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Theoderic In Italy (Oxford University Press academic monograph reprints)

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King Theodoric the Great is a figure of transition. His displaced Goths occupied the Roman Western Empire in 493, meshing with Romans and recently-arrived barbarians to create a state not quite Roman and not quite medieval--a land of Roman law with a rapidly devolving civil society dominated by illiterate barbarians and heretical faith. John Moorhead revives the study of Theodoric with this readable and informative account. It goes far to update the foundational study of Theodoric by the 19th-century historian Thomas Hodgkin.

Theoderic,king of the Osrogoths, ruled over Italy for about 33 years in the early 6th century.Initially the Goths were "invited "into Italy as a mercenary force by the what was left of the Roman ruling class at this time because of the troubles involved from the East/west schism of the empire.Also from foreign invasion from any number of rising powers such as the Franks under Clovis and others.This is where the book begins trying to sort out the complex political relationships in a thoroughly scholarly way. Apparently the Romans were not able to keep the Goths from acting with their own interests in mind,and the Gothic capital of Ravenna,Italy became more or less a rival of Rome.The personality of Theoderic in the book is represented as at times savagely brutal mixed with compassion and respect for wisdom and the classics.Since the Goths were non-trinitarian christians,and there is no separation of church and state at this time,the rivalries between the Goths,the Popes,The Romans and other trinitarian nation states such as the Franks,make the book seem confusing at times.Theoderic is described as a ruler who basically looked "backward into antiquity rather than forward into the middle ages"The Gothic ruler had bitter controversies with two major christian religious figures of the time.One was Boethius,the christian philosopher and writer of the classic Philosophiae Consolation which he wrote while in prison under the death sentence of Theoderic. the other was the pope Symmachus.Both of these figures were accused by Theoderic of delving too far into politics to be respected as true religious figures and he felt little sorrow at taking them down a notch or two (or three).The source for most of the info on Theoderic is the Roman scholar Cassiodorus,who was a cautious player at Theoderic's court so some of his information could be open to bias.Theoderic was building a massive fleet which would have made Italy the major European seapower at the time of his demise.When the long haired bearded Theoderic died from diahrrea around 527 some anti-Theoderic scholars compared it to the "bursting of Judas' bowels at death.Actually from the way he is portrayed in the book,he rivals Clovis or Charlemagne,a strong ruler of his times not to be denied his place.