A requiem for the Ostrogoths

Ok I'm going to wuss out and copy someone else's writing. But what amazing writing it is. The author is Charles Oman, and the title of the book is "Dark Ages 476-918". I first read it years ago, and am working through it again.

To set the scene a bit of history is in order. Up until ~476 there was a roman emperor in Rome or Ravenna (still in Italy). Some of them were dominated by their german generals, but a clear continuity of government could be traced back to the days of Julius Caesar. Then, in 476 one of these ambitious german generals (Odoacer) deposed the last western roman emperor (Romulus). Under Odoacer, Italy and her possessions were formally ruled by the emperor in Constantinople (Zeno) with Odoacer as his agent. In reality however, Odoacer acted as an independent soverign.

This situation eventually proved intolerable to Zeno. He lacked the strength to retake Italy with his own forces and instead turned to Theodoric, the leader of one of the neighboring bands of barbarians. Zeno made a pact with Theodoric wherein Theodoric would take his Ostrogoths into Italy and depose Odoacer. In exchange, Zeno would recognize Theodoric as his agent in Italy in Odoacer's stead.

Theodoric took his entire people into Italy and was wildly successful. He captured & killed Odoacer and defeated or recruited Odoacer's army. He distributed his Ostrogoths as rulers amongst the more populous Italians and settled down as a wise and productive king. The fatal flaw of the government he established was that the Ostrogoths were Arian Christians, a heretical sect which the orthodox italians regarded with hatred.

Decades later, after Theodoric had died, a new eastern emperor (Justinian) rose to the throne. A much more energetic and aggresive ruler than his immediate predecessors, Justinian decided the time to reclaim Italy had come. He sent a series of generals and armies into Italy and after almost two decades of fighting finally wore down and defeated the Ostrogoths. Ok, we're done. Now time to let the master speak...

"So, in the autumn of 533, the few remaining Gothic garrisons laid down their arms, gathered together, and disappeared over the passes of the Alps in to the northern darkness. We have no tidings of the fate of these last survivors of the great Ostrogothic race. Whether they became the vassals of the Frank, or mingled with the Bavarians, or sought their kinsmen the Visigoths of Spain no man can tell.

So perished the Gothic kingdom, which had been erected by the genius of Theodoric, by the same fate which had smitten the pirate-realm of the Vandals seventeen years before. Both fell because the ruling race was too small to hold down the vast territory it had overrun, unless it could combine frankly and freely with the conquered Roman population. But the fatal bar of Arianism lay in each case between masters and servants, and when the orthodox armies of Constantinople appeared, nothing could restrain the Africans and Italians from opening their gates to the invader. The Ostrogoths had been wise and tolerant, the Vandals cruel and persecuting, but the end was the same in each kingdom. It was only in the measure of the resistance that the difference between Goth and Vandal appeared. Sunk in coarse luxury, and enervated by the African sun, the Vandals fell in one year before a single army. The Ostrogoths, the noblest of the Teutons, made a splendid fight for seventeen years, beat off the great Belisarius himself, and only sucummbed because the incessant fighting had drained off the whole manhood of the tribe. If Baduila could have mustered at Taginea the 100,000 men that Witiges had once led against Rome, he would never have been beaten. It is one of the saddest scenes in history when we see the well-ordered realm of Theodoric vanish away, and Italy is left and unpeopled desert, to be disputed between the savage Lombard, the faithless Frank, and the exarchs of distant Byzantium."

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