaumburg's approach but ends up with a different result. He claims Berne, where Thidrek/Didrik started his rise, to be identical with Varne, south of Aachen, the Roman Verona cisalpina, in the district of the northern Rhine/Eiffel lands. Thidrek/Didrik could be identified with Theuderich son of Clovis I, a royal Frank mentioned with approval by Gregory of Tours and in Fredegar's royal Frankish chronicle.

In the Book of Bern (Buch von Bern) written in the late 13th century partly by Henry the Fowler, Dietrich tries to regain his empire with the help of the Huns. In the collection of the Heldenbuch ("Book of Heroes"), Dietrich's story is related in Dietrichs Flucht ("Dietrich's Flight"), the Rabenschlacht ("The Battle of Ravenna") and Alpharts Tod ("Alphart's Death")

The legendary figure of Dietrich also appears in the 13th-century Rosengarten zu Worms ("Rosegarden at Worms"), the Epos of Biterolf, of Goldemar, of Ecke, Sigenot and Laurin.

A fictionalized, but impressively researched, version of Theodoric's career is presented in Raptor, a novel by Gary Jennings.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Badenhausen, Rolf. Rolf Badenhausen, "Merovingians by the Svava?" Retrieved June 16, 2008.
• de Bracton, Nicolaa. Theodoric the Great Retrieved June 16, 2008.
• Grun, Bernard. The Timetable of History. 3rd ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, [1946] 1991. ISBN 0-671-74271-X
• FMG. Theodoric the Great, King of Italy Retrieved June 16, 2008.
• Heather, Peter. The Goths. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. ISBN 0631209328
• Hodgkin, Thomas. Theodoric the Goth. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1891. Online Text Retrieved June 16, 2008.
• Infoplease. Theodoric the Great Retrieved June 17, 2008.
• Knight, Kevin. Catholic Encyclopedia: Theodoric the Great Retrieved June 16, 2008.
• Kratz, Henry. Review of ‘’Die Nibelungen zogen nordwärts, by Heinz Ritter-Schaumburg. The German Quarterly 56, no. 4 (November 1983): 636-638.
• Moorhead, John. Theoderic in Italy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-19-814781-3
• O'Donnell, James J. Cassiodorus. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. Online Text Retrieved June 16, 2008.
• Ritter-Schaumburg, Heinz. Dietrich von Bern. König zu Bonn’’. Herbig: Munich/Berlin, 1982.
• Webster, Hutton. Ancient Histoty. Boston: D.C. Heath & Co., 1913. Online Text Retrieved June 17, 2008.

External links

• THEODORIC THE GOTH-THE BARBARIAN CHAMPION OF CIVILIZATION Retrieved June 16, 2008.
• Roman gardens and Gothic invaders Retrieved June 16, 2008.
• Detail of statue of Theodoric from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Retrieved June 16, 2008.

Preceded by: Theodemir	King of the Ostrogoths 474–526	Succeeded by: Athalaric
Preceded by: Odoacer	King of Italy 493–526
Preceded by: Anicius Acilius Aginatius Faustus, Post consulatum Trocundis (East)	Consul of the Roman Empire 484 with Decius Marius Venantius Basilius	Succeeded by: Q. Aurelius Memmius Symmachus, Post consulatum Theoderici (East)

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