Ostrogoths

   Major division of the Goths (q.v.) who settled north of the Black Sea (q.v.) until the Huns (q.v.) drove them westward (ca. 375) and subjugated them in Pannonia (q.v.). Only the death of Attila in 453 loosened the Hun's hold over the Ostrogoths, who found employment as Byzantine foederati (q.v.). In 488 Zeno (q.v.) persuaded the Ostrogothic king Theodoric (q.v.) to invade Italy (q.v.) and depose Odoacer (q.v.). After Odoacer's death (493) an Ostrogothic kingdom was established in Italy with its capital at Ravenna (q.v.). Though an untutored Arian (q.v.), Theodoric respected Roman civilization, tolerated Orthodoxy (q.v.), and allowed the bureaucracy to function without interference. After Theodoric's death in 526 his daughter Amalasuntha (q.v.) put herself under the protection of Justinian I (q.v.). Amalasuntha's murder in 535 was the excuse Justinian I used to invade Italy that same year. The war dragged on until 552 when Narses (q.v.) defeated Totila (q.v.). However, the Byzantine victory over the Ostrogoths proved hollow. Three years after Justinian's death (565), another Germanic tribe, the Lombards (q.v.), entered Italy and quickly subdued much of it.